3 New Recipes

We have company coming again this weekend, so I used their visit as an excuse to try 2 new muffin recipes.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins

The first batch - Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins - smelled and looked fantastic, but tasted only okay. I think the main problem for me is that they weren't sweet enough and they were a tiny bit dry. Admittedly I was a bit short on banana - maybe by a 1/4 cup - so I added one tablespoon of canola oil in an effort to replace some of moistness that would have come from the banana. They do have a nice texture and you can definitely taste the banana and the peanut butter, so I'd give these another try and see if the sugar fixes the problem. And maybe add one more tablespoon of oil.

Cran-Apple Muffins

The second batch came out much better. I haven't had a chance to fully evaluate them, but the few bites I had were nice and tart with a hint of cinnamon shining through. I used a Cameo apple which I'd liken to a Gala in taste - it was crisp, not too sweet, not too tart. I think a sweeter apple works best with this muffin since the cranberries supply a lot of tartness on their own. Unfortunately I was out of raw sugar, so no topping this time, but it would be a nice addition not only for looks, but as an added contrast to the cranberries.

Last but not least, it's soup night again. I've been wanting to try a cheese soup recipe, but was ambivalent. The nutrition-concious side of me wanted to try a reduced-fat version but the rest of me knew that it probably wouldn't work. I almost ditched the low-fat version in favor of this awesome-sounding soup that Sweetnicks just posted about last night, but I chickened out and opted for the a Cooking Light recipe.

As I thought, it turned out only so-so. Not bad by any means, but not what I wanted out of a cheese soup either. I did up the fat by using only full-fat cheese. I am not a fan of reduced-fat cheeses and refuse to use them. This recipe calls for 1% milk, but since I don't like to have to buy all sorts of different kinds of milk, I just used the skim milk we already had and added a bit of cream to up the fat content. Actually, I used a full 1/2 cup, so it probably upped the fat content a little too much.

I'm including a photo, but I haven't figured out how to make these kinds of soups look good in a photograph.........

Beer Cheese Soup

Even the cream couldn't make this soup a repeater for us. Next time, we're going full-fat. Some things just aren't meant to be lightened and this is one of them.

Up tomorrow - those appetizers I was talking about. The new, secret ingredient I'll be using is figs! Along with goat cheese, arugula and prosciutto...................