Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake with Blackberry Topping

 

For Daring Bakers back in April 2009 (wow, was it really nearly two years ago??), we had to make Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake, a super duper tall cream cheese cheesecake featuring  750g of cream cheese.  Back then, I made a ginger and lime version.

This week, I fancied cheesecake, and what better way to get some than to make it myself.  I chose Abbey's recipe again, and used malt biscuits for the base.  To make it visually spectacular, I made a topping by draining the juice from the 400g can of blackberries in syrup, placing it into a saucepan, adding a heaped dessertspoonful of cornflour made into a smooth paste with a little water, then bringing the mixture to the boil while constantly stirring it.  Once the mixture has thickened, take it off the heat to cool a little (not too much or it will set!), pile the blackberries from the can on top of the cheesecake, then pour over the thickened syrup.  Voila - you have a fruit-glazed cheesecake.  I learned the cornflour trick from my wonderful Mum - isn't she a clever chook?

Thanks to my workplace for supplying all of the props used in these photographs.

I am going away now to relive the joys of my slice of cheesecake:

Honey-Almond Fig Tart

Yesterday, one of the ladies at work was given a huge bag of fresh, ripe  figs by the company's fruit delivery man.  Through some good fortune, I was given the figs to make a fig tart for the people at work.  I was pretty excited, because these figs were large and lovely and ripe, and Lord knows that figs are rather expensive to buy.  However, I also was a little fearful.  What if the tart didn't work out?  What if people didn't like it?

My first hurdle was to choose a tart recipe.  I needed to choose a recipe that used fresh figs in a sweet tart, but given that I was too lazy to go to the shops after work, only used ingredients that I had on hand.  I also needed a recipe that was easily achievable within an evening.  For a while, I considered making Jamie Oliver's Fig Tart for the second time, just leaving out what I didn't have (eg orange rind, fresh thyme).  However, after a quick flick through the index of Dorie Greenspan's Baking - From My Home to Yours, I came across a recipe for a Honey-Almond Fig Tart.  The recipe is on p373 of the book, or can be found online here.

The drawback with this recipe is that no-one had posted online about this tart, and there was no photo.  Accordingly, if I was going to make this, I was on my own making a previously untried recipe using other people's fruit. Yikes!

Luckily, the tart shell was Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough that I have made a zillion times before and is easy peasy, because you don't have to roll it out - you just press it into the pie pan.

The hitch came with the almond cream filling.  Dorie says to only use as much as will fill the tart shell three quarters full.  I didn't want to waste any of the almond cream, so I put it all into the pie shell.  It fitted easily, but after half an hour n the oven, I had almond cream erupting like lava out of the tart. Luckily, I was able to clean it up easily and the tart wasn't affected.

The next hitch with the almond cream was the baking time.  Dorie quotes a baking time of 35 minutes.   However, even though I turned the oven up higher than stated after 35 minutes because the filling was still molten, it took an hour and a half for the filling to set!  I had to tent the outsides, which browned quickly, with alfoil while the middle of the tart continued to bake.

I was terrified that the bottom of the tart had burned because it took so long for the filling to set - luckily, my fears were not realised.

Despite the hitches, the tart turned out well - it was a deep burnished brown with glossy figs glistening on the surface like jewels.  Best of all, it passed the taste test with the punters.

Dorie said that she likes to eat this  tart on its own without any accompaniments - and that is just what we did.  The tart is devinely rich, and a small piece is enough to satisfy even the sweetest tooth.

TWD - Pecan Powder Puffs

Don't you just love the alliteration of "Pecan Powder Puffs"?  I think it's just gorgeous, so when our host this week, Tia of Buttercream Barbie, chose Pecan Powder Puffs for this week's Tuesday with Dorie, I had to use pecan nuts in keeping with the name.

These tiny cookies are a modified version of Mexican Wedding Cakes, but are made with ground pecans instead of the usual almonds, and are rolled into tiny marble sized balls.  The finished cookies are but a puff of flavour and then are gone.

I thought these were lovely, and they disappeared quickly at work.  Sandra, my official taste tester, said that they were "beautiful".

To check out the recipe, buy the book or visit Tia's site, and to see what the other TWD bakers thought of these, visit the TWD website.

Farfalle with carbonara and peas

Do you get excited when you find new foods at a deli that grab your attention?  And like me, do you feel compelled to buy those things (even if you don't really need them) just to see what they are like?

I recently went on a trip to Mediterranean Wholesalers with my friend Elissa and her partner, and I came across so many new things that I would have needed a truck to get them all home.  So instead, I exercised a little self-restraint, and mostly only bought things I knew that I needed.  However, I couldn't resist picking up a packet of this stripy farfalle:  

Here are the beautiful bow ties in all their glory before cooking:

The glorious colours come from blueberries, tomatoes and other natural sources.

Armed with such gorgeous pasta, I needed a recipe to show it off.  A quick search led me to this Jamie Oliver recipe for Farfalle with Carbonara and Peas.  (I actually found it in my copy of Jamie's Dinners.)  It is such a quick and simple, yet flavoursome dish.  As the name suggests, it contains peas (I used frozen), streaky bacon and cream sauce for bow tie pasta.

This was one of the lightest, most delicious pasta dishes I have tried so far.  It was so good that, even after reheating, I was proud to serve it to my friend Ashley as an impromptu dinner.  I highly recommend giving it a go if you at all like pasta.

Sunday in Melbourne - Finders Keepers Market

After a grey, cold and miserable Saturday, today was absolutely gorgeous in Melbourne - sunny and warm and perfect for getting out and about. The top photo features the lane of trees leading to my apartment - you can see the lovely sunlight filtering down through the trees.

Here is an olive tree which hangs over a fence in my suburban street:

I wonder will they pick their olives?  Some have already ripened and are begging to be picked and cured.

Today, I visited the Finders Keepers Market at Docklands. They sell the most wonderful arts and crafts, and it was lucky everything was on a cash only basis, as I could have bought so much more than I did.

I bought this gorgeous 60's lady brooch from Red Revival:

I adore 60s fashions, and the colours in this brooch matched my red top perfectly.

In keeping with the red theme, I bought this rose earrings from Notions:

Perhaps the biggest bargain of the day was this purse from Only Midge - merely $5!

I bought this badge featuring the sweetest ever pair of red shoes from a stand selling all sorts of odds and ends, so I can't really say where it is from, other than that the label refers to La Marelle.net:

 I bought this fabulous Alice In Wonderland "Drink Me" ring from Meow Girl:

I have always been fascinated by Alice in Wonderland, and having a "Drink Me" ring is perfect, because it reminds me of the incredible "Drink Me" potion created by Heston Blumenthal for his Victorian Feast using flavour infused milk, pink food colouring, a gelling agent (to stop the flavours running into one another) and a special glass with a straw in the very bottom so that you can only drink the flavours from the bottom up, one at a time.

Finally, I bought this hair clip from Treeparty Design:

You can't see it that well in the photo, but it has a flower with greenery and butterflies on it.  I like the shades in it because it will go with a number of different outfits, unlike red, which only goes with a limited number of other colours.

The market visit was a fun way to spend an absolutely glorious day.

Hope your weekend has been fabulous too!

Daring Bakers - Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

 

It's March Daring Bakers reveal day, and I know that you have been waiting  for it.  So, without further ado:

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. 

It comprises a bread dough filled with a meringue and your choice of additional filling which can be sweet or savoury.  As our hosts described it as:

A gorgeous brioche-like dough is rolled jellyroll style around a whipped meringue and whatever filling you choose, shaped into a wreath and baked.

This recipe is quite unusual - I would never have thought of filling a bread with meringue.  In the baked bread, the meringue seems to melt into the dough, so that it adds flavour, but is not otherwise evident in the finished product.

I had picked up some sugar plums at the supermarket out of curiosity (heck, who hasn't wanted to taste a sugar plum?), so I chose to use those in the filling with a sprinkling of cinnamon:

Here is a peek inside my bread:

This bread was pleasant, but not my kettle of fish - I am not a bread girl in general.  They ate it at work, so I can only assume it tasted ok (although I note that it did not disappear as quickly as some other things).

Thanks to Ria and Jamie for hosting us this month.  You can check out the amazing variety of yeasted meringue coffee cakes by visiting The Daring Bakers Blogroll.

Key Lime Pie with Heston Blumenthal's Pop Rock Crust

Do you like citrus flavoured desserts?  I adore the zing of citrus, and thought that it would be a perfect pairing for the snap crackle and pop of Heston Blumenthal's Pop Rock Crust. This crust contains melted chocolate, hazelnut paste, and popping candy.  I only had 12g of popping candies, versus Heston's 100g, yet I still found that the crust crackled away merrily in my mouth.   I can just imagine what 10 times that amount might do! 

For the citrus filling, I chose the unbaked key lime pie filling from Baking Bites.

Together, I ended up with a tart that, although short in stature, had plenty of zing and attitude to make up for it: 

For the benefit of those who made uncomplimentary remarks and whispered in the kitchen that my tart looked like melted cheese because they did not know what it was yet did not even taste it, like children at the dinner table - ask next time.  And BTW, you don't have to eat it - no-one asked you to.  (Sorry, had to get this off my chest - when they start bringing in desserts to share, then they can criticise.)

Hope you have a great weekend.  As for me, I am off to the dentist.  

FFwD - Scallops with Caramel Orange Sauce

Do you like seafood?  For me, it depends on my mood and how well the seafood is cooked.  I am inexperienced at cooking seafood, so I generally avoid cooking it.   Alas, there was no escape for me this week, as our French Friday with Dorie challenge was  Scallops with Caramel Orange Sauce.  You can find the recipe in the book or here.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the beautiful large scallops used by Dorie, hence I had to use small frozen New Zealnd scallops from the supermarket.  I think this dish could have been so much better if the scallops that I used were nicer, but you can only use what you can get.

However, the caramel orange sauce itself was gorgeous - just the right blend of sweet and sour.  I think the sauce would work well on white fish or even on chicken breasts.

I served my scallops with bok choy stir fried in soy sauce and asparagus spears baked with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  These may have been unusual choices, but I enjoyed them with the scallops.

To see what the other FFwD members thought of this dish, visit this week's LYL section on the FFwD website.

Agrodolce grape tart with feta and pancetta

Unfortunately, summer has drawn to a close, and autumn is very much upon us.  It is becoming steadily cooler, with ever rarer warm days and shorter glimpses of sunlight.  We will soon have to say goodbye to  glorious summer fruit for another twelve months, and make do with the leaner pickings of cold storage fruit during the winter.

Accordingly, as a nod goodbye to the summer and an acknowledgement of autumn, I could not resist making the Agrodolce Grape Tart with Goats Feta and Pancetta on p102 of the March edition of Australian Gourmet Traveller.  It features an enticing and eye-catching combination of white and red grapes, red onion, garlic and feta, cradled in a puff pastry shell.  Instead of goat's feta, I used the common garden cows milk variety, but the twist is that I made it in my cheesemaking course in November.  The magazine made their tart free form, but for a touch of added elegance, I used a rectangular tart pan to shape my tart. 

Don't you think it looks fabulous?

If you are tempted by this tart, you will need:

80g butter

1 red onion
3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons each of thyme, sage and rosemary
400g mixed red and white grapes
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 beaten egg (for eggwash)
80g drained marinated feta
6 thin slices pancetta

12 sage leaves

Puff pastry (ready made or make your own)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Spray a long rectangular tart pan with a removable base with spray oil, and line the pan with puff pastry. 

Chop the butter into cubes, and add half to a fry pan over low heat.  Chop the onion, garlic and herbs finely. Ad the onion and garlic to the frypan, and cook until both are transparent and soft.  Add the chopped herbs to the pan, mix in with the onion and garlic, then remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, combine the grapes, flour, cooled onion mixture and olive oil.  Scatter the mixture over the puff pastry and brush the exposed edges of the pastry with eggwash.  Crumble the feta over the top of the tart, then place it into the preheated oven and bake until cooked through and golden brown (~30 minutes).

While the tart is baking, heat a frypan over high heat, then put the pancetta  in the pan and fry it, turning occasionally, until crisp.  Remove the pancetta from the pan and drain on paper towel.  Wipe the pan clean with paper towel, then add the remaining butter to the pan over high heat, and when it is foaming, add the sage leaves and fry until crisp.  Remove the sage from the pan and drain on paper towel.

Once the tart has baked, scatter it with the pancetta and sage prior to serving.

This is a glorious combination of flavours, and like nothing I have ever made before.  The grapes become satisfyingly soft and juicy in the oven, and the sweetness of the grapes and the onion bounces satisfyingly off the saltiness of the pancetta and feta.  You don't need a tart pan to make this - you can simply fold up the sides of the puff pastry and end up with a delightful free form tart.

This tart would be perfect as a starter at a dinner party, or as a light weekend meal.  I will definitely be making it again.

TWD - Honey Nut Brownies

This week's Tuesday with Dorie challenge is Honey Nut Brownies, chosen by Suzy of Suzy Homemaker. As Dorie said, there is just enough chocolate in these to make them brownies, and the highlight of these brownies is the honey.

These brownies were simple enough to make, but they are not one bowl, as you need to melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, while mixing up the eggs, sugar and honey in another bowl before combining everything in the mixer bowl.

I used walnuts in my brownies, and I neither frosted them nor dusted them with cocoa powder - they were good on their own. 

I enjoyed these brownies - they are cakey and moist, and are just like the ones that my Mum used to make when we were children.  Mum used to ice hers, and Dorie suggested that you could do the same with these brownies.

Thanks to Suzy for hosting us this week - she will have the recipe, or you can buy the book.  To check out what the other TWD bakers thought of these brownies, visit the LYL section for this week on the TWD website.

Rhubarb raspberry meringue tart

Do you ever see a magazine cover and just have to buy that magazine, purely on the basis of the cover?  So it was for me when I saw this month's Australian Gourmet Traveller , which had the most gorgeous ruby red and snowy meringue tart on the cover.


The recipe is for a rhubarb and raspberry meringue tart, which you can find online here.   The tart comprises a pastry shell, filled with frangipane:

then covered with baked rhubarb and raspberries:

and wrapped up in snowy white meringue:

The sweet, billowy, cloud-like meringue is balanced perfectly by the tartness of the rhubarb. 

This tart has numerous steps and breaks in between, so allow yourself a leisurely afternoon to make it.  Then cut yourself a large slice, and enjoy!

FFwD - Salted Butter Breakups

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is a simple cookie recipe called Salted Butter Breakups.  The idea is to bake the simple butter cookie dough as a single large rectangle, cross-hatched with a fork to make it pretty, then break off bits as you go to eat it.  Unfortunately, as I was going to take this to work, I don't think they would have been enchanted by this idea, so I cut mine into  squares.

These are not exciting, but they taste quite good.

Visit the LYL section of the FFwD website to see some other salted butter breakups.

Coffee and Walnut Cake, Anna and Nigella

 

 

Thank you to everyone for your patience - I finally have my Internet connection back after 6 days so I can talk to you all again and come visit.

In some now old news, last Saturday, I went to see Anna Gare (of the Australian version of The Best and Junior Masterchef) and Nigella Lawson at the Melbourne Food and Wine Show.  I was very excited to be seeing Nigella, the woman I want to be when I grow up, in the flesh.

Having attended similar events before, and knowing that this session was general admission (except for those lucky people with red smiley faces on their tickets), I lined up an hour and a half before the session began to get the best seat I possibly could.  This tactic was not altogether successful, as a very tall woman with a big head was sitting right in my line of sight, so I spent a lot of the time twisting and turning to see (and invoking complaints from the girl behind me, who had the domino problem with my head).  However, I was only four rows back, so I was pretty pleased with that.

First up in the three hour afternoon session was Anna Gare, wearing a stunning Leona Edmiston dress:

Anna was great value - very saucy and cheeky, unlike her more subdued screen persona.  It felt like spending an hour or so with your best friend from school, telling irreverent and slightly naughty jokes during a sleep over.  Lorraine has posted about Anna Gare - we went on different days but exactly the same jokes were told, so you can read about them here.  One thing Lorraine didn't mention was the PITA acronym.  Initially, I thought that Anna was talking about "Peter", but actually, she was talking about a Pain in the Ass - that is, the one person in every family who has to be different.  In my family, that would be my brother, but don't tell him.

Anna's session was MCed by Alistair McLeod, head chef at Brett's Wharf in Brisbane.
 

The three dishes made by Anna were Latino scallops (a sort of cerviche using scallops instead of tuna), Peruvian spiced fillet of beef (spiced beef fillet encrusted with pistachio nuts), an "upside down" potato salad (where the salad is arranged in a bowl with roasted capsicum and spinach arranged decoratively on the inner surface of the bowl so that when tipped upside down it looks pretty - for potato salad anyway), and three fruit tarts all made with the same almond sponge, but topped with peach halves, morello cherries and pear halves respectively.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to eat any of it, but it was fun to watch the dishes assembled.

After Anna's session, the star attraction, Nigella Lawson, joined us for a brief hour to talk about dishes by the women she loves - namely her mother, Anna del Conte and her grandmother.  She is as captivating in real life as on television:

 Nigella's session was MCed by restaurant critic and Masterchef judge Matt Preston:

Nigella's three dishes, were "praised" chicken (being her mother's popular chicken and veges in a pot), vegemite spaghetti (which Lorraine made here),  and a coffee and walnut cake.  

Afterwards, Nigella stayed for a book signing, which was only supposed to last for half an hour, but ended up being almost twice as long because Nigella graciously stayed to sign the books of everyone in the line.  I was grateful, as I was towards the back of the line.  Here is Nigella's autograph on my conference program (as I hadn't brought my book with me):

I was thrilled to actually meet Nigella and say hello.  Her skin is as milky and beautiful close up as I had imagined it to be.  After signing my program, I thanked her, and she flashed her marvellous smile and said, "Pleasure".  Nigella is a  gracious, eloquent, beautiful woman, and I am an even bigger fan now than I was before.

Having seen Nigella make a coffee and walnut cake, I knew that was the recipe for me.   I wanted to make it that afternoon and post about it while it was still fresh in mind, but my ongoing Internet connection battles scotched that.  However, last night, I went ahead and made the cake anyway.  You can find the recipe online here.

The cake is a double decker, coffee-flavoured spectacular, sandwiched together with coffee-flavoured buttercream.  There are ground walnuts in the cake as well as walnuts on top.  Here are my layers:

 and the finished cake is pictured at the top of this post and below:

The cake was truly delicious - light and spongy, but still with some oomph about it, making it very satisfying.  It disappeared very quickly at work today, so I am guessing that everyone else liked it as well.

Have a great evening.

Citrus currant sunshine muffins

You may have noticed that things are very quiet around here at the moment.  That is because my ISP is incapable of providing the service that I pay for.  I have been without an Internet connection at home for 4 days now.  I am posting this from work, but there is no photo, because my work computer settings won't allow me to upload photos (although I am going to keep trying)  and have finally had success in uploading my photo - happy days!

This week's Tuesday with Dorie challenge  is Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins, chosen by our host, Lauryn of Bella Baker.  I love the name of these muffins - it is quite magical, don't you think?  It makes even people who are currently grumpy, like me, very happy just listening to it - it's the word "sunshine".  The name of these muffins also made me think of my friend Alison's daughter's dog, a chocolate labrador called Sunshine Ballerina.  Accordingly, these muffins are for Alison, her daughter and Sunshine Ballerina.

I really love citrus in baked goods, so I enjoyed these muffins a lot.  Instead of currants, I used raisins - which in my view are better anyway, as they are plump and juicy rather than hard and nuggety.

The muffins are a doddle to make - you use one bowl, and I used bottled orange juice, so I didn't even have to juice an orange.

Thanks to Lauryn for being our host this week.  She will have the recipe on Tuesday her time, and to see what the other TWD bakers thought of these muffins, please visit the TWD blogroll.

FFwD - Beggar's Linguine - err, Spaghetti

Betcha wondering what on earth is in the photograph at the top of this post?  It may look like something that was tossed out in the garbage pile in a back alley, but man, it tastes good.

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is Beggar's Linguine.  "Mendiant" in French means "beggar"; however, it also the name given to a disk of chocolate studded with different fruit and nuts to represent the four monastic orders of Domincans, Augustinians, Franciscans and Carmelites.  In this recipe, Dorie has taken the fruits and nuts from the mendiants and combined them with linguine instead of chocolate.  The dish is comprised of linguine covered in a browned butter sauce featuring pistachios, almonds, figs and raisins, then spiced up with parmesan and orange zest.  

Somehow, I imagined I bought squid ink linguine; however, when I went to make this dish, I realised that I had squid ink spaghetti.  It was too late to go to the store, so I forged ahead with my spaghetti.  In the end, I don't think it mattered - I loved the sweetness of the fruit against the nutty butter sauce and the crunch from the nuts.  I also thought that the zest added just the right amount of kick to the flavour.

To see what the other FFwD members thought of this dish, visit this week's LYL section on the FFwD website.  

Red Velvet Cupcakes for The Red Pump Project 500 in 50

Today, Thursday March 10, is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the United States.  To quote The Red Pump Project website:

It’s a nationwide initiative to raise awareness about the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women & girls and encourages ladies to take action. While progress has definitely been made in the areas of AIDS prevention and treatment, women still represent 27% of all new AIDS diagnoses, with African-American women accounting for 66% of that group. This year focuses on this statistic, “Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States.”

To observe this day, The Red Pump Project requested bloggers to help meet its goal of getting 500 blogs in 50 days displaying the "Rock The Red Pump" logo.  The red shoe represents the courage of women directly or indirectly fighting HIV/AIDS.  Although this is a US campaign, I think it highlights issues that are equally relevant and important in Australia, hence my participation.

To  mark this day, I made red velvet cupcakes using Martha Stewart's recipe, which can be found online here:

Instead of cream cheese frosting, I just used water icing sprinkled with red hearts (fitting in with the red theme).

I found these cupcakes had a rather strange, tinny taste. [Update:  These tasted much better the next morning - perhaps the flavours need time to meld?]  Despite my using the suggested amount of gel food colouring, they are also not particularly red: 

However, they are very moist (because of the use of oil instead of butter), and my "meh" feelings about them may be because I am not a red velvet fan.

Remember to Rock the Red Pump on March 10 in support of women and girls everywhere who are directly or indirectly fighting the fight against HIV/AIDS.

TWD - Corniest Corn Muffins

Last weekend, I "dog-sat" for my friend E and her partner.  They are the proud parents of "the girls" - Cooper and Porter - and I had lots of fun with them.  Cooper and Porter are the cutest, tinest dogs ever:

One of their favourite places to sleep was on my knee - both at once - which was not conducive to doing much other than snoozing along with them.  Needless to say, it was a relaxing weekend.

While I was housesitting, I baked E and her partner some sugar cookies using the September Daring Bakers challenge recipe, and cut them out using some cute new cookie cutters I bought on the weekend: 

What does all of this have to do with Tuesday with Dorie?  Not much, other than it is around 10pm on Monday night and my TWD recipe for this week has just finished baking, as I wasn't here on the weekend to make it.  The recipe this week is Corniest Corn Muffins, chosen by  Jill of My Next Life.  This is another recipe which I would never have chosen myself, but which I love and will make again.

The hardest part of this challenge was buying cornmeal in Melbourne. I could have bought it by mail from USA Foods (as Moorabbin is way outside of my neighbourhood) - but the postage would have been more than the cornmeal.  In every shop I asked at (including Queen Vic Market), I got asked, "You mean polenta?"  No, I do not mean polenta.  In one shop, the girl got very huffy because she thought I wanted (wheaten) cornflour, and she gave me the impression that her specialist shop would not stoop to selling anything so common. Eventually, I found cornmeal in a health food shop in Ormond, sold as "maize flour".  And the funniest part is that my cornmeal came from the Darling Downs in Queensland - my home turf!

These muffins really tasted good - the corn kernels give moisture, texture and a soft crunch to these muffins.  They also smell great while they are baking.

I thought these muffins were perfect straight out of the oven with just a dab of Nuttelex:

Thanks to our host for this week, Jill - she will have the recipe.  To check out what everyone else thought of these muffins, visit the LYL section for this week at the TWD website.

Finally, I wish to give a belated "thank you" to Yummy Chunklet, a fellow attorney from Chicago, who awarded me the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award:

I pass this award on to all of you (girls and guys!) who read my blog - I really appreciate that you take the time to drop on by. 

Hope you are having a great week!