double chocolate muffins

Not much cooking lately--It's cocoon season for me.
That means I'd rather be warming my cold body in a down filled cocoon on my bed sleeping winter away only to be awoken when spring shines her brilliant sun. That or I'd like to be sitting in a hot jacuzzi tub warming my cold bones up. I only have the first option, wishing I had the second as a hot bath does wonders for me on frigidly cold days. I don't know if it's me getting old or what, but I can't take the cold as I used to. And the dry cold air at night is a pain in the butt for skin care and breathing. I need to look into buying a really good warm-air humidifier.
Can anyone recommend a good one?
I think I might go to the local YMCA to use their hot therapeutic pool--that sounds so good right now. I feel so old in the winter, anyone else get like this?


These double chocolate muffins are seriously strong in chocolate.
I can always depend on Dorie Greenspan for a trustworthy, stellar recipe.
If you can, use the higher cacao chocolate in these muffins for best taste and best way to quell that chocolate craving.


A little frosting never hurt.

double chocolate muffins
adapted from dorie greenspan
print recipe

1 stick butter
4 ounces bitter sweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of good quality milk chocolate chunks or chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or butter, then flour a regular size muffin tray.
Melt butter and bittersweet chocolate in a pan over medium heat, do not boil! Let cool for about 15-20 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Pour buttermilk mixture over dry ingredients and then add the melted butter & chocolate mixture. Mix all together until just combined. Do not overmix.
Stir in milk chocolate chips or chunks.
Divide batter evenly among muffin tins. Bake for about 20 – 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes and remove onto wire racks.
Makes 12 muffins

My Chicken Noodle "Stoup"

No typo in the title. I call my version of chicken soup "stoup". It's half soup half stew. See we like our chicken soup very thick around here. Full of veggies, chicken, and lots of noodles. Yes ma'am! I mean if you're going to have some soup then have some soup people! I'm sorry I don't really care for chicken soups that are all broth. What's the point there? Unless you had mouth surgery and can't chew then ok, but if you're going to have a bowl of soup then make it count, right? Hello?

It's 31 degrees outside right now. I could feel this colder weather coming on last night (no, I didn't watch the weather channel!), I could sense the colder weather coming and knew as I was falling asleep that I had to make my chicken noodle soup to warm my body and frozen fingers. You know how you can smell the rain coming or can smell the colder, drier air coming? Yeah, that's what I felt. Can I just say I hate winter? I used to love it, but now I hate it. Weren't we just in summer? What happened, where did it go? See us Cali girls do not like cold weather, we like warm, endless sun-filled days where the sky is always blue and brillant. :::sigh:::

This is another one of my recipes that is super easy to make, really fast homemade goodness. I had to sit down, think about what I put in this "stoup"and write it all out. Another one of those recipes that I make on the fly. So, I hope I got all the ingredients and instructions down for you, correctly.

Lots of fresh chopped veggies!

Dawn’s Chicken Noodle Soup

About 6 cups Organic Chicken Broth (2 boxes)
3 – 4 chicken breasts
1 ½ cups chopped carrots (thickly chopped, ½ inch)
1 ½ cups chopped celery (thickly chopped, ½ inch)
2 yellow or white onions, quartered
2 - 3 cups egg noodles, cooked, al dente
salt & pepper to taste
1 veggie or chicken organic boullion cube, chopped/crumbled
2 tb olive oil, plus more for rubbing chicken
a few pinches of fresh dill (add as much or as little as you like)

Take the chicken breasts, rinse under cool water place on paper towels to dry. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken breast on cooking sheet. Rub chicken breasts with olive oil, salt & pepper the breasts. Take quartered onions and place on cooking sheet as well. Cook in oven about 30 minutes +/- depending on oven. Chicken should be cooked through.

Meanwhile, take 2 tb of olive oil and heat in large stock pot oven medium heat. Place carrots and celery in heated stockpot and sauté a bit, add in chopped up bouillon cube and a few pinches of dried dill or fresh dill, mix well; sauté for about 10 minutes
Add in chicken stock. Bring all to a gentle simmer for about 15 minutes.

When chicken is done cooking remove from oven and let cool a bit. Once cooled chop into cubes and add to chicken broth. Add in the chunks of onions as well; you can leave as is or you can chop the onion into small pieces.

Let all gently simmer another 5 – 10 minutes. You might want to taste the soup and see if it needs anymore salt or pepper. Once done, add in as much or as little egg noodles as desired.
Serve with warm crusty rolls.

Should serve about 4 -5, I think.

First we add a lot of noodles to the bowl.

Next add a lot of the chicken & veggies.

I like to just insert my roll right into the soup. No one's watching, go ahead.

buttermilk-pumpkin pancakes

Oh. my. goodness. These were so good. Can I just let the photos do the talking? I mean these were some of the best pancakes I've made in years. Adding that pumpkin puree to them made alllllllll the difference. And using buttermilk helped a lot too. And you know what? I used a pancake mix to help me out so it was super easy to make (I was strapped for time and hadn't been to the grocery store, but had a box of this in the cupboard). I used the Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix.

So basically I kind of followed the directions on the box, but instead of using water or milk I used buttermilk and added in some pumpkin puree, along with a couple dashes of salt, a couple dashes of pumpkin pie seasonings. Mixed, not overmixed till I got a nice thick, not watery batter. I got my batter to be very thick, thicker than cake batter, by not adding in the full amount as suggested of liquids. For me, in the past, the thicker the pancake batter they fluffier the batter, but then again we love our pancakes thick and hearty, not light and fluffy. And I fried these bad boys in butter, not oil, not PAM. That's it. Served with warmed maple syrup.

Have any of you tried this pancake mix? I was so surpised at how good it tasted. Normally I make my pancakes from scratch, but I'm rethinking it with this brand. And the best part is experimenting what to add in for the next batch; caramelized apples, sweet potato puree, spicy pecans, blueberries, ricotta, the list could be endless. Who would have thought a pancake like this would come out of a box? Weird I say, weird.

cinnamon-chocolate scones

For all you dessert foodies out there - do you remember the show on Food TV called Sweet Dreams with Gale Gand? I loved that show because of her easygoing, calm personality and her perfect culinary creations.
She was beyond talented when it came to making perfect desserts, pastries, etc... A true master in creating creative sweet treats; nothing was the norm with this chef, she was so very inventive when it came to desserts as well as making them look absolutely perfect.
Talk about kicking it up a notch, oh yes she did that and then some! Even the tinest of candies or pastries she made them perfectly and with such ease. I made a point of trying my best to copy down her recipes after each episode, since her cookbooks are fairly expensive. Is Santa reading this? If so, Gale Gand cookbooks are at the top of my list as well as a new Simmons Beautyrest Black Edition mattress.

I've adapted this recipe a bit.  If you are a scone lover as I am then you simply must try this.

cinnamon-chocolate scones
adapted from Butter Sugar Flour Eggs by Gale Gand
print recipe

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 ts baking powder
1/4 ts salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick of unsalted butter, cold
1 ¼ cups of milk (whole is best)1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chunks
Heavy cream for brushing (optional)
Coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), mix the dry ingredients.
Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and with the mixer running, and add the butter and mix until coarse and sandy. You should still be able to see small lumps of butter. Mix in the milk until almost combined.
Next, add the chocolate chunks and mix just to distribute them evenly through the dough. Do not over mix; there may still be some flour not mixed in.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 10 times to bring it together and smooth it out.
Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough 1-inch thick.
Using a biscuit cutter, cut out circles.
Using a spatula, transfer to an ungreased sheet pan.
Knead the scraps together just until combined, then roll out again and continue cutting out circles until all the dough is used.
I brushed the tops of the scones with some heavy cream and a few extra sprinkles of raw/course sugar
Bake until light golden brown, about 15 minutes +/- depending on your oven.

Cook notes: I cut my scones into rectangles and made them thicker by forming them to be thicker before baking; I like thick scones, so do what you want.
I also brushed the tops with heavy cream before baking and sprinkled them with coarse sugar before baking as well.
I drizzled melted caramel on the scones once they were cooled. You could try doing this with melted chocolate too.

baked cheesy corn dogs

Nothing fancy this time around, but definitely something very tasty and SUPER easy!
I saw this recipe at the Big Red Kitchen and instantly had to try it. Ohhh was it good.
The batter is so welcoming to a whole host of add in's: heat, veggies, spices, cheese, etc..
I even made a another batch of corn dogs using veggie hot dogs--so good!
I mean corn dogs with their own rolls baked on--who doesn't love that?
Takes 5-7 minutes to whip up?
Have to love instant comfort food assembly.



baked cheesy corn dogs
adapted from big red kitchen
print recipe

3 cups yellow self-rising corn meal mix
3 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup of shredded colby jack (or any kind of cheddar)
A couple pinches of cayenne pepper (add as much or as little or none)
7 hot dogs

Preheat oven to 425°.
In a stand mixer, mix all of the ingredients minus the hot dogs together.
No need to overmix the batter, lumps are good!
Once the mix is smooth, pour into a well-greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
Place the hot dogs in the batter so that the dogs are placed 3 inches apart.
I did 5 vertically/close to the bottom, then 2 horizontally across the top. (see picture).
Bake for 22-25 minutes or until corn bread is cooked through.
Let cool slightly, then with a sharp knife cut around each hot dog insuring each dog is surrounded by corn bread.
Serve with favorite condiments.

cook notes: The original recipe called for using 10 hot dogs, I don’t know how they got them in there, but you can experiment. Be really careful how you place the hot dogs in the batter as you want a 2-inch border around each dog.
I added the heat  cheese to this and it was awesome.
Next time I make these I’m adding some chopped jalapenos to it.
And if you want to make mini appetizers try using those little smokies for this. I’m sure it would be awesome.
Since some of you asked: my baked beans are nothing more than a large can of Bush's Baked Beans (boston or molasses flavor) with 1/2 cup of brown sugar, couple dashes of heat, 1 tb of molasses, 1 tb of ketchup, salt & pepper, and 1/2 cup of thick cut cooked bacon, chopped into big chunks. Mix all together in a casserole dish, reheat in oven at 400 degrees until bubbly.