Honeybee's Cooking Adventures: February 2012

24 Feb 2012

Rib Eye with Garlic

Ingredients

2 pieces (around 12 oz) rib eye (or any steak you like)

6-7 cloves garlic

Blueberry cream muffin

For 12 muffins.

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil (olive oil)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line muffin cups with paper muffin liners.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, gradually add sugar while beating.

3. Continue beating while slowly pouring in oil.

4. Stir in vanilla.

5. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda.

6. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream.

7. Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

8. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

9. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack for cooling.

Variations
Substitute blueberries with chocolate chips. You will get an equally delicious chocolate muffin. It's so easy to make as many varieties as you wish! Here are my chocolate muffins.

Chocolate muffin

Remarks

I tried this recipe twice. I used sour cream at the first time

At the second time, I have substituted the sour cream by fresh milk (because I had no sour cream in my fridge that time). I have also slightly reduced the amount of oil and sugar because I thought it could be healthier. Both create excellent taste.

I used dried organic blueberries for my muffin. It's great. However I also find that some similar recipes suggest using fresh blueberries. I will definitely try it later.

(many weeks later...)

I have repeated doing this many times, sometimes with fresh milk and sometimes with sour cream. Sometimes I use fresh blueberries and sometimes I use dried ones. Experiences tell me that I prefer sour cream more (though the fresh milk produces very good taste too).

For using fresh blueberries, it tastes so good with the juicy berries, but make sure your blueberries are well 'protected' by the batter, as the juicy berries will 'burst' to a flow of berries juice like a blue river on the muffin summit!

21 Feb 2012

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Double Chocolate chip cookies

Rich with chocolate, perfect for a chocolate lover.

Roast Herbed Beef Tenderloin

Roast herbed beef tenderloin

This quantity should be quite enough for 4 persons. But be cautious, it is so delicious that you won't find it enough. At least, this is exactly what I experienced.

This is the first time I roast a beef tenderloin. It is delicious and juicy as that in restaurant. It is really a foolproof recipe! My THANKS to the one that put it to net for sharing.

Ingredients

2 pounds beef tenderloin

1 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil

1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary, crushed

1 teaspoon salt

2 garlic cloves, minced

Directions

1. Tie the tenderloin at 2-inch intervals with kitchen string.

2. Mix the pepper, oil, basil, crushed rosemary, salt and garlic.

3. Rub evenly over the tenderloin. Leave it for half an hour.

4. Place the meat on a greased rack in a shallow roasting pan.

5. Bake, uncovered, at 420 degrees F for 10 minutes. Then continue to bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes more or until beef reaches desired doneness (for medium-rare, a meat thermometer should read 145 degrees F; medium, 160 degrees F; well-done, 170 degrees F).

6. Turn off the oven and cover the meat with a foil. Let it stand for 10 minutes before slicing to serve.