Stacey Makes It

Yes, it's been a long time again.  I'm having trouble adjusting to my new schedule of driving to Cupertino every morning and trying to get in a morning run.  Also, I've been experimenting with waffles and they're not always that great, so I've been embarrassed to blog them. This is a yeast waffle batter that I adapted to make muffins.  I loved how fluffy the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book recipe was coming out, so I decided to see if I could adapt it to make muffins. Stacey's Havarti Dill Yeast Muffin Ingredients  2c all-purpose unbleached flour, organic 1.5 tsp yeast 1 tsp salt 2 tsp dried dill weed 1 3/4c lowfat milk, organic 2 tbs honey (although 1 tbs is probably enough) 1/2c olive oil, organic 2 eggs, lightly beaten 5 oz lite havarti cheese, cut in chunks (but you can use regular) Muffin pan Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Then heat the milk to about 110F using a thermometer or your handy dandy te...

So, these muffins were an experiment with olive oil.  Really I wanted to call them olive oil muffins, but even though I used EVOO, you could barely, if at all, taste it.  I suppose that means it was a success?  Perhaps if I want to showcase the olive oil more, I should use more of it, but this was really a test to see if I could start baking desserty type stuff with olive oil versus other types of cooking oils. Olive oil smells and tastes a little nutty to me, so I thought almond meal might go well with that flavor.  Then I happened to have some overripe bananas, so that's how that happened.  And everything tastes good with chocolate chips. I guess if I wanted to give them the title they deserve it would be... Stacey's Banana Chocolate Chip Almond Olive Oil Muffin Ingredients 1 1/2c unbleached white flour, organic 1/2c brown rice flour, organic 1c almond meal/flour 2/3c granulated sugar, organic 1 tbs baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 t...

Same friend that wanted plain lip balm also wanted plain lotion. Stacey's Olive Oil Lotion Ingredients : 1/4c olive oil, organic 1/4c emulsifying wax 1c distilled water 1/4c glycerin First I mixed the olive oil and the wax in a pyrex measuring cup . Then I microwaved this at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until all the wax was melted.  In the meantime, I mixed the water and glycerin together. I microwaved this a little bit (for about 30 seconds) later, just so it would be warm when I poured it into the wax / oil mixture. As I poured the water / glycerin mixture into the wax / oil mixture, I stirred with a small wire whisk. Once the mixture cooled, I poured it into a bottle. It separated a bit as it cooled, but I was able to mix it back up just by swirling it around in the bottle. Once it was cooled to room temperature, it did not separate again. Because this has no preservatives, it should either be used fairly soon or kept refrigerated.  I've seen my p...