Pear Puffins

I've noticed lots of recipes for "puffins" on the Internet lately, and I don't mean the bird you find in more northern areas.  Puffins are pancakes but made in muffin tins.  I decided to try it this morning because I royally slept in and am not going to go running now that it is 75% humidity.  No thanks!

Pear Puffins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare your favorite pancake batter as you normally would.  I also wanted to use up what little I had of my pancake mix this morning.  I added a touch of vanilla and cinnamon to my batter.

I didn't want to clean a bowl so tupperware it was.

I diced up a pear to be plopped in.  According to recipes I've looked at, you can add blueberries or strawberries or even cooked sausage.  Get creative!

I poured the batter into the heavily greased muffin tin so it was two-thirds full.

Just enough batter for six puffins!

Then, I put the pears into the batter.

Now they're pear puffins.

I slid the tin into the oven to bake for about 18 minutes.

They look like my peach muffins...

I let them cool for a minute or so before taking them out for consumption.  I tried several different condiments and decided that syrup (or seeer-up as Long Islanders say) was the best.

And topped with each condiment!

Peaches' Peach Muffins

It is a well known fact that my mom calls me Peaches so in honor of my own nickname and the new character from Ice Age 4 named Peaches, I have come up with a peach muffin recipe!  Summer is a good time for peaches anyway.  However, I used canned peaches because the peaches at my grocery store didn't look the greatest.

Peaches' Peach Muffins

1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1 can peaches, diced

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I started by just putting the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, eggs and oil into a bowl.  I carefully stirred everything together.  I really using the nutmeg along with the cinnamon because then these muffins taste like spiced peaches.

The batter will look darker.

Next, I added the flour and baking soda.  I only added about 1/4 c. of the flour at a time.

Mix thoroughly, don't just leave it like this.

I diced up my peaches into pieces.  If you are using fresh peaches, peel and pit them before you start dicing.

I think this is the first time I've ever needed to use my can opener.

I folded the peaches into the batter gently.  I didn't want the peaches to be mushed up into it.

Maybe I should just make a cake...

I poured the batter into my greased muffin tin, filling each only about halfway before popping them into the oven.

I may have filled these a little too much.

I baked mine for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The last three looked pretty...

Let them rest in the tin for a minute before removing them to a cooling rack.  Mine did not want to cooperate and come out of the tin.  They don't look the prettiest, but they taste really awesome.  And I'm going to pick up another bottle of PAM soon.  Enjoy your summery muffins and don't forget your laundry in the washing machine.

These not so much...still taste great!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

First, let me just tell everyone about my weekend.  I basically worked all day Friday between both jobs and just passed out that night.  Bright and early at 6am on Saturday, the fire alarms went off in my building.  I threw on a sweatshirt and went outside with all the other residents to wait for everything to be taken care of.  We all went back in, and I tried to go back to sleep.  The alarms went off again at 7:30!  This time I put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt and went to a diner.  There was no chance of me going back to bed so I treated myself to coffee, a waffle and bacon.  I came back to my room and went to sleep for a couple of hours.

Now this morning, I couldn't sleep anymore so I was baking cookies around 9.  Just as I was about to slip the first batch into the oven, the fire alarm went off again.  I panicked slightly that it was my fault.  It was not, but I was so annoyed by it all over again.  I appreciate that Stony Brook's alarms are indeed working, but this was ridiculous!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks of butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

One, make sure your butter is really softened.  I don't know what I was thinking this morning when I just took mine out of the fridge and went at it.  I was impatient?  (Another note: at home, I follow a recipe from this very old and battered Betty Crocker Kids Baking Book which uses half butter and half shortening.)

Cream together the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla in one mixing bowl.  Of course, my not-soft-butter took extra coaxing.  It's a good thing I hadn't done an arm workout in a while.

Cold butter.  No bueno.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.

I have whole wheat flour only because it comes in smaller bags.
I get scared I won't use it all.

Slowly start to incorporate the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  Add as many chocolate chips as you wish.  I used chocolate chunks to be cool.

And eat!  Just kidding, bake if you wish.

Place spoonfuls of the dough onto an ungreased baking sheet and pop them into the oven for about ten minutes.  The bottoms should look firm and browned.  Transfer to a college style cooling rack.

And this is when the fire alarm will go off.

Yum and hooray!  You weren't the one to set off the fire alarms, hopefully.  I'm taking this to tour guiding tomorrow.  We give two tours a day, and we're all always starving after the first so I'll be bringing sustenance again.

Let's remember our patience, and let them cool.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

So what do you do to use up egg substitute that expires soon?  You make Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins for your tour guide training in the morning!  (I don't have a good reason for having egg substitute instead of real eggs.)

Also, this a great way to procrastinate on reading for class or doing your laundry!  Actually, someone else's clothing is in the washing machines, and I'm not the type of person to dump out their laundry onto the floor.

Onto the muffin making!  Warning: This recipe makes a lot of muffins!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

My bowl looks really shiny, right?

1 box lemon cake mix
1 package lemon instant pudding
1 c. boiling water
1/2 c. oil
1 t. vanilla
4 eggs
1/3 c. poppy seeds

I wish this recipe were easier, but you'll just have to get through it.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.




Now you dump everything in the bowl.

Interesting start to a muffin batter...

Then, you mix and that's it!  My batter took some beating because I may or may not have had the lemon pudding since I last made these in...I want to say January...Does instant pudding expire?  I don't believe so, and it's also too late for me to check the box because it is now in the paper recycle bin.

Nice looking batter!

After your batter looks wonderful, portion it into your greased muffin tin.  (Is it a tin or pan?)  I filled mine about halfway, and I would guess that I have the normal sized muffin tin.  It doesn't make gigantic muffins but not mini ones either.

I baked mine for about 15 minutes or until they receive the toothpick test seal of approval.  (The toothpick test is when you stick a toothpick into a muffin and if it comes out clean, they are done.  If not keep them in the oven a little longer.)

If you're making really big muffins, bake them longer, and do the opposite for mini muffins.

Make sure to cool the muffins once they're done for a while in the pan before removing them.  After a while, transfer them to a cooling rack (a.k.a. plastic plates).

If you're like me and only have one muffin tin, you'll need to grease up the pan and do it all over again until you don't have any batter left.

You've now made super, simple muffins!

Oops!  Looks like one is missing...

Some tips:

To boil water without a tea kettle or pot, microwave it in your measuring cup!

If you don't have a toothpick, use a knife to test the muffins.

Don't leave your mess in the sink while the muffins are baking.  Your roommate will inevitably come in a need to use the sink.  You will be embarrassed but offer her a muffin later because she's working hard doing a lab report.

And tips on getting poppy seed out of your teeth would now be most appreciated!

Hello World!

Are you there Internet?  It's me Emily!


Well it's early summer, and while I might be taking summer classes here at Stony Brook University (Go Seawolves!) and giving tours of the campus, I've been getting bored.  So I shall give this blogging business a try and upload my cooking triumphs.  I will also include photos, recipes and tips.  


A little bit about me: I'm going to be a sophomore in the fall and am majoring in journalism.  This is one type of writing, right?  Anyway, I live in an apartment on campus and am cooking all my meals.  I'm a college gal with an appetite for writing and cooking.  So read please!  Oh, and I'd appreciate any feedback!  This includes grammar mistakes, because although I successfully passed the grammar course here, I'm prone to mistakes anyway.

These babies smelled up the apartment with peanut butter goodness!

And with that I am uploading photos of the peanut butter cookies I made this afternoon.


Oh, and I do not claim to be using original recipes!  I learned a lot about cooking from my mom and dad (both of whom are great little chefs themselves), but I also use the Internet to find recipes.


Peanut Butter Cookies


1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. white sugar
1 c. light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c. peanut butter
1 t. vanilla extract


2 1/2 c. flour
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda


Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.


First, I creamed together the butter and sugars in a bowl.  Let me tell you, growing up I always used my mom's Kitchen Aid stand mixer so now being without, baking requires some serious arm muscles.  To prevent baker's arm (when one arm becomes bigger than the other because you always use the dominant one to mix things), switch arms.  You will make a mess, but you will clean it up before your roommates notice.


So you've done the creaming, now keep mixing and add the eggs, peanut butter and vanilla.  I'll be honest now, I never measure vanilla.  I just dump.


Next, take a separate bowl and mix together your dry ingredients.  I know you always read or hear about sifting your flour, but as a college gal, I have limited space and limited utensils.


Combine your wet and dry ingredients.  If you are using a mixer and not your own brute strength, be sure to add the dry ingredients slowly.  No need for huge messes, only small ones.


Hopefully everything looks wonderful and incorporated by now.  I used a spoon to portion the dough onto my ungreased cookie sheets.  To create the fun and classic design on top, use a fork to make indentations into the dough balls.  Send your cookies into the oven for about 12 minutes or until they look done.  I don't have a clever saying like "golden brown" because they're peanut butter cookies.  They go in brown and come out brown.

Seriously, don't you want to try these now?!

Once, you've taken your cookies out, you need to let them cool.  Transfer to a cooling rack, or in my case, a couple of your plastic dinner plates.  Patience is needed so you don't burn your mouth because you are so excited.


Hope you like!  Better photos and recipes and humorous banter to come!