100th Post: Sweet and Salty Manchego Corn Muffins

Ladies and gentlemen, it's my 100th post!

I started this blog over a year ago as a summer project. It's become a way for me to keep track of all my culinary creations while sharing them with my friends and family. It's really helped me expand my cooking arsenal. I've made lots of things from scratch and tried lots of new ingredients. Thanks for sharing it all with me.

Notes: This recipe is an altered version of Smitten Kitchen's corn muffins. Scott is not crazy about kernels of corn in his muffins so I left those out. I also didn't have any buttermilk, but I did have yogurt. I had some leftover manchego cheese that needed using up, so hey, why not? They turned out great. 

Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 teaspoons raw sugar
1/3 cup shredded manchego cheese
1 cup vanilla yogurt
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Heat your oven to 400. Line your muffin tin with paper cups.

Pour melted butter and olive oil into a large bowl. Beat the eggs slightly and add those in with the yogurt and the cheese. Mix the wet ingredients together.

Add flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar into the bowl. Once all the dry ingredients are in the bowl, then mix everything together. Don't worry about getting it perfectly smooth, just combine everything.

Scoop out the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 15-18 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the muffins are very lightly golden brown on top.

Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Do you love yourself? Because if you do, you should do something very nice for yourself. You should make these cinnamon rolls.

I followed Smitten Kitchen's recipe exactly, so I won't retype it here. I put everything together the night before and just baked them up the next morning. They're made from scratch, so it's a bit of work, but the results are so worth it. These would be a great Thanksgiving breakfast or dessert.

Just make them. You won't regret it, I promise.

Slow Cooker Apple Cider BBQ Chicken

This semester has been pretty busy, so I'm experimenting with more slow cooker recipes. We have some long days during the week and it's nice to come home to a meal that's already made. Some of my recipes have turned out well, some not so well. This one is not great for a week night, but it is great for a weekend. It has a short ingredient list and the results are delicious.

Notes: Scott and I prefer dark meat, but if you want white meat, by all means use chicken breasts.

If you don't have fresh apple cider, you could easily substitute apple juice.

Ingredients:
1 lb of boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 1/2 cups of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cup fresh apple cider (or apple juice)
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

Add the chicken thighs to the slow cooker and season them with salt and pepper. In a large bowl whisk together the BBQ sauce and apple cider. Pour over the chicken, making sure all the meat is covered (if you need some more liquid, just add a little water). Set the slow cooker for 4 hours on high.

30 minutes before the cooking time is up, take the chicken out an shred it with two forks. Put the shredded chicken back in the slow cooker to finish up. Serve and enjoy!

Pictured here with French roasted potatoes

Homemade Pizza, Take Two

Hoo boy. Am I ever behind on posting recipes!

Remember when I made homemade pizza for the first time? Boy was it good. What could be better than a recipe for homemade pizza crust? Well, an updated version of said pizza crust would be good (camera battery ran out, so none of my terrible photos for you).

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour (unbleached preferred)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons raw sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 heaping tablespoons herbs de provence
1 cup lukewarm water
1 packet dry active yeast.
1 cup of your favorite pizza sauce
1 ball fresh mozzarella
8 slices of sandwich style pepperoni

Directions:

Start with the dough. Add flour, salt, sugar, olive oil, herbs de provence, water, and yeast to a bowl. Mix it together with your hands, stirring at first and then switching to kneading. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead into ball. Wipe your bowl out with a paper towel and oil your bowl. Roll your dough ball around so that it's coated, then cover it with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let it rise for 2 hours.

When the 2 hours is up, heat your oven to 450. Dump your dough out onto a floured surface and press the air out. Shape it back into a ball and let it sit under the bowl for 20 minutes. Then roll it out (start from the middle pushing outward, do a quarter turn, roll out from the middle again, repeat) to a 12-inch circle.

Lay it out on your pizza pan (dust a little cornmeal on there if you want). Spread the sauce out over the dough, add your pepperoni. Thinly slice your mozzarella ball and lay the slices on top.

Arrange your oven racks in bottom third and top third of the oven. Start on the bottom and bake for 10 minutes. Move it to the top and bake for 10 more minutes. Slice and enjoy!