Stardew Valley #67: Poppyseed Muffin

Ingredients: Poppy, Wheat Flour, Sugar

Item Description: It has a soothing effect.

Muffins! I looked up a typical recipe and im copying that prettymuch. We got our poppyseeds, we got flour and sugar, we got all that other.. cake stuff.

gotta sieve the flour, are you even baking if you havent lightly dusted the whole kitchen?

All the dry stuff together: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, a hint of salt, and im adding slightly more poppyseeds than the recipe recommends, because what else am I going to do with this bag of poppyseeds? Lets make the poppyseediest muffin we can. I want to fail a drug test for opiates.

In go the wets... to me a muffin means vegetable oil whereas cupcakes are butter. Did I make that up? This recipe had butter and milk, but im cutting the butter with 1/2 oil. in goes that melted butter and oil and milk, and 1 egg.

Lastly, most people tend to add a secondary flavour, and its typically lemon. Sounds good! I'm adding in both some lemon juice and some grated zest as well.

Batters all mixed up, looks good.

Got some cute cupcake liners for extra swag.

First batch goes in the oven for like 15min. Good thing I definitely... remembered... to heat the oven...

This first batch looks promising, but they're actually kind of small, I should put more batter in the next ones so that they can puff up out of the case. Like a mushroom that actually tastes good.

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Nice! Light and zesty. I don't really know if poppy seeds alter the flavour much or if that's just the lemon zest... I don't make plain lemon muffins very much. These had a nice crispy outer layer and a fluffy inside. Now I have like 2 dozen of these fuckers.

Stardew Valley #62: Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients: Blackberry, Sugar, Wheat Flour

Item Description: There's nothing quite like it.

What's the difference between a pie and a cobbler? Nothing actually, I looked it up. Most people think a cobbler has like a batter drop topping, but thats not definitively a cobbler apparantly. Anyway the sprite for this has a kind of weird stripey half-lattice, and I have a bunch of leftover pastry, so you see where this is going.

Bought another pastry base. It's just so much better than what I can do. Look at that machine precision.

Gotta weed out the mouldy berries unfortunately. Guess i should have done this earlier in the week.

Now its probably good to turn this into a bit more of a pie filling... recipes seem to recommend adding milk for some reason... sugar for extra sweetness, flour to stop it being too wet, and I'm adding some orange essence to add a little secondary flavour.

I tried to learn my lesson from that blueberry pie, but perhaps we've gone a bit far in the opposite direction? Should we have done more milk and flour? Ah well, I don't really want to.

Right here's our leftover pastry. Its probably still good.

Alright this is what the sprite looks like, you think im just too lazy to make a proper lattice? Don't judge me. Anyway time to bake it.

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OK judge me a little bit I let this pie look so bare. But you know what?

Bit of ice cream, and it's perfect. Perfect!! I love the tart blackberries with the orange essence coming through and the sweet crust. I had a scoop of sesame and honey flavoured ice cream btw. Granted anything fruity tastes good on a hot day like today. Great combination, would use more filling next time.

Stardew Valley #59: Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients: Pumpkin, Wheat Flour, Milk, Sugar

Item Description: Silky pumpkin cream in a flakey crust.

I've made pumpkin pie before, and I know a really easy simple recipe for it as well! Even if pumpkin wasn't out of season, I highly recommend finding a tin of "american style" pureed pumpkin, its the perfect consistency and concentration for pie filling. For the wheat flour I just bought pre-made pastry again (it was 24p!) and for the milk & sugar i've streamlined it into a can of sweetened condensed milk. Then we've got eggs, and classic pumpkin spices.

Oh noo! I accidentally broke my big pyrex when I was getting out a baking dish. :( RIP to a real one. This is the dark side of cooking blog.

Here's the pre-rolled pastry shaped into a dish. It's kinda moist from being hastily defrosted. Reminds me of sliced cheese.

Fortunately we have some other big bowls to mix in. Im not even going to use my mixer because its literally so easy to mix. Just 3 different kinds of sludge: The tinned pumpkin, the condensed milk, and 2 eggs.

And then the spices go in. its like a teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of ginger and nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.

Mix it up until you have THE SLUDGE. Until you have Clayface from batman.

And then its ready to go in the oven for like 40mins. ITS REALLY THAT SIMPLE

*****

This was kind of a foregone conclusion because I already knew how to cook this AND pumpkin pie is probably my favourite pie of all time. And look how easy it is! Are you going to try making pumpkin pie now? Are you??

Stardew Valley #56: Artichoke Dip

 Ingredients: Artichoke, Milk

Item Description: It's cool and refreshing.

Got some leftover artichokes, just half a can so I will plan to do a relatively small batch. Which is also good because last time I had these artichokes I didn't like em. For the "milk", im being sensible and using sour cream instead, much more dip-appropriate, and cross-referencing a few recipes online with what i already have, ive come up with adding some mayo, dill, celery salt and powdered garlic as well.

I've never made this before, but hopefully chopping/tearing them into small chunks is right? The dip graphic looks chunky.

Thrown it all together, but ah! I just remembered something else from other recipes I was gonna add!

CHEEEESE gromit! Seemingly all kinds of cheeses are used for artichoke dips, but a common one is hard cheese. I got a tiny bit of grana padano left.

Don't cry because you dropped your grater in the dip. Laugh because you dropped your grater in the dip.

Stirred and decanted into a bowl, this is looking like a dip! Now for the last step I wouldnt have guessed.. we bake it in the oven! Glad I looked this up.

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Alright first off, can't have a dip without the chip!

A personal favourite, some store brand not-chilli-heatwave-doritos. These are already delicious which might be a bit of a cheat, but i think this dip pairs really well and makes for a fun dinner that im sure my doctor wouldn't recommend. I'm not sure if artichoke is redeemed and if i fundamentally like the flavour, but it adds an adventurous je ne sais quoi that makes me glad I tried this and not just a bowl of unbaked sour cream. It does get stuck in your teeth something fierce though.

Stardew Valley #50: Roots Platter

Ingredients: Cave Carrot, Winter Root

Item Description: This'll get you digging for more.

I've gone and got us a selection of cave carrots and winter roots! We've got carrot, celeriac, ginger and parsnip.

This step isn't necessary I guess, but when buying root veg loose from a big supermarket I kinda like to peel them to be on the safe side from all the manhandling and pesticides.

Chopping the carrot, parsnip and celeriac up into big chunks and placing them on a baking tray. Yes it's time for yet another chunky vegetable tray roast! I don't have many ideas for these types of dishes ok.

As for the ginger though, that's a strong flavour thats going to be the main feature of the seasoning! So we grate a good bit of it in our finest grater.

And we mix that in with some other stuff to create a glaze/marinade for our vegetables. I've got lavender infused cooking oil, soy sauce, honey, celery salt, thyme and cayenne pepper.

Then I apply it on all the vegetables with a silicone brush. And shove it in the oven for like, 25 min? I dunno.

Don't forget to flip them halfway through!

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A pleasant, zesty flavour that goes down easy. But... well, together the vegetables are all a bit samey in flavour. It's already a bit similar to other recipes like vegetable medley, glazed yams, autumns bounty, farmers lunch..
This'll get you digging for more.... side dishes to go with it!