Yes. That is a pad of butter on my steaming muffin.  Layer your pleasures people.

Here’s the recipe, adapted from Nigella’s Pear Ginger Muffin recipe:

-Preheat oven to 400.
-In a large bowl, mix 1 cup white flour, 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/8 tsp of salt.
-In another bowl, mix 2/3 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 tbs honey (warm), and 2 large eggs. Fold into the dry ingredients.
-Fold in 1.5 cups peeled pears cut into 1/4 inch dice, 1/2 cup ground walnuts, 3 T minced crystallized ginger.
-Divide batter among 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle 2 tbs total brown sugar over tops of muffins and bake for 20 minutes.

*only comments would be that they still weren’t gingery enough for me – but that may be because my ground ginger was a little old, and I might try replacing the oil with something else – I don’t like the smell of oil in baked goods.

Then we used one of our Extended Freedom Days from City Car Share and drove to Point Reyes.

It always amazes us how rejuvenating hiking can be.  We get so stressed and cooped up right around the release of a piece and we could just feel that *junk* releasing as we walked and breathed actual fresh air.

This picture captures the calm.

We had our favorite lunch: bread, avocado, coppa, cheese, trail mix

Then we drove down to Bolinas because we hadn’t ever been there and had been hearing a lot of good things about it lately.  That town is amazingly cute. We would totally live there if it was even remotely affordable. Those hippies really got it right. We ate at the only place in town (that we saw), Coast Cafe, and it was completely and totally delicious.  A GIANT glass of wine, Boont Amber Ale, French Onion soup covered with crusty and bubbling gruyere, Oysters: both raw (best ones I’ve had in quite a while) and barbecued, and Spinach Fettuccine with scallops and a lemon/wine/cheese sauce.  I really wanted the Blackberry pie for dessert but was too stuffed.

Then we walked down to the beach and sat for a bit.

After I took these pics and put the camera away, we were sitting and listening to millions of tiny bubbles popping and a huge deer with a full rack appeared from nowhere and ran in front of us on the beach, stopping for a moment to look at us, and then ran up and away. It was magical and really felt like a dream.

I love it when I don’t think I have any food in the house and then make myself a plate like this.

I have been making these Doughnut Muffins since high school.  They are super delicious and quick and easy to make.  It says in the recipe, “They are done when the edges begin to brown and the centers sink in.”  But my centers never sank.  They still tasted delightful and so it never bothered me much.  But now, to my utter surprise, the centers have started to sink.  I don’t recall doing anything differently, I don’t have any different equipment, they just work right now.

I read (along with half the nation) Malcom Gladwell’s, “Outliers” at the beginning of the year.  In it, he asserts the theory that in order to become an expert at something, you have to work at it for 10,000 hours. I don’t think that I’ve spent quite that much time on these muffins, but maybe there is something to be said for there being a threshold of time at which you all of a sudden become better at whatever it is that you are working at.  Maybe it’s a different amount of time for different types of activities.  I don’t know, but somehow it makes me hopeful.

Here’s the recipe:

Doughnut Muffins

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream sugar and butter.  Stir in beaten egg. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.  Do not beat.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. They are done when the edges begin to brown and the centers sink in.

Spicy Dark Chocolate Ginger Brownies at WORK gallery (Brooklyn, NY)
photograph by Tracy Candido

About Sweet Tooth of the Tiger: Sweet Tooth of the Tiger is part entrepreneurial/d.i.y. food service project and part participatory art project that uses sugar as a medium and explores eating as social practice. The project takes the form of a bake sale that utilizes the community and public sphere as a place for eating, feeding, and talking with your mouth full. Sweet Tooth is invited by members of its community to set up a bake sale table at awesome events and engage with participants by exchanging baked goods for some money. Hopefully, participants are activated by their sugar high to engage in conversation with other participants, heightening their awareness of their own social position as well as a broadened perspective concerning their present environment.

The recipe for the jam is after the jump.Here’s the recipe for the jam:

Pour boiling water over figs, let stand about 10 min
Chop figs and plums to make about 5-7 cups of fruit
Add to big pot
Add 3 cups of sugar, juice from half a lemon, 3/4 cup of water
Boil until it reaches gelling point*
Ladle into hot clean jars, adjust two piece caps and process 10 min in boiling water canner.

*Ways to determine Gelling Point (from Tri-County Farm):
Temperature test —Use a jelly or candy thermometer, and boil until mixture reaches the following temperatures at altitudes of:
Sea level to 1,000 feet — 220 degrees F
1,001 feet to 2,000 feet — 218 degrees F

Sheet or spoon test — Dip a cool metal spoon into the boiling jelly mixture. Raise the spoon out of the steam, about 12 inches above the pan. Turn the spoon so the liquid runs off the side. The jelly is done when the syrup forms two drops that flow together and sheet or hang off the edge of the spoon.

My own experience says that if you aren’t sure, underdo it a little. You can always empty out the jars and boil it some more. I dip the spoon and put a little bit on a plate if in about 30 sec it isn’t runny and has a jammy consistency, it’s done.