Blueberry Muffins

I tried a new recipe for Blueberry Muffins this week that came from one of my favorite recipe blogs, Simply Recipes. This recipe is very easy and the muffins are moist and yummy. I sprinkled the tops with sugar before baking, just to add a sweet sparkle to them. If you'd like to try them, here's the link:
Simply Recipe's Blueberry Muffins.

Zucchini Bread

My husband grows a vegetable & herb garden every year, with tomatoes, basil, thyme, rosemary, peppers, cucumbers, and this year - zucchini! I love zucchini, especially when it's baked into zucchini bread...YUM! I baked some this week, and decided to add some chocolate chips, which made it even better (of course, what isn't better with chocolate?) This recipe has been my favorite for many years. It's great with or without the chocolate chips.

Zucchini Bread

1 ¼ cups Wheat Germ (preferably toasted), plus more for optional topping
3 cups Flour
1 Tb Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup Chocolate Chips, mini or regular (Optional)
2 Eggs
1 ¾ cups Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2/3 cup Canola or Vegetable Oil
3 cups grated Zucchini (with skin)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 loaf pans (or spray with vegetable oil spray). Mix together wheat germ, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, nuts, and chocolate chips (if using). Set aside. Beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, oil, and vanilla. Stir in zucchini. Gradually stir in flour mixture. Pour into greased pans. (Sprinkle wheat germ over the tops of loaves, if desired.) Bake for 1 hour or until done. Cool 5 to 10 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling. Makes 2 loaves.

Yummy Chocolate Cherry Cake

I was looking for a new recipe to try for a dessert to take to a dinner party we went to this past weekend. I found this recipe for So-Easy Cherry-Fudge Cake on the myrecipes site. If you've never checked out myrecipes, you definitely should. They feature recipes from Cooking Light, Southern Living, Real Simple, Sunset, Coastal Living, All You, and Health magazines. You can save any recipes you like in your own personal collection on site. This cake came from Southern Living magazine, and it was dense, moist, and oh-so-chocolate-y! There are only 8 ingredients in the entire recipe for both cake and icing. It was easy-peasy!

Black Raspberry Pie

My husband brought home a huge box filled with pint containers of black raspberries last week. He had asked me how many I wanted, and I replied that 2 or 3 would be fine - so he got 10! So...I made a pie, and some jam, and I canned the rest for future pies or cobblers. Baking is a passion for me, but, although I LOVE eating pie, I don't bake them much. Pie was my mother's specialty. She would dip her cupped hands into the flour bin, magically scooping the correct amount of flour into the bowl to make the crust. Her crust was so flaky, it melted in your mouth. I wish I had asked her to teach me how to make her pies while she was with us, but she was gone too quickly. I think about Mom when I bake, both missing and feeling closer to her at the same time. This weekend I baked a Black Raspberry Pie for our 4th of July get-together. I searched for recipes, and what I found was that there are Blackberry Pie and Raspberry Pie recipes, but practically none for Black Raspberry Pie. I decided that a Blackberry Pie recipe would do. I used a pre-made pie crust that I had in my freezer, so it really was pretty easy to make. I found the recipe on the Food & Wine Magazine website here. I even attempted a "sort of" lattice crust (I did mine the easy way, without weaving the strips under-and-over each other). It turned out very nice, if I do say so myself, and it was very yummy! Mom would've been proud of me.