Blueberry Green Tea Cupcakes for April's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenege

This month's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge, presented by The Sweetest Kitchen, had an Earth Day theme. I knew right away that I wanted to make a blue and green cupcake, but I didn't want to just color it blue and green. Since the only blue food I could think of was blueberries, I started there. Remembering the technique I used in my last Mystery Box entry (Lavender Milk Tea cupcakes), I decided to infuse the batter with one of my favorite teas, Trader Joes' blueberry green tea.

• 1 C whole milk
• 4-6 tea bags
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp lemon baking emulsion
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
  

I don't want to talk about the frosting...suffice it to say it would have been easier and more cooperative if it was nothing but shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla. That'll teach me to try new weird things.

The winner of April’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela's Images; a selection of handmade crafts


• Bake It Pretty; a $5 online gift card


• Beanilla; a $7 online gift card


• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice


• My Little Cupcake; a cupcake pop mold


• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners


• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a $5 online gift card


• Tundra Books; 3 Earth-knowledgeable children's books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

Banana Crunch Muffins

These muffins are full of bananas and are absolutely delicious. I took them to a bloody mary brunch, where nobody really liked bloody mary's. Imagine that.

Banana Crunch Muffins
Adapted from Ina Garten

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 C sugar
• 2 extra large eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3/4 C milk
  
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 bananas, diced
• 2 C granola (I used vanilla almond)
• 1 C dried coconut (optional)
  
• 1/3 C broken dried bananas (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two 12 cup muffin tins. Melt butter, and allow it to cool.
   
2. Mix sugars together, then add in butter and eggs. Stir until combined.
   
3. Mix mashed banana, vanilla, milk, and cinnamon together. Add to the butter mixture.
4. Sift in baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour. Combine well, but do not overmix.
   
5. Fold in 1 C of granola, coconut, and sliced bananas.
6. Measure out 1/4 C of batter into 24 muffin tins.
7. Mix broken dried bananas and remaining cup of granola together and then sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
   
8. Bake for 26-30 minutes.
   

Basic Brownies

I made a 9 by 13 of these brownies about 12 hours ago. There is less than 1/3 of the pan left and I just ate one for breakfast. Yep, my roommates and I are adults.

When I have to do something really undesirable...

...I like to put on a cute pair of shoes.

I have 27 footnotes left to write.

My roommate is also finishing her note. We (okay, more I) keep eating these cookies - yes they require the microwave and milk to be anywhere near edible.

Salmon Eggs Benedict with Dill

I just got back from Spring Break in Jamaica. It was very relaxing, and I enjoyed myself. I even read three whole books. I hadn't read an entire non-law school book since I started law school. For shame, I know. I was also reasonably productive, working on some work for the professor I assist with research and working on a paper for my seminar.

Instead of writing one of the 79 citations I've decided to add to my note, I went to the grocery store. And in my extreme loneliness, stemming from my roommates' absence, I bought a huge piece of salmon - 2 pounds. Because that's what reasonable people do when they're cooking for one, right? It look like this before I broiled it:

I also sprinkled some lemon juice over it. I am obsessed with this lemon juice from Costco.
I add it to everything. Plus, it's not standard bottled lemon juice - I have used it to make lemon meringue pie and lemon curd and it tastes just as good as fresh lemon. So, so, delicious.

Anyway, this eggs Benedict was my first, and it was good. I ended up adding black pepper and cayenne pepper to spice it up. I didn't make my own hollandaise sauce, because I didn't want to make too much. I used about 1/4 of a Knoll's mix, and it still was way more than I needed. At least I didn't waste the whole mix - I'll probably be making versions of this again since I bought a whole package of English muffins.