oishii: baked breakfast barley

I'm a big fan of breakfast, and in the colder seasons I find myself making warm, nourishing meals (as opposed to my favorite cold cereals). We love oatmeal, but then I came across this baked barley recipe and I had to try it. What a treat! With chopped dried apricots, pistachios, and honey, it is a nod to middle eastern fare and it was so substantive and delicious.

I used regular pearled barley as well as some fancy purple barley too, though it ended up looking just plain brown after it was cooked. If you like the chew in steel-cut oatmeal, you probably like barley as well. And it is so good for you! The sweetness comes from the honey and apricots - there is no refined sugar here. I prepared it the night before and put it in the fridge so that in the morning I just had to pop it in the oven. The recipe is adapted from Not Your Mother's Casseroles by Faith Durand.

Baked Barley Breakfast

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups pearled barley

1 T unsalted butter

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

2 1/2 cups water

3 T honey, plus more for serving

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 cup chopped, dried unsulphured apricots

1/4 cup shelled pistachios, chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut

Preheat oven to 350º. Lightly grease 8-inch square baking dish.

Rinse barley in water and drain. Heat butter over medium heat in a saucepan and cook barley for 3-5 minutes or until it smells toasty. Add salt, almond milk, water and honey and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, beat eggs in a small bowl. Once barley mixture is boiling, turn off heat. Pour a spoonful or two of milk into the egg and whisk together to temper. Whisk egg into barley mixture.

Stir in apricots, pistachios, and coconut. Pour everything into prepared dish.

Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until top is light brown and it is no longer liquid-y. Serve warm, with a drizzle of honey. Oh, and I may have eaten it with a piece of baklava, too...

There are a few other baked barley recipes floating around. This week I'm going to try the blackberry barley bake and also try to make it in the slow cooker. 

This morning I ate some leftovers while Miss Mayumi and I had our morning Advent devotional. This year I created little cards that outline our devotional (song and scripture) along with a simple activity and service project, as well as a corresponding ornament for the tree. It has been so endearing to see her excitedly open the little drawer every morning to see what they day will bring her.

In other news, I've finished addressing our holiday card and am hoping to stamp them and get them in the mail today (these are the exciting things in my life!). Though sending out all those cards is a daunting task every year, I love to do it. I smile at the idea of family and friends opening it and seeing our THREE little munchkins - how fun to announce a new birth this way! I still get a childish thrill when I receive cards in the mail, especially Christmas cards. I adore it when people send out their yearly newsletter with updates on every one in the family. So I like to imagine that our humble little card will bring cheer into some homes this season.

oishii: savory bread pudding

Cooler weather finds me searching for nourishing comfort foods. We've always been a fan of sweet bread pudding but this is my first time trying a savory one. Yum! It was just what I needed to use up leftover stale bread, some veggies in the fridge and have something relatively healthy that we could eat for several meals.

Savory Bread Pudding with Veggies
Ingredients:
olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
bunch of asparagus, chopped
bunch of beet greens or chard, chopped
2 cups whole wheat stale bread, cubed
5 eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sautee onions in olive oil. When softened, add garlic and asparagus. After a few minutes add greens and cook until wilted, just a minute or two.
3. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, milk and cheese. Add bread and vegetables and a dash of salt and pepper and mix well. Pour into a casserole dish.
4. Place casserole in oven and cook for 50 minutes, until puffed and browned. Remove from oven and serve!

Oishii: Japanese Potato Salad

Happy September everyone! When I realized that summer was almost over I had a reflex reaction of regret, then came to my senses and wanted to cheer. Hurray! The long, hot, unbearable summer is about to give way to fall showers, autumnal foliage, cooler weather and coziness. I, for one, am elated. 
So perhaps this post is a bit off-schedule; Japanese potato salad is a a staple in our home all summer long. But I have a feeling that we'll enjoy it a few times more as the seasons transition. After all, it stays quite warm round these parts until October, and frankly, this potato salad is good enough to eat all year long.

You may wonder what the difference is between western-style potato salad and Japanese potato salad and that is a valid question. In short, Japanese potato salad is a sort of summer-inspired mashed potato dish with just enough mayonnaise to make it interesting. PBS has a short article and recipe here. the Just Hungry blog offers another version here. But this is the way mom taught me:

Kumi's Japanese Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 6-8 potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes (I've used all sorts of different potatoes, even mixed them and it always comes out good. So use whatever you have on hand or whatever your favorite is)
• 3-4 boiled eggs, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, peeled
• 2 apples, cored, quartered and sliced (I like Pink Lady)
• 1-2 Japanese cucumbers, thinly sliced (Persian cukes also work well - something without big seeds)
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise (Kewpie for the most authentic version, but any brand will do)
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Cook potatoes and carrots (and eggs if you haven't boiled them yet) in boiling water until soft, then drain. Remove carrots and slice into chunks. Mash the potatoes to desired consistency (soft but with a few chunks for texture). Gently fold in all other ingredients and season to taste.

I usually make ours vegetarian style, but I've had it before with chopped ham, which is also delicious.  It is a very forgiving dish and you can make it with fewer or more vegetable/fruit, according to your tastes. We like ours to be bursting with fruit and veggies... 

If you try it, let me know how it worked for you!

Oishii: Japanese Cheesecake

In the summer there is nothing like a Japanese-style "rare" cheesecake. It is light and refreshing, doesn't require any baking, and Mayumi and I could probably polish an entire cake off by ourselves. Supremely oishii. Here's the way I learned to make it from my mom.

Kumi's Japanese Rare Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:

1 cup crushed Nilla Wafers

3 T butter, melted

1 T sugar

Filling:

1 T gelatin (1 packet of Knox Gelatine) 

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup milk

1 egg, yolk and whites separated

1/4 cup sugar

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2-3 T lemon juice and zest (from one good-sized lemon)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 whipping cream

Instructions

Combine crushed wafers, melted butter, and sugar in a bowl. Press the crumbs into the bottom of an 8 inch round cake pan or springform pan. 

Dissolve gelatin in water in a small cup and set aside. Scorch milk in a small saucepan and then add in gelatin mixture, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla extract.  Mix well while bringing the mixture to a light boil, then remove from heat. Meanwhile, mix together softened cream cheese, lemon juice and rind. Add gelatin mixture and combine well and allow to cool a bit.

Whip egg whites until peak, adding a pinch of sugar.  Remove stiff egg whites from bowl and then whip whipping cream. Gently fold egg whites and whipped cream into cooled (not warm) cream cheese mixture then pour over crust. (Mom likes to push mixture through a sieve to remove any clumps and lemon rind). Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or until firm.  Decorate with a sprinkling of crushed wafers and/or fruit before serving.

Hope you like it!

Out Demons, Out!

Onimanju (devil's cake) is a Japanese pastry made with sweet potato, which creates a bumpy texture that makes the cakes resemble devil's horns (at least according to the Japanese)! I've never had it before, so it was a leap of faith to make them myself to celebrate Setsubun today.

The recipe I used (sorry, I don't know the source - it was sent to me ages ago and I'm only now trying it!):

Onimanju (Devil's Cake)
Ingredients
3/4 lb satsumaimo (sweet potato, preferably the Japanese variety), cut into about 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour (I used half whole wheat and half all-purpose)
1 Tbsp shiratamako flour (I used sweet or glutinous rice flour [mochiko])
2 Tbsp milk

Preparation
Soak satsumaimo cubes in water for about 15 minutes and drain (to draw out the starchiness, perhaps?).

Place satsumaimo cubes in a large bowl and sprinkle sugar over them. Set aside for about 30 minutes so that some liquid gather at the bottom of the bowl. Drain the satsumaimo cubes and keep the liquid in another bowl. Add mixture of flour and shiratamako in the liquid and mix. Add milk to the dough. If the dough is too thick to stir, add a little bit of water. Mix in satsumaimo cubes.

Scoop a spoonful of the dough on parchment paper (I used cheese cloth) and place them in a preheated steamer. Steam for about 10 minutes.

*makes 8-10 cakes

The consensus? We all loved them! They weren't especially pretty to look at (but they're supposed to be devilish, right?) but they were mildly sweet and chewy and yummy. And so easy to make. A keeper all around.

Afterwards we went out onto the back deck and threw our beans over the rails yelling, "Demons out, good fortune in!"

I Can't imagine what the neighbors must think...

Oishii: Kabocha Cookies

Kabocha is a type of pumpkin very popular in Japan, but now widely available in the States. It has a slightly sweet taste, so it's often used to make desserts--like these kabocha cookies.

These soft cookies make a nice light treat and I can feel good (or at least not feel that bad) about giving my toddler a nibble.

But I have to admit--the cookies didn't look like the picture when I first made them.

No, not at all.

I have this habit of not following recipes exactly...not because I want to get creative, but because I have dyslexia when it comes to reading recipe instructions. Like how I was supposed to use a quarter pound of kabocha in the cookies , but I decided not to measure the kabocha, guessing instead that half a pumpkin was probably about a quarter pound. Wrong. (Note: the recipe below calls for a half-pound of kabocha because the initial yield was only about eight cookies, and that's certainly not enough for my sweet tooth!) I realized my mistake when the recipe called for flattening the cookie dough out and cutting shapes. My dough was so batter-y that there was no way to even attempt to roll it out.

So I doubled the recipe, going back and dumping everything in the already-made batter. Still terrible, but I figured I'd try it out anyway. I dumped rough spoons full onto a cookie tray, thinking the batter would melt into perfect little rounds. Wrong again.

BUT despite all my mistakes and the turd-like appearance of the cookies, the botched batch actually turned out pretty good! Cakey, but really sweet--just the way I like 'em. So I can say that this is probably a fool-proof recipe--the cookies will still taste good even if you completely screw it up like I did!

Kabocha Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. kabocha
4 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Instructions:

1. Cut kabocha into large chunks. Steam kabocha in the microwave until softened. Peel kabocha and mash in a bowl.

2. Mix butter and sugar in another bowl. Add mashed kabocha in the bowl. Mix well. Add an egg yolk and stir well.

3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Add the flour in the bowl. Mix the dough. Rest the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 340 degrees F. Flatten the cookie dough on floured board and cut into your favorite shapes. Place a cooking sheet in a baking pan and place shaped cookie dough on the sheet. Bake cookies in 340F oven for 15-20 minutes.

*Makes 16 cookies

Oishii: Honey-lime enchiladas

One great thing about this recipe for honey-lime chicken enchiladas is that it makes enough to fill up a 3-quart and 1.5-quart casserole pan (about 12-15 enchiladas). That means if you have a big family, you'll have no problem feeding all those mouths, and if you have a small family like mine, you'll have a couple days' worth of leftovers.

Honey-lime chicken enchiladas

1.5 lbs chicken, cooked and shredded
3 10-oz cans green enchilada sauce
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
12+ tortillas

Sauce:
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. lime juice
1 tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1) Mix together sauce ingredients. Marinate shredded chicken in sauce for at least an hour.

2) Lightly spray 2 pans with non-stick baking spray (usually a 9x13 and an 8x8). Pour 1.5 cans of green enchilada sauce to coat the entire bottom of pans.

3) Fill tortillas with shredded meat and cheese, using all the meat and about half of the cheese. Roll and place in dish seam side down.

4) Pour remaining 1.5 cans of enchilada sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Oishii: Tempura

The Japanese are known for a particularly healthy diet rife with fish, vegetables and rice. But don't let them fool you--they like their deep-fried foods as much as Americans do!

One of the most popular fried foods in Japan is called tempura, or deep-fried vegetables (and sometimes seafood).

Pretty much any vegetable can be made into tempura, but my favorites are shredded carrots, corn kernels, chopped onion and sliced sweet potato. All you have to do is dip the veggies into tempura batter, fry on medium-high heat for a few minutes, drain excess oil and serve with tempura dipping sauce. Recipes for the batter and sauce are below (but if you're lazy like me, just buy them in the Asian foods section of your grocery store). 

Tempura batter

This is the recipe for homemade batter, but you can also find batter starter kits in the Asian food section of your grocery store. 

1 egg

1 cup ice water

1 cup flour

1. Beat egg in a bowl.

2. Add ice water to the bowl. 

3. Add flour to the bowl and mix lightly. Do not overmix. 

Tempura sauce

This is the recipe for homemade sauce, but you can also find ready-made sauce in the Asian food section of your grocery store. 

1 cup dashi stock
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tbsp suger

1. Heat mirin in a pan.
2. Add dashi stock and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. Serve.

Mmmm. So good and so bad...

Oishii: Last-Minute Valentine Treats

I'm on a strict detox and won't be able to enjoy all the sweet confections of the holiday - oh torture to make them for my family and then abstain! But I still plan to make it special for their sakes. Lots of pink and red and hearts galore. And chocolate. Did I mention chocolate?

I'm planning to make raspberry cream cheese pan-crepes and strawberry smoothies for breakfast, dark chocolate and raspberry heart scones and chocolate-dipped strawberries for our afternoon tea, and then create a delicious dinner feast of valentine bread with roasted red pepper soup, chicken sandwiches and spinach salad with strawberries, goatcheese, pecans and poppyseed dressing.

And just in case that isn't enough, I may just whip up some chocolate peanut-butter heart cookies or maybe even these Nutella strawberry puff pastry hearts. Or cardamom creme brulee? Oh dear, whose idea was it to do this cleanse anyhow! Well, I'm sharing these ideas with you so maybe you can enjoy them and I can look back a year from now and know what my Valentine menu will be - for myself this time.

You may want to stop by today and eat my share these goodiess... because I don't know if I'll have the willpower to resist!

Oishii: Quinoa Squash Casserole

I love kabocha squash and I'm always looking for ways to incorporate more quinoa (and other whole grains) into my diet, so this dish is a favorite of mine. You know my favorite way to eat it? With eggs over easy for breakfast. I love a warm, wholesome start to my day (it beats cold cereal any day!).

Quinoa Squash Casserole

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

8-10 mushrooms, sliced (I like to use shiitake)

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 small zucchini, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed well
2 cups peeled and diced kabocha squash (or any other squash will do)
1 cup chopped kale
2 T fresh parsley
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line bottom of 9x13 casserole dish with chopped kale.

Saute onions in olive oil until soft. Add and saute mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, and garlic for about 5 minutes. Stir in rest of ingredients (except kale) and bring to a boil.

Transfer mixture to casserole dish and cover. Bake until liquid is absorbed, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and fluff with a fork. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 6-8 servings.

The truth is, you can throw in any veggies you have in the crisper - it's great for cleaning out your fridge. Such a versatile dish!

Oishii: Granola

I am a big fan of making my own granola. It is such a forgiving recipe with almost endless variations, but it's taken a few tries to come up with one that works for me and my family.  The one below is the one we love the most and I thought it might make a nice gift this Christmas.  A few glass jars from IKEA with some ribbon make it look nice 'n pretty.

Crunchy Granola

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup sesame seed

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)

Directions

Combine oats, nuts, coconut and seeds in one bowl.  In a separate container, mix honey and coconut oil, then pour over oat mixture and stir to combine.  Spread evenly onto a cookie sheet and bake in 300 degree oven until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.  Remove from oven and spread onto waxed paper to cool.  Store in airtight containers for up to 2 weeks.

Oishii: Almost Healthy Cookies

These are my go-to cookies.  The ones my husband is always requesting.  The ones I wrap up to give to friends as a thank you. The ones I let my daughter eat because they are almost healthy. 

Almost Healthy Cookies
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter (preferably organic from grass-fed cows or made from raw milk!)
1/2 cup organic peanut butter
3/4 cup natural cane sugar (rapadura)
1/2 cup organic brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup non-bleached all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl beat together butter and peanut butter.  Add sugars and baking powder and soda, beating til combined well.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Beat in flours until combined, then gently mix in oats, chocolate chips and almonds.
Drop dough by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for ~10 minutes.  Transfer to wire reack to cool.  Yields ~60 cookies.

Mmmm.  Let me know what you think.

Oishii: Peach cobbler

Mmm, peach season in Utah. We look forward to the local peaches every year.

We attempted this peach cobbler twice (okay, my husband attempted this twice--but I helped peel the peaches!) and found that with a few adjustments, you can have one yummy, down-home treat.

The first time he made it, it was stuffed into a little 2-quart dish and overflowed into our oven because the peaches were so juicy (luckily he had placed a baking sheet under the dish).

There also wasn't a lot of topping, so my overzealous husband tripled the crust the second time around. I would recommend doubling the topping for best results. He also used a 3-quart baking dish and dumped some of the peach juice before baking.

Oishii! Sesame Tofu Stir-fry

PapaD and I are not vegetarians, but we often like to cook vegetarian (or rather, experiment with vegetarian). To be honest, I'm a meat-loving girl, but in moderation. It's nice to take a break from meat every once in a while and it also tends to be nicer on my wallet as meat can be so expensive these days (especially when we try to buy local, organic, humanely raised meats and poultry). However, as much as my husband tries to encourage my efforts, it can be hard to find satisfying meals that are meatless and delicious. He's made a request that I use more tofu so that he can get enough protein, so here is one of my efforts that I thought turned out pretty good. This recipe was adapted from The New Stir-Fry Cookbook by Bay Books.
Sesame Tofu Stir Fry

Preparation Time: 20 minutes + 30 minutes marinating
Total Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
10 oz firm tofu
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 tablespoons oil
3 zucchini, sliced (I only used 2 'cause that's all I had)
5 oz button mushrooms, halved or quartered (I omitted 'cause my husband hates button mushrooms and substituted a carrot instead, cut into matchsticks)
1 large red pepper, cut into squares
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups of cold, cooked brown rice (All I had was white)
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce, extra

Here is my prep work:
MamaM and I have the same rice cooker and I don't know what I would do without it (even though I don't know what all those buttons mean - I just push them until it turns red). We eat rice with our meals at least once a week. For this particular recipe, I made the rice in the morning and put it in the fridge to cool off but I wish I had made the rice several days in advance so it could dry out - I think that my stir-fry was too mushy because the rice was too moist. So if you are planning on trying this dish, make your rice ahead of time if you can.

Prep work is what takes the longest time for me. But I'm pretty meticulous in my chopping, slicing, and cutting because a good stir-fry needs the vegetables (and meat if using) to be a uniform size so that they can cook evenly. In this case, because the carrots take the longest to cook, I made them matchstick size (with this cool little slicer thing my mom brought me from Japan) so they would cook as fast as the peppers and zucchini. I hadn't even originally planned to use carrots but because I omitted the mushrooms, I felt like I needed something else and carrots add some nice sweetness to the dish. A good knife makes prep work easier; I use Wusthof Classic knives.

1. Drain the tofu and pat dry with paper towels. Cut into cubes, place in a glass or ceramic bowl and add the sesame oil and soy sauce. Stir to combine and thoroughly coat the tofu. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.




2. Heat the wok until very hot, add the sesame seeds and dry-fry until lightly golden brown. Transfer to a plate to cool.
This is my very well used wok. It is a really cheap one (Joyce Chen, I think) that we got at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $15. I hated it at first and was about to throw it away so I could buy a really expensive stainless steel wok (this one is carbon steel) but then it started to season really well and didn't smoke as much (it used to smoke like crazy). I have heard that the cheaper the wok, the better it is. We do a lot of stir-fry so I am really glad that we have it.

My wok was extremely hot and I think that I browned my sesame seeds a little too much (some may have even been on the verge of burning). So next time, I would add them as I am heating the wok.

3. Reheat the wok, add the oil (I use Canola because it is good for high heat and doesn't have much of a taste) and swirl it around to coat the side. Remove the tofu from the dish with a slotted spoon and reserve the marinade. Stir-fry the tofu over high heat, turning occasionally, for about 3 minutes, or until browned. Remove from the wok and set aside.
Although I really like silken tofu because it has such a nice texture and consistency, I think that I might try an extra firm tofu for stir-fry next time because mine was falling apart just a little...

4. Add the vegetables and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until they are just tender. Add the rice and tofu and stir-fry until heated through.

5. Add the toasted sesame seeds, the reserved marinade and the extra soy sauce, to taste. Toss thoroughly until the tofu and vegetables are well coated, then serve immediately.

So this is how mine turned out...

...compared to the picture in the recipe book.
PapaD gives it a thumbs up...
..and eats heartily.

Oishii: Berry Muffins Flambe!

Shortly after Mayumi was born my in-laws were visiting and I had the brilliant idea to make muffins.  The truth was, I was craving them.  I was in that stage where you're breastfeeding and RAVENOUS.  I left my baby in the arms of her Nana, turned on the oven to preheat and set about pulling out all the ingredients for my special berry muffins.  I thought I smelled something burning but assumed it was nothing... until I saw flames shooting out of my oven.  I opened it up and calmly called out "my oven is on fire."  My father-in-law came racing in, grabbed a fire extinguisher and ordered all of us out of the house.  I spent the next few hours at the neighbor's while a firetruck came screeching down our little one-way street, the house filled with firemen, (the fire had already been extinguished but there was smoke and soot everywhere!  Amazing how quickly that happens!) and my sweet father-in-law insisted on cleaning everything up.  I later learned that he and my husband had placed a mousetrap (one of those plastic glue ones) in the broiler drawer to deal with a little rodent problem we were having.  Unaware of that, I had started the oven and it melted and caught fire.

Needless to say, I never did make muffins that day.  But I still find myself craving them.  I adapted this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa - hers is good.  Mine is even better!  <*;*>

Berry Muffins

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

2 cups frozen mixed berries, thawed

11/4 cups rapadura (organic whole cane sugar)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (make sure there is nothing in there, like mousetraps).  Line muffin tins with paper liners.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. 
In a separate bowl, combine milk, eggs and butter. 
Mix in with dry ingredients until just combined - don't overmix!  Add berries and sugar and stir gently.
Spoon batter into muffin cups.  Bake for 25 minutes and tops are nicely browned.

Bring a few to a new mom - she will be forever grateful!