Eating, Bowling, More Eating.

OK, so where’ve I been? Vacationing would you believe. Eating a lot too. Ate with friends on Tuesday night and Wednesday night we went to T & W Oyster Bar where Matt had crab cakes, he does love those, and I decided to go for snow crab claws. Delicious. Matt got fed up watching me pick them clean so I took the rest home in a doggy bag and finished them there. Didn’t have a cracker, but managed anyway. Matt reckoned it took me something like an hour and 50 minutes to eat two clusters. Well my family and I were taught by a waitress in Belgium how to eat lobster, and by extension crab and I am not letting the smallest bit escape me.

The weather on Wednesday was pretty lousy, we had one hell of a storm on Tuesday night and it was grey and cool as well as cloudy all day. Not Carolina weather at all, mind you, I happened to look at the temps for Ontario and they are around 13°C or about 52°F there at the moment. Brrr.

Thursday afternoon we had lunch at MacDaddy’s again and then bowled with our friends. He was on a league last winter and I actually beat him, was I chuffed? He’s still a better bowler than we are though.

In the afternoon I finally got round to checking the back yard at this cottage only to confirm there were zucchini flowers there. Unfortunately way too late for me to pick and stuff them which is something I have always wanted to do. However, I did discover a whole bunch of tiny, very sweet, grape tomatoes which I picked at great cost to my leg; bites and scratches. We ate them with supper and they were delicious.

Tomorrow, of course, we head north to Canada.

I thought these sounded delicious.

Honey & Goat Cheese-Filled Fig Muffins

Sweet figs and a filling of tangy goat cheese give a surprising twist to these hearty breakfast muffins. Make a batch of these on the weekend and enjoy them for breakfast all week long. If you’re not a fan of goat cheese, try them with cream cheese instead.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup crumbled soft goat cheese, or reduced-fat cream cheese; Neufchâtel
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, freshly grated
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
• 2 cups white whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed dark or light
• 1 cup buttermilk, low-fat or nonfat
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 1/4 cup dried figs, chopped
• 3 tablespoons turbinado, or granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups with paper liners or coat with cooking spray.
2. Thoroughly combine goat cheese (or cream cheese), honey, lemon zest and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Lightly beat eggs and egg white in a medium bowl; add brown sugar and the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla and whisk until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in buttermilk and oil until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in figs.
4. Spoon half the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Add 1 generous teaspoon of the reserved cheese filling to the center of each muffin, and cover with the remaining batter. (The filling should not be visible.) Sprinkle the muffins with sugar.
5. Bake the muffins until the edges start to brown and the tops spring back when gently pressed, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool

Have a great day