So our kitchen (well our house really) had gone under massive renovations and I was unable to cook, let alone eat, in our kitchen. The kitchen was finally finished a little while ago and yesterday, I was finally able to cook in the kitchen. I was also finally able to do something I was never able to, bake. Our oven never worked and I always baked at everyone else’s house. Now, I can say I bake at home!
For dessert, I wanted to bake something relatively easy, so I decided on chocolate chip muffin. I changed it up a little and also added peanut butter chips (so good!). The muffins came out so moist and yummy. The sugar topping on top is sweet and crunchy. Right before eating, I microwaved them for 10 seconds, that way the chocolate and peanut butter chips are slightly melted (so good!) The original recipe can be found here.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Muffins
Yields 1 dozen muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter chips
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy.)
3. Fill cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle tops of muffins before baking with a combination of 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoon brown sugar.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Serve warm.
For dinner, I wanted to use the oven as well, so I decided on some roasted potatoes. We had a bunch of potatoes laying around, so I just cut them in half and marinated them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. I used the olive oil Danny got me from Italy (he bought it at an Italian vineyard, so you know it’s authentic!). After marinating for 10 minutes, I laid the potatoes on a baking tray and baked at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. The potatoes smelled amazing! They were also crunchy and so moist. The olive oil was really rich! I think the olive oil made the potatoes a little spicy but they were still delicious!
Oven Roasted Potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablesspoon dried rosemary
Salt and pepper
4 large potatoes cubed or 10 small potatoes
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (245 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Stir in potatoes until evenly coated. Place potatoes in a single layer on a roasting pan or baking sheet.
3. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.
I also had a bunch of zucchini from the garden, so I just cut them up and sauteed them in butter with salt, pepper, and garlic. I’ve made this a bunch of times and as usual, it tasted delicious. The zucchinis were slightly crunchy and had sooo buttery! This is definitely my favorite way to cook zucchini but I definitely want to try cooking them a different way.
Sauteed Zucchini
1 medium zucchini
1 tablespoon garlic
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup butter
1. Cube the zucchini. Heat up a medium pan over medium heat.
2. Add butter to the pan until melted. Throw in zucchini and add salt, pepper, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes or until slightly crunchy.
For my protein, I just pan seared a pork chop in some olive oil. I threw some salt on each side and let it cook for 8 minutes. The pork chop was slightly brown on each side. This tasted really good and moist, and NOT dried out (you can easily dry out the pork chop if you cook it too long). Dinner was great and I can’t wait to cook and bake more!
Danny and I went to La Parma out on Long Island. He’s been there many times with his family and took me there for date night. La Parma is an Italian restaurant that serves everything family style. We ordered fried zucchini stick as an appetizer. They were super crunchy on the outside and moist inside. I love zucchini and this just hit my zucchini spot. The marinara was a little spicy but still rich and yummy! Surprisingly, I thought there could have been more zucchini sticks, since it was family style but the zucchini sticks were good nonetheless.
We also ordered penna a la vodka (my favorite sauce!). Now this was seriously served family style. We had more than enough for leftovers (probably enough to feed a small family). The penne was cooked al dente and the vodka sauce was just delicious! The vodka sauce had pancetta in it, so it gave the sauce a nice meaty taste. The sauce was light, cheesy, and had a faint bacony taste. If I could, I would have penne a la vodka for every meal!
nd served the veal Parmesan before I could take a whole picture of the plate lol The veal Parmesan was good but I’ve had better. The veal was slightly overcooked and tough but it was ok. If the veal was moist, then that would’ve made the entire meal perfect. The marinara and parmesan tasted better than the veal itself. However, the veal parm tasted good with the pasta a la vodka. Next time, we definitely won’t order the veal parm.
