Welcome to my blog!
My name is Melody M. Nuñez, and I’m an artist and a writer. Please look around my website and make yourself at home. I post new blog entries weekly, and hope you’ll subscribe to my blog and come back often! To learn more about me, please view the “About” page…SUBSCRIBE
-
Recent Posts
Archives
-
-
-
-
Category Archives: baking
Orange Cranberry Muffins Recipe
I opted to make muffins for this month’s recipe, and these Orange Cranberry muffins are tangy, fresh and sweet! Inspired by a muffin I really enjoyed at Panera some time ago, I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com. I particularly like that the recipe calls for dried cranberries, as it can be difficult to find fresh or frozen cranberries if it’s not fall or winter. These muffins are yummy on their own, but would also be tasty with butter or fresh whipped cream.
Orange Cranberry Muffins Recipe
*
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for preparing the muffin tin
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar, plus up to 1 tablespoon for topping the muffins, if desired
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup milk
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Put the cranberries and orange juice in a small saucepan, and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Remove berries from the heat, and set aside to cool and plump.
Lightly brush a 12-muffin tin with butter. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand-held mixer in a large bowl, cream the butter, orange zest, and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
Fold the flour in 3 parts into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk in 2 parts, until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack. Serve warm.
Yield: 12 muffins
Note: I liked the dried cranberries, but will probably try fresh cranberries next time. Please keep in mind that you’ll want to increase the measurement of cranberries if they’re fresh, since fresh berries take up more room in the measuring cup than dried…
Happy Baking!
Warm regards,
Melody
Also posted in life in general, recipes
Tagged cranberries, Cranberry Orange Muffins, muffins, recipe
8 Comments
Applesauce Spice Cake Recipe
Are you familiar with Mavis at the One Hundred Dollars a Month blog? She is the Queen of Gardening and I seriously envy her yard and garden. She featured this recipe on her blog in December, and I decided to give it a try. Verdict? Yummy! The fact that it’s delicious and easy to make makes it a winner in my book.
Though Mavis dusted the top of hers with powdered sugar, I left mine plain. You know what would be yummy though? Topping this cake with some cream cheese frosting. You can find a recipe for the frosting here, on my Pumpkin Bars Recipe page. You’d probably want to cut the frosting recipe in half though.
Applesauce Spice Cake Recipe
*
Ingredients
*
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup of buttermilk ( I was a rebel and used regular milk)
1 cup sugar
Directions
*
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Butter and flour an 8-in square baking pan and set aside. You’ll want to do this even if you use a non-stick pan. Trust me.
- In a medium bowl combined the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and salt and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl beat together the eggs, butter, vanilla and sugar until nice and smooth. Mix in the applesauce and buttermilk, then add in the dry ingredients and mix again until everything is incorporated.
- Pour the batter into your 8-inch prepared pan and bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
Happy Baking, y’all!
Warm regards,
Melody
Also posted in food, life in general
Tagged applesauce, Applesauce Spice Cake Recipe, cake recipe
4 Comments
Biscuit Recipe
Have I ever mentioned that I love biscuits? Well, I do. I really really do. And, oddly enough, until very recently I’d never made them from scratch. For someone that loves to bake and loves to eat biscuits it seems unlikely, but there you have it.
Now that I have made biscuits, and know how easy it is to have fresh biscuits on hand, there could be a problem. But it’s a good problem to have, so I wouldn’t dream of complaining. Somehow I’ll muddle through. ;]
As for what one puts on the biscuits, I haven’t gotten into the gravy thing. Maybe that will come later. Thus far in my life I’ve enjoyed them plain, with butter, with honey, and with jam. Yum-yum-yum-yum! Here’s the recipe I used to initiate myself as a biscuit baker. I hope you enjoy it!
Biscuit Recipe
*
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP white sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 cup milk
Directions:
*
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
- Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.
Helpful Hints
*
- Refrigerate the dough for about an hour before rolling it out. This will make it easier to roll out and cut.
- Make sure your rolling surface is adequately floured or you’ll end up with a sticky mess.
- For easy cleanup, flour the inside surface of a full-size, rimmed cookie sheet and roll your dough out there. The rim of the cookie sheet will help keep the flour contained and will make cleanup easier.
- To make roughly six large biscuits, use a 3″ biscuit cutter. A 2 1/2″ inch cutter will yield approximately 10 biscuits.
How do you eat your biscuits, dear readers? Savory? Sweet? Do tell.
Warm regards,
Melody
Washi Tape & Cork Place Card Holders
I was recently given a big bag of corks (Thanks, Megan!), and have started the fun process of coming up with things to create with them. My first DIY with these corks is this set of place card holders. These little beauties are fast and easy to make, and require few materials. What’s not to love?
Getting back to my bag ‘o corks, some of the corks are “natural” and some of them are made from foam and plastic. Today’s project is made with the latter – the synthetic corks. I found them to be more symmetrical, and therefore easier to wrap with the washi tape. Washi tape is easy to work with, since it’s easy to peel up and straighten, and the color, pattern, and mix-n-match possibilities are endless!
Materials
*
Synthetic corks
Washi tape
Xacto Blade
Cardstock
Pen
Directions
*
- Wrap Washi tape around the cork. The corks I used allowed for three “rows” of tape to be laid out next to each other, with a wee bit of overlap. You can use all one color, as I did on most of my corks, or mix and match, like I did on my black, white, and silver cork.
- Cut across the top middle of your cork with your Xacto blade. The cut should go all the way across the top, as shown, and should extend downward into the cork so the placecard can be slid down into the cork about 1/4 of an inch.
- Prepare the cards you’ll be displaying and carefully inset them into the cut foam slit. Make sure they’re centered so they don’t tip over.
Not only are these super fast and easy holders perfect for place cards, they’re also great for labeling food and dessert platters. You might also consider using them to hold cherished photos.
*
*
*
Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear from you, dear readers. Happy washi taping!
*
Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear from you, dear readers. Happy washi taping!
*
Warm regards,
Melody
Tweet
Also posted in art supplies, cooking, crafts, DIY, family, food, life in general
Tagged cork place card holders, entertaining, place card holders, Washi Tape, washi tape place card holders
4 Comments
Holiday Favorites – My December “To Do” List!
There are certain things that I enjoying doing each year when December rolls around. They’re things that I must do or experience in order for the Christmas season to be its best – at least for me. I know everyone celebrates different things and/or in different ways, and I really love that celebrating is unique to each individual or family. Tradition, culture and personalities play such a big part, don’t you think?
Here are some of My Holiday Favorites – things that I love to partake in each year, if I can:
- Watching the movie “Elf” starring Will Ferrell. Buddy the Elf is so innocent, gleeful, and funny. I love it!
- Decorating for the holidays
- Making – and eating – Magic Cookie Bars! I could literally eat a whole pan myself, they’re SO good. :]
- Listening to the Soundtrack from The Nutcracker
- Eating Dryer’s Peppermint Ice Cream. Yum!
- Doing something to help those in need, like donating food to a food bank
- Listening to the song “Feliz Navidad”, performed by José Feliciano. I listen to it several times during the month – it fills me with joy!
- Baking sugar cookies. When I was little my family used to make the kind of sugar cookies that you have to roll out and cut with cookie cutters, which was fun, but these days I go with a sugar cookie recipe that’s easier to make and is simply scrumptious.
What’s on your holiday “Must Do” list? Please comment and share…
Warm regards,
Melody
p.s. Yep, that little girl in the blue dress in the photo up top was me – over 35 year ago. It was my one and only picture with Santa as a child. :]
Tweet
Also posted in family, food, helping others, holidays, life in general, movies, music, recipes
Tagged celebrating the holidays, Elf, Magic Cookie bars, The Nutcracker
6 Comments
Another Look: Holidays!
Welcome to a new installment of Another Look! This post is designed to share some goodies from my archive while I’m recovering from my surgeries. I hope you enjoy these links, whether you’re seeing them for the first time or have seen them once before. Today’s category is holidays! Just click on a photo to link over to the original post…
*
Seven Suggestions for a Happier Holiday Season
*
DIY: Aluminum Star Ornaments – Frugal & Festive!
*
Magic Cookie Bar Recipe
*
My Festive Cubicle!
**
Fudge Recipe
*
My Visit with Santa Claus
*
Sugar Cookie Recipe
*
My Christmas-y Cubicle
*
Letting My Inner Child Out to Play: Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows
*
Vintage Snapshot Ornaments
*
I hope you have the happiest of holiday seasons!
Warm regards,
Melody
Also posted in crafts, DIY, family, food, holidays, inner child, life in general
Tagged holiday-related posts
6 Comments
Another Look: Autumn!
Welcome to a new installment of Another Look! This post is designed to share a handful of goodies from my archive while I’m recovering from my surgeries. I hope you enjoy these links, whether you’re seeing them for the first time or have seen them once before. Today’s category is Autumn - and could also be recipes! Just click on the name of the post to link over to the original post…
Popcorn Ball Recipe
**
A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch
*
Pumpkin Bars Recipe!
*
Apple-Cranberry Cake Recipe
*
I hope you’re enjoying Autumn thus far, dear readers. Will any of you be dressing up for Halloween this year?
Warm regards,
Melody
Also posted in food, holidays, inner child, life in general, recipes
Tagged cake, popcorn balls, pumpkin bars, pumpkin patch
4 Comments
Another Look: Recipes
Welcome to my first installment of Another Look. This is a type of post I’ll be sharing while I’m recovering from my surgeries. Each Another Look post will share past blog posts based on a category, like art, recipes, crafts, etc, and I’ll share a handful of goodies from the archive in category. Please scroll down for the first of these installments. Today’s category is recipes!
Just click on the name of the recipe to link over to the original recipe post.
Triple Chocolate Cake Recipe
*
Blueberry-Lemon Muffin Recipe
*
Orange Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
*
Spicy Meatball Recipe
*
Lemon Bars Recipe
*
Zucchini Bread Recipe
*
I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into the archives. Will you be trying any of these recipes?
Warm regards,
Melody
Carrot Cookies Recipe
I recently discovered this recipe for carrot cookies online, and was intrigued. I’d never heard of such a thing, and soon discovered that there are a number of carrot cookie recipes out there. Who knew?! Some are iced and some aren’t. Some are made with cooked carrots – these are made with fresh grated carrots. Such variety!
While I don’t pretend that these are healthy cookies because there are carrots in there, I do like that they have a pinch of veggies per cookie. And being Mama Bunny to two rescued rabbits, I guess I have a soft spot for carrots! I should also mention that though these cookies are called carrot cookies, the most dominant flavor that comes through is orange (from the orange zest). The carrot is really mild, and is most noticeable in the orange pops of color it gives the cookie and a subtle bit of texture.
I hope you enjoy this recipe from allrecipes.com, which was posted by Nevena Long. I only made one change to the recipe – I added one teaspoon of vanilla.
Carrot Cookies Recipe
*
Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups grated carrots
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and orange zest. Stir to blend.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Add to butter mixture alternately with grated carrots. Mix to form dough.
4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased or non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Loosen cookies with spatula. Cool on wire rack.
Yield: 2-3 dozen cookies
If you’re making these cookies for a larger family or a gathering of some sort you may want to double or triple the recipe. Happy Baking!
Warm regards,
Melody
Also posted in food, life in general, recipes
Tagged Carrot Cookies, Carrot Cookies Recipe
4 Comments
Apple-Cranberry Cake Recipe
This month’s recipe is bound to be a hit with those of you that like fruity desserts. This was my first time making it, but it won’t be my last – yum! It’s tasty all on its own, but is also excellent served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I found this recipe on page 205 of the Barefoot Contessa’s How Easy Is That? cookbook, but made a few changes. She calls it Easy Cranberry Apple Cake, but I included more apples than cranberries so I changed the name a bit for this post. Apparently her recipe is based on a recipe from Sarah Chase’s book Cold Weather Cooking. So, you’ve got options if you want some variations on the recipe. Here’s what I made…
Apple-Cranberry Cake Recipe
*
Ingredients:
6 ounces fresh cranberries*, rinsed and picked over for stems
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 Gala apple, peeled, cored, and diced
½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tablespoon grated orange zest (2 oranges)
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1⁄8 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup sour cream
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the cranberries, apples, brown sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. With the mixer on medium, add 1 cup of the granulated sugar, the butter, vanilla, and sour cream and beat just until combined. On low speed, slowly add the flour and salt.
Pour the fruit mixture evenly into a 10-inch glass pie plate. Pour the batter over the fruit, covering it completely. Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and 1⁄8 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle it over the batter. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and the fruit is bubbling around the edges. Serve warm or at room temperature.
*Note: I couldn’t find any fresh or frozen cranberries at the grocery store, so I used a 14 oz. can of whole berry cranberry sauce instead. I put all the cranberry sauce into a colander, and washed away all the “sauce” until just the berries remained – this left me with approximately 6 oz. of berries.
Though this recipe is a cake, it’s baked in a pie pan, and I’d like to thank my friend, Beth, for loaning me her 10″ glass pie pan. Thank you, my friend! :) Here are some cake recipes from past months, if you’re interested: Triple Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, Carrot Cake, and Ida’s Coffee Cake! Please let me know if you have any questions, dear readers. Happy Baking!
Warm regards,
Melody
TweetFollow Me
