Breakfast Espresso

This weekend I had the most delicious espresso that was homemade. What a good treat! The chocolate also added to the overall goodness. I'm pretty much in love with a good espresso. 

What are some of your favorite drinks with coffee or espresso? 

Sunday Brunch

The year is in full swing and I am back to teaching, I can feel fall slowly approaching. This is the time of year I'm enjoying summer to its max, and I'm hoping fall will just wait a bit longer. I love the warm days, relaxing on the weekend, and a good summer breakfast or brunch on Sunday.

This weekend I had a delicious homemade brunch. What could get better than pancakes, bacon, and potatoes?...  It's the simple things in life that make me the most happy. 

Santa Cruz The Crow's Nest

Enjoyed my afternoon at The Crow's Nest in Santa Cruz. If you're looking for good food and a relaxing atmosphere this a great place to go.

Nature

Sometimes a day can be busy and to find a relaxing or quiet moment I often enjoy the small things in nature. Here a look of a few things I enjoyed this week on my grad campus.

Homemade Cherry Muffins

This week I made cherry muffins from my cook book Off The Shelf Cooking From the Pantry, by the food writer Donna Hay. I changed up a recipe for no-fuss blueberry muffins and added cherries instead, as well as butter instead of the sour cream. This was due to what I had in the Pantry. I thoughts this was okay considering the books title. Also a lot of crossing my fingers was involved that the muffins would taste good! So here is the recipe:

Cherry Muffins

In a bowl, combine 2 cups sifted self-raising flour, 1/2 cup superfine sugar, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil and 4 oz of butter (this is the part I changed from 1 cup of sour cream) and mix well. Add 1/3 cup water and stir. *(note: At this point the mixture was really thick almost like cookie dough. I added a bit of water the 1/3 cup to fix this problem).  

Wash 20 fresh ripe cherries. Pit the cherries by hand, or if you have a fancy cooking tool go for it! To pit the cherries I ran my knife blade all around the center of the cherry and then popped out the seed. This worked well. Chop and dice up the cherry halfs into smaller pieces. Sprinkle the mixture with the cherries and fold them into the batter. Spoon into a a muffin tin. This recipe makes 12 medium muffins. 

Bake in a preheated (350 degree Fahrenheit) oven for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through. Allow to cool.

The muffins taste great for breakfast or a late night snack. I made sure to allow them to be cooked all the way through for a nice golden color. Hope you enjoy! 

Any great muffin recipes you have to share?

Farmers Market Finds

The farmers market is always exciting to venture to. I love browsing all the different organic foods, fresh flowers, and stopping by the sweet stand for a fresh cupcake. Here are some my finds.

Relaxation time at Creama Cafe

The start of summer has been pretty busy. Ending the year with teaching and all busy things. Today I had some time to do one my favorite things try some new food and coffee. I went to a cafe called Creama in San Jose. I would definitely recommend the atmosphere, lattes, and food.

I tried a white chocolate mocha with soy milk. The drink was served to the perfect temperature and tasted delicious. Creamy, mocha, with a hint of soy. The sugar cookie was also a nice treat! I've been trying to cut back on treats so this was good! a nice snack. Now, back to eating more nutritious food.