{sms} Pear, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Muffins

Yes, this is an actual post. You are not hallucinating. I’ve been busy living life and  having an awesome summer.  It’s a weak excuse for not posting. I’ve been baking along with the the various weekly baking groups. I have internet and a new computer at home. I’ve been lazy with taking pictures and writing posts.

I’m recommitting to Pink Stripes. I feeling disconnected to the the food blogging world and I miss my blogging friends.

With that note, I’ll move along and tell you about this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe: Bosc Pear, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Muffins. Rather than sweet, these are savory muffins. I adore the combination of pears and blue cheese. I also like walnuts. Trader Joes did not have bosc pears so I subbed bartlett pears. I liked the muffins. I think they would be great with manchego instead of blue cheese because manchego also pears (hee! Okay, pairs) well with pears.

I probably won’t make them again because I would rather eat blue cheese and pears on their own with out all the mumbo jumbo of the other muffin ingredients.

Thanks to Andrea of Nummy Kitchen for hosting this week’s selection. For the recipe visit her blog or buy the book.

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a chocolate chip cookie

A chocolate chip cookie. That’s what motivates me to write again. And not just any chocolate chip cookie. It’s a cookie sweetened with pure maple syrup. It’s chunky with walnuts too. It’s tasty…very deadly. It’s a recipe I bookmarked for quite awhile. I saved it immediately when I first read about it last year on the blog Everybody Loves Sandwiches. For some reason, it took me this long to bake them.

So now I’m urging you all to go ahead and bake this cookies. Don’t take as long as I took. You won’t be sorry. You can find the recipe here:  Chocolate Chip Maple WalnutCookies.

{sms} lemon walnut-sour cream pound cake

Busy, busy, busy. I thought once the holidays were over I would have more free time. Nope.

I made this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe right before I left for an out of town trip on Friday.

I took the picture with my iPhone and I’m writing this with my iPhone, because I haven’t had time to sit down at my computer.

Thank you to Raeann of Basically, Baby Boots for hosting this week. The pound cake was a hit with the family.

(now let’s see if I can post via iPhone….)

cinnamon cranberry walnut bread

The next formula up for me in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge was the Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread. Out of raisins, I used cranberries. I also made the bread using half white whole-wheat flour. I was able to make three 7-ounce mini loaves out of half a recipe.

The bread was quick and easy, made and baked in the same day. I used my fresh yeast again, made the optional cinnamon-sugar swirl, and topped the fresh from oven loaves with a cinnamon-sugar topping.

I’m not the first person to say this about the bread: This bread is crack. Which is why I froze one loaf, took one loaf to work, and only ate the third. It was hard to take pictures without eating. No, not hard, impossible.

If you would like the recipe, buy the book: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. It’s a great book and I’ve learned a lot about bread baking.