Muffins - Banana Chocolate Chip, Honey Oat, Mini Chocolate Chip....

For a few weeks now I've been making muffins on Sunday. It all started with a banana chocolate chip muffin recipe I pinned from Food and Wine magazine. These made everyone happy at our house. (Of course, anything with 1 1/2 sticks of melted butter is likely to be enjoyed around here.) This weekend I made Honey-Oat muffins which were excellent hot out of the oven. Today being Mother's Day I was told to stay out of the kitchen during dinner, but I managed to sneak in a mini-muffin making session, whipping up a batch of chocolate chip muffins for dessert. I made them in my mini-muffin pan which turned out to be an excellent decision, because I could justify eating a handful. The banana chocolate chip and regular chocolate chip are definitely recipes worth remembering!

Banana Pudding

So I did that thing again, where I obsess for weeks over making home made (fill in the blank) for no good reason at all other than I just want to, even though I could buy a mix or a cup or a jar of (fill in the blank) for less. This time it was banana pudding. I blame the cookbook I borrowed from the library back in the darkest, coldest days of Winter. It was full of things that sounded delicious, and banana pudding stood out for some reason. Now that the sun is shining and warm breezes are blowing through the kitchen on the weekend, it felt like a good time to finally conquer banana pudding.

Chicken and Cashew Stir-Fry with Ginger-Scented Rice

For some reason, I always have trouble with jasmine rice. It isn't as forgiving as my old-reliable Uncle Ben's. I can't turn my back on it for a minute or it sticks and burns to the bottom of the pot. So I guess it's a good thing we've started eating early on Sundays because I had time to make a second pot of rice after scorching the first batch. Burned rice has an unpleasant smell. My family was kind enough to point this out to me as I chipped rice off the bottom of my pot in hopes of scrubbing it clean enough to try again. Because you can't have stir-fry without rice. (Although you could have it with noodles. Next time I'll try noodles.) Actually, once I managed to cook the rice properly it was really good. The first batch used up most of my fresh ginger so it wasn't quite as ginger-scented as it might have been, but it worked well with the chicken and cashew stir-fry. And the hardest part of that dish was cutting up the chicken, which I delegated.

Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffins

Easter is sneaking up on us very early this year. One can't even be fooled by the weather into thinking Easter is near, given that Spring still appears undecided about exactly when it will make an appearance. I know it's going to be Easter soon, though, since Easter treats are everywhere I look. Mostly the tiny packaged chocolate kind (Easter - it's the new Halloween!).

Given that Easter is next week it's clearly time once again for hot cross buns. It's difficult when the majority of your household loves hot cross buns but one lone (but still very important) individual does not. He doesn't get the least bit excited when the the kitchen takes on a yeasty, cinnamon-scented perfume. The drizzle of icing that frosts the buns with neat little crosses also ceases to excite him in the way it does the rest of us. Knowing that he wouldn't be interested in the ritual of the first hot cross buns of Spring I decided to make Patrick his own special treat to enjoy - Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins.

Peanut Butter Gingersnaps

I really expected that these would go over big at my house. We love our gingersnaps and we're pretty sweet on peanut butter anything. So I was surprised when they were met with...indifference. The boys liked these cookies, but they didn't necessarily love them. I think they are quite brilliant. Neither flavour dominates, and they are chewy but firm. I think they'll make a return appearance to the cookie jar.

Gnocchi

March Break has arrived in all its wet, wet glory. I should be happy to see grass and sunshine and hear birds singing while I walk to work, but my palate hasn't adjusted. This weekend our Sunday dinner came down to one of two choices: Rockwell Bake (basically turkey strata) or gnocchi. Yup, my body is still craving cold weather meals, despite this (likely brief) respite from Winter weather. I decided to go with making gnocchi, since I've had my eye on Smitten Kitchen's recipe since receiving the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for my birthday. I was once intimidated by gnocchi (well, all home-made pasta, actually) but there is something about SK that gives me confidence to accept new culinary challenges. So Sunday I discovered just how easy it is to make gnocchi.

Mahogany Beef Stew with Red Wine and Hoisin Sauce

Stew is one of those dishes that I struggle with, because it never tastes quite as good as I think it should.  But David loves a good stew, particularly in the heart of Canadian Winter, so it is always on the menu a few times in the early months of the year. I've decided the secret is cutting up an actual roast for stew meat rather than buying the pre-cut cubes that are labelled as 'stewing beef' in the meat section. Or at least, that's what we tried with this particular recipe and it was one of the best stews I've had in a long time. As with other stews I've known and loved, this one is even better the next day if you can manage leftovers.

We're moving in to Spring soon; I actually made this dish weeks ago at the height of the worst of our Winter, which in truth hasn't been all that bad this year. We had a few weekends in a row of conditions that were pretty perfect for tubing / tobogganing and we made the most of it. Then we came inside and had stew.