A few years back, The Orange County Register had one of the most horrendous advertising bloopers I’ve seen to date. There was this campaign called “Take Back the Morning,” which in itself was genius because it encouraged people to carve out some quiet morning time to read the newspaper. I can get behind that.

But then the message was paired with a whole broadsheet page dedicated to the words “GO AWAY” printed larger than any headline that’s ever run in the paper’s recent history. The idea was that a newspaper reader would be sitting in a chair with an open paper shielding him/her from view, with the back of the newspaper facing the rest of the world and telling it to “GO AWAY.” But instead of the morning distractions going away, I heard of a few cases where offended subscribers did instead. 

The idea was quickly whisked away and replaced by better and more successful ads. The “Take Back the Morning” message faded with it, but it shouldn’t have — I really think the advertisers had something there. Why don’t we take back our mornings from the rituals of rushing to work on time? Waking up a tad earlier on weekdays wouldn’t hurt, I think, especially if you filled your newfound time with some baking. Because then, not only would you be taking back your morning, but you’d also have something to take to work with you to remind you of the time you stole from the snooze button. (more…)

Being in a sour mood doesn’t always have to mean that you want to plant crossed arms in front of your chest or scrunch up your face and hold it there for as long as you can. Being in a sour mood can be a good thing.

Like when you’re in the mood for something sour, for example.

I for one am a big advocate for putting sour cream in quick breads like muffins, pancakes and coffee cake. Sour cream adds a moistness (fat! Yes!) and tang without even a mutter of its presence. If it’s added in the right quantity, you won’t even know it’s there. It’s ummph, and just because it’s pucker-worthy doesn’t mean it’s having a bad day.

(Click “Read the rest of this entry” for recipe)

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Macadamia nuts are tough little suckers.

I used to think they were one of the most overpriced nuts on the market. But after a fateful weekend, this girl has learned that she knows absolutely nothing and should keep her mouth shut.

It begins: Earlier this month, some friends and I stopped at the Ventura College flea market. While the market itself was nothing to crow about, the campus was: Macadamia nut trees – tens of them – lined the outside perimeter of the campus. With bags in tow, we began to collect as many unshelled mac nuts as we could. I was giddy with the delight of not having to pay through the nose for them, even contemplating making the two-hour drive monthly for my fix.

My first project would be a macadamia nut tart. How beautiful it would be, with a homemade crust and studded with uniform, chopped mac nuts. I’d serve it with vanilla or praline ice cream, we’d sit on the porch and shoot the breeze, or sit in silence, watching the ribbons of melted ice cream pooling alongside the warm tart.

Now, I had heard that macadamia nuts were hard to crack, but people say the same things about walnuts and almonds. I paid no heed.

Was I ever sorry. These things are serious. This was not a job for a steel nutcracker. This was a job for a steel military tank. I didn’t have access to the latter.

But, be damned, I was going to have my macadamia nut tart. So I explored my options.

A Google search revealed that I was in good company – a slew of sites and blogs featured different methods in which to crack macadamia nut shells open without smashing the nutmeat into smithereens. Vise grips. Roasting. Hammers. Putting them in the freezer. Wedging them into sidewalk cracks and pounding them open. (There was also, ironically, this blog post on a key that opens them, which is commercially sold with unshelled macadamia nuts. I’m jealous.) All of these methods seemed crazy, but according to these sites, they were the only way to get into them unless you had access to the Mauna Loa plant.

I tried one method of roasting them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes to dry out the shells. I’m not quite sure this made a difference, but it did release a buttery roasted nut smell that made me want to get into them even more. Since I didn’t have a vise grip/bench vise, I grabbed a hammer, a towel and a cutting board and set up shop in the middle of my living room. I chose a nut to sacrifice, raised my hammer high above my head and came down on it with such force that it shook the entire room. BOOM. I unwrapped the towel, and the nut was broken alright – but inside was a black, crumbly mass; moldy and inedible. What gives? Furious. I needed to take this outside.

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Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors. The following is a recipe I developed; one of my favorites, and the one I’m most proud of. The story (and the above photo that I took) ran in The Orange County Register this month. it can’t be found on the newspaper’s site, so I’ve posted it here. Enjoy!

Food 101: Pumpkin muffins, or cupcakes?
With this recipe, you can choose between the two, or make them both.

By CYNTHIA FUREY
Special to the Register

It’s a question for the ages: What’s the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? If you slather some frosting on a muffin, would that make it a cupcake, or does the difference lie in the general makeup of the baked good? To help answer this plaguing question, I asked Chef Melissa Simpson, baking guru and culinary instructor at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, what her opinion was on the matter.

“Generally, I would say there is little difference between cupcakes and muffins,” said Simpson. “Muffins generally use fruit, vegetables or nuts baked inside the batter. Cupcakes are iced and if filled may use ganache, mousse, or creams. Fruits and nuts may be used inside the filling or garnishes on the tops.”

It seems you can often interchange muffin and cupcake recipes as well. For example, coffee cake has a lighter texture than most cakes, and can double as a muffin if it goes sans frosting or icing. “Instead of icing, it might be topped by a crumble or swirled throughout with cinnamon sugar,” Simpson said. “Carrot cake is another prime example. It can be a muffin or cake, topped with nuts (for muffins) or cream cheese icing (for cakes).”

With these clarifications in mind, I went to work on developing a basic muffin recipe that is slightly less sweeter than most recipes, so if you decide to add frosting it won’t be a sugar overload in every bite. Pumpkin, in addition to fitting into the holiday season, has a subdued sweet flavor as well. The cinnamon cream cheese frosting adds enough sugar and spice to transform the mild muffin into a decadent dessert, and the addition of a small amount of brown sugar gives it a slight hint of caramel.

If you’re going the muffin route, you can add nuts or chocolate chips to the batter to make them heartier for a breakfast meal, or to serve with coffee or tea. Eat them right out of the oven, or give them a short stint in the microwave to warm them up.

If going the cupcake route, you can pipe frosting on with a pastry bag or spread it on with a knife. These cupcakes will be lovely either way as long as you make sure to use at least two tablespoons of frosting for each cupcake (this will give you the professional-looking rounded top that you see in bakeries). I like to sprinkle a small amount of ground nutmeg over the frosting as an elegant finishing touch.

And for those who want to use minimal effort in frosting cupcakes, you can also use a regular spoon. Scoop frosting out of the bowl and add a dollop to each cupcake. This method will require the frosting to be at room temperature so that it’s soft enough to fall from the spoon. But any way you do it, you really can’t go wrong. (Click on link below for recipe)

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