I have discovered something amazing.

UH-MAY-ZING!

Lemon Zested Sugar.

If y’all knew about this and didn’t share this with me… I think our relationship might be somewhat fractured .

When Tina announced that April’s Crazy Cooking Challenge was Blueberry Muffins, I knew that I wanted something different, something more, something tonguegasmic.

Maria is one of my favorite bloggers and I remembered bookmarking a muffin recipe of hers from last year, so I dove into my bookmarks (oh-dear-pinterest-I-am-so-grateful-for-you-now) and once I found it, I remembered why I had bookmarked it:

1) I’ve never used ricotta before

b) her photography is beyond amazing

c) Lemon Ricotta Blackberry Muffins – need I say more?

I adapted them just a teensy weensy bit by using blueberries instead of blackberries

Maria’s recipe needs no adaptation – it’s brilliant and perfect and wonderful as is.

But.

I’ve never had blueberries and lemon together in a muffin before…

I can promise y’all right now.  This combination will be happening again.

Oh yes.  Yes, it will.

It’s from Maria that I learned about the Lemon Zest and Sugar trick – it’s honestly recipe-life changing – I’m going to re-make my Blackberry Lemon Coffee Cake using this trick – it subtly, but powerfully enhances the flavor of lemon in a brilliant way.

Okay — done raving about Maria (for now)

Back to the Crazy Cooking Challenge

• I whisked together all the dry ingredients:  flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In another bowl:  cream together, lemon sugar and butter.
• Add in ricotta cheese (hello baking first!) and beat until smooth
• Beat in egg, fresh squeezed lemon juice and vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract – it’s a 1:1)

Once the wet ingredients are combined and smooth, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just blended.

• Line muffin tins with paper liners or spray with baking spray
• Use an ice cream scoop or spoon to fill the muffin tins, press 3 to 5 blueberries (depending on size of the berries) into the batter and then swirl the batter with your finger (or a spoon, if you don’t like gettin’ your fingers dirty)
• Top with turbinado sugar.  Maria suggests a sprinkle – I don’t think what I did qualifies as a sprinkle…

But it definitely  made for divinely crunchy topped muffins.

Need more blueberry muffin inspiration?
Check out the other CCC participants:

I love grapefruit.

Seriously, y’all.

Grapefruits, to me, are the perfect citrus – tangy, slightly bitter, somewhat sour with just a hint of sweet.  Just writing about them right now has my mouth watering.

NOM.

A few months ago, Maria (one of my favorite food bloggers) wrote a post about Broiled Grapefruit, I was intrigued.  I pinned it and forgot about it.

A few days ago, I was browsing my pinterest boards and came across that pin – I jumped off the couch, grabbed a knife, cut into a couple of grapefruits, used a grapefruit spoon to loosen the fruit from the skin and drizzled them with honey, brown sugar and cinnamon.

I turned my broiler on HI and put my dish with the grapefruit in the oven – in retrospect, I should have moved my oven rack up one level so the caramelization would have been more intense.

I left the grapefruit in the oven for about 7 minutes, plenty of time for the sugars to caramelize.

Y’all.

Y’ALL.

{swoon}

I’m loving this deliciousness – it’s warm and sweet, and tangy and just… YUM.

Seriously, y’all – even if you’re in the anti-grapefruit camp, I think y’all should give this a try.  It takes grapefruit to a whole new level of delicious.

So yummy!

Thank y’all so much for linking up every Monday and sharing the yummies that come from your kitchens!

Make sure y’all take the time to visit each other, pin some of your favorite recipes, link back here, comment and share the love!

Here are a few of my favorites from last week’s link up

• Chocolate Bourbon Banana Bread
• Black Bean Soup with Cumin and Jalapeno
• Rainbow Cake in A Jar with Cloud Frosting
• Caramel Coconut Kiss Cookies
• Dreamy Lemon Ice Cream

Dear Ones,

I’d like y’all to say hello to someone.

It’s time y’all say Hello to a new kind of Breakfast Dish – That little beauty dripping with caramelized sugars and pecans is White Lily Flour’s Caramel Pecan Biscuit Bake

Would y’all like another introduction?

You’re welcome.

This isn’t your typical Breakfast Bake, it doesn’t have a cake base – this little beauty has a Southern Biscuit base made with White Lily’s Self Rising Flour

This recipe intrigued me.

White Lily Flour is the ONLY flour that my Dad uses to make his Beaten Biscuits – a Southern delicacy unlike any other.

However.  HOWEVER.

Biscuits at breakfast, not something unusual in the South.  However… biscuits in the South not topped with gravy, biscuits in the south not stuffed with Country Ham or slathered with homemade jam …. what is this Southern blasphemy you speak of? {wink, wink}
Well let me tell y’all, my biscuits and gravy loving’ Southern husband – devoured two pieces of this and declared it ‘damn good’.

Monkey and Princess both had two pieces and when I came back to cover the baking dish after breakfast, it was fairly evident some little fingers had been helping themselves to more.

This dish is messy and gooey and crunchy and sweet and downright yummy. The biscuit base is a bit of a surprise if you’re expecting a sweet cake style base, and I have to admit – we really liked it.

This recipe today is in conjunction with a giveaway that I partnered with White Lily flour to bring y’all.  I have received product compensation for my time and talents.

Stay Tuned!  I have a Giveaway that involves White Lily Flour – a Cuisinart Hand Mixer – and yumminess on Thursday! Make sure that you’re a subscriber to my blog and following me on Twitter so you don’t miss out!

Favorites From Last Week

• Amy’s Roasted Shrimp with Rosemary and Thyme
• Elsa’s Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Cranberries and Balsamic Reduction
• Mary’s Cake Batter Bark
• Michelle’s Tomato Avocado Salad

Thank y’all for linking up every Monday and sharing the fun of Mouthwatering Mondays with others through your comments, linking back in your posts and visiting each other! Can’t wait to see what y’all have in store for us this week!

Tis the season for pumpkin.
Tis the season for ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice also known as.. pumpkin pie spice

Tis the season for Secret Recipe Club, y’all — I am so adoring this Secret Recipe Club thing.  Between the recipes, the new blog discoveries and the drooling over possibilities – it is seriously too much fun.

This month I was assigned The Daily Dish blog.

Y’all – I spent so much time on Nicole’s site.  She has delicious recipes, engaging content and she’s super savvy.  She wasn’t satisfied with the existing Food Blog Search – so she created her own Food Blog Recipe Search Engine!  How fantastic is that?

The very first recipe that caught my eye was her Funnel Cake Recipe, but I couldn’t quite muster up the desire to make funnel cake.  Now, if BurghBaby were my neighbor, I’d make funnel cakes weekly just to get her to come over.

Then, I saw the mini Pumpkin Pie Spice Doughnut Muffins and they sang their wicked swan song and I was done.  I knew that this was the recipe that I had to make for this month’s Secret Recipe Club challenge.

Pumpkin, Sugar, Turbinado, Buttermilk, Flour, Pumpkin Pie Spice and more… these are thick and dense and cakey. They are more doughnut than muffin, and yet their mini size is biteable and poppable and absolutely decadently delectably yummy.

Sift flour and measure out 3 1/2 C, add in pumpkin pie spice and baking soda and baking powder
Cream together shortening, sugar and eggs.

When that’s well blended, add in the pumpkin.

Slowly add the buttermilk and dry ingredients together, alternately – mixing well between each addition.

this photo doesn’t have any reason to be here other than I just like it and wanted to put it here

This is a thick batter, I used my cookie dough scoop to place it in my mini muffin tins.

You have 3 alternatives here:

1. top with turbinado sugar prior to baking
2. top with a blend of turbinado and pumpkin pie spice prior to baking
3. dip the warm freshly baked muffins in melted butter and roll in turbinado sugar after baking

For Nicole’s original recipe – Click Here

Each recipe must fit these requirements: 10 ingredients or less, can be made in under 45 minutes and feed a family of 4. This is all to help give y’all new ideas for great back to school dinners. By the end of this challenge, y’all will have 32 new recipes to choose from! Every day during this challenge you have the opportunity to vote on the Meal Maker Back to School challenge Facebook page for your favorite blogger. The top 2 voted bloggers will get to go head to head in a live cook off challenge in San Antonio on August 28th at H-E-B!! The cook-off will be presided over by George Duran!

This week’s H-E-B in store Combo Loco Deal (Aug 17th to 30th) is Buy Egg Beaters (15-16 oz) and get H-E-B Muesli (13.5 oz) free with in store coupon.

Thus, this week’s Secret Ingredient Recipe Challenge was Egg Beaters. I’ve seen Egg Beaters in the store for a while, but never bought them. This gave me the perfect excuse.

I decided to make my favorite quick and easy egg dish (besides Migas), baked mini Egg *muffins*. Egg Beaters are perfect for these!

I cooked up 2 slices of bacon and 2 oz of hot sausage to add to my dish, pulled out my bag of mixed cheese and went to town.

I sprayed my mini muffin tin with PAM, filled 12 cups 3/4 full with regular Egg Beaters into which I crumbled up the bacon and topped with a sprinkle of cheese and a couple passes with my pepper grinder; the other 12 cups I filled 3/4 full with Southwestern Style Egg beaters and then put some crumbled hot sausage and cheese and again, a few passes with my pepper grinder.

Bake for about 13 minutes in a 375 F oven

While the Mini Egg *muffins* were baking, I sliced up oranges, cooked some more bacon and toasted some whole grain bread.

Once the Egg cups were ready I plated the meal and set it on the table, as I was plating a dish for photographing (my family is so patient)

I heard; “Mom, look at me”

As I turned back to my dish, giggling, I saw this:

They are working TOGETHER against me, y’all –

I’m so proud

This meal came together easily in under 30 minutes and was delicious, I love the mini egg *muffins* because they’re the perfect size for little hands and mouths.

I usually add onions, garlic, peppers and spices to mine and Nathan’s eggs so the Southwestern Style Egg Beaters were absolutely perfect and much faster than me doing it all myself.

The kids LOVED their bacon, egg, cheese muffins – my daughter is excited to try making her own scrambled eggs with no eggshells in them with the original Egg Beaters, and when I told them they could even use them to make their favorite bacon and egg tacos — oooh buddy, you’d have thought I told them they won the lottery

These also make wonderful and quick treats to take for a Teacher Appreciation or Back To School Breakfast; these are easy to grab and eat on the go for those busy teachers!

So don’t forget:

In Store Combo-Loco Deals Good until August 30th:

• Buy Hebrew National Franks (11-12 oz) and get PAM for the Grill (5-6 oz) and Hunt’s Ketchup (24 oz) Free with in-store coupon
• Buy Egg Beaters (15-16 oz) and get H-E-B Muesli (13.5 oz) free with in-store coupon (starts Aug 17th)

ONLINE Combo Loco Deals

• Buy two (2) Marie Callender’s (8.5 – 21 oz), get Kid Cuisine (7 – 10 oz) free with online coupon (good until August 30th)
• Buy Ro*Tel (28 oz), get Wolf Brand Chili (19 oz) free with online coupon (good until August 23rd)
• Buy Minute Maid Juice Box, get Chef Micro Bowl (7.25 oz – 7.5 oz) free with online coupon (August 17th to August 30th)

If you’d be so kind – take a moment and go vote for me on the Meal Maker Challenge page

For my part in this Meal Maker Challenge, I am being compensated and have received some products (some of which you can win – more about that later) All opinions, recipes, thoughts and ramblings are completely my own.

[donotprint] My family and I love Bran Muffins.   I grew up eating them and now my kids are growing up eating them.

They’re filling, healthy and chock full of delicious fiber goodness.

While I was browsing my recipe pantry this past weekend I found this recipe card written by my Granny

So, this past weekend, we made some Raisin Bran Muffins — with a bit of a twist — a bit of a modification on Granny’s recipe.

We added cinnamon and craisins

and these muffins flew off my cooling racks!

I don’t have the usual step by steps because I was wrangling two very eager helpers

[/donotprint]

[print_link]

[donotprint]
Happy Mouthwatering Monday, y’all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day and Weekend.
Don’t forget to link up your recipe, leave a comment, visit others and link back here so others can find the tonguegasmic fun, too!
Can’t wait to see what y’all are cookin’ up this week!
Here are a few of my favorites from last week’s linky:

• Homemade Flour Tortillas
• Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
• Margarita Cupcakes
• Strawberries and Cream Scones

Want the recipe and more pictures?

Go check out my guest post on Karly’s blog today

I think that my kids’ favorite meal is breakfast.
Pancakes, cereal, eggs, bacon, biscuits, sausage, fruit cups — you name it, they love it.  They’d eat breakfast for every single meal which makes brinner a giant winner at our house (see what I did there — I rhymed)

One of my family’s favorite treats is Monkey Bread; I adore Monkey Bread, the butter, the caramelization, the crisp sugar, the soft dough — good gracious, I’m making myself hungry.

Y’all may not realize that you know Monkey bread– it is also  known as pull apart bread and then there’s the version my mom makes with a package of caramel pudding mix — baked caramel ring. YUM.

Chances are, if you’ve stayed at my house more than once, I’ve made monkey bread and bacon and fruit and mimosas for you for breakfast.

In my eyes, there’s pretty much nothing wrong with monkey bread — except how long traditional monkey bread takes to bake!!!  It can take 40 minutes or more! I am a bit impatient when I’m hungry (do y’all feel me?) So, I decided that there simply MUST be an easier and faster way to make monkey bread.

As it turns out, there is, and — I do believe that I’ve come up with a faster, prettier and I think even tastier version of the giant bundt cake ring version.

These tonguegasmic little individual monkey breads are not only delicious, they’re cute and they make for such a yummy and pretty photograph.

One of the best things about Monkey Bread is that it’s crazy easy to make, requires very few ingredients and it’s kid friendly.

My kids love to shake the dough bites in the sugar and cinnamon — seriously, this can keep them busy for 10 minutes!

Here’s the breakdown: Take 2 cans of 10 count buttermilk biscuits, cut each biscuit into quarters and shake in a bag with 2 C sugar and 2 Tbsp cinnamon, once each quarter of dough is fully covered, put 6 or so dough bites into each muffin cup

Melt 2 sticks of butter, 2 Tbsp vanilla and 1/2 C of brown sugar together, stirring frequently until completely melted and the sugar is dissolved and it’s a golden brown color

Pour into the cups over the cinnamon sugar covered dough bites, you don’t want to completely fill the cups to the top — just about 3/4 of the way

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, remove from the oven and turn them out onto a platter — serve them up in cute little ramekins or whatever decorative dishes you have on hand.

See how adorable these are!!!  And I promise, they’re 100 times more delicious than they are adorable

So here y’all are — the adorable, delicious, tonguegasmic individual Monkey Bread recipe.  Make these for Christmas morning, birthdays, just because the day ends in Y — whatever, just make these!  Everyone will thank you! [/donotprint]

Hey y’all! Well, we’re more than halfway through our Handmade Holiday July Extravaganza! I hope that y’all are as inspired as I am! Don’t forget that while all the baking yumminess is found over here, Kelly is hosting some simply inspirational non-sewing crafty gift ideas and Cindy has some truly inspired sewing gift ideas!

Today’s featured Baker is the AMAZING Jamie from My Baking Addiction

The shredded zucchini imparts a moist and almost creamy texture, while the addition of whole wheat flour adds just the right amount of nuttiness. The fresh blueberries end up bursting in your mouth and make the bread taste really fresh and wholesome. Plus, I think the opportunities to healthify this recipe are awesome–think toasted nuts, wheat germ, apple sauce…oh the possibilities. If you make this and adapt it, definitely come back here and let us know your result!

This particular Blueberry Zucchini bread is not overly sweet, so you can definitely experiment with the amount of sugars to appeal to your taste buds; personally, I liked this quality of the bread. I sprinkled a little bit of oatmeal and coarse sugar on the top for visual appeal added texture. This bread was awesome toasted and spread with a bit of butter–perfect for breakfast with a cup of hot tea!

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar; lightly packed
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8.5 x 4.5 loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugars. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake 55-65 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Notes
-No whole wheat flour? Simply sub in the all-purpose flour.
-No brown sugar? Simply sub in white sugar.
-No loaf pan? Make muffins–note the cooking time will be shorter if making muffins.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meet Jamie
Middle School teacher by day, passionate food blogger by night, Jamie from My Baking Addiction has seen her part-time passion grown into a baking blog phenomenon. With sharp visuals, cozy writing, and more than 3,000 subscribing readers, Jamie’s site is poised to become one of the most popular food sites in the blogosphere. She currently resides in Ohio with her fiance and two pups.

[donotprint]

Homemade Granola, delicious crunchy, sweet, crispy and fruity.

I remember eating granola as a kid; my mom made the most amazing granola.

Doused in chilled milk or snatched from a bag in my tiny fist, my mom’s granola was better than any boxed version.

As an adult and admitted food and recipe obsessed person, it’s somewhat embarrassing to admit that homemade granola is one thing I’ve never tackled. (until now

One of my favorite go-to recipe blogs, fellow redhead and all around favorite people ever, Heather of Home Ec-101, posted the Easiest Homemade Granola Ever recipe and I must admit, I was inspired.

Y’all know me though, I can’t leave a recipe alone; I am compelled to tweak and twiddle and mess with every recipe that I come across.

I now have what I believe to be the MOST amazingly delicious homemade granola recipe ever.

Mixing the ingredients for this ridiculously easy, filling and delicious granola takes less than 5 minutes, baking it to crispy, golden heavenly perfection takes about an hour to an hour and a half.

Mix Oats, coconut, walnuts and almonds* together in your largest mixing bowl

Top with your binding mixture of honey, vegetable oil, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon and applesauce

Mix together until all ingredients are perfectly blended.

Divide and place on two baking sheets (your cooking time will differ if your baking sheets are dark or light)

Bake at 250 for 1 hour 20 minutes on light or 1 hour 10 minutes on dark non-stick, stir and mix every now and then, you want the granola to turn a lovely golden color, they will crisp up after they’re out of the oven. ( 20 minute intervals works well)

Remove from the oven, allow to cool.. add in dried cranberries, raisins, dried cherries (I would have added dried apples and nectarines if I’d had them)

This is amazing served in a bowl cereal style with ice cold milk

or by the handful.  It’s healthy, chock full of anti-oxidents and all that yumminess without the preservatives and cost of the store bought kind.

Seriously, $4ish dollars for less than a pound of store bought granola or $4 for 2 gallon size bags (if you make two batches like I did) chock full of homemade healthy granola[/donotprint]

[print_link]

thank y’all for linking up and for y’all’s patience with the print/recipe plug-in issues! I love seeing what y’all are making. Thank you so much for sharing! Don’t forget, link up your recipe URL, leave a comment, link back here in your post and don’t forget to visit the other participants!!!

psssssst: I’m nominated for the Tastiest Blog Award and I’d REALLY appreciate your votes! I’m up against some really major competition!

[/donotprint]