Summer is over. Welcome to having time (for now)

So I thank my mother for contributing to the blog while I was away at opera camp in Princeton this past summer. Since getting home, I've slowly re-discovered what it is like to be a non-musician again... an unemployed non-musician, to be more specific. While audition season has yet to start, I only am involved in the CSO chorus at the moment as well as my church job; so all is NOT terrible. Its just a little tight.

And we all know what tight means: no going out to eat.
Which then, follow me down my slippery slope of logic, means that I am cooking more often and utilizing different ingredients that I find for cheap at the market.

Recent discoveries:
Steamed baby bok choy... you are delicious.
Sauteed Rapini... you are not.

Today, however, I chose to embark upon a journey that I've intended for quite some time. The wait was entirely worth it. And incredibly EASY.

Home-made English Muffins
(GASP! I know... don't inhale your neighbor)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tsp yeast

.....dissolve sugar into milk/water and then add yeast. Let it get bubbly (5-6 min)

1/4 cup melted shortening*
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

.....add to yeast mixture. It will be fairly sticky; I added about a 1/8 cup more flour just to make it a little more manageable.

.....place into well-greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let rise and double. This took about an hour for me, though it was sitting on the porch in 90 degree heat (not in direct sunlight, though)

.....on a well-floured surface, turn the dough out and knead ONLY A LITTLE. Form dough into a log- roughly the size of a medium rolling pin. Cut into 1 discs (will depend on how thick you would like your muffins to be) and place on to a cookie sheet that has been both greased and dusted with corn meal.

.....let rise again for about 30-40 minutes; they will puff up a fair amount. Again, my kitchen was fairly warm, so you might want to let them rise even longer.

.....on a lightly-greased skillet that has been warmed to medium-low heat, place the muffins gentle and allow to cook. I was checking the first batch to see how well they were cooking; it does take about 5 minutes per side, though that will fluctuate with how thick yours are.

VOILA. Easy English Muffins that taste AMAZING- I ate mine hot off the skillet with fresh rhubarb-strawberry jam from my mother.

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

This morning, in celebration of not having anything to do (well, if you don't count the three papers due before December 1), I woke up and felt that something special needed to happen for breakfast. It was cold in the apartment because it actually got cold last night outside. So this something would need to fill me up with delicious goodness and the apartment with residual heat.
My mom loaned me one of my favorite cook books of hers: Muffins and More. The banana muffin recipes that I posted are from this book- and honestly, I have yet to go wrong with any of the recipes. Here is what I made this morning:

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake
*the original recipe is for muffins, but I didn't feel like cleaning up muffin tins afterwards

MUFFINS:
1 1/2 cups - all-purpose flour
1/2 cup - white sugar
3 tsp - Baking POWDER
1/2 tsp - Salt

*Mix together and make a "well" in a medium-sized bowl

1 - Egg
1/4 cup - Milk
1/4 cup - cooking oil
1 apple - peeled, cut into small pieces or shredded

*Mix together and add to the flour mixture

Grease a 9x9 pan (or 12 muffin tins) and set oven at 400F
*Scoop batter into pan, or fill muffin tins 3/4 full

TOPPING:
1/2 cup - Packed BROWN sugar
1/4 cup - flour
1/4 cup - butter at room temperature

*Using a fork, pastry mixer, or hands, mix all together until crumbly.
*Sprinkle on top of coffee cake/muffin batter

*Bake for 20-25 min or until slightly browned on top

I'm not going to lie: when first mixing this up, it did not seem like enough liquid. The batter initially felt really dry. However, the apples release a fair amount of liquid once they start baking, so just trust the proportions. Because the batter was so thick, I think it is easier to make a coffee cake out of the batter, but that is just my opinion!