Banana chocolate chip bread pudding, for the morning after (also known as 'Better than make-up sex' bread pudding)

• 

Update, April 2020: I've made banana chocolate chip bread pudding more times than I can count since this post first appeared a decade ago. It's getting us through our COVID-19 quarantine at the moment. The first time I made this recipe it was a peace offering. Now it's our ultimate comfort food. Enjoy.

Husbands and wives argue. It's just one of those things - a given of marriage, a by-product of sharing so many of the important issues and ho-hum mundanities of life. A little irritation leads to big words. Stubborn begets stubborn. Heels dig in. Movement and compromise seem unnatural, uncomfortable, even impossible. You reach a level of exasperation where you wonder how you ended up in this life and wildly consider all the possible avenues out of it. And then you leave the room, slam the door, hold your head in your hands, and fume. Or weep, depending on the particular situation and your particular personality.

Married people out there, I see you nodding your heads. And for all you smug singles who think this will never happen to you and your future spouse...I think you know what I'm going to say, so I won't bother.

I've heard the old saying about not going to bed angry, but that doesn't always work for me. When I get heated up, I need more time for my steam to dissipate. But ultimately I'm a peacemaker. Which is why, a few weeks ago, I made banana chocolate chip bread pudding early one morning before heading to work. We'd gone to bed mad, and I meant the bread pudding as my fragrant, sweet, silent apology. Which, fortunately, is how it was received. [April 2010]

Banana chocolate chip bread pudding

• 8 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 Tbsp Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur, or brandy
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 loaf challah, torn into small pieces (about 8 cups)
• 2 ripe bananas, sliced or cut into small chunks
• 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, cream, milk, liqueur and salt. Add the bread pieces, bananas, and chocolate chips and toss to combine thoroughly - you want all the bread covered with the custard mixture. Leave the bread pudding mixture in the bowl about 1 hour, mixing every 15 minutes to redistribute the ingredients.

Spray a large casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray, then pour in the bread pudding mixture. Bake until the bread pudding is puffed up, golden brown on top and set in the center - when you jiggle the pan, the middle shouldn't wobble. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a rack at least 30 minutes. It will deflate as it cools, but that's normal, so don't be concerned.

Serve warm or at room temperature. I think whipped cream is gilding the lily, but if you like it, go ahead.

 More bread pudding recipes: Chocolate-cherry bread pudding * Roasted wild mushroom bread pudding with bacon * Savory bread pudding with caramelized onions and Comte cheese

Introducing Not Ketchup

• 

If you've been wondering where I've been, take a look at http://www.notketchup.com and all will be clear.

More later. Must go pack boxes.

A Very Blueberry Thanksgiving: Pumpkin blueberry trifle

• 

Add this pumpkin blueberry trifle to your Thanksgiving dessert table (photo: Karen Ard) 

When I started planning the menu for A Very Blueberry Thanksgiving, the twist-on-tradition Thanksgiving dinner I hosted last weekend for Los Angeles food bloggers, I had no trouble pairing blueberries with pumpkin soup, turkey, roasted butternut squash salad, sweet potatoes, and Brussels sprouts.

(Yep, that was the twist - every one of the 10 courses served included fresh, dried, or frozen blueberries.)

But I couldn't decide on dessert. I wanted to do something with pumpkin, but pumpkin pie with blueberry sauce felt underwhelming.

It was Julie Stas, the lovely woman who leads the public relations team for the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (one of the event's sponsors), who suggested a trifle. I'd never made a trifle before, but it sounded like a good idea: cake or cookies, fruit, custard, whipped cream. Pumpkin blueberry trifle. Sure. Why not?

Give it up for Julie. She is a genius. This pumpkin blueberry trifle came together easily, looked absolutely stunning in the bowl, and tasted heavenly. The warm spices in the pumpkin bread played perfectly off the tangy blueberry sauce and the smooth, creamy vanilla pudding.

And while a decade ago this dessert would have been impossible to pull off at Thanksgiving because fresh blueberries were nowhere to be found, now we can get excellent fresh blueberries from Chile and other South American countries from October until March. The blueberries I bought at my local grocer to top this pumpkin blueberry trifle were plump, juicy, and sweet. Click here to learn more about winter blueberries.

Add this pumpkin blueberry trifle to your Thanksgiving dessert list - you'll be glad you did.

Note: I made my own pumpkin bread (recipe included below), but feel free to use a prepared loaf from your favorite bakery or grocery store.

print recipe

Pumpkin Blueberry Trifle

by Erika Kerekes November-16-2013

Spicy pumpkin bread and fresh blueberries make this traditional English trifle a delicious and impressive Thanksgiving dessert.

Ingredients

• 2 cups pure pumpkin puree
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup grapeseed or canola oil
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 32-ounce bag frozen blueberries
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 4 cups vanilla pudding (buy prepared or try this recipe)
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Make the pumpkin bread: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, 2 cups sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Sprinkle the salt, flour, baking powder, and baking soda on top of the pumpkin mixture, then stir with a large spoon just until combined. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the batter. Bake about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, then crumble the pumpkin bread into large chunks with your fingers. (Alternatively, you can buy a large loaf of prepared pumpkin bread.)Make the blueberry sauce: Put the frozen blueberries, remaining ½ cup sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer about 1 hour, until the sauce is thickened and glossy. Remove from the heat and let cool.Just before assembling the trifle, whip the cream with an electric mixer (or by hand if you’re sturdy) until it is fluffy and glossy.Assemble the trifle: In a large glass bowl, put down a layer of pumpkin bread crumbs, a layer of pudding, and a layer of blueberry sauce. Repeat once more, ending with a layer of crumbs. Pile the whipped cream on top and scatter the fresh blueberries on the whipped cream. Let sit at least 2 hours before serving to give everything a chance to meld.Note: Trifle can also be made in small glasses for individual servings.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 50 mins Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Yield: 12 servings

Fig balsamic vinegar relish

• 

Summer felt slow, relaxed, leisurely. But now that fall is here, the days are whizzing by.

All year I was looking forward to fresh fig season. And then, in what seemed like a blink, it came and went.

My friend Erin's Mission fig tree was generous this year. I visited three times in three weeks and picked 10 pounds each time. More figs than I would ever buy. More figs than one family can eat in a month.

And yet, now that we've eaten our fill and the tree has given and the season is over, I miss those figs dearly.

Or is it summer I'm missing?

One August day, when the tray of Erin's figs was challenging me silently from the counter, I made this fig balsamic vinegar relish to serve to guests with a platter of cheese. Spooned on top of a log of fresh, creamy goat cheese, the fig relish added just the right touch of sour and sweet and summer.

Make this relish a day or two ahead and let it sit in the refrigerator so the flavors mingle and marry. It's beautiful with goat cheese, but cream cheese would work, or Brie, or ricotta. If fresh figs are gone for the season, don't despair - you can easily substitute dried figs (just add a little water to the pot to compensate). And don't use your most expensive balsamic vinegar. The cheap supermarket stuff will do just fine for this relish.

print recipe

Fig balsamic vinegar relish

by Erika Kerekes September-23-2013

Make this fig relish a few days ahead so the flavors have time to mingle and marry. Serve at room temperature over a soft, creamy cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large or 2 small red onions, peeled and diced
• 4 cups fresh figs, preferably dark purple Mission figs, chopped
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, leaves stripped from stems, finely minced

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add red onion and saute 3-4 minutes, until onion begins to turn translucent. Add figs, vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Stir to combine, bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer about 45 minutes, until the mixture is glossy and thickened. Check seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Cool before serving or storing.Note: For best flavor, store fig balsamic vinegar relish in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 1-2 days before serving.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 45 mins Total time: 1 hour Yield: approximately 4 cups

Blueberry zucchini muffins

• 

Sometimes I bake to help me think.

The other day I was working down in my home office (also known as The Garage, Former Repository Of Crap). I was going around and around in my head on a tricky bit of copywriting for an important project.

I was getting nowhere.

So I came up to the kitchen and baked blueberry zucchini muffins.

Somehow, between grating the zucchini, beating the eggs, scooping the flour, and folding the batter together gently, I worked out the thorny copywriting problem.

And I got dessert.

Note: These muffins aren't overly sweet. That's a good thing in my book.

print recipe

Blueberry zucchini muffins

by Erika Kerekes September-10-2013

These muffins aren't overly sweet and they contain both a vegetable and a fruit. Score.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup grapeseed or canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups zucchini, grated or shredded
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 24-cup muffin tin (or 2 12-cup muffin tins) with paper liners.In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, and sugar until they are well combined. Add the vanilla extract and zucchini and whisk again. In another bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, making sure there are no lumps of baking powder or baking soda remaining. Add the blueberries to the flour mixture and toss gently to coat the berries. (This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.)Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and fold together gently just until the mixture is combined. Do not overmix. It's okay if you still see a few streaks of flour.Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them about halfway. If you have extra batter after filling all 24 cups, go back and add more to each cup until you have used all the batter.Bake about 25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Cool in the pan for a few minutes, then remove the muffins from the muffin pan and cool the rest of the way on a rack. Serve at room temperature.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: approximately 24 muffins

Santa Rosa plum jam

• 

The first thing I did when my husband and I bought our house in Santa Monica 17 years ago was to plant fruit trees in the backyard.

The house came with an old avocado tree, a scraggly lemon tree, and a dwarf fig tree. I put in lime, tangerine, Meyer lemon, kumquat.

Most of which died. Turns out the huge eucalyptus tree we removed when we moved in did something nasty to the soil, and baby trees don't like eucalyptus oil.

But the Santa Rosa plum tree I put in about five years ago has held its own. Last year it gave us three plums. I was encouraged.

This year we got a cool dozen and a half plums. All of which ripened at once. So I cut them up, added some sugar and boiled them down into a gem-colored jam that looks and tastes like a southern California sunset during fire season, all flame-red and intense.

Santa Rosa plums are hard to find outside California. They're thin-skinned and turn soft as soon as they ripen, so shipping them is nearly impossible. But you'll never find a plum that tastes more like a plum than a Santa Rosa. If you see them, grab them.

print recipe

Santa Rosa plum jam

by Erika Kerekes July-17-2013

Fruit, sugar and heat: That's all you need to make this Santa Rosa plum jam. If you can't find Santa Rosas, substitute another tart, purple-skinned plum.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds Santa Rosa plums, pitted and chopped (weigh after removing pits)
• 2 cups granulated sugar

Instructions

In a medium-sized pot, combine the chopped plums with the sugar. Let sit 5 minutes. Bring the plum mixture to a boil, then quickly turn down the heat to medium (not low) and cook the jam about 20 minutes, until the syrup has thickened and the bubbles coming to the top are big and viscous. Turn off the heat and puree the jam with a hand-held immersion blender, or pour the mixture into a countertop blender or food processor and blend until smooth.Immediately pour the jam into a clean jar or other glass container. Cover, let cool on the counter, then refrigerate until chilled. Use within 4 weeks. (Alternatively, you can process the jam in a water bath according to standard canning methods - I'm just way too lazy.)

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: about 2 1/2 cups

Fresh cherry cobbler

• 

Every June the kids and I head up to Leona Valley to pick cherries. It takes a bit more than an hour to get to Leona Valley, a tiny town in a long, thin valley cozied up against the mountains that separate the Los Angeles basin from the high desert of the Antelope Valley.

For five or six weekends each spring the town is crawling with urban tourists like me who come to pick cherries. There are a dozen pick-your-own orchards, one huge and borderline industrial, the rest small and dusty. We like the dusty ones.

This year we went to Rolling Thunder Cherry Ranch because I've been following them on Facebook and I like to reward forward-thinking businesses that embrace online marketing. They could not have been sweeter, and that goes for both the people and the cherries. Ten pounds of Bing cherries later, we drove home, dusty, happy, stomachs filled with cherries that didn't quite make it into our buckets.

I got up early this morning and made cherry cobbler. Sweet syrupy red cherries with a fluffy biscuit topping - in my book there's no better breakfast.

Note on preparation: Pitting cherries is a pain in the neck. There's no way around it. Sometimes I use my OXO Good Grips Cherry Pitter. Other times I rip the fruit apart with my fingers and endure the stains on my skin. There are larger cherry pitters with handles that look cool, but they do miss pits and I'm never in the mood for broken teeth. I'd rather do it by hand and make sure the pits are gone.

print recipe

Fresh cherry cobbler

by Erika Kerekes June-11-2013

Sweet, syrupy red cherries with a fluffy biscuit topping - there's no better way to enjoy the season's best fresh cherries.

Ingredients

• 6 cups fresh cherries, pitted
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 Tablespoons coarse raw sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.In a large bowl, toss the cherries with the cornstarch and 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Let sit 15 minutes. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the cherry mixture. Slip the baking dish into the oven and bake about 20 minutes, until the cherries are hot and the juices bubble around the edges.Meantime, while the cherries are in the oven, whisk together the remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Quickly stir together the melted butter and buttermilk in a bowl or measuring cup, then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until the dough just comes together. Using one hand, knead quickly by flipping the dough over on itself three or four times in the bowl, then turn the dough out onto the counter. Pat the dough into an 8-inch square.Pull the cherries out of the oven. Using a large spatula or your hands, lay the biscuit dough on top of the cherries. Sprinkle with the coarse raw sugar and return the pan to the oven. Bake another 30-35 minutes, or until the biscuit topping is golden brown, the fruit is bubbling furiously, and the house smells wonderful.Let cool at least 20 minutes before serving to let the juices firm up a bit. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream or whipped cream.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 55 mins Total time: 1 hour 25 mins Yield: 6-8 servings

Roast chicken thighs with blueberries and rosemary

• 

Chicken thighs with a sauce of fresh blueberries, white wine, balsamic vinegar and rosemary

[This post is sponsored by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council.]

Fifteen years ago today, I was eating blueberries.

How do I know? Because 15 years ago today I was eight weeks pregnant with my older son, and all I craved during my first trimester were blueberries. I ate at least two pints of blueberries a day for the first three months of my pregnancy.

The Biggest Loser star Alison Sweeney and her family love blueberries too. Sweeney, who's working with the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council to spread the word about the healthy benefits of blueberries, answered a few questions recently about her family's blueberry habits:

Alison's favorite breakfast with blueberries: "Oatmeal + blueberries + agave nectar + cinnamon. There are only 80 calories in a cup of blueberries and it gives me fiber and vitamin C. And my kids love the flavor combo." 

Most unusual blueberry dish Alison's ever tasted: "Blueberries on pizza!"

Alison's pregnancy cravings: "Pickles. When I was pregnant I had to ask the deli counter if I could eat one while waiting for my sandwich, and another for after. Ellen (DeGeneres) even teased me about it by giving me a massive tub of pickles. It was hilarious."

(Okay, I realize her answer to the pregnancy craving question had nothing to do with blueberries. But I thought it was hilarious too!)

Most of the fresh blueberries I buy get washed and eaten out of hand, although occasionally I have some left over for baking (try the best blueberry muffins in the world). But I've been looking for ways to incorporate more blueberries into our meals. Turns out blueberries and chicken were meant for each other. Try this simple recipe combining roast chicken thighs, fresh blueberries, white wine, and rosemary - the sauce has a sweet-and-sour fruity tang my whole family loved.

Thanks to the Blueberry Council for sponsoring this post. My mother thanks the Blueberry Council too - she's been begging me for more chicken recipes. Opinions and recollections of pregnancy cravings contained within this post are, of course, my own. Follow the Blueberry Council on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube for more blueberry inspiration.

print recipe

Chicken thighs with blueberries and rosemary

by Erika Kerekes June-4-2013

Chicken and blueberries are a match made in heaven. The tangy sauce tastes delicious and looks beautiful drizzled over the crispy-skinned chicken thighs.

Ingredients

• 4 large chicken thighs (bone in, skin on)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 3/4 cup onion, diced (about 1/2 of a large yellow onion)
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
• 2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
• 3 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Sprinkle the skin side of the chicken thighs generously with salt and pepper. Put a large oven-proof skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the chicken thighs skin side down. Sear without moving at least 8-10 minutes, until the skin is a deep golden brown. Remove the chicken thighs from the pan and put them on a plate.Pour off all but 1 Tablespoon of the chicken fat in the pan, then add the butter and onion. Cook the onion about 4 minutes, until it is softened and starting to brown around the edges (if it cooks too fast, turn down the heat a little). Add the wine, vinegar, mustard, rosemary, and blueberries. Bring the blueberry mixture to a boil and let it cook about 10-15 minutes. The fruit will start to pop and the mixture should start to thicken and reduce - it won't be thick, but it shouldn't look incredibly watery.Put the chicken thighs back in the pan, skin side up this time, nestling them on top of the sauce. Try to keep the blueberry mixture off the chicken skin so the skin can crisp in the oven - if you bathe it now in the sauce it will taste good but the skin won't crisp and will turn out soft and rubbery.Put the skillet in the oven and roast the chicken for another 45 minutes. When the chicken is done, let it rest on the counter 5 minutes before serving. To serve, carefully remove the chicken thighs from the pan, put them on a platter, and drizzle the blueberry sauce around them and down the middle of each piece of chicken, leaving some of the crispy golden skin showing.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins Total time: 1 hour 20 mins Yield: 4 servings

Chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with Craisins

• 

The secret to soft, chewy oatmeal cookies loaded with chocolate chips and tangy Craisins: Conquering my fear of raw cookie dough

It took me 46 years to learn how to make soft, chewy oatmeal cookies.

Hi, I'm Erika, and I'm an overbaker.

Until this week, I've always overbaked my oatmeal cookies. Chocolate chip cookies, too. Any cookie that was supposed to be soft and chewy cooled down crisp. Always a disappointment.

I know why it happens. I know I'm not supposed to wait until I see brown around the edges. But somehow (probably something to do with my fear of raw eggs) they never felt done until I did.

This week I was craving soft, chewy oatmeal cookies. So I forced myself out of my comfort zone. I pulled the cookies before the edges colored at all, despite the fact that inside my head I was screaming "NO! THOSE ARE RAW! RAW COOKIES! YUCK YUCK YUCK!"

And once they cooled they were perfect. So there, voice in my head.

You all must think I'm pretty silly, right?

This is one of the simplest cookie recipes ever. I used Craisins because I happened to be out of raisins, but either will do. Dried sour cherries would also be great.

print recipe

Chewy oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and Craisins

by Erika Kerekes April-14-2013

These old-fashioned oatmeal cookies are loaded with dark chocolate chips and tangy Craisins. The secret to a chewy cookie: Be brave and pull them out of the oven when they still look raw.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup grapeseed or canola oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup Craisins (substitute raisins or dried sour cherries)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats.In a small saucepan, melt the butter.While the butter is melting, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, water, egg, and vanilla to a stand mixer. (Alternatively, use a large bowl and a hand-held mixer.) Mix until all ingredients are well combined, then add the melted butter and mix again until combined. Add the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt and mix again until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add the chocolate chips and Craisins and mix briefly just to combine.Drop clumps of the cookie batter at least 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake 11-12 minutes and not one second longer; do not let the cookies brown. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and use a spatula to transfer the cookies carefully to a rack to cool. Let cool (at least most of the way) before eating.Note: You can mix the batter ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator up to 2 days before baking. The cookies will be just as good, although they won't spread as much during baking.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 12 mins Total time: 22 mins Yield: about 24 cookies

Whole wheat jam muffins, and Weston's first internship

• 

My 11-year-old son Weston is spending his spring break doing an internship.

Yes, he's young to be working. But he's a passionate budding entrepreneur and keenly interested in how businesses work.

So I hooked him up with my friend Blake, a serial entrepreneur who most recently founded eLocalRank, one of the top search engine optimization companies in Los Angeles. Blake offered to teach Weston the basics of keyword research and SEO campaign building. Weston jumped at the opportunity.

Blake put an extra desk in his office. So far he's had Weston build a list of 800 keywords for my business website and coached Weston through the process of writing the copy for his own website, which will go live later this week.

He also made Weston do jumping jacks and push-ups when his concentration lagged halfway through his first day. That's my kind of boss.

Weston is learning some very valuable lessons:

• Entrepreneurs work very, very hard. Sometimes they even sleep on the couch in their offices instead of going home.
• Even the most interesting jobs involve a certain amount of repetitive, boring work.
• People will pay you to do things they don't understand, can't do themselves, or don't want to do themselves.

So how does this relate to the muffins? I baked a dozen and took them to Blake's office on Weston's first day. A gesture of thanks from a mom who's grateful her son is getting a chance to feed his entrepreneurial spirit.

These muffins come together in less than five minutes. Mix them when you get up, put them in the oven, and go take a shower. By the time you're ready for work, they're ready to go to the office with you.

print recipe

Whole wheat jam muffins

by Erika Kerekes March-26-2013

These simple muffins work best with a loose jam or preserve that isn't too sweet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (I prefer King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/3 cup grapeseed or canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup your favorite jam or preserves, preferably not overly sweet (if jam is very sweet, cut sugar to 1/2 cup)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin generously with nonstick cooking spray.In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice.In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, egg, milk, and jam.Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold together gently with a spatula or large spoon just until the ingredients are combined.Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin tin 2 minutes, then take the muffins out and cool them the rest of the way on a rack. Note: If you're bringing the muffins to work, it's fine to wrap them in foil in a single layer while they're still warm and transport them that way.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 12 muffins

Fruity braised chicken thighs for my mother

• 

Plump braised chicken thighs - perfect for my mom's next dinner party

My mother (hi Mommy! Love you!) is one of my most devoted readers.

This surprises me only because my blog is about cooking.

My mom cooked our family meals when I was growing up, but she didn't like it much. And it showed.

I grew up on baked chicken breasts (sprinkled with paprika for color), baked fish (sprinkled with paprika for color), frozen vegetable medley, and the occasional baked potato. I don't believe any baked good ever emerged from our ovens.

(Don't worry, she won't be insulted that I'm sharing this. She admits it freely.)

These days, though, my mother is throwing dinner party after dinner party.

Why the sudden change of culinary heart?

We lost my dad more than four years ago. Since then my mother has done an admirable job rebuilding a social life.

Like me, she's decided to be the organizer. The one who issues the invitations instead of waiting for them.

My mom has asked me to help plan the menus for a half-dozen parties. She uses my recipes and then, when her friends ask, she proudly points them to this blog.

My mother loves my blog. But she's had the same complaint suggestion for a few years: "You need more chicken recipes."

So here I am with a chicken recipe. An easy one, too. Perfect for my mom's next dinner party.

print recipe

Fruity braised chicken thighs

by Erika Kerekes March-2-2013

Start this chicken dish on the stove to crisp the skin, then move it to the oven to finish cooking. Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs yield the most flavorful meat.

Ingredients

• 6 large chicken thighs (bone in, skin on)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup apricot jam, quince jam, or orange marmalade (your choice)
• freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Heat a large, heavy, ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. (A cast-iron skillet works perfectly for this dish.) Sprinkle the chicken thighs with the salt and place them skin-side down in the skillet. Leave them alone for at least 5 minutes, then lift one up with tongs and peek. You want the skin to be deep golden-brown and crisp around the edges. When it's so, remove the chicken from the skillet and park it on a plate for a moment.While the chicken is browning, whisk together the wine, mustard, garlic, and jam. Add a good amount of freshly ground pepper and whisk again to combine.Turn off the heat. Pour off the rendered fat in the skillet. Put the chicken back in the skillet, skin-side up this time. Pour the wine mixture over the chicken and put the skillet in the preheated oven. Bake the chicken about 40 minutes, until the skin is dark and caramelized and the sauce has thickened. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 50 mins Total time: 1 hour Yield: 6 servings

How pomegranates grow: POM Wonderful harvest tour

• 

Giant pomegranates

Disclosure: POM Wonderful invited me as a guest on the trip described in this post. No other money changed hands. All opinions and any factual errors are my own.

Attention food lovers: Pomegranates bigger than babies' heads are growing in California's San Joaquin valley.

POM Wonderful, the division of Los Angeles-based Roll Global that is credited with making the pomegranate an object of culinary desire in America, has figured out a way to grow its Wonderful variety pomegranates as big as grapefruits.

These mega-pomegranates are so big that POM has to send them to its juicing line. Why can't they ship the huge ones to stores? Because they haven't yet fabricated packing inserts to hold the giant pomegranates. Next year, perhaps.

How do I know this? I saw POM Wonderful's pomegranate orchards and processing facilities for myself, up close and personal, with a team from POM Wonderful and a handful of fellow food writers. First we got on this:

Our ride to the San Joaquin valley

Yes, it was my first time on a private plane. No, it was not ultra-luxurious. Yes, it was a little scary for those of us accustomed to flying on big jets. And heck yes, it was cool to see my house from 1,000 feet up.

Cozy quarters inside the POM Wonderful plane

Roll Global, which also grows almonds, pistachios and citrus, actually has more than one plane, with pilots on call during the work week. It sounds extravagant, but think about it: Their orchards are in the middle of nowhere. Their executive offices are in Los Angeles. People need to go back and forth pretty often. Commercial flights don't get close enough to the Roll operations. A few small propeller planes, combined with private landing strips at their processing facilities, actually make sense.

A fresh Wonderful pomegranate right off a tree - er, bush

Our first stop: the pomegranate orchards, up in the flat, dusty west San Joaquin valley between Bakersfield and Fresno. Pomegranates grow on bushes, really, not so much trees. And POM Wonderful has a lot of them - they're the biggest grower of fresh pomegranates in the U.S. The harvest season starts in mid-fall and finishes before Christmas. All pomegranates are hand-picked; the picking crews go through each section of the orchard multiple times, leaving the smaller fruit for the next pass.

One of the POM Wonderful ranch managers pulled off a few beauties, broke them open, and handed around sections of fresh pomegranate. The arils (edible seeds) were still cool from the desert night. They were huge, ruby-red and so juicy we were all covered with red splotches in no time.

The fresh pomegranate tasted as good as it looks

There's no denying it: Pomegranates are very, very visually appealing. Even POM Wonderful brand manager Jason Osborn, who lives, sleeps and breathes pomegranates year-round, spent a good long time taking photos of his babies.

POM Wonderful brand manager Jason Osborn snapped photos of his babies like a proud papa

As we walked through the orchards we saw bushes that were supported by long trellises. The POM Wonderful growers, like all commercial farmers, are always looking for ways to do more with less - and in the Central Valley, that means growing more fruit with less water. Water is the single most valuable resource in the west, and growers like POM Wonderful depend on it. Training the bushes on trellises may help POM's growers plant more densely without needing more water - or it may not. It's an experiment.

The interesting thing is that when you're a farmer, your "test and learn" cycle is pretty long. You don't know the true effects of your experiments for a whole season, sometimes more. The POM team says they probably won't know whether the trellises really help for five years.

[A note on Roll Global and water: The owners of the company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, have come under fire for their water management tactics, which some say have given them an unfair advantage when it comes to crop irrigation in the western San Joaquin valley. See this 2010 article from Bloomberg Businessweek for more information on this topic. I haven't done the investigative reporting required to take sides on this issue, and I'm not planning to. Water management and allocation of water rights among big growers, small growers and residents of the Central Valley are hugely complex topics.]

A pomegranate bush loaded with fruit

We hopped back on the little plane and landed in Del Rey, where POM Wonderful processes all its pomegranates to be sold as whole fruit and juice. We were only allowed to take one picture inside the processing facility, where the company has invested in high-tech equipment and proprietary processes that let them clean, sort and package their pomegranates.

In-store display boxes waiting to be filled with ripe pomegranates

I'm fascinated with Big Ag. I must have asked plant manager Tracy Fornwalt a hundred questions as she took us around the facility, all of which she answered patiently. The fresh pomegranate processing was interesting, the POM Wonderful juice plant even more so.

One thing many people don't realize is that Roll Global was really the first company to "brand" produce. How many of your kids call those little orange fruits "Cuties" instead of "tangerines" or "clementines" or "mandarins"? It was Lynda Resnick who decided to put the name "Cuties" on their mandarins and market them directly to consumers to drive demand. And it was Lynda Resnick who pretty much singlehandedly decided that Americans needed to learn to love pomegranates and created the brand name, packaging and marketing campaigns that made it happen. If you've eaten a fresh pomegranate or drunk pomegranate juice in the U.S. within the past 10 years, chances are you've had a POM Wonderful product.

Roll is a company where marketing and branding prevail. Lynda Resnick conceived and then insisted on the signature shape of the POM Wonderful juice bottle (it looks like two stacked pomegranates, even down to the crown markings on the bottle's neck) despite the fact that this shape was significantly more difficult - and thus expensive - to fabricate, fill and pack. It was more important to her that consumers instantly recognize the bottle on the shelf. In the end, POM Wonderful opted to make its own bottles right there in the juice plant so they could control the quality and get exactly the end result they wanted. Expensive, perhaps, but POM Wonderful points out that they save money on shipping, since the bottles are made in the room next door to the bottling operation and don't have to be trucked in from another location.

The signature shape of the POM Wonderful juice bottle

We also got a peek inside the new "PomPom" facility, where POM Wonderful is extracting pomegranate arils and packaging them in ready-to-eat containers. The single-serving cups are meant for lunchboxes and come with their own spoon clipped inside the lid. And it's not just any spoon - it's a Lynda Resnick spoon, where the end is shaped like the crown of a pomegranate. Again, branding.

Extracting the pomegranate arils is fraught with peril, as the juicy little seeds burst easily under pressure. The PomPom process isn't perfected yet. They've had some spoilage challenges, and when you open a container you can see some of the seeds are smashed. Still, opening a container is a lot easier than opening a fresh pomegranate. POM Wonderful's margin is highest on the whole fruit, so the decision to sell arils is another "grow the market" strategy: Show people how delicious fresh pomegranate arils are and maybe they'll be motivated enough to do the work themselves next time.

Yeah, I'm kind of a geek when it comes to stuff like this.

Growing the market for pomegranates has also included funding a lot of scientific research, which has led POM Wonderful to make some big claims about how good pomegranates and their abundant polyphenol antioxidants are for us. These big claims, in turn, have gotten the company in hot water with the government, specifically the Federal Trade Commission, which accused the company of making false health claims about POM Wonderful in 2010. The litigation continues and POM Wonderful's ad campaigns have been adjusted, but it's clear that the company still firmly believes pomegranates offer significant health benefits.

After the tour we stopped in the on-site employee restaurant for a delicious pomegranate-laced lunch. Some of the recipes they served us, as well as many others, are available in the Recipes section of POM Wonderful's website.

Turkey sliders with pomegranate relish and cole slaw

Quinoa salad with goat cheese, mint and pomegranate

Grilled fruit with pomegranate glaze

Korean barbecue tacos with pomegranate cucumber kimchee

Do you have more pomegranate questions? How do you like to use pomegranate arils and pomegranate juice in your cooking? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.