Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Ivy Tree, Nectarine Cobbler & Mini Muffins

Ahhh, another day of kitchen experiments and yard scrap designing.



First I tried some mini muffins using a recipe called "Any Muffin Recipe" which recieved a 5-star rating. I'd never made any type of mini muffins before, but figured the bite size servings would be better for taking to parties and running events so I picked up one of those silicone muffin forms which cooks 24 mini muffins. Research on this muffin form says that silicone generally cooks faster than tin so I kept this in mind when cooking them. A little trick I sometime use for deviled eggs and icing and such is to put the contents into a zip lock bag, clip a corner and squeeze the contents out slowly. I chose to try this experiment with pineapple which was left behind by DH before leaving for GLR. I don't really know what went wrong, but these were absolutely disgusting. They became pasty in my mouth as I chewed them and the flavor wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the recipe itself or the use of pineapple. It wasn't the mini muffin form since I did make 2 regular size muffins which were equally gross. Oh well, maybe I'll try them again some day with a different recipe, but I kinda doubt it.

I did have great success with a nectarine cobbler though so all was not lost. The recipe calls for both nectarines and peaches but I used all nectarines. Yes, this was the last of the nectarines from the 50 pounds I purchased at Eastern Market last week for all of $2. Ooooh, it was good sweet with just the right amount of batter around the fruit. DH enjoyed it 2 days in a row with a big ole scoop of ice cream.... for breakfast!

Thirdly today, which actually took quite a bit of time was the creation of the ivy tree. Mmmm not sure exactly what I'll do with it yet, but it's done and the ivy is cleared from my Maples once again so it's all good. There's a lot of ivy wrapped up in it. Here's a quick picture story.

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