Never did I think I'd title a post meaning for it to be a recipe.
I do not want to be known as a cook. If my legacy is that I concocted wonderful dishes in the kitchen, it will be a mighty sad story. As far as 'cooking' goes, I humorously refer to my abilities as being able to 'put something together' as opposed to 'cooking' something (cooking to me usually implies creativity, compassion, and confidence in your food). Usually, things like sandwiches, wraps, salads, fruit, spaghetti, steamed or vege stir-fries with rice, frozen pizzas or other dinners are what is 'cooked' at my place. No meat, I save that for going out. A disgrace to my Grandmother, the best cook on the planet, but acceptance is the first step to happiness. And I accept and I am happy that I am not a good cook and I love to go out to eat :-)
Sometimes (sometimes being proportional to the amount of homework I've got --- either not much at all or so much that I am trying to avoid it) I'll get 'adventurous'. My motivation is to 1) have something to take to a friend's get together tonight 2) make a healthy snack 3) I'm getting hungry from my ride this morning and I've run out of everything but straight up PB and my vanilla gelpacks.
Here's the recipe I'm trying: It says it original, so I hope it's good. I like recipes because they are made of lists and instructions, and usually are pretty straightforward unless the author gets all fancy and starts using 'fold' and 'pinch' and such. Who wants to fold or pinch in the kitchen?? Following a recipe is so easy a robot could do it. And in the kitchen, I am Robot. (Tempted to say 'caveman', but cavemen didn't have fancy aluminum flour sifters and carrot peelers..). I like this recipe in particular because after looking at the ingredient list, I don't have to add 10 things to my shopping list. I hate making stuff that involves ingredients where I have to ask someone at the grocer where the heck in the store it is. For this recipe, I have to get things like apples, eggs, raisins. These kinds of things I can handle.
The cooking process.
The first part of my muffin making involved getting the several needed ingredients. In Texas, the grocery store is Randell's or HEB. I hear HEB stores are 'exclusive' to Texas. Yeah, I know why now. My first HEB experience was a huge letdown. From the moment you walk in the front doors, it's suffocating and stressful; there's hardly any room to navigate with a buggy. The front entrance immediately dumps you to produce with a two-way type highway going on where you have to leave your buggy and jump across to get an apple. The place was a madhouse and it was not a pleasurable experience. Someone got fancy with the produce section layout and IT WAS NOT good. Grocery stores are a certain layout all across the country for a reason. Note to all Grocery Store Designers: Straight Aisles are Good.
Prep in the kitchen went well. I used my mixing bowls for the first time... and my flour sifter and my cupcake pan. Prep in the kitchen went well till the 'peel and grate an apple'. Seems simple. If you have a grater. After a 4 second mild panic attack, I realized the alternative: peel and cut into tiny pieces on the cutting board. So, I did for the apple, and I did for the 2 cups of grated carrots. The time it took me to peel and dice two cups of carrots undoublty was greater than the time it would take to run to HEB and get a grater. But, it made for a great reason to complain, not to mention a great right hand and arm workout.
The next 4 second mild panic attack came at 'add one tablespoon of ground cinnamon'. Out of all my kitchen stuff, how the heck to I not have a tablespoon measuring set?? Then I remember it's called tablespoon for a reason. Back in the old days before they had an actual tablespoon, they used table spoons. I figured that our 'big' spoon in the drawer applied to that rule, hoped the spoon industry standard sizes hadn't changed for the last 200 years, and kept on going. I used the same mentality for teaspoons. Not being sophisticated people, Rachel and I don't have an actual spoon used to stir tea. Remembering from back home that teaspoons are God awfully small, I figured a teaspoon of salt was slightly larger than the category... ahh 'season to taste', and again moved right along. The tablespoon/teaspoon thing - it's kinda like an experiment within an experiment (the broader experiment being the muffins themselves), and hey - what engineer doesn't like that!
The Verdict.
Mmm delicious. Enough said. Eating one, my mind starts to do it's usual thing and starts thinking... 2 hours to make plus cleaning plus energy to cook them... was this a positive cost - to - benefit project? And yes, it was.
Follow Up.
For future batches... what if a banana was thrown into the 'mix'... or some chocolate chips fell into the batter... :)
The first part of my muffin making involved getting the several needed ingredients. In Texas, the grocery store is Randell's or HEB. I hear HEB stores are 'exclusive' to Texas. Yeah, I know why now. My first HEB experience was a huge letdown. From the moment you walk in the front doors, it's suffocating and stressful; there's hardly any room to navigate with a buggy. The front entrance immediately dumps you to produce with a two-way type highway going on where you have to leave your buggy and jump across to get an apple. The place was a madhouse and it was not a pleasurable experience. Someone got fancy with the produce section layout and IT WAS NOT good. Grocery stores are a certain layout all across the country for a reason. Note to all Grocery Store Designers: Straight Aisles are Good.
Prep in the kitchen went well. I used my mixing bowls for the first time... and my flour sifter and my cupcake pan. Prep in the kitchen went well till the 'peel and grate an apple'. Seems simple. If you have a grater. After a 4 second mild panic attack, I realized the alternative: peel and cut into tiny pieces on the cutting board. So, I did for the apple, and I did for the 2 cups of grated carrots. The time it took me to peel and dice two cups of carrots undoublty was greater than the time it would take to run to HEB and get a grater. But, it made for a great reason to complain, not to mention a great right hand and arm workout.
The next 4 second mild panic attack came at 'add one tablespoon of ground cinnamon'. Out of all my kitchen stuff, how the heck to I not have a tablespoon measuring set?? Then I remember it's called tablespoon for a reason. Back in the old days before they had an actual tablespoon, they used table spoons. I figured that our 'big' spoon in the drawer applied to that rule, hoped the spoon industry standard sizes hadn't changed for the last 200 years, and kept on going. I used the same mentality for teaspoons. Not being sophisticated people, Rachel and I don't have an actual spoon used to stir tea. Remembering from back home that teaspoons are God awfully small, I figured a teaspoon of salt was slightly larger than the category... ahh 'season to taste', and again moved right along. The tablespoon/teaspoon thing - it's kinda like an experiment within an experiment (the broader experiment being the muffins themselves), and hey - what engineer doesn't like that!
The Verdict.
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| Actual Outcome Source: Chef Heather's Kitchen |
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| Projected Outcome Source: http://www.ebfarm.com/Recipes/recipeView.aspx?rID=113 |
Follow Up.
For future batches... what if a banana was thrown into the 'mix'... or some chocolate chips fell into the batter... :)
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ReplyDeleteLooks good! All your discussion of your culinary skills (or lack thereof?! :P) makes me even more eager to try what you made. Mmm... Oh wait, I did try your pasta at one point! :)
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