Oh, where has the time gone? So bad with posting this month, sorry. This is a great muffin recipe from the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This has pretty much become my go to baking resource.

I love the maple syrup in these muffins, with the crunchiness of the cornmeal and oats. i used brown sugar instead of white and added banana to the original recipe. I also swapped out 1/2 cup of butter for applesauce. Instead of bananas, you could always used dried fruit like raisins or figs.

Banana Pecan Great Grains Muffins
Adapted from a recipe by Dorie Greenspan
1 cup AP flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pecans
1 ripe banana, mashed or sliced, depending on ripeness

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and spray a jumbo 6 count or 12 count muffin tin with non-stick spray.

Combine the flours, cornmeal, oats, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

In another bowl combine the buttermilk, syrup, sugar, eggs, and apple sauce. Whisk to combine. Add the pecans to the dry mixture and the banana to the wet. Mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture making sure to only stir enough to combine.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. If you have a little batter leftover, spray coat a ramekin and use that to bake up the last muffin.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool for a few minutes before eating.

Usually, I cook on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, but lately, Thursday nights have become have a glass of wine and make soup night. Last week it was Mushroom and Barley, last night, Potato Soup with Fried Almonds & Garlic. This wonderful recipe is from one of my new favorite cookbooks, The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen and I have to say, this soup is really, really good. So go make some!

The stock I used was from the chicken bones leftover from the most recent meal of Spanish Lemon Chicken with Honey and Saffron, which I can’t recommend enough. Make the chicken, save all the bones afterward, make stock and then make this soup. I had made the stock about a month ago and then stored it in the freezer. Defrosted it about a day and a half before I made the soup.

I added a little orange juice just to…well, because I had an orange and I like the combination of orange, almonds and garlic. Also I added just a pinch of dried thyme to the original recipe.

Spanish Potato Soup with Fried Almonds
Adapted from The New Spanish Table
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup whole marcona almonds (you can also use normal, blanched, whole almonds)
6 large garlic cloves
3 oz diced Serrano ham
1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, diced into medium-sized pieces (If the potato peel pieces in the soup will bother you, feel free to peel the potatoes but you really don’t have to…)
1/4 tsp dried thyme
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 pinch saffron
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (or more to taste)

Heat the olive oil in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the almonds and garlic and cook until golden, 5 minutes. Spoon out the almonds and garlic; reserve. Add the ham to the pan and cook for 1 minute.

Add the potatoes and cook for another minute. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Add the thyme and reduce the heat and simmer.

In a food processor, grind the almonds and garlic. Add all but 2 tablespoons to the soup.

Steep the saffron in a few tablespoons of the soup broth for 2 minutes; then add to the soup.

Season with salt and pepper and cook until the potatoes are very soft, about 35 minutes.

Go in with a potato masher or wooden spoon and crush some of the potatoes to thicken the soup. Add the vinegar and orange juice to the reserved garlic mixture and stir it into the soup. Cook for a minute. Taste and adjust seasoning.

I don’t know what it was but last weekend I was totally into baking things in cake pans. I made a quiche (well, that was in a pie pan) but then also this cake. Oh! I remember why now, I have this new ginger apple hair conditioner that I have been using that smells so good. It totally made me want to bake something apple-y. Then I found the recipe for this cake and there you go.

Okay, originally, the topping recipe called for white sugar. I decided to do it with brown sugar for fun. Oh, it was fun. I also added walnuts and at the advice of many posters at the Food Network site, I increased the oven time a little bit.

The original recipe said to use “baking apples” — I opted for a mix of apples. I also found that 3 apples was quite enough, once sliced up. Speaking of which, slice the apples thinly, into wedges, like you were making an apple tart. They will bake up really nicely stacked up — you will “ooohhhh” and “ahhhhhh” once you cut into the cake!

Tasty French Apple Cake
Adapted from the Apple Lady Apple Cake in the Paris Cookbok by Patricia Wells
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup 1% or 2% milk
3 - 4 large apples, cored,peeled,and cut into thin wedges — I used 2 gala and 1 Pacific Rose apple

The Topping
1/3 packed brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and set it aside. A regular 9-inch cake pan worked for me. I buttered and floured well (actually, I used Pam for baking!) and I had no problem getting the cake out. You’ll just need to flip upside-down onto a plate and then flip again onto another plate to get the right side up. More on that later…

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir to blend. Add the vanilla extract, eggs, oil, and milk, and stir until well blended.

Add the apples and stir to thoroughly coat them with the batter. Your bowl will contain mostly apples, covered with a bit of batter.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until fairly firm and golden, about 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping: In a small bowl, combine the sugar, egg, and melted butter, and stir to blend. Set it aside.

Remove the cake from the oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Pour the topping mixture over the cake and sprinkle with the walnuts.

Return the cake to the oven and bake until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm when pressed with a fingertip, about 15 minutes. After 10 minutes take a peek and make sure the brown sugar is not burning.

Mine was fine, but I was a little worried. Also, make sure you are baking the cake in the lower-middle of the oven and not a rack near the very top of the oven. Transfer the cake pan to a rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Then run a knife around the sides of the pan, and release and remove the springform side, leaving the cake on the pan base. Or, after running the knife along the edges, put a plate over the top of the cake and flip onto the plate. The cake will be upside down. Take another plate and put that on top of the cake and flip again. The cake should now be right-side up on the 2nd plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into thin wedges. Very good with a little vanilla frozen yogurt on top while still warm!

This is an awesome, flavorful, pretty quick-to-make dinner. It works really well with defrosted, chicken breasts.

I’ve started buying the big bag of frozen chicken breasts at Trader Joe’s lately because they seem so much cheaper than the package of fresh breasts. I don’t use them for all my chicken needs but they are great to use here. I just put a couple of breasts in the fridge to defrost the day before I made this dinner.

I made a full sauce version (what’s listed below) with only two breasts. We have some leftover sauce but I’m sure I will find a use for it! Right now I’m thinking it’ll be a lunch this week with some grilled tuna and fennel. Mmmmm! (Another great use of frozen fish there).

Chicken Provençal w/ Olives & Tomatoes
Adapted from The CIA — Culinary Institute of America
4 (6- to 8-ounce) skinless boneless chicken breasts, tenders reserved for another use
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried lavender
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup onion, diced (I used the rest of a red onion I had in the fridge)
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 flat anchovy fillet, mashed to a paste or 1 tsp anchovy paste from a tube
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 strip of orange zest
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes (or whole tomatoes, I actually used a small can, not the big double-wide can, of San Marzano whole tomatoes)
12 pitted olives, chopped roughly (I used a combination of 3 oil cured black, 5 kalamata and 4 green Castelvetrano olives — hooray for the olive bar!)
1 tbsp finely shredded basil

Mix flour and dried herbs together and put on a plate. Pat chicken dry and sprinkle with some salt and pepper, then dredge in flour, shaking off excess.

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then cook chicken, turning once, until golden and just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes total. Transfer to a platter and keep warm, covered. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken. Check the temp with a meat thermometer to be sure (165 degrees F).

Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, until soft, about 5-6 minutes.

Add the anchovy paste and cook about 30 seconds. Add wine and bring to a boil, scraping up brown bits. Stir in tomatoes, stock, and olives and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened a bit, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add the chicken and any accumulated juices back into the sauce pan and simmer until just heated through, about a minute or two. Serve sprinkled with basil and serve.

This goes great over some egg noodles. Garnish with feta if you have any because that’s really good!

I have been craving soups lately. This was one I made a couple of weeks ago when, to my delight, I realized I had almost all the ingredients required, minus the kale. S’okay. I walked to the store and got kale!

The original recipe (from the defunct, “Cooking Live” on Food Network) called for dried beans and 3 chorizo sausages. I used canned beans and a 2:1 ratio of turkey sausage to pork chorizo. My turkey sausage was raw, so I cooked that in link form and then sliced up (to avoid the casing shrinkage). My chorizo was cooked already, so I just chopped and browned that. Then, I started the soup in all the sausage drippings. Oh yeah, I added a couple of potatoes too.

The paprika, saffron and sherry vinegar totally rock this soup (and the spices give it a very pretty color!)

White Bean, Kale and Chorizo Soup
Recipe adapted from Sara Moulton
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
6 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt
Pinch saffron threads
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 Spanish chorizo sausages, about 3/4 pound, cut into 1/2-inch dice (or a mix of chorizo and turkey sausage — this is what I did, 2 turkey sausages and 1 chorizo sausage, this worked really well)
1 large onion, finely chopped (I used red)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large red or yellow bell pepper, finely diced
1 tbsp sweet paprika
2 medium, red potatoes, diced into bite-sized pieces
1 bunch kale, about 3/4 pound, tough stems removed, washed well, and coarsely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
Sherry vinegar, to taste

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate.

Add the onion; reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the red pepper and the paprika. Cook for 2 minutes longer.

Add 6 cups of stock and the beans. Stir in the saffron with the soaking liquid, the sausage, and the potatoes.

Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Add the kale and cook until that is wilted, about 5 minutes longer.

Season with salt and pepper, stir in the vinegar, and serve hot in bowls.