The Big Apple

In one week, Chris and I are heading off to New York City! Woo-hoo!! His family has a home on Fire Island in Point O'Woods and so we're spending most of the week at that house on the beach. But we're bookending the trip with two weekends in NYC and I'm so excited for the fun places we will eat and the fun shows we will see. :)

The first weekend we plan on grabbing lunch at The Shake Shack, which supposedly serves the best hamburgers EVER. I was skeptical, because I'm all have these people ever been to an In-N-Out Burger?, but Christopher Kimball interviewed people standing in line at the Shake Shack and if he's spending his time at this restaurant then By God, so am I.

We have dinner reservations at a Mario Batali restaurant (more on that later) and then we have tickets to see The Book of Mormon!! I can't wait to see this show and we got really good seats (like 15th row center or something crazy like that). Yay!!

We have a hotel in Midtown, The Pearl, that we're staying at so we should be in walking distance to the theater. After the show we're meeting up with friends and some family in Midtown to grab drinks at a bar. I can't WAIT!!

Northwestern Cutlery

Every good cook needs at least 1 sharp knife. Because of my passion for cooking coupled with a hefty discount from Crate and Barrel, I have grown my collection of knives to include some German, some Japanese, and some British steel. It's like the UN of knife blocks.

I have tried sharpening them on my own but I'm not that good at sharpening them so I decided to hunt around on Yelp for a good place to take them to. I had heard that Sur La Table offers free knife sharpening, but reviews online showed their service to be quite poor. People actually complained about this free service, saying it wasn't worth their time.

So I kept hunting until I found out about this little gem, about 4 blocks from my office: Northwestern Cutlery. http://www.nwcutlery.com/

I dropped my knives off one morning; humbled that I was carrying them in a shoe box, because how else do you travel with 8 knives? I seriously looked like the opening sequence to a Final Destination movie.

Anyhoo...I dropped them off and then picked them up on my lunch hour. They only charge like $3 a knife, no matter what knife you bring in. So a 10" chef's knife = $3. A paring knife = $3. (Most places charge by the inch, which can get to be pretty hefty in upcharges.) My total bill came in less than $30 for all those knives. And boy are they sharp! It's like having brand new knives! I forgot how easy it is to dice an onion, slice a tomato, or cut into a crusty loaf of bread when your knife is razor sharp!

So I left them a great review on Yelp and I highly recommend them to anyone else looking to sharpen their steel.

http://www.nwcutlery.com/

Cereal

Shopping the cereal aisle used to be a fun activity for me. I would stand in the middle of the aisle and just look at all the boxes, all the options, all the colors!, and try to decide what I wanted to eat that week.
Lately, the cereal aisle has not brought me that same type of joy. It was a little over a year ago that I decided to try my best to not consume any high fructose corn syrup. I'm sure there have been times where I've eaten something that still has that ingredient, but I really do try to read labels and avoid it whenever possible.

This has drastically affected my cereal shopping.

Have you ever looked at the ingredient lists on cereal boxes? I haven't even looked at the sugar cereals like Cap't Crunch or Trix; I'm talking about the "healthy" cereals like Special K or Raisin Bran. They are LOADED with sugar and most have high fructose corn syrup. It's quite disheartening.

For awhile I was buying Kashi's Summer Field, which is very delicious but you don't really get that much cereal in that small, expensive box, so it's not very logical to buy this cereal on a weekly basis.


This past weekend I went to the store and just looked at cereal boxes and their ingredients lists. Here's a couple of cereals I found that are low in sugar and have no high fructose corn syrup. I hope you find my research helpful. :)

Cheerios (especially the original kind but the multi-grain are yummy)
Rice and Corn Chex
Crunchy Corn Bran

Lotta Apricotta Bar

My office catered lunch for a long meeting we had scheduled last week. Part of the lunch buffet were these organic granola bars, "Lotta Apricotta" by Nature's Path. I snagged one to keep at my desk, just in case I ever find myself hungry and tempted to go to a vending machine.

I just ate the whole thing and it was really good! Sweet but fairly low in sugar (compared to most granola bars) at only 12 grams for the whole bar. It still contains a lot of ingredients that I can't find in a typical grocery store (which I try not to consume food that has ingredients like that) but in a pinch, this would be a tasty and fairly healthy treat.

Bucatini with Green Peas and Pancetta

Cooking Light recipes are the bomb! Last night I cooked up this recipe, featured in their May magazine: Bucatini with Green Peas and Pancetta. It was surprisingly simple (especially if you prep your food before you start cooking) and holy cow was it flavorful! The carmalized shallots and salty pancetta were delicious! It was a perfect summer meal, light and fresh but packed full of flavor.
Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1/2 cup chopped pancetta (about 2 ounces)
* 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
* 1 1/4 cups shelled green peas (about 1 1/2 pounds unshelled)
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1/4 cup dry white wine
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
* 1/2 pound uncooked bucatini pasta
* 1 tablespoon kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

* 1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add pancetta; cook for 10 minutes or until browned and crisp, stirring occasionally. Remove pancetta from pan, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in pan; set pancetta aside. Add shallots; cook for 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add peas and garlic; cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add wine and thyme. Increase heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil; cook until liquid reduces to 2 tablespoons (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat.
* 2. Cook pasta in boiling water with 1 tablespoon kosher salt according to package directions, omitting additional fat. Drain the pasta in a colander over a bowl, and reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Add pasta, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to pea mixture; toss well. Stir in reserved cooking liquid. Place about 1 1/4 cups pasta mixture in each of 4 shallow bowls; top each serving evenly with grated cheese and pancetta.

Sauteed Pork Chops with Peach Sauce

For Christmas I was given the gift of a subscription to Cooking Light Magazine. I love this magazine because it has really interesting articles, tips on how to prepare exotic vegetables (like artichokes or leeks), and healthy recipes that are fairly easy (and quick!) to make.
Since we got some pork chops from our farm CSA this week, I cooked up CLM's recipe for Sauteed Pork Chops with Peace Sauce. It was DIVINE! And at only 235 calories per serving, it's quite healthy too!



4 (4 oz) center-cut boneless pork loin chops, trimmed
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp thinly sliced shallots
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
2 peaches, each cut into 8 wedges
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
2 tsp. honey
2 tsp. light butter

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan and swirl to coat. Sprinkle chops evenly with salt and pepper. Add chops to pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chops from pan, and keep warm.

Add shallots, thyme, and peaches to pain and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/3 cup (about 2 minutes). Stir in broth and honey and bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/3 cup (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in butter. Spoon sauce over chops and serve.

Geronimo

Another restaurant we dined at, while in Santa Fe, was the highly acclaimed Geronimo. I had read up on this restaurant, prior to our trip, and knew that the food was top notch and I had better bring my appetite because I was going to want to sample almost everything on the menu.
We started off with green chili bread, which was a little more heat than I'm used to so I accompanied this with about 2 glasses of water. I then had an order of the Maryland Blue Crab Cakes (TO DIE FOR) which left just enough room for a good sized main course.
My friend, Roberto, who got married in Santa Fe has been talking my ear off about this restaurant for the weeks leading up to the trip. He's a foodie, like myself, and was raving about this menu. He first suggesting the mushroom sampling, but since I don't like mushrooms, his second choice was the peppered Elk.

Now I love food. And I'll try most things at least once but Elk worried me. I didn't want to drop $45 on my entree and not like it. What if Elk was too gamey? Or the texture was too gross? But Roberto swore up and down, and earlier in the day I tried Duck and liked it...so I took a leap of faith and ordered the Peppered Elk.

Much to my surprise, I really liked it! It's not gamey at all and it was cooked perfectly. Like a good steak it was full of flavor and juice but not overly chewy. It was wrapped in applewood smoked bacon, which gave it a nice salty taste. The sides to the elk were garlic roasted mashed potatoes, sugar snap peas, and brandied mushroom sauce. And even though I don't like mushrooms, that sauce was delicious! The waitress suggested I pair all this with a glass of Cabernet, which was a great suggestion as the wine complimented the peppery coating on the elk.

The one downside was I had no room left dessert. Which says A LOT because I almost always have room for dessert!

By far the biggest surprise of Santa Fe was the excellent cuisine.

Memorial Day Weekend

Chris and I spent Memorial Day weekend at the townhouse down in Myrtle Beach. I strongly believe life is better on the ocean. When you start your day by listening to the waves crash on to the beach and end each night watching the sun set on the marsh, life just seems more peaceful.
We also saw dolphins swimming in the water and lots of wildlife such as loons, an alligator, and a baby shark (about a foot long, at best).

And we drank Landshark beer all weekend long, which is the best beach beer in my opinion. It's light and refreshing and I highly recommend it on a sunny day.

Vinaigrette - A Salad Bistro

Last weekend, my mother-in-law, sister in-law and I flew to New Mexico to spend 3 days hiking, exploring, eating good food, drinking fine wine, and relaxing at a desert spa. Oh, how I love a girl's only weekend. :)

We arrived early Friday morning where I ran into the musician Ian Moore at the Albuquerque airport! What a way to start the trip off! After I stopped gushing to him about how I love his music, we loaded into a rental car and drove to the canyons where we hiked for a few hours. The views were breathtaking and the sun felt so nice on my face.

Saturday we drove from Albuquerque to Santa Fe where we spent the morning in a desert spa called Ten Thousand Waves. There were heated meditation rooms, warm foot paths, natural spring pools, and a lovely massage that helped worked out any knots I've gathered during yoga practices and canyon hikes.

After all that...we were starving! We had heard about a small little restaurant called Vinaigrette, so we thought we would give it a shot. Holy cow was it good! I'm not one to eat a salad as a main course but this place was amazing! I ordered the "Can't Beet It" salad (big surprise, since beets are my favorite veggie). It was a mixture of spring greens (grown in the restaurant's garden), arugala, roasted beets, goat cheese, toasted pecans in a light vinaigrette. And since I wanted some protein with lunch too, I added the Duck Confit to the salad,

The last time I ate duck was in Paris back in 2001. I don't remember much of the meal (I didn't pay much attention to what I was eating back then) but I do remember not liking it very much. So I was a little nervous about ordering duck with my salad but happily I can report, I loved it! It sort of tasted like dark chicken meat...very juicy and full of flavor but not overly gamey. And it was the perfect addition to the salad.

With my salad I had a glass of pinot grigio (light and crisp, a perfect compliment to the salad) and some lemon water.

Never in my life did I expect to eat such great food in Santa Fe, but this place was amazing.
http://vinaigretteonline.com/

Lemonade

With spring's arrival, my palate has begun craving sweet berries and tart citrus. Nothing quenches my thirst on a hot summer day like a cold glass of lemonade. Unfortunately, when it comes to store bought lemonade, I find most packaged drinks to be overly sugary and, in most cases, they rarely taste like lemons.

And who has time to hand squeeze fresh lemons?

Here's a tasty recipe my sister-in-law shared with me, that I love! It's inexpensive, easy, and super quick - what beats that combination?

In a pitcher, combine 1 cup lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and fill the rest with cool water. Stir and serve!

Duck Duck Goose

My culinary skills are being put to use in a way I never imagined happening. I'm beginning to research cooking for my dog, Fred. Fred is our 3 year old lab-mix puppy, whom we adopted from a farm when she was 8 weeks old. Over the past 3 years, Chris and I have discovered that Fred is allergic to just about everything. She's allergic to grass and pollen, so spring and summer are pretty miserable for her. And like a lot of dogs, she's also allergic to grain and wheat - which rules out all dry dog foods.

So after a couple of years of trying different brands of food on Fred, we're happy to have found Stella and Chewy's raw meat patties! We have been feeding Fred the "Duck Duck Goose" variety and Fred LOVES the food and already she's itching so much less. She has even grown some fur back in! Fred gets two raw patties per meal, and each patty is comprised of organic duck parts (i.e. liver, meat, gizzards, etc), goose parts, cranberries, broccoli, squash, blueberries and pumpkin.

Two weeks ago we thought we would have her try out Stella and Chewy's All Beef patties, but after two meals Fred was itching so much she had trouble walking. So now we know she's also allergic to cow. (Seriously, how can something/someone be allergic to cow?!)

Stella and Chewys also offers a Dandy Lamb variety and a Chewy's Chicken, so we may try those out on her as well to see if she can eat them without having an allergic reaction. I've also gotten a book on cooking for dogs with allergies and have learned that dogs are able to eat a lot natural foods! I think from now on Fred's snacks will be comprised of a mixture of fruits and veggies. Now that's what I call a real treat!

Cranberry Orange Scones

I've never made scones before but I had some spare time on Saturday morning so I thought I would try out this recipe. OMG - we devoured all of them by Sunday night. It's Ina Garten's recipe and she did a bang up job with this one.

Ingredients

* 4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
* 2 tablespoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
* 3/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
* 4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 cup cold heavy cream
* 1 cup dried cranberries
* 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
* 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, the baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy! Combine the dried cranberries and 1/4 cup of flour, add to the dough, and mix on low speed until blended.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Keep moving the dough on the floured board so it doesn't stick.

At this point you could take a floured cookie cutter and cut out the scones but I just ran a knife through the rolled out dough and made triangles, and called it a day. I sprayed the cookie sheet with Pam, but you could use parchment paper if you like, and placed the scones on the cookie sheet. Then you brush the tops of the scones with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. The scones will be firm to the touch.

Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes and then whisk together the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, and drizzle over the scones. I found this orange icing to be a bit runny, so I added a bit more powdered sugar to it to thicken it up slightly.

Holy cow these were amazing. I will be making them again for Easter brunch. :)

Pulled Chicken - Crock Pot Style

If the house is a crockin'...

Sometimes my work week is so freakin' busy that I don't have time to spend 2 hours cooking a lovely, nutritious meal for Chris and I. When I know I've got a hectic few days ahead of me, I pull out the trusty crock pot and start hunting down recipes. Last week I made this and it was delicious!

This serves 4 people, so we had some leftovers which were great re-heated.

2 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 a medium-sized red onion (sliced)
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 sandwich rolls, split

1.Place the chicken breasts into the bottom of a slow cooker. Place sliced onions on top of chicken. In a bowl, stir together the ketchup, dijon mustard, lemon juice, garlic powder, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and cayenne pepper until the mixture is well blended.
2.Pour the sauce over the chicken, set the cooker to Low, and cook for 6 -8 hours. Shred the chicken with two forks. Mix another batch of the homemade BBQ sauce and pour over the shredded chicken, cook for 30 more minutes. Serve the chicken and sauce spooned into the sandwich rolls.

Slow Roasted Sirloin Tip

Who doesn't love a good homemade dinner on a Sunday night? So Friday I told Chris to pull a piece of meat from our freezer, stick it in the fridge to thaw, and I would research the best way to prepare and serve whatever meat he picked. He picked Beef Sirloin Tip.

So as it thawed in the fridge, I pulled out my ATK cookbook and started reading up on Sirloin Tips. I learned that they're best prepared with a slow, low-temp cooking process in order to render the meat tender and juicy.

So here's how I made Sunday's dinner:

Saturday I rubbed 2 tsps of kosher salt all of the sirloin and then wrapped it up in plastic and set it back in the fridge. This process ensures the meat will be really juicy.
Sunday I pulled the meat out of the fridge and patted it dry with paper towels. I then rubbed 2 tsps of vegetable oil all over the meat and sprinkled ground pepper all over it.

I then heated 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a cast-iron dutch oven until it was almost smoking. I then seared the meat on all sides to seal up the edges (about 4-5 minutes per side). Searing brings out a great flavor in the meat.

Now the key to searing meat is to just leave it alone. Don't try and pull it up to look at the underside of it; it's not a pancake. Just set it in the hot pot, watch it sizzle and cook, keeps your hands off until 4-5 minutes have passed. Then turn the meat over, and do not touch it again for 4-5 minutes.

Then I placed the sirloin tip on a wire rack (which I first sprayed with Pam, to make clean up easier) in a rimmed cookie sheet. I placed it in the oven at the very low temp of 250 degrees. I roasted it for 90 minutes, and not once did I open the oven door. Opening the door releases a lot of heat and with such a low heat level you don't want to lose anything. So keep the oven door shut. :)

After 90 minutes, I cranked the heat up to 500 degrees and I cooked it for another 10 minutes. During the slow roasting of the meat, all the natural sugars are brought to the surface of the meat. Doing a high heat blast for 10 minutes helps caramelize those sugars into a beautiful golden brown. The sirloin looks a lot more delicious after this process.

I then removed the sirloin tip from the oven and set it on top of the stove where I let it rest for 15 minutes. Slow roasting pulls the juices to the outer edges of the meat. By letting the meat rest for 10-15 minutes, the juices will redistribute through the sirloin, giving you one heck of a juicy cut of meat.

After resting for 15 minutes, I sliced it every so thinly and marveled at how flippin' tender it was.

For a side sauce, to add a bit of kick and depth to the dish, I made a horseradish cream sauce to drizzle on top. I took 1/2 cup sour cream and added 1/4 horseradish and mixed that together completely. The coolness of the sour cream offsets the heat from the horseradish. Next time I will do better about plating the cream, as it doesn't look that good the way I did it this time.

Served up with a side of sauteed green beans, some warm bread, and fresh pineapple for dessert!

The sirloin tip was tender, juicy and delicious and the leftovers will make great roast beef sandwiches!

Heat

While in Mexico, a friend of mine, Giles, recommend this book to me. The book is by Bill Buford, a former writer for The New Yorker. (Finally a cooking book by someone who knows how to write!) The book chronicles his time spent at Mario Batali's NY restaurant Babbo, where he was an apprentice in all parts of the kitchen. Bill writes about his time spent on the prep line, where he mastered the art of prepping veggies and meat, then on to the grill, where he lost all of his arm hair and formed blisters on top of blisters. Later in the book he writes about his time as a pasta maker and butcher's assistant.
In between his stories he writes about Mario, how he got his start and why people are so fascinated by him. (Personally, I wouldn't consider myself fascinated by Mario but then again I've never eaten his food.)

The book is another interesting tale on the workings of a successful restaurant. Only, compared to Anthony Bourdain's books, this is really well written with depth to character and plot and beautifully constructed sentences that I tend to read over and over again, on my train ride into work.

The book has also sparked my interest in eating Mario's food so Chris and I are planning a weekend stop in NYC in August to do just that. We haven't decided which of his restaurants to dine at (Babbo seems unlikely b/c I just can't bring myself to eat such things are octopus in ink, or goose liver, or beef tongue. I don't care how great it's supposed to taste.)

Luckily, Mario has a TON of restaurants in NY so I'm sure we'll find something good.

In the meantime, I'll keep reading and daydreaming about the life of a chef.

(K)new

On Saturday night, Michi, Meg, Cindy and I had dinner at a new-ish restaurant in Logan Square, (K)new. The executive chef, Omar Rodriguez, used to be the chef at the (now-closed) Think Cafe on Western. I loved Think and when I heard Chef Rodriguez had moved onto a new restaurant I immediately knew it was a place worth checking out.
I was a little concerned on my way to the restaurant because right before heading out I checked on Yelp and found mixed reviews for the place. So that left me feeling a little unsettled but I am happy to report the restaurant was superb!
The ambiance was fantastic. Beautiful, minimalist decor with friendly staff and the music at the perfect level (not too loud, not too soft).

As for the food, well it was delicious to say the least. For starters, the complimentary bread basket came with a whipped butter with shaved black truffles and white truffle oil! In the free bread basket! Immediately, I was impressed.
For an appetizer I ordered the seasonal beet salad with orange segments, goat cheese, and a citrus vinaigrette.
For the main course I ordered the pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon with dates and mashed potatoes in a port wine reduction.
For dessert I had the dark chocolate brownie with mint chocolate gelato and white chocolate mousse.

I loved every bite of it. And it was BYOB with no corking fees, which was also fantastic!

The only thing I felt could have been improved was Michelle's dessert: the cranberry, orange creme brulee. The top wasn't crunchy enough and the custard wasn't thick enough (it was a bit soupy). The flavor was amazing but the texture wasn't quite right.

Other than that, the restaurant was amazing and I would highly recommend dining at (K)new.

PinkBerry

So I'm back from "sunny" California. And by that I mean it rained every day I was there. Oh well, at least I came back to Chicago and the snow had all melted (I guess it was plenty sunny here in the midwest...go figure.)

I had a great time visiting Karla and her family. We ate at In-N-Out burger (yay!) and I got to eat PinkBerry twice on my visit! Once, Matty B and BJ brought me over a sweet treat. Then I saw the location in LAX on my way home and couldn't resist another scoop.

Their seasonal flavors are a-maz-ing and I splurged on a mixture of pomegranate and blood orange fro-yo with toasted almonds. Holy cow that was delicious.

I miss LA already but it's nice to be home. But I am now campaigning for a PinkBerry in Chicago. :)

In-N-Out Burger

I'm going to Los Angeles next week to visit my friend Karla. I'm so excited to see her, and meet her 2 small children. I haven't been back to Cali for at least 5 years. It will be good to get another dose of sunshine and warmth. And there will be at least 1 trip to In-N-Out Burger. Yay!

Blueberry Muffins

What does one do when snowed in during a blizzard? Well, if you're me you take the time to try out a new recipe. Another winner from ATK! I swear, they can do no wrong!
AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN: BEST BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS:
Blueberry Compote:
1 cup blueberries
2 tsp. sugar
Lemon-Sugar Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
Muffin:
2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sea salt
2 large eggs
1-1/8 cups (8 oz.) sugar
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (I used skim milk and it tasted fine)
1 cup fresh blueberries

Make the compote: Combine berries and sugar in small saucepan over medium heat. Break berries with spoon and cook down to 1/4 cup, about 10 minutes. Let cool.



Make the topping: Mix sugar and zest together in small bowl. Set aside.

Make the Muffin: Heat oven to 425F (400F for dark or coated pans). Set baking rack to upper middle of oven. Grease muffin tins. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar till light, about 45 seconds. In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, oil,vanilla, and buttermilk. Add egg mixture and continue to whisk till well combined. Fold wet mixture into flour mixture with a spoon or spatula. Mix lightly and leave the batter slightly lumpy. Fold in remaining blueberries.

Using an ice cream scoop, divide batter evenly among tins. Spoon about 1 tsp. of compote onto tops of standard muffins.



Swirl the jam into the muffins using a skewer or chopstick and a figure eight motion. Sprinkle each muffin with some of the lemon-sugar mixture.




Bake minis 10-13 minutes (they won’t brown). Bake standards 16-19 minutes, or till tops are set and toothpick inserted near center returns with just a few crumbs. Cool in pan 5 minutes before transferring to rack to finish cooling.

Winner of this year's Best Superbowl Ad

How flippin' cute is that kid?

(stupid blogspot won't let me upload the link to the commercial, so cut and paste the web address below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0