Lemon Yogurt Muffins

When I get bored, I usually do one of three things: write, make jewelry, and look through cookbooks. Since I collect cookbooks like some women collect shoes, I have a lot of them to dig through.

The original recipe for these muffins said we should use plain yogurt. I said that I would rather be able to eat whatever didn't go in the muffins, which led to a few more alterations, which led to this.

RECIPE

- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 beaten eggs
- 1 1/4 cups vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon peel
- 1 tablespoon honey

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, mix the eggs, yogurt, butter, sugar, lemon peel, and honey.

Add the dry ingredients.

Put the dough into muffin cups and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

It turned out looking kind of lumpy, but looks don't matter as much as taste. And these muffins taste very good. They do need a little bit of butter, but it's easy to fix.

These muffins are good with soup, or just for breakfast. They will stick to the pan (or in this case, cupcake papers) but again, looks don't matter as much as taste. 

Honey Glazed Chicken

I try to find non-dessert recipes despite my sweet tooth. Every so often, I do find something, and yet, most of the ones that get my attention involve rice and soy sauce. I knew it was my favorite kind of food, but how often this happened surprised me.

This recipe is a Honey Glazed Chicken from allrecipes.com. I knew going in that I wasn't a big fan of honey, but I love chicken and soy sauce, so I decided to give it a try.

I didn't have the red pepper flakes, and I thought it would be too spicy for me anyway, so we left it out. It might have made the recipe better, but it was good anyway.

The result was positive reviews, but not five stars. I said it was "edible" but it wasn't going in my personal cookbook. My brother said it was good, but he liked my personal recipe better. My parents liked it, though, so it wasn't a failure.

Applesauce Bread

When I was stuck inside for weeks, with no car to escape on my own, I went crazy. When I went crazy, I baked three things in one day. This was a recipe I made before then, but it was something that I decided to do because we had all of the ingredients, and because it's technically mine.

I'll admit, just like the butterscotch cake, this recipe is mine just because I left ingredients out. And, again, I am not a big fan of applesauce, but I do like making things.

I recommend using dishwasher-safe mixing tools, because this recipe needs three different bowls, or two bowls and a glass measuring cup.

RECIPE:

- 2 cups flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

- 2/3 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 cup applesauce

- 1/4 cup milk

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.

Use a mixer to fluff the butter and sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla to the mixer bowl.

Combine milk and applesauce in a third bowl.

Add flour and applesauce alternately, mixing after each addition.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 or 50 minutes.

According to my applesauce-eating test subjects, this is a very good bread. I won't make this without a request, but I had fun and I'm glad they liked it so much.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

It's the middle of January, we're probably snowed in, and I haven't left the house for anything but the most important reasons for over two weeks now. I have complained about this, but without a car, I can't even go to the library to check out old issues of Taste of Home. I was starting to get just a little bit "twitchy" from desperation.

So I went through Pinterest to find recipes that I could make with what we already had in the house. I found these - the Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies from isavea2z.com. This was the first of many things I made, because I'm bored and and using up all our ingredients over one weekend sounds like a fun challenge.

I used chocolate pudding instead of vanilla, and it turned out really good. This recipe is now in my personal cookbook, so I don't have to look through my Pinterest board or my blog to find it again.

Apple Cider Donut Cake

For some reason, probably related to my sister being home for a while, we had apple cider in the house. My brother and I do not like apple cider, and my sister is back at school, so it was up to my parents to drink it before it went bad. When my dad complained, I decided to help him.

I looked around to find some recipes that used apple cider, and decided to use the Apple Cider Donut Cake from marthastewart.com. I knew I wouldn't eat this cake myself, but my parents could take it to work and find people to help.

I replaced the whole wheat flour with another cup of all-purpose flour, and I forgot the cinnamon sugar step, but other than that, I followed the recipe. There's no need to post the same recipe in my style.

Despite my dislike of apple cider and applesauce, I took a bite of this cake. The apple was there while I was chewing, but it really hit me after I swallowed it. My mom said it's a good cake, but it would be better if we added maple and walnuts.

Best Hot Chocolate Cookies

My mother found a hot chocolate cookie recipe online, and wrote it down instead of sending it to me. I changed it before I even made the cookies, so it became one of the first recipes (mostly) from my head, and one of her favorites.

I've made these cookies for Christmas parties, Christmas presents for the neighbors, and other Christmas-related things. I'm posting this in January because they aren't just Christmas cookies, and because I'm relieved that Christmas is behind me for the next few months. Now it's birthdays that I need to worry about.

RECIPE
- 1 1/4 cup softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 1/4 cups flour
- 4 packages hot chocolate mix (with mini marshmallows)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350.

Beat the butter and sugars together.

Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mix.

Combine the next 4 ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually add it to the butter mix. It will probably get stuck in whatever you're using to mix it, but just poke it free.

Use a cookie scooper to drop the dough on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes

These cookies are good alone, but they're even better with milk. I would suggest making these for the new year, but since that's already past us, I'll just make them all winter.