Mmmmm Bacon!

About two weeks ago, this was sent out by yours truly to all of the planning graduate students:

Then, on Easter I woke up at 8 AM to make my contribution to the group potluck: BH&G's Bacon & Egg Muffins.

I started with the bacon, something I don't think I have ever made myself.  The recipe only called for 4 pieces, but it's impossible to buy just 4 pieces of bacon at the store.  Also, while it smells wonderful, bacon is a mess to cook, so I decided to cook up the entire package at once.

Next, I used some of the bacon drippings to scramble the eggs and...

...grease the muffin pan as suggested by the recipe.  

The rest of the muffin came together quickly, even with my addition of  some extra bacon bits.

The bacon greased muffin tin was filled with bacon laden muffin mix and topped with more bacon. (Do you see a theme here?)

Baked until the edges of the muffins pulled away from the pan and bacon on top looked nice and crispy.

The potluck didn't draw a huge crowd, but there was plenty of scrumptious food and absolutely glorious weather.

I filled up my plate (more than once) soaked up some sunshine, and threw a few bocce balls before it was time to pack up, head home and hit the books...

...and scrub the bacon grease off the stove.  At least the morning was enjoyable!

Meals of March

Well, selected meals from the crazy month of March.  Note the two place settings!

Welcome to Charlottesville, VA, a medium sized town with enough restaurants to seat the entire population at once! Let's stay in and eat some chili...

with some gorgeous corn muffins on the side!

Keizo and I ate a lot of kale chips while he was here.  Wash kale, tear from stems, place on baking sheet, drizzle with 1 Tbsp olive oil, coarse salt and pepper.  Bake/broil for about 10 minutes, mixing once until saku saku (light and crispy).

Homemade pizza on no-rise whole wheat dough.  This stuff sticks to your ribs.

Banana/coconut/PB chip pancakes.  Difficult to flip over, unbelievably easy to eat.

Teriyaki fish, buttered rice, leftover pasta and spinach salad with yogurt-y dressing, broccoli, nectarine and Craisins.

Poorly photographed fried egg sandwich, one of several that were consumed.  One of the Saturdays I had to be at school, Keizo and my housemate drove out to Polyface Farm and returned with eggs and breakfast sausages.  The eggs did seem "firmer" than the ones from the grocery store, but were the same pale yellow color.  Taste also seemed about the same.

*****

Since he was in C-ville for goodness sakes, we did have to eat out occasionally.

The gelato sampler at Splendora's.  I will have to show immense restraint not to order this just for myself the next time I go there.  Clockwise from top: mint, coconut, mango, tiramisu, and hazelnut, with a scoop of Guiness in the middle (it was St. Patrick's Day after all!)

Blue Mountain Brewery's nine beer sampler, enjoyed on the patio at sunset after an afternoon of hiking.  It was as amazing as it sounds.  I hope to repeat several times this summer.

Historic Michie Tavern's endless Southern buffet!  The stewed tomatoes were my favorite part, although that isn't to say didn't also get seconds of the BBQ pork and buttery biscuits.  If you go, I highly recommend fasting both before and after.

Muffin Time!

There are only about a zillion things more appealing on a Saturday than school work.  Today's non-school related activities included sleeping in, Words with Friends (where Keizo beats me by saving all his good letters until I only have 3 U's and a T left!) a 90 minute yoga class, design competition reveal, and baking these muffins.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Muffins, found via Cait's Plate.

 

Horror of horrors, I didn't actually have any chocolate chips in the house.  So I used some white chocolate morsels and crushed up Oreos instead.

They baked up quite nicely.  I was expecting more of a sweet, dessert-y muffin, but these aren't very cake-like.   Oh well, still beats doing school work on a Saturday!

Berry Good

There are times when I bake for no special reason, but it's always more fun to do it with something in mind.

Last weekend's event was a sort of "girl's retreat" with my uber-smart, med-student friend Amber, her sister Ash, and friend from med school, Sarah, at the cabin in the teeny town of Strawberry, AZ where Amber has been staying while finishing up a rotation in rural family medicine. Not wanting to show up empty handed, I spent the morning in the kitchen the day before whipping up some muffins.

I picked out the recipe before I knew exactly where the cabin was located...but it turned out to be quite fitting--Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins!

Start with 1 1/2 cups of fresh sliced strawberries.

Add to muffin batter made up from all of the usual suspects (flour, sugar, eggs, margarine, cinnamon, etc.)

Stir, and ladle carefully into paper lined muffin tins. Bake.

After baking, when the muffins are cool enough to touch, remove from tins and place on a cooling rack to avoid soggy bottoms.

Perfect for snacking or breakfast. Little known fact: strawberries are just as good in muffins as blueberries or cranberries.