Sweet Mini Ham and Cheese Muffins

I think I have a new go to recipe, at least one that lends itself to improvisation.   Which is one of the best kinds of recipes to have.

I made these Sweet Cheese Muffins  for my Friday get-together, and had to play around a little more with this recipe.    I wanted to add some chopped ham in  with the cheese and since I just happened to have some sweet ham in the fridge, it was a no brainer.   And guess what?  We got together with a bunch of friends on Sunday so I decided to try the ham idea on them.

The first time I made the muffins I used some Colby Jack Cheese I had already shredded and this time I used some Sharp Cheddar Cheese.
I like the Colby Jack Cheese better in this recipe but the muffins still got eaten.
I only added the ham to half of this recipe because I knew there were some vegetarians coming and I wanted to make sure they could also sample my offering.

Ham and Cheese Mini Muffins                Makes 24 mini muffins or 12 regular size muffins
4 tablespoons Sugar
1/4 cup Melted Butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Plain Greek Yoghurt
1/2 cup buttermilk   (you can use buttermilk powder here if you like for flavour, I tend to keep some on hand because I keep drinking the buttermilk I buy to cook with, and then I don’t have any for cooking)
1 1/2 cups Grated Colby Jack Cheddar
1/2 cup Grated Colby Jack Cheddar Cheese (for topping the muffins)
1/2 cup (or more) finely diced ham

Mix the wet ingredients together and set aside.   Mix the dry ingredients together including the cheese and ham,

then pour the wet ingredients over top and mix lightly.

You want the dry ingredients to be just moistened.  Don’t over mix.   Spoon the batter into either a regular muffin tin to make 12 muffins or into two mini muffin tins to make 24 mini muffins.

 

Top each muffin with a sprinkle of the 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and place in a pre-heated 425 degree oven.
Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turn oven down to 350 degrees, bake an additional 10 minutes or so until the tops are lightly browned and the cheese is melted.

Mini Sweet Cheddar Muffins

I get together with a bunch of ladies on Friday Nights and thought they might like to try something a little different.   So I made some  Sweet Cheddar muffins I made them from this recipe, Sweet Cheddar Cheese Muffins, from this site, Betchacan’teatjustone.        I also made them mini’s, mainly because I just wanted to, and I thought it might just work out that way.    I also paid attention to what she said about how sweet these were and I cut the sugar in half, which worked out well. And I’m having fun with this recipe, stay tuned tomorrow for a little twist I did on them as well.

The recipe says you get 12 muffins from this, and I got 24 + mini muffins.   There was just a little leftover batter so I bunged it into a tart pan and baked it.     The following is her recipe with my changes in blue to the side.

Sweet Cheddar Cheese Muffins

• 1 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/2 cup sugar)
  1/4 cup melted butter
  1/4 cup vegetable oil
  2 eggs
  2.5 cups all purpose flour (plus 2 tbsp for the cheese)
  1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  1/4 tsp baking soda
  1/2 tsp salt
  pinch of nutmeg
  1/2 cup buttermilk
  1/4 cup sour cream    (my sour cream was a little, um, lost, so I used plain Greek Yoghurt)
  1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated plus more for topping the muffins  (I used 1 1/2 cups grated Colby Jack Cheese, because I had some already grated in the fridge.)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and have the oven rack on the highest section of the oven.
Line 12 muffin wells with parchment liners or grease the muffin tins with shortening.  ( I used my two mini tart pans and had more than enough batter for 24 muffins)
In a large bowl, beat the sugar with the oils until well combined.
Add the eggs one a time, beating well after each addition until smooth.
Sift together the flour with the baking powder, soda, salt and nutmeg.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter/sugar/eggs until just combined.
Be sure to scrape the bottom and edges of the bowl with a spatula to be sure everything has been mixed in!
Stir in the buttermilk and sour cream until the batter is just combined,  Don’t over mix the muffins!
Toss the grated cheese with the remaining 2 tbsp of flour so it doesn’t all clump together when you add it to the batter.

Stir in the cheese and then scoop batter into prepared muffin tins.

Top with grated cheddar.

Place the oven rack in the highest portion of the oven to get a nice high muffin top.
Bake for 15 minutes before reducing the oven down to 350 and continue to bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and the edges are turning a light golden brown.
Let muffins cool slightly in pans before removing to cool completely.

* I have to say, by following all the steps, I overmixed the batter.   The next time I made these, I added the cheese to the dry flour mixture and added the buttermilk and yoghurt to the eggs and proceeded to mix according to the way I was taught to make a muffin, by pouring the liquid into the dry and barely mixing them, they rose better and were more muffin like).

That being said, they were really good, even if I over-mixed the batter a little.   I took them with me to my usual Friday Night gathering and they were well received.     We had a kind of Halloweeny, orange theme going there.

Souvlaki Ribs and Tzatziki

One of the reasons I love hosting Tapas Night each month is the incredible variety of dishes people make and bring.  But foremost is the fact I get to try new recipes, and this one,  Pork Souvlaki looked very intriguing.   For one thing, it was made with Pork, which is my favourite meat, it incorporated Mint Leaves, (my mint plant was taking over my office and needed trimming) and there was no cucumber anywhere.    But Pork ribs were on sale and the frugal person that I am, I elected to try making ribs instead of using tenderloin.

After harvesting fresh mint leaves and parsley from my garden, and using a Meyer Lemon I’d also grown, I was ready.   So I’m bragging a little here, it was such a kick to go outside and pick what I needed from my little container garden.   Can’t get much fresher than that.

Minced them up

 

7 lbs. Pork Ribs
Marinade
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian Parsley
1/2 cup Fresh Chopped Mint
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 tsp. Black Pepper

Mix all the ingredients up for the marinade and baste or pour over the ribs, let the meat side of the ribs sit in the marinade for at least one hour at room temp, or if you have the fridge space, in the fridge overnight.

I got my ribs out, made the marinade, actually I increased the amounts cause I had a couple of racks of ribs to cover with the marinade.    I brushed on the marinade on the front and back of the ribs, set them meat side down on some cooking sheets and let them rest at room temperature for an hour.

Placed the ribs in a 325 deg. oven, covered with foil for an hour, then took them out, flipped them over so that the meat side was down into the marinade and baked them for another hour.   Took the foil off, and let them cook for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then flipped them over again, and let them bake meat side up for another 45 minutes.   By which time the fragrance wafting from the oven was driving me crazy, so I cut a piece of the meat and tasted it.
Tender, flavourful and a hit, at least with me.

While they were roasting I made the Tzatziki sauce.   I’ve only had Tzatziki with lots of cucumber and garlic, but this recipe didn’t have any cucumber or garlic.    So I again, went into my garden and picked some more mint and parsley, (the plants should recover, hopefully)  and made up the sauce.   And you know, you didn’t miss the cucumber or garlic.    And when I served it, I forgot to put out the Sriracha sauce.  grrrr.   Just means more for me later on, so it wasn’t all bad.

Tzatziki

1 cup plain Greek Style Yoghurt
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon minced lemon zest (I used my microplane on the lemons I’d used for the marinade)
1 tablespoon EVOO, (OK, so I eyeballed it a little here)
1 teaspoon Honey (make sure you get real honey)

Mix together and refrigerate until the ribs are done.

Serve with some warmed flatbread or Naan.

I think it was a success, cause there were two paltry ribs left at the end of the night, but I ate them for breakfast the next morning.   So they didn’t go to waste at all.