Carrot Muffins - YUM!!

I felt the urge for carrot muffins, I looked through a few cookbooks but found nothing I really cared for, the trusty internet came through once again, I found this great recipe for Carrot Muffins on Joy of Baking - I've used this site before, the recipes are very straight forward and there are also videos to guide you along, if you prefer that kind of thing.  I'm going to include the recipe here for your convenience or you can check out the original.

1/4 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped - I used pecans and did not toast them.

1 1/3 cups grated raw carrot

1 small apple, peeled and grated

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup coconut 

2 large eggs

1/2 cup safflower, corn, vegetable  or canola oil

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat over to 350, place paper liners in 12 muffin cups.

Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant.  Let cool and then chop coarsely.

Peel and finely grate the carrots and apple.  Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Stir in nuts and coconut.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, oil and vanilla.  Fold the wet ingredients, along with the grated carrot and apple, into the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened.   Divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

They're delicious - give them a try!!!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My intention this morning was to make a zucchini loaf, I already made one and it was delicious, I had the zucchini to make another one but no can of crushed pineapple.  I didn't want to run out to the store, when you're in the mood for baking, you just want to get started, so I made muffins instead - those three speckled bananas were begging to be used!!

My husband picked up this cookbook for me a few years ago, it has the best "Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins" - it's the one I always make!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 large bananas, mashed

1/4 cup butter/margarine, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup chocolate chips

Combine sugar and margarine, blend well.  Add egg, mashed bananas and vanilla.  Fold in dry ingredients.  Add chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  

Hot out of the oven...

Eat them with a speck of butter or plain - either way, they're delicious!!!

Lots of Strawberries

We went picking strawberries on Saturday

It only took half an hour to pick these two baskets!

I had rhubarb too, so that means a strawberry/rhubarb pie - Pyrex Pink is perfect for this combo

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Meringue - yummm!! The recipe is from Taste of Home - click here for the recipe - I used my own recipe for pie crust - Pyrex Pink is perfect!

I made this Strawberry Arugula Salad twice this week - of course, I used Pyrex again! My mother in law gave me this bowl, and it turned out to be one that is really used a lot!!  This could be our new salad for the summer - another one from Taste of Home - here's the recipe

I love the strawberry/rhubarb combination - so I searched for a nice muffin recipe - these are really tasty!!!  The recipe for Nut Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins is from Taste of Home too!

The main reason I went picking was to make strawberry jam - here they are, crushed  and whole - of course, the Pyrex was put into use again..

Two batches of strawberry jam - I used the recipe included with in the  Certo package - here it is!

I'm linking up to Rednesday - it's a perfect post for everything red!!  I'm also linking up with The Bunny Hop Party and Open House Party for the very first time!