My Quest for the Perfect Harpoon Hanna's Muffin!

Ever since our family vacation to Ocean City this year (2011), and subsequent visit to the local Harpoon Hanna's restaurant, I have been questing to find the recipe for their delicious coconut muffins! I tried two different base coconut muffin recipes, and made tweaks from there based on me and my family's reactions. The following is the recipe that I ended up with, and it seems to be the general consensus that they are pretty dang close to the original :) They are a big hit!

Erin's Harpoon Hannaified Toasted Coconut Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour *add extra to thicken if necessary
• 1 whole package (7oz) sweetened shredded coconut, toasted golden brown
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 whole can (13.5 fl oz) lite canned unsweetened coconut milk*
• 2 large eggs (scrambled)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Use baking spray to coat the inside of *twelve 1/3-cup muffin cups. Combine flour, toasted coconut, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Whisk coconut milk, eggs, butter, vanilla extract and coconut extract in medium bowl to blend. Add egg mixture to flour mixture gradually and stir until combined.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about *15-20 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool slightly. Eat and enjoy!

*In our oven at home I find that it is more like 20 min.

*This makes large muffins. For smaller muffins, fill less full or use smaller tins

Citation

(Base recipe from Epicurious.com "Toasted Coconut Muffins" by Joan Nugent, and the review from 1/04/08)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Toasted-Coconut-Muffins-102477#ixzz1SZj2VvHd

Chicken Picatta for Grandpa!

For today's dinner, I had a change of venue because I cooked dinner for my Grandpa! I roped my cousin into helping me, so we went grocery shopping for ingredients together. Then we came back and my Mom helped me prepare all the ingredients ahead of time. She also baked a German chocolate cake and made scrambled eggs and sweet potato pancakes for him (for breakfast the next morning)! Then My cousin and I gathered our things and headed out to Grandpa's condo to cook! When we got there we had a little trouble with cooking the rice side dish (we we unable to find a rice cooker and had no idea how to cook raw rice without instruction). In the end, our Grandpa saved the day by nuking the rice in the microwave for a good long time with some water and a lid! The chicken picata came out beautifully, and Grandpa even commented that it was unusually (as far as chicken goes) tender! We served green beans with dinner, and later we ate the yummy cake and ice cream!! All in all, it was a fun adventure and an even better visit with our Grandpa!

Orange and Beef Stir Fry

Last night I was feeling adventurous (and in the mood for Chinese), so I made "Orange and Beef Stir Fry" for myself and my parents (the sibs were missing). I have never consumed so many vegetables in one sitting before in my life!! There was broccoli, onions, mushrooms, 2 entire bell peppers, mandarin oranges and it was served on a bed of raw spinach! Pshew! There was a little steak mixed in there (cut into thin strips) and we cooked up some white rice as a side, but that was the only non-vegetable part of the meal. After consuming the meal my insides felt like they had been scrubbed clean! I am not sure if I like that feeling or not, but I am pretty sure I wont be making this recipe again. It was a little too confusing, with lots of conflicting flavors, and it was VERY labor intensive!

So it begins...

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! Enjoy for a moment, if you will, the delicious irony that the date of birth for myself and my blog are one and the same! Today, June 13th 2010, is my 20th Birthday, and seemed to me as good a day as any to begin my journey into blogging. I hope you all will enjoy the ensuing posts that will tell the tale of "my summer culinary adventure."

The event that instigated this perilous quest is one that many people my age encounter...college dining hall food. Dun...Dun...Dun!!! College students beware! All the rumors are true! While the first two weeks may lull you into a false sense of security, do not be deceived! the. food. is. nasty. After two years of consuming a strictly "dining hall and take-out diet", my taste buds are not amused. The question is; what to do about it? As the deadline for my college meal plan sign-up was quickly arriving and I had to decide: to meal plan or not to meal plan? Since I had just signed up for my first apartment I finally had a way out of the foul fare...a kitchen! So, after consulting with my father about the costs of buying ingredients vs. buying a meal plan, we determined that it would be just as expensive (or maybe less!) to cook all of my own meals as it would be to buy a meal plan again. The ensuing pros outweighed the cons and I bravely selected "no meal plan" in my room sign up process.

My taste buds approved.

Unfortunately I had overlooked a small snafu that threatened my new plan's success, I did not know how to cook. At least not real cooking. I had helped in the kitchen before and knew a few basic things, but when it came to magically transforming slimy raw meat into something delicious: I was stumped! So I decided to turn to the person who was responsible for my and my family's daily dietary survival...my Mom! Upon hearing of my new interest in learning (as she says) "The culinary arts", my mother happily agreed to teach me everything she knew about cooking. She even gifted me with a cook book called "Cooking Light: way to cook."
This book is full of helpful pictures and descriptions of almost any cooking technique a prospective cook could dream of, as well as practice recipes (that increase in difficulty from easy to hard) for new found skills.

Feeling newly armed with my mother's knowledge, a helpful cook book, and a few techie online cooking sites, I decided to dedicate my summer to the pursuit of crafting delicious nutritious food.

Let the blogging begin!