favorite desert (for the moment)

I have made guava cheesecake twice in less than a week. I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it (name that movie)! The biggest surprise to me about all this is how much I love something that isn't a pie. I must be becoming more open-minded.

(note: This is the picture from the food website that posted the recipe for this masterpiece. My pics came out a bit too dark and the guava looked like ham chunks, and no one likes a ham cheesecake.)

This cheesecake is pretty stinkin easy to make. It has a fluffy texture because it uses part cream cheese, part Greek yogurt, and some whipped egg whites. And it is pretty! And it's pink-ish! Do you need anymore convincing?? It isn't guava season here right now, so I used the canned stuff (scooping out the seeds before pureeing, of course). I used to see the canned stuff in the International food aisle with the Mexican/Latin items in the States. If you are in South Africa or any other country that doesn't believe in graham crackers, use tennis biscuits (but heads up- you will need a whole package and not just 4oz).

Click here for the recipe and bon appetite!

local flavor

The word on the street is that 2011 is the year of the pie. Music to my pie-loving ears. If you don't believe me, read this or this or this. In my opinion, the secret to great pie is in the crust. I don't use shortening. It weirds me out, and there is no need to be weirded out when you can make a supremely delicious crust using good old fashioned butter. Mmmm butter. My recipe is very easy and very tasty...two of my favorite things.

Pie crust
practically identical to the recipe featured on Smitten Kitchen
makes 2 pie crusts (or a top and bottom if you are making a topped pie)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold butter (or 226 grams if you live in a place where butter doesn't come in either sticks or tablespoons- dang metric system)
1/2 cup water with ice cubes in it

Mix all your dry stuff together in a large bowl. Cut your butter into little pieces and add them to the flour mixture. Use your hands to break the butter apart, really mixing it in with the flour, and ensuring that the butter gets evenly distributed. After a couple of minutes of this you should have pea-sized pieces and the contents of your bowl should look sort of crumbly. This is good. Next add a couple tablespoons of the icy water, and continue to mix the dough with your hands. Continue to knead, adding water slowly if needed, until it all comes together into a big non-sticky ball. Too sticky? Add a touch of flour. Lovely. Now split that ball in two, flatten into disks, wrap them in cling wrap, and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour. The dough will keep in the fridge for about a week, and longer if you freeze it. Voila. Easy as pie.

So what did I do with my pie crust this weekend? I made a nectarine and passion fruit pie with a lattice top. I chopped about 10 nectarines from the Kirstenbosch market and mixed that with a tin of passion fruit, some cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice, and flour. Baked at 350 for about an hour. Scrumptious.


In other food news, I had some litchi sorbet yesterday at the Italian ice cream shop on Hout Bay main road. Yum.


And this sign gave me the giggles at the Imhoff farm stall in Kommetjie.


My guess is that it's the chocolate chips that make those cookies American style...you can't get chocolate chips here to save your life. I've already mentally allocated space in my suitcase for a bag of Nestle's Tollhouse chips when I return from the States in July.

Thanksgiving highlights

We had a whole lot of Thanksgiving this year. The cooking began on Wednesday for a tremendous feast Thursday night. Our friends Candice and Warren joined in the feeding frenzy.

The food was outstanding (if I do say so myself) and the company was even better. There was, however, one unfortunate accident. In an attempt to get a shot of us at the dinner table using the timer (as opposed to the extended arm self-snap you see above), my beautiful little camera fell to its death from the bookshelf. RIP lovely sort-of-new Canon digital elph SD1400. You were a star. I hope this bit of news will also serve as a fair warning as to why there will be a dearth of pictures on the blog for the next little while until my sweet little camera's baby sister comes to join us in South Africa later next month.

Aside from my camera's untimely demise, the night was wonderful and made even more wonderful by receiving my Christmas pressie early from my darling husband. He clearly knows me well enough to understand that I can't handle the suspense of presents. He also knows me well enough to have surprised me with this:

A Le Creuset 5 quart kiwi oval enameled cast iron pot. This is the dutch oven of my dreams. I'm so in love. I kiss this dish at least once a day. We will live happily ever after together. The end.

Saturday we had a very happy Thanksgiving-themed housewarming bash. We served Thanksgiving sandwiches (turkey, cranberry & stuffing), sweet potato "hummus", pumpkin and feta muffins, sweet potato & coconut pie, eggnog pie, pumpkin pie, and a big bowl of Thanksgiving popcorn. The popcorn (recipe here) was probably my greatest triumph. I swapped the cranberries (which I couldn't find here due to the lack of bogs in South Africa) for dried apples and pears. De-lish! People will love you even more than they already do if you give this to them.

And now it is Monday and I begin a week-long Art of Living course this evening. Started in 1981 (a good year to start things, as that is when I made my start in the world), the Art of Living is a non-profit educational and humanitarian NGO focused on stress management and service. It operates in 151 countries, and is all about helping people fully actualize their potential. I am really pumped about what I will learn and how I will grow from the instruction this week. I might also be a bit thrilled to gain access to their ashram in Bali.

Tomorrow is also the last day of Mo-vember. Oh how I have missed the sight of Brendan's upper lip.

soccer, mustache, eggnog

You were sold on this post as soon as you read the title, right? What do these three things have in common? They were part of our life in the past week (or, in the case of the 'stache, the past month).

Last Wednesday we went to the absolutely lovely new stadium in Cape Town to watch the USA soccer team play South Africa for the Mandela Cup. Big B and I got totally decked out.

Our seats were *incredible*...and this is coming from the world's least sports fanatical person. I enjoyed my status as the odd one out in red, white, and blue while the other 59,999 people around me were in green and yellow. The USA won- go figure. I also had a quote on the front page of the Cape Times the next morning where I was blabbering on about how the USA was going to win. Clearly I missed my calling in high stakes sports gambling.

For more pictures of our dress up silliness click here.

It is now the fourth week of Movember, and thus time for your latest 'stache update. In a show of solidarity, I decided to participate myself. That's the kind of wife I am.

All this in one week! I continue to amaze myself.

And finally, I've been thoroughly and completely bitten by the holiday spirit bug. I am out-of-my gourd excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow (my absolute most favorite holiday of all time). The Elf soundtrack has made it's first (and second, and third) appearance. And I made homemade eggnog. I have very wonderful memories of my Grammy making eggnog for the family at Christmas time. She and my grandpa would get milk delivered to their house in glass bottles, and she would save up these bottles and fill them with the goodstuff. It was just heavenly. So I dug deep into my Schrier genes and made some pretty good eggnog myself.

Eggnog

serves 2 generously

2 cups milk

2 eggs, well beaten

2 tablespoons honey or confectioners sugar

a splash of vanilla extract

a few good shakes of cinnamon

one shake of nutmeg

a healthy glug of whiskey, bourbon, or brandy (if you are into that sort of thing, which I am. besides, i reckon it offsets the raw egg)

Mix all these fine ingredients together. After vigorously whisking in a bowl, I poured it into a milk jug and shook the living daylights of out it just to be sure it was properly mixed.

Enjoy by the glass, or on top of your morning oatmeal as I did this morning (pointedly ignoring the fact that there is whiskey in it). What's better than that?

dhal nirvana

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't share my dhal recipe with you. It is simply that good. It is so good we eat it once a week (well, twice if you count the leftovers we have for lunch the next day). Every Wednesday after yoga we eat dhal over jasmine rice and swoon. It also feels incredibly restorative to eat something so hearty and healthy. We also figure it fits in as part of our Nepal training, as the word on the street is that we are going to be eating a whole lotta dhal during our trek.

This recipe is short, sweet, highly adaptable, and nearly impossible to mess up...my favorite kind.

Wednesday Dhal

1 cup lentils (we like the yellow split ones because they cook up wonderfully creamy)

splash of olive oil

1/2 onion finely chopped

1 clove minced garlic

1 generous tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 can of diced tomatoes with juice

1 tbs grated fresh ginger

3 tbs butter

salt and pepper to taste

fresh cilantro (coriander, if you are in SA)

plain yogurt

Put the lentils in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water. Bring this to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 8-10 mins. Drain into sieve and set aside. Heat the olive oil in the pot and saute onions for a few minutes, then add the garlic,curry, and cayenne. After about 30 seconds, add the lentils, tomato (include the juice), ginger, butter, salt and pepper and let this baby simmer away for up to an hour so it gets nice and thick. You can, however, eat this straight away...sometimes I steal one quick bowl because I can't wait any longer to taste it.

You can add a splash of cream, which makes it rich and smooth (and less healthy and a heavenly treat). You can add other veggies (carrots, celery, peas, bell pepper). You can make this using some other legume. I've been wanting to make one with little pieces of roast lamb in it. Just go wild!

Serve over rice (or not), garnish with cilantro and yogurt and get ready to fall in love.

potpourri

'Potpourri' was always my favorite category on Jeopardy. I love Jeopardy. It is the only thing I've missed in the couple years we haven't owned a television. If anyone wants to copy and send me episodes, that would be awesome!

Anyway, here's a medley of the happenings in the last little while.

Brendan taking a photo of Hannah. The big camera next to the little baby cracks me up. It is almost like he is on safari and is stalking a her for a cool photo.

Parker, parking off. He leaves no mantle un-sat upon.

Our friends Candice and Warren came over for supper and I made one of my all time favorite things: Lebanese stuffed eggplant. Delish!

On Sue's last day in town we took a ride to the Zevenwacht wine farm for lunch. It was a gorgeous hot day, made even better by great company and cold white wine. 

Calla (or arum, depending on where you are from) lilies were everywhere. Oh, and we saw a mongoose too. Very awesome.

On one of our walks we came across this here dung beetle, and it made me think of my brother Daniel. We have this thing where we call each other 'dung roller'. Dan even addressed our wedding present to Mr and Mrs Dung Roller (sorry Brendan). While it may not appear as such to the outsider, this is very much a loving nickname. 

And then there is this handsome fellow. Here's Brendan in the act of making the bank transfer to buy our new car! This is far and away the most expensive thing either of us has ever purchased, and we thought we might need for adult diapers to get through it all. But the new car is a matter for a whole other blog post...

our last supper

Tonight we had our last supper in our home. Well, our last real one using non-disposal plates, cutlery, etc at least. Our packers come tomorrow to take away the majority of our worldly possessions, and so for the rest of our time in New Haven we are inviting ourselves to friends' houses as much as possible!

Tonight, however, because we have plates, have forks, have wooden spoons with which to stir, we feasted. Well, ok that isn't exactly true either. We are still working on finishing the sparse and very hodge-podge contents of our cupboards and refrigerator too, so the meal had a definite eclectic feel. 

The main event was saffron shrimp. All our spices are being packed tomorrow, and I'm already feeling withdrawal symptoms so some decadent saffron seemed just the right send off. 

Saffron Shrimp

serves 2

about 10 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and blotted dry

1 shallot, chopped fine-ish

1 Tbs olive oil

1/3 cup cream

a pinch of saffron

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in saute pan over medium-high heat.

Add shallot and shrimp.

When the shrimp is halfway cooked, add the cream and saffron. Season with salt and pepper.

We ate ours with steamed zucchini and yellow squash, and black bean rice. You might serve it with a starch that suits better (like a nice simple risotto or a summery orzo salad). No matter what you eat it with, it is delish and was a great last performance by our humble little kitchen 

lately

Here's a smattering of what we've been up to lately. I must admit that I've forgotten my camera (gasp!) or forgotten to take pictures (double gasp!) of many things. The moral of this story: our life is even more fun than these pictures convey.

Last week I developed a new obsession- Miya's sushi restaurant in New Haven. I had lunch there with two of my nearly-former Peer Health Educators and it has changed my life (mostly because now I want to eat there every day).

I look weird in this picture because I'm trying to hug two people who are a little too far away from me. But they look great. 

Miya's will get its own post later this week. I am also considering going back for some additional research. 

Last week also brought an abundance of pie, which is never a bad thing. My lovely co-workers held a little going away gathering for me feature 6 varieties of my favorite food group.

Naturally, I needed to eat a slice of each.

I have been lucky enough to work with some of the most intelligent, inspiring, fun, fabulous people for the last nearly-four years at Yale. This Thursday (my last day) is going to be a toughie. 

And then, because six pieces of pie on a Friday isn't enough of a treat, we went to Miya's for dinner. Swoon.

We spent Saturday with our friends Krissy and Tim and their ridiculously cute girls. 

Krissy made me the *MOST* lovely apron as a going away gift. It's made of this soft flannel, has corset-style lacing in the back, a tea cup applique on the pocket, and the daintiest ruffles around the edges. I adore it so much, and now am even further convinced that she needs to hurry up and start a business so I can buy every last thing she puts her needle to.

Krissy also makes really cute children, but she won't be selling them in her shop. 

Ella and I played outside for a bit while the food was grilling. 

We had some great salads with our meal. I made a mango slaw and Tim made an orzo salad with sultanas and pine nuts. I'm going to strong arm him into giving me the recipe. 

After sups there was birthday cake for the Krissy. Happy summery times.

In more recent news:

As part of the never-ending stream of work to be done so I can be employed in South Africa, I found out this morning that I needed a full criminal record check and to be fingerprinted. Thankfully I had a friend in the Yale Police Department who could help me out. Now if only I had a friend who really like completing paperwork...

A South African 4th of July

We spent the 4th of July with my dad, Diane, and Grammy in southern Virginia before being joined by the brothers and collectively going on vacation in North Carolina. While it was hardly an appropriately patriotic meal of hamburgers and hotdogs, potato salad, baked beans, and apple pie, we decided to whip up some South African goodies for the fam. The plan was to give everyone a taste of our soon-to-be homeland.  We served...

Bobotie, a Malay-influenced meat dish involving curry, dried fruit, nuts, and an egg custard topping. I know many of you might be thinking "Eww" but I promise you it is anything but eww. It's heavenly. And, if I do say so myself, I make a fabulous bobotie...a few South Africans in my life have told me so. I use this recipe as a guide.

Yellow rice, the traditional accompaniment. Turmeric gives it the great color, and ginger provides an awesome flavor. We had Mrs. Balls' chutney and Nando's peri-peri sauce, the classic condiments. There was cauliflower too, but that's just because it is delish and it's good to eat your vegetables.

And for dessert, a milk tart with some American stars and stripes flair. If my bobotie is good, my milk tart is crazy good. Someday I'll share the recipe. 

And, in the spirit of the day, we cracked off a couple little baby-firework things. 

birthday celebrations, part 1

Our birthdays are 3 days apart, so each year brings a bundle of joint festivities and this year was no exception. Let's begin at the beginning...

Wednesday was my birthday, and I woke up to tea in bed and loads of fab pressies. I was seriously spoilt by the wonderful people in my life...and I just love it! Later that morning was the USA vs Algeria game, and I am happy to report that the anniversary of my birth brought the boys some good luck.

After the game, we returned to my office to share some coconut custard birthday pie (my fav) with the work friends. Yum.

The day ended splendidly with a great meal at home. I'm much more apt to want to cook a really decadent meal at home than go out, and we had a fun time cooking, singing, and dancing around the kitchen together. Being the mildly food-obsessed person that I am, I planned a menu a few weeks ago that included some of my favorite ingredients and dishes. 

We started with rosemary peach champagne cocktails (recipe at the end of the post). Nothing tastes more celebratory than champagne. 

prosciutto and melon for a starter

veggie and shrimp paella for the main course

and berries and cream for dessert

The courses fit wonderfully together, were really scrumptious, and provided some tasty leftovers. All in all, it was a great start to the end of my 20s!

Rosemary peach champagne cocktails

(adapted from Cooking Light magazine)

1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine

2 peaches, diced to 1 inch pieces

1 spring rosemary

honey

1 cup water

Put water, rosemary, and honey (I eyeballed this, but estimate I used about 1/4 cup) into a small pot and bring to boil. Let boil for roughly 5 minutes, then remove from heat and cool to room temp. Remove rosemary. Place peaches and rosemary simply syrup into blender and blend until smooth. Pass through sieve to remove any pulpy bits (and use this pulp in a smoothie- it's delish!), and then let this rosemary peach puree sit in your fridge for 4 hours (better if overnight). I made these up by putting 4 Tbs of the peach mixture into a glass and then topping with champagne, but the champs really reacts with the peach and gets very foamy and hard to pour. Instead, mix half the peach mixture with a bottle of champs in a pitcher, taste, and add more peach as necessary. Garnish glasses with a rosemary spring, and enjoy!

strawberry rhubarb compote

It is reaching the end of rhubarb season for another year, so we've been enjoying it while we still can. Earlier in the week I made a batch of chocolate rhubarb cookies (although the end result was a bit of a cake-y cookie). They turned out quite good (alterations: dial back the sugar by at least 1/4 cup and add extra 'barb), and I brought the lot of them into the office for the ladies to enjoy. They went fast.

Two days ago, upon realizing that the remnants of our four pound box of strawberries was going to spoil if we didn't eat them ASAP, we had strawberry rhubarb tart. The compote- which was the topping- was easy, really delicious, and free of refined sugar (which means Brendan will eat it).

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote
roughly 3 cups strawberries, halved, and quartered if necessary to get them into a vaguely uniform size
roughly 4 cups rhubarb, peeled where necessary to remove the "strings", and diced to about 3/4"
honey
zest of half a lemon
lemon juice
1/2 a vanilla bean

Put most of the fruit (keep a handful of strawbs aside for later) and veg (rhubarb is a vegetable!) into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add just a dash of water, and give a really generous drizzle of honey all over it. Let this sit a couple minutes so the natural juices start to come out. In the mean time, halve the vanilla bean, scrape the seeds out and put them in the pot, and toss the bean in too for good measure and flavor. Add in the zest, and only half the juice from your lemon half. Cook on medium-high heat for about 10 mins, stirring regularly. Taste it- is it too tart? Add more honey. Once the rhubarb and strawberries have started to break down, turn the heat lower and simmer for another few minutes. The mixture should be thickening. If it needs help, mix some of the fruit juice with corn starch or flour. Stir it until very smooth, then add back to the pot. That should do the trick. Once it looks and tastes right, discard the vanilla bean, stir in those extra strawberries for a bit of texture, and let it cool to room temp.

From here you can use pie dough or puff pastry to make a tart (just don't go getting involved in another project and forget your tart and end up with well done edges like I did), put it on yogurt or ice cream (it tastes heavenly with coconut ice cream), or just eat it right out of the pot because it is so darn good.

cute kids and great salad

The other night we had dinner with these cuties (and their parents, Krissy & Tim).

Ella is 3 and Arlie is nearing in on 6 months, and they are even cuter that they look in this picture. Can you believe it? I didn't think so, but it's true! We have gotten into a wonderful routine of having a potluck dinner together every couple weeks, which begins and ends with playtime. Last night, Ella was showing us the sewing she has been working on (her mom is an incredible seamstress, and is responsible for my recent endeavor into sewing) and a great conversation followed between her and Brendan.

Ella: Now, I am going to make a line [pronounced "wine"].
Brendan: You're going to make wine?!
Ella: Not wine, a LIIIIIIIIIIINE [again, pronounced "wine"].
Brendan: What??
...and so on. Between Ella's speech and Brendan's accent, a great time was had by all.

Second to those little faces, the real treat of the night was the fantastic salad Krissy made to accompany the veggie lasagna we brought. It is so full of bright, springtime flavor (helloooooo tarragon). I'm still dreaming about it.

Spring Chicken Salad
adapted from the Food Network
1/2 pound small red-skinned potatoes, halved
Kosher salt
2 generous tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 cup (heaping) plain Greek yogurt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 romaine hearts, torn (or any kind of lettuce; bibb would be delish here)
2 cups cooked, sliced chicken meat (can be from breasts you broiled/poached, or the meat from a rotisserie bird)
1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced
4 radishes, halved and sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced

Place the potatoes in a small pot and cover with water. Season with salt, cover and boil until fork-tender, about 6 minutes. Drain and cool.
Meanwhile, pulse the tarragon, vinegar, yogurt, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a food processor. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil and pulse to make a thick dressing.
Toss the romaine, potatoes, chicken, cucumber, radishes and bell pepper with the dressing in a large bowl. 

banana bread

I've never been a huge fan of banana bread. I'll certainly eat it if you put a piece in front of me (although I suppose that is true of most food), but I don't often seek it out. Until I found this recipe. In our very humble opinion, it's the best. It also makes a great movie snack. We always bring our own snack pack when we go to the movies, so last night when we went to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (good movie, but understandably not as rich as the book), we packed a thermos of tea and two fat slices of bread to munch. Good thing too because that movie was long and subtitles make me hungry.

I adapted this recipe from my favorite cookbook to date: The Gourmet Cookbook. It's huge, it's yellow, and it makes my heart sing & my mouth water. I have cooked quite a bit from it and haven't come up with a single thing that isn't delicious. The recipe it lists is for a coconut and macadamia nut banana bread. That is good too, but we are fans of the pecan nut so I use them instead.

4B (Becky and Brendan's banana bread)
2 1/4 c flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c agave nectar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
3 frozen bananas, thawed slightly and broken into pieces
3 tbs sour cream
1 c chopped pecans
1 c  flaked coconut

Grease and flour your loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350F/175C
Mix the first three ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat together butter, sugar, and agave. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well between each. Then toss in the vanilla, zest, bananas, and sour cream and give it a good mixing. Add flour mixture until just combined, then stir in nuts and coconut.
Pour into prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake for an hour-ish minutes (take a peek at it starting at 45 mins) until golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes clean.

Some notes-
1. The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups sugar (mix of brown and white),  but it is plenty sweet without all that. Agave is great, but honey would also work, as would using 1/2 cup sugar.
2. We store bananas that we don't manage to eat before turning an unappetizing shade of brown in the freezer for exactly this purpose. Just let them soften a bit on the counter while you're getting the rest ready. The nice thing about thawed bananas is that they are really gooey and thus already sort of mashed. Of course, regular bananas would work- just mash those babies up.
3. Sour cream! Such brilliance. Adds a nice twang and keeps things moist. Yogurt would work in a pinch.

Bon appetite!

love muffins

Last Sunday afternoon was spent relaxing in advance of our first bikram yoga class, and what better way is there to relax than to bake? We had two bags of frozen cranberries in the freezer left over from Thanksgiving, and a bowl full of lemons, so cran-lemon muffins it was. The recipe was adapted from one I (Becky) found on Le Petite Pierogi. The ground fresh cranberries turned the batter a bit pink, and I baked them in the sweetest little heart shaped silicon muffin molds that Sue gave me at my South African kitchen tea (bridal shower). Hence: love muffins. Also, Brendan has declared these "the best muffins in his life"-  sounds a lot like love to me. A couple notes: this recipe is sugar free- a plus for Brendan who can't really eat sugar. I used agave nectar because we just happened to acquire some from friends who were moving to London, but you could also use honey. Also, whole wheat flour could take the place of the oat bran. We just really like bran...we're crazy like that.

Ingredients

3/4 cup toasted oat bran

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup agave nectar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

2/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs butter, melted

1 generous cup cranberries (frozen or fresh), whirled around a bit in a food processor (or otherwise chopped)

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 tsp lemon zest (use the zest from the half lemon you are about to juice)

juice of half a lemon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F, and oil muffin tins or whip out your cute silicon molds. Mix all the dry stuff in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the agave, egg, millk, butter, and vanilla. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff, add the cranberries, pecans, lemon zest and juice, and fold until just combined. Fill molds/tins 3/4 up (you can sprinkle the tops with sugar if you like a crystalized top) and bake for 25 minutes (but start checking on them at about 20). Once they look golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, take 'em out and cool on a rack.

Yield approx 15 muffins, and appreciative eaters

* Special note for users of the metric system: check out this handy dandy measurement converter *