Chocolate chip banana nut muffins

Yum! I modified a banana bread recipe from allrecipes.com and made muffins this morning. They turned out fantastic!Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins
Makes 16 muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 mashed overripe bananas
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir flour, baking soda and salt into wet mixture; stir just to moisten. Stir in chips and nuts. Pour batter into muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick is clean after being inserted into the center of a muffin.

Lemon herb roasted fingerling potatoes

We don't actually celebrate easter, a tradition which will likely change with the addition of a child, but that doesn't keep us from using it as an excuse to have a tasty meal! For Sunday dinner, I made a slow roasted chicken, roasted asparagus, and lemon herb roasted fingerling potatoes (hmmm seems roasting everything was in the cards).
Lemon Herb Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
1.5 lbs mixed fingerling potatoes, washed and sliced in half lengthwise
juice of one lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp (2 cloves) crushed garlic
2 tbsp chopped italian parsley
1 minced shallot
1 tsp kosher salt
cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Combine all ingredients but potatoes in a large bowl. Stir well. Add potatoes to bowl and toss to coat. Spread potatoes on cooking sheet and roast in bottom half of oven for 10 minutes. Flip potatoes and roast 10-12 minutes more.

Blog-iversary Chicken and Black Bean Empanadas

It's pretty hard to believe a year has already passed since I began this blog. Though I haven't been writing much here lately, I'm still trying to keep up with most of the blogs in my reader. It's been difficult. Hell, as I write this, I'm rocking my three week old with my foot. I've become quite the multitasker. Yesterday, however, I came across a post for empanadas over at Thursday Night Smackdown that captured my attention. With my multitasking abilities increasingly improving, I set out to make some empanadas. Nevermind that I spread it across 3 naptimes and it basically took me all day with clean up. Making empanadas was a first for me. I had leftover shredded chicken and black beans from tacos the night before so all I really had to worry about making was the crust. These were great.
Chicken and Black Bean Empanadas (Dough recipe taken verbatim from Michelle at TNS)
Makes 14 empanadas (7 servings)
Ingredients:
For the filling:
1 1/2 cups shredded seasoned chicken
1 6 oz can black olives chopped
1/2 can black beans, drained and seasoned
1 cup shredded cheese (your choice)

For the dough:
3 c. AP flour
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter
1 egg
1 tbsp. white vinegar
up to 1/3 c. ice water
pinch of salt

Directions:
Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Don't be like me and forget the cheese. Can you believe I forgot the CHEESE???? This is what multitasking does to you!

This is easiest to make in a Food Processor or stand mixer, but you can also use a pastry cutter, 2 forks or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour.

For the Food Processor version, put the flour, butter, egg and salt into the Food Processor and pulse until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is pea-sized. Add the vinegar and 2-3 tablespoons of water, pulse a few more times. Keep adding ice water and pulsing until the dough just starts to pull together - you don’t want so much water that you end up with one big, wet dough ball. Dump the dough out onto your work surface and briefly knead/mush it around until it comes together. Flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat your over to 425.

Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick and cut out rounds the size of your choice. Add a spoonful of filling to the center of each round, moisten the edges with water and fold the rounds in half.
Crimp the edges closed with a fork to seal. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
Allow to cool a few minutes before eating.

"Get Induced" Chocolate Chip Scones

On the morning of Friday, March 13th, I decided to make a recipe for chocolate chip scones that my dear friend Vicky shared with me. This recipe is incredibly easy and sooooo chocolatey and satisfying. I did manage to snap some photos, but somehow those got lost in the shuffle of baby photos. While eating these scones for breakfast, I got the call from my OB/GYN office to come in to discuss some test results. The appointment resulted in them wanting me to be induced and so the epic 3 day saga of my labor began.

It all began with these scones. Enjoy. And big thanks to Vicky for the recipe.

"Get Induced" Chocolate Chip Scones
Makes 8 large scones
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar + 2tsp sugar
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg, separated
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter until it's small crumbs. Add chocolate chips. Mix egg yolk and milk together then add to dry ingredients. Mix with fork.
Plop whatever size you want onto a baking sheet. Bake until slightly golden about 20 minutes.