if you like pina coladas...

After a week of drinking my fruit (with rum) in the islands, I'm hooked on the tropical flavors, but aware of the need to consume them in a less hangover-inducing form. I adapted this Banana Pineapple Muffins recipe from Cooks.com to boost the flavor and cut the fat a bit. You know, so you can eat a muffin top without developing a muffin top.

Banana Pineapple Muffins

1 1/2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1/3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c egg substitute
1/2 c apple sauce
1/2 c crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 c mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add liquids and stir until combined. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until muffins spring back when lightly touched.

Baking tunes: "Brushfire Fairytales" by Jack Johnson, one of the roughly two V.I.-approved artists. I really need to get my hands on the calypso version of "Independent Women."

what leprechauns would eat

I'm an Irish lass, but there's not much my ancestral cuisine that I get excited about. Boiled potatoes? I'll pass. Corned beef? Sorry, vegetarian. Cabbage? Eh. Soda bread is the exception, so every year I make my mom's recipe (after emailing her because I always lose the instructions). I like it straight from the oven with a drizzle of honey. So much more enjoyable than drinking Irish Car Bombs until you puke. Believe me.

Irish Soda Bread

3 T margarine or butter, softened

2 1/2 cups flour

2 T sugar

1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 cup buttermilk

Cut margarine into flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in raisins and enough buttermilk to make a soft dough.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface nead until smooth one to two minutes. Shape into a round loaf about 6 1/2 inches in diameter. Cut an X on the top. Bake in 375 oven until golden about 30 minutes, knock on it to see if it sounds hollow. Brush with melted butter.

main squeeze

I'm obsessed with all things lemon. From the Bliss body lotion I covet to yellow Starbursts, lemon makes everything better. Especially dishsoap, apparently. My friend Megan is a big fan of these Lemon-Cornmeal Cookies from Martha (hey, gurrrl!), so I whipped up a batch for her birthday. (Meggo, sorry if I'm ruining the surprise.)
The butter and cornmeal add richness and texture to the cookie, but combined with the lemon, somehow they end up tasting very fresh and light. The recipe doesn't call for icing, but I think a lemon glaze keeps the cookie from tasting too dry, so I squeezed half a lemon and stirred in powdered sugar until I got a thick, but still drizzle-able consistency.
Baking tunes: "Heartbreaker" by Ryan Adams, in honor of his recent wedding to Mandy Moore. I'm still baffled by that relationship, but such is love. Cheers!

what is that? velvet?

No red velvet creation will ever be as memorable as the armadillo-shaped groom's cake in "Steel Magnolias," so all a girl can hope for is second. It was with this mindset that I tackled my friend from work's birthday request for red velvet cupcakes. I whipped up a batch from Recipezaar, but instead of the frosting in the recipe, I made my own from a package of fat free cream cheese, about a tablespoon of skim milk, and all the confectioners sugar I had, so about three cups. The frosting was more of a glaze, which wasn't quuuuite on purpose, but in the end it made them a lot lighter. You know, so you could have seconds and thirds.

hey, pumpkin

The healthy ingredients in these cookies (pumpkin, oats, cinnamon) are nicely balanced with a hearty dose of sugar. I suppose you could skip the powdered sugar glaze, but why would you want to do that? I like to think that baking cookies for others earns me some karma points, so for a bonus I should forgive the Whole Foods checker who charged me for my package of organic seedless raisins but then failed to put them in my reusable shopping bag.

Iced Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

For the cookies:
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. egg substitute or 1 egg
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. sea salt
1 c. white flour
2 1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats

With an electric mixer in a large bowl, blend butter and sugars. Add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Slowly add to the butter mixture. Fold in oats and raisins. Chill for several hours, preferably overnight. Maybe go for a run.



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough onto a greased baking sheet (or use a Silpat) in golfball-sized spoonfuls. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden at the edges.

For the glaze:
1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 1/2 tsp. water

Blend powdered sugar and water in a small bowl and spoon on to cooled cookies. Adjust the amount of water for a thicker (my preference!) or thinner glaze.

Baking tunes: Pete Yorn, "Music For The Morning After."

leave no dessert behind

This picture preeetty much sums up how I feel about sweets. One of my college roommates left this note on her cake at our friend's wedding when the band (which included a keytar player) beckoned us to the dance floor. You should never have to choose between dessert and dancing.