Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

America never ceases to amaze. Walking through a convenience store the other day, I noticed something called a "breakfast cookie." Made by Quaker, the oatmeal people, it appears to be nothing more than a large, individually-wrapped oatmeal cookie with the word "breakfast" on it. But I haven't tried it - I suppose it could be more of a circular granola bar. In any case, it struck me as a pretty shallow marketing ploy.

But I may now have to rescind my initial derision. For I've discovered my own - less duplicitous – way to eat cookies for breakfast. I call them: Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins.

I woke up Saturday morning wanting muffins, but, not having planned ahead and still lacking in many basic foodstuffs, didn't know what kind of muffins I could make. Luckily, I have a book called Muffins A to Z (by Marie Simmons). I've probably had this book for at least 10 years - my mom gave it to me for my birthday when I was little and we used to make the Lemon Drizzle Lemon muffins from it all the time. They're really good. The Devil's Food Chocolate Chip Muffins aren't bad either - probably because they bear a great resemblance to cupcakes.

But back to the chocolate chip cookie muffins. At the back of the A to Z book is a recipe for "Quickie-Mix Muffins" (she needed something for Q) - just a very simple muffin base you can throw anything into. Lo and Behold, I had all the Quickie Mix ingredients on hand. I also had a bag of chocolate chips. Or thought I did... have I mentioned we're having a heat wave here in New York? (At least that's what they say... if you ask me it's just more of the same oppressive heat we've been enjoying for weeks.) But no worries, I broke apart the semi-molten semi-sweet chips to the best of my abilities, and, since my abilities are nothing to shout about, the muffins boasted some nice big chocolaty patches.

Here's the recipe, if you, too, would like to guiltlessly eat large, soft chocolate chip cookies
for breakfast. Pour yourself a glass of OJ and call it a balanced meal.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

First, make the quickie mix by whisking together:

10 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tb baking powder
4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt

Unless you want to make a ridiculous quantity of muffins, measure 2 2/3 cups of the dry mix into a bowl. Store the rest at room temperature in something airtight. You can use it next time you wake up wanting muffins.

Preheat the oven to 400º and coat a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick spray.

Add another 1/4 cup of sugar to the 2 2/3 cups of dry mix in the bowl.

Then, in a separate bowl, whisk together:

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 vegetable oil
2 large eggs

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. When almost combined, fold in 3/4 cup of chocolate chips.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cups - it won't rise much, so you can fill them up pretty well.

Bake 19-20 minutes, or until slightly browned.

Yummy Pizza

Surprise... more Basil! Also, more prosciutto. Nick has decided he really likes it. Prosciutto, not basil. Although he likes Basil too, thank goodness.

Anyway, this pizza was primarily intended as a vehicle for the aforementioned basil and prosciutto, as well as the remaining mozzarella in my fridge. All three are incredible: the basil is from my fire escape, and the prosciutto and mozzarella are from Italy by way of Agata & Valentina, an absolutely amazing gourmet food store on 79th and 1st. They have at least 4 kinds of prosciutto, exotic cheese offerings and make their own pasta. Needless to say, I love it there.

The pleasant surprise of the evening was how great the pizza itself was. I bought the dough from a pizza place down the street and was a bit shocked to pay $5 for it. Admittedly, it was a HUGE piece of dough, but still. Pizza dough is a dollar in Salem - you could get a whole pizza for $5! But it wouldn't be as good as this pizza.

Because the dough was so big, it was a kind of thick-crust pizza. And although I usually prefer thin-crust, it was really good. Soft and chewy but not gooey - I don't know how I did it. All I know is I used some chunky tomato sauce I made last week, tore the mozzarella over that, grated a bunch of Parmesan on top and stuck it in a 500º oven for about 18 minutes.

Then I tore the prosciutto and basil over after it came out of the oven, and it was great!

Of Butchers and Basil

Two exciting new culinary developments this week.

First, I found a butcher. I've always wanted a butcher. It's nice to be able to get exactly what you want, plus some advice on what to do with it. And I've never been particularly fond of buying meat in shrink-wrapped Styrofoam at the grocery store. It's a kosher butcher, so no pork, but lots of very helpful Jewish men.

Second, I got a Basil plant! I found it at the miniature farmers' market on 92nd street for only $6. I've named him Basil, and he lives on my fire escape. Having a nice green plant waving around outside the window makes me surprisingly happy.

So dinner tonight was in honor of the butcher and the basil. I made chicken stuffed with prosciutto, mozzarella and, you guessed it, basil, and then a cucumber watermelon salad with more basil. Both were based on recipes from epicurious.com, my versions follow.

Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Basil stuffed chicken
Serves 2

2 boneless Chicken Breasts, skin on
4 slices Prosciutto di Parma
1 small ball Fresh Mozzarella
8 large Basil leaves
Coarse grained mustard
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 325º

1. First, make a pocket in each chicken breast by carefully cutting a slit three-quarters of the way through, lengthwise.

2. Gently slide 1 or 2 basil leaves under the skin of each chicken breast.

3. Lay your prosciutto slices out flat on a cutting board. Tear or grate some mozzarella over each. Tear some medium sized pieces of basil over the cheese.

4. Roll up each prosciutto slice, then stuff two into the pocket of each chicken breast. Season the chicken with salt & pepper.

5. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in an ovenproof skillet. Gently place the chicken breasts skin side down in the skillet.

6. Spread about 2 teaspoons coarse-grained mustard on the underside of the chicken.

7. Brown the skin side for a few minutes, then flip. When both sides are slightly browned, put the chicken in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through.

Cucumber Watermelon Salad

2 cups cubed watermelon
1 cucumber, cubed
juice of 1 lime
1 Tb. chopped basil leaves
1 Tb. chopped cilantro
1 Tb. chopped mint

Combine everything in a bowl. Eat.

Breakfast in New York

I know, I know, I've been away a very long time. Apologies. But I've been busy! Two weeks ago, I moved to New York City with Nick, a very long, very exhausting process that ate up all my time for weeks. But we're here now and somewhat settled into our apartment, which has, I swear, the best kitchen in Manhattan. Lucky me! I've been making good use of it, cooking tasty, if simple, dinners every night. Some of the highlights have been spaghetti and meat balls, blue cheese burgers with cole slaw salad, beef tacos, soba noodle salad with marinated steak and, Nick's favorite, pork chops with mushroom risotto.

The one thing that's been lacking is baked goods - it's about 80 degrees out most days, and the one (tiny) downside to my enormous kitchen is that it's so big, it's hard to air condition effectively with our one window unit. So the heat has kind of deterred me from making anything too oven-intensive. The other obstacle was my lack of baking ingredients - flour, sugar and the like. We live in a 5th floor walkup, so I can only buy as much food as I can carry up 4 flights of stairs. I had to forgo the baking essentials in favor of dinner ingredients for many days. But then yesterday Nick came grocery shopping with me, so I stocked up. And this morning, I made pancakes!

Pancakes are, without a doubt, one of my favorite things to make and eat. I'm a total sucker for breakfast foods in all forms (my favorite words are "breakfast served all day") but pancakes make me especially happy. I think they make other people happy too. And I'm lucky enough to now own a Black & Decker electric griddle, courtesy of my lovely mother, that makes beautiful, evenly cooked pancakes every time. I've never had much luck with frying pan pancakes (ironic, given their name) so my griddle is a godsend. (They're super cheap at Target, if you're in the market.)

I realized that, although I make them all the time, I've never before published my pancake recipe - which is actually my mother's pancake recipe. It's not revolutionary or anything, but it makes super fluffy, delicious pancakes that are the best I've ever had. I'm going to share it with you now, but in return, you have to promise to treat the pancakes well.

That means you can only flip them once - more and they'll get tough.

That also means no store-bought frozen blueberries - they don't taste like anything. My family just happens to have a dozen blueberry bushes in our front yard, which means we have massive quantities of fresh berries in the summer and our freezer is full of flavorful frozen blueberries all winter. Unfortunately most people don't have that luxury and must buy their blueberries at a store. Fresh berries from a grocery store are fine in the summer, but they can be prohibitively expensive when they're out of season. So in the fall and winter, try something else. I love apple pancakes, my mom used to make them for my birthday (in September) all the time. Or just throw in some chocolate chips! They're never out of season, and they're always a big hit. Even better, mash up a banana and make banana-chocolate chip pancakes. Yum.

Finally, whatever you do, don't overmix the batter! Only mix until everything is combined - it should still have lumps in it. If you overmix, bad things will happen. And I will be very sad.

That being said, this is really a pretty simple recipe that uses a minimum of ingredients. You should be able to make delicious pancakes on your first try.

Mom's Blueberry Pancakes

2 cups cake flour (I have to admit, I couldn't find cake flour at the store yesterday, so I used regular old gold medal flour. It works fine, but try to get some cake flour, as it will make your pancakes lighter and fluffier.)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (we use coarse kosher salt, if you're using regular table salt you might want a tiny bit less, as it's saltier)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I usually use light or low fat)
3 Tb melted butter (unsalted, always)
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 pint fresh blueberries, or other fruit (I've used strawberries to good effect, and I especially like apples.)

Preheat a griddle - I set mine to about 300º, but you might need to experiment to get the best setting for your griddle. The pancakes should take a few minutes to brown, otherwise the center won't cook. Play around and see what works.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

2. Add the buttermilk, butter and eggs and mix just until combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. The batter should be thick but still somewhat viscous. If it's more solid than liquid (sits in a ball in the middle of the bowl, say) it won't spread out on the griddle and you might need to add a little more buttermilk. But not too much - it should be somewhere in between cake batter and bread dough, consistency wise.

3. Gently fold the blueberries in with the spatula.

4. Butter or spray your griddle. (Even if it's non-stick.) Scoop about 1/2 cup of pancake batter onto your griddle. It should spread out a bit, gradually, but still retain some height.

5. Let the pancake sit until bubbles begin to pop up on the surface. Gently lift with a spatula to check the underside, when it's a light golden brown flip the pancake over.

6. Let it sit on the second side for a couple more minutes. It should rise slightly as the center cooks. The second side usually cooks more quickly, so when you think it might be ready, take a peek to see if the bottom is light golden brown. When they're done, the pancakes should no longer be floppy. If they're too floppy, the centers aren't cooking and you need to turn your griddle down.

7. Top with some fresh fruit and maple syrup (not fake "pancake" syrup!), and enjoy!