Amy Ruth

Early in the morning, or late at night when you still have lots to do, you might just need a kick in the head as some of the old crooners sang.  Now Michael Buble and a whole host of Michael “wanna-be’s” are singing, “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head?”   I spent 10 or 15 minutes on YouTube watching/listening to videos while the muffins were baking away.

These muffins are really called Coffee-Break Muffins and the recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s, Baking From My Home to Yours. I have baked with Tuesdays With Dorie, intermittently for a while now.  I have to say there is a lot positive, like new recipe favorites, lessons learned, new friends both locally and on the internet and of course more incentives to exercise a little more diligently,  hehe . That being said, the list of ingredients contain both coffee (yes, the kind from your coffee pot) and instant espresso powder.  The idea is for us coffee lovers to have just one more reason to love coffee because we can have them in our muffins.  There you have it!

Just take a little trip over to  Chocoholics Anonymous and it will net you the recipe for these quick little muffins.  It only takes some left over coffee and a handful of other ingredients, and “snap” you have yourself a great little “pick me up.”  Thanks Rhiani for choosing a simple recipe this week for TWD.

Thank you for stopping by.  If you have your coffee cup in hand….. I have a muffin to share.  :”)

Just a side note:  Corbin, the last of the Schleider kids at home, has been spoon feeding me this whole blog thing and teaching me to use Aperture and FileZilla and Photoshop.  Oh My….yawn.  Its late and we giggled as he took me through, step by aching little step.  Bless his patient little almost 17 year old heart.  Thanks Corbin!  You are the best!  (Its about time I learn, huh?)

Either way…. small batch baking is way better than anything else. Do you agree?

Typically, I open a book and discover a recipe that sounds good or if there is a photo, challenges me to make it as perfectly as the photo depicts. What is that? Its not all about the taste, some say. I guess its the same with personal attraction. Usually there is a quality seen with the naked eye that initially stirs your tastebuds.

I made a couple of selections from Sherry Yard’s, Desserts by the Yard. One is the Campton Place Coffee Cake and the second is her version of a Traditional English Scone with chocolate chips. You’ll find the recipes by clicking on the highlighted names and the magic of google.  You can even see Sherry’s beautiful photo of her cake from the book, baked in a Kugelhopf mold.  Quite impressive.  On the other hand my photos are courtesy of my iphone.  :”)  Shucks!

Campton Place Coffee Cake & Traditional English with Chocolate Chip Scones

Campton Place Coffee Cake has the lovely brown and granulated sugars, cinnamon, cocoa and fresh chopped peaches for the filling.  At first taste I believe I have decided to increase slightly the amount of peaches and also use Saigon Cinnamon in the filling for just a little more punch in the flavors.  A lovely sour cream coffee cake with a wonderful moist texture and surprise in the middle.

As for the Traditional English Scones with Chocolate Chip, in case you’re asking, they are very nice.  I am not a scones expert, however I do make a mean biscuit so all in all I really like these.  Sherry describes her Traditional English Scones as being less sweet than typical American scones.  They contain only 1/4 cup of sugar which is nice.  Sugar can always be sprinkled on top before baking or your favorite fruit jam would make a nice accompaniment. I kind of like that idea as well.  Chocolate and fruit jam is not all bad.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have had a lovely weekend.  We are at the middle of September….how did that happen?

Tender, by definition is having a soft or yielding texture : easily broken, cut, or damaged, that is true if you are able to restrain yourself from mixing the dry niblets completely. I know you might think it’s not finished or complete.    You might even think I have to stop stirring now…. as you round the bowl just one more time.  Don’t beat yourself up, its just baking and you can always really listen to that little voice in your head the next time around.  The “less is more” theory does in fact really work here.  Try it, you’ll be amazed.  I dare you.

Pie crust, shortcakes, biscuits, well I think they deserve to be among the morsels falling into the “tender” category.  I like them that way.

So Cathy, of The Tortefeasor,  thank you for choosing the best simple dessert of the season. Basic ingredients standing in as the canvas for beautiful summer berries.  Its perfect for summer.  (smiling)  I love that you got lucky that way, a recipe still lurking around in Baking From My Home to Yours. You constantly amaze me with the level of activity you have in your life with little people, a career and yet you have time to squeeze in wonderful food for your family and blog about it.  Go Cathy!!!  YAY for all the Tuesdays With Dorie bakers!

Today, I mixed up these tender little cakes.  I baked off a couple for photographs just for you.  Maybe a bite or two for me.  After all I do need to report to you that yes, they are worth the calories. Okay, more than a bite or two.  These were perfect for sumptuous strawberries and blueberries.    You should master this practical little shortcake because you can also make up the dough, plop them onto a pan, put them in the freezer for a medium sized snooze ( up to a couple of months) and pull them  for a delightful dessert later.  How perfectly simple.

My apologies for the lack of photos.  So excited was I when, ahead of time folks, ( me, the procrastinator) I wrote my post along with mixing up the summer simple recipe, ( I knew it would be a good recipe) even photographed my half recipe. I froze  the remaining litle gems.  Then as I attempted to download my photos, the hitch of the day.   Ah shucks!   I have a camera who is not getting along with my “old girl” MacBook.  Hmm, maybe if Corbin waves his magic wand he can get the photos downloaded.  Perhaps a new computer?  hehe

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoy your shortcakes too.

Once again, Corbin is my hero.    He bailed me out.  My tech guru… Now, a photo is posted.

Have you ever thought that you might be just scratching the surface when it comes to the possibilities? Okay, I know its corny, but seriously, we live in America where, at least today, so far, there are so many  opportunities and possibilities.
I know, boring, no pictures. Well, maybe I can dig up a few to entertain and lure you into spending a few minutes to read, all one or two of you. hehe

Its been a while. Balance….an interesting concept. You see I struggle with it. I feel selfish spending time writing  talking and doing this blogging thing.  Not only that, living with particular culinary preferences, caloric intakes, all buzz words for, “I don’t like that,” or  possibly just “too many carbs.”  Ah yes, the dreaded carb excuse for not living your life to the fullest (just an opinion).  I have to admit that it thrills me, to just for a moment, tempt my husband with something totally delicious that I have made.    Watching him enjoy and swoon while tasting a delicious morsel is so fun.  Three years ago he lost a significant amount of weight.  He continues to maintain with lots of exercise and some culinary trade offs.  Just trading good stuff for what?  A few crackers from the pantry or out of a box of cereal?  Ah Shucks people!  Seriously, he is pretty diligent about his food for the most part.  I admire and respect.  I am very blessed with a different metabolism, or set of genes I guess.  Whichever, I’m pretty fortunate to only have to deal with a handful of pounds from time to time.

The Hit List

What do you do with a stress fracture?  Well, you get off the couch and “jump” in the pool?  Not so much jump, but maybe if your friend teaches water aerobics  (why, Oh Academia, is aerobics spelled A-”E”-ROBICS?) you might consider burning some of those calories moving around in the water.  Or, I suppose if you like sitting on a spinning bike, which makes me sore, you could burn some calories that way too.

All that was brought on while training and running a 1/2 marathon in Nashville in late April, the Rock and Roll Marathon.  Wow, I have never  run that far.  Don’t laugh all you running geeks.  I know, you think I’m a baby but it was a thrill and I can’t wait to do it again.  I ran it with my daughter and a neighbor, who, by the way was the catalyst for this whole adventure.  I love her for that.  Anyway, it was the thrill of a lifetime, and we both have already registered for next year.   I could chatter on and on but I won’t bore you.

Here we are a week later on a birthday present to Mexico.  Our other, “wanna-be” home away from home.  How lucky am I to get to go to Playa del Carmen with my sweet husband for my birthday?  I got to begin my post race recoop in Mexico.  Yes, Way!  Weather was beautiful,  and “look” no spring breakers.  We were  previously there  with the fam for spring break.   How cool.  We rarely ever travel without the kids.  This was a real grown-ups trip.  Just the twos of us.  Great food, the sun and the sand.  Who knew  second quarter bonus could be so nice?  he he

Another bit of excitement in my otherwise “normal” life.  I began a part-time position in a grocery store bakery.  Currently, baking smaller batches from scratch.  Let’s just  say there is  a difference in the bakery and baked from home with tender loving care.  I guess I just underestimated the different methods of production.  My husband has always been complimentary and reinforced the difference in a home baked item versus from a bakery, any bakery.  ”Amy,” he would say, “you don’t realize how much better it is baked from  home.”  So see, Dorie is right on the money.  From Her Home to ours.    I am  so thrilled to share what I have learned over the years from wonderful bakers and authors like Dorie.  I now am able to share it with my community on a limited basis through my workplace.  We are cooking up some other ideas to market to the shoppers that we hope they love. Its been fun so far and I am hopeful that it continues to be a good trade off for them and for me.  There is some chatter of some classes to be taught and some customer service to the shoppers.  A total foodie thing, I guess.  he he  I’m pretty excited…. work and fun.  How great is that?

Graduation time comes and I usually get to make desserts for a party of two.  This year, I had the pleasure of catering the entire menu for a friend whose daughter is graduating high school.  My daughter and my son Corbin, the photographer person in my life helped me, along with a great friend from the gym, Liz.   Yep, one of my gym rat friends.  Neat huh?  Well, that has kept me busy.

So, my friends…. my list of excuses for not blogging.

Then there is summer…. and blogging and working.    Journaling like this on the net is kind of scary to me.    Is it to you?   However, what makes me think anyone cares anyway, right?  Chattering to the  abyss.  All one of us.  Still I marvel at how much insight and sharing actually one can read on the net/blogs.

Are you bored yet?  Surely, by now you’ve thought to yourself “What is the point of all of this chatter?’ that is if you have made it this far.  Here it is….. I am a sometimes baker/blogger with the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group.  I have remained in the group for sometime.  Without all the fanfare and just trying to keep the nose on my face a little above the water.  If you know what I mean.  Now with all the new activity, like a job, which I haven’t had in a lot of years, I am going to actually be one of those people who picks a recipe.  This month, or actually the month of June.  I will actually get to be a busy body visiting as many blogs as humanly possible thanking them for baking along with me whilst I have my ownself, baked and blogged about a selected recipe from the book, Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.

Thank you for reading, if you have.   I’ve enjoyed the therapy. That’s what it is, right?

Please visit me again.

Oh yes, and then there is the wonderful cookie like sweet tart crust, cradling the combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate, reforming any purist chocolate lover.  You probably wouldn’t even detect the milk chocolate rounding up the sweetness and nice little red pop of the raspberries.  A quick go- to, put together, simple tart.  It requires few ingredients and steps.  I can’t wait to hear  from my friends who will be eating this selection.  This recipe was chosen by  Rachelle of Mommy?  I’m Hungry! I believe she was encouraged by her husband to make this her choice of recipes or…. was it Rachelle? Either way, I thought it was nice and easy.

If you are curious about those cute little cookies around the sides of the Soft Chocolate Raspberry Tart? They are Thumbprints For Us Big Guys, rounded up by Mike of Ugly Food Dude, and both recipes came from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The next time you are thinking holiday baking, these little cookies are  great on cookies trays.  Plan on keeping that recipe close to your heart.  They are tasty little bites.

Most assuredly there will be some interesting chatter about these desserts on the Tuesdays With Dorie blog roll so travel around and make some new friends.  Thank you very much for stopping by for a visit.