Veggie Annie

06/01/2025

Snow Day (here in the mid-Atlantic) Fancy Coffee!

The Dirty Earl

Makes 4-6 coffees, more or less - depending on your milk ratios

Flavorwise, keep in mind that it takes a strong flavor to match the flavor of a strong cup of Joe. To my taste, this recipe is a perfect balance of flavor, but Juliana likes hers with an extra tablespoon of tea leaves or an additional 2 teabags

3 cups of milk or oatmilk
2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves, or 3 teabags - if you love Earl Grey and have a special one that’s extra bergamot-y or anything, this is a lovely place to use that.
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups strong, hot coffee - If you’re near Frederick MD, you know that the outstanding Serina at Dublin Roasters Coffee has been my go-to coffee human for decades.

Two hours before you want to drink your Dirty Earl:

Heat the milk to hot-but-not-boiling. (You can put it in a quart Mason jar and put it in the microwave, or you can heat it in a pan on the stovetop. Remove from heat before adding anything.)

To the hot milk, add the tea, 1/4 cup of sugar and a two-finger-and-thumb pinch of salt. Let it sit on the counter til cool, then refrigerate and allow to steep for 2 hours.

Strain out the tea leaves.

Make coffee.

Gently reheat the tea-milk or tea-oatmilk, and add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.

If you like a foamy top to your coffee, use a handheld, battery-operated milk frother to froth up the tea-milk mixture. (We have several of these, and I wish I knew how to make a nickel when people order them on my recommendation, because I recommend them ALL THE TIME - because frothing up a beverage at home is a pure dopamine hit! Also, though, some dairy milk brands don’t froth - you just have to experiment. Oatly Oat Milk, full-fat and unsweetened, froths GORGEOUSLY.) This drink is delightful even unfrothed, so don’t let lack of a frother stop you from making it.

Warm the mugs by filling them with hot tap water or boiling water from the kettle - let them sit briefly, then dump out the water.

Put 1/2-3/4 of a cup of hot coffee in each mug, top with 1/2 cup of hot tea-milk.

Enjoy your Dirty Earl!

04/01/2025

Veggie Annie Dinner Delivery Pop-Up!

Happy 2025, Beloved Dinner Delivery Customers! Here’s one of our occasional Dinner Delivery Pop-Ups. We are thinking of you, and wishing lots of happiness, health and prosperity to all.

(No idea what food prices might be like this year, and we know that there’s a limit to what we can charge and still expect to sell - so if things get too spendy for us, we might possibly have to shelve these pop-ups. We’ll always keep quality high, never fear.)

Veggie Annie Dinner Delivery to your home on Friday, January 10, 2025. Please order by 9am on Monday, January 6, 2025.

We deliver to Frederick MD, Washington DC and everywhere in between.

Don’t forget to leave out a cooler with some ice packs.

Each dish is $35. Please order at least 3 quarts, for a minimum of $105. Venmo is my favorite way to get paid.

Creamy Chicken Chili - This dish is a hug in a bowl. Shredded chicken, beans and corn in a super-flavorful creamy-salsa-y base. Not spicy - feel free to add your own hot sauce, if that’s your thing. This Chili gets THREE thumbs up from every taster! One quart. Gluten-free.

African Peanut Stew - A runaway favorite! Veggie-full, super savory and complex. We send along salted peanuts and lime wedges to garnish - we recommend adding your own sriracha. One quart. Vegan and gluten-free.

Veggie Annie’s Curried Lentil Salad - Our Flagship Dish. IYKYK. If you don’t know, we’re so excited to welcome you to the club! Lentils, capers, raisins, onions, the secret spice mixture - it all goes together to create this Veggie Annie classic. One quart. Vegan and gluten-free.

Moroccan Roasted Veggies - A harmonious blend of vegetables, including eggplant, sweet red peppers, carrots, onions, green and black olives, plus Moroccan spices, and fragrant olive oil, roasted to melting perfection. One quart. Vegan and gluten-free.

BMW Salad - A very popular Veggie Annie classic, from way back in the day. Lightly steamed Broccoli, garlic-and-tamari marinated Mushrooms, and toasted Walnuts make up this dazzling salad. I can’t not say it - you should take it for a spin! One quart. Vegan and gluten-free.

Veggie Annie’s Curried Lentil Salad Mix….$25.00
Each mix contains organic dry lentils, organic raisins, our special spice mix, plus a jar of capers. You cook the lentils, then add the spice mix to your own oil and vinegar, stir in the cooked lentils, raisins, drained capers and your own diced red onion. Makes about 6 cups of my famous and adored Curried Lentil Salad.

Email or text to order!
[email protected]
301-401-0913

24/12/2024

For our little family, today is Christmas Eve, and if you celebrate it, you might be looking for one or two things to whip together today to give or eat tomorrow. If you celebrate Hanukkah, you might be looking for some lovely treats for the upcoming festive days. Or maybe you’ll visit friends or relatives in the Week Between the Years, and would like to take a small offering that’s not a bottle of wine. No worries - I’ve got you! Free subscribers get my very classic and delicious Molives (posted annually around this time!), and paid subscribers get a brand new set of DELIGHTFUL treats - Three Fancy Nut Butters.

Molives (Martin’s Mother’s Marvelous Mexican Olives) (https://veggieannie.substack.com/p/veggie-annies-skillet-molives-martins)

Molives are a famous treat in the Veggie Annie universe - green olives marinated in lime juice and garlic - and are beloved for their out-of-the-ordinary taste AND for their extreme ease of prep. Try one in a martini, or on a cheese board. Or just eat them!

Three Fancy Nut Butters (https://veggieannie.substack.com/p/veggie-annies-skillet-three-fancy)

Almond Latte Crunch Almond Butter

Spicy Thai Peanut Butter

Gingerbread Pecan Almond Butter

Ok, so the Fancy Nut Butters involve peanut or almond butter, plus some ingredients you either have or can grab in a very quick trip to the store, and containers. I had a bunch of 6 ounce glass jars lying around (oh, the catering supplies I have lying around!) or you can get larger or smaller glass or plastic containers. If you add a loaf of bread or a basket of apples (apple slices plus Fancy Nut Butters are the stuff of my SNACK DREAMS) to one or all three of these jars as a gift, you will not regret it! You can also stuff pitted Medjool dates with any of these for some very Amazing Dates.

Happy Holidays, darling cooks!

See you in the kitchen!

Love and Kisses,

Veggie Annie

https://veggieannie.substack.com/p/veggie-annies-skillet-extremely-last

Unusually delicious, quick-and-easy meat / vegetarian / vegan recipes for everyone. Click to read Veggie Annie’s Skillet, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

19/12/2024

Hello, lovely Cooks and Creators!

As we swing towards the end of 2024, with lots of holidaying ahead of us, as well as behind us, I’d like to suggest celebrating one teeny little extra festive day. I know - those of you who labor physically, emotionally and mentally to create Holiday Magic™ for your households, offices and friend groups might groan at the thought of DOING MORE FREAKING LABOR - but hear me out. This is pretty light lifting, and it’s not steeped in any Perfect Homemaker lore (so you can do anything you want), and it’s fun! And jolly! (And in fact, if Big Fancy Holidays have unpleasant associations for you, try this in place of them, rather than in addition to them.)

I’m talking about celebrating the Winter Solstice, Veggie Annie style.

At our house, we have celebrated the Solstice for years, creating a little rest stop off the Busy-Interstate-Highway-to-Big-Deal-Winter-Holidays. We love to pause the intensity and just get a little silly for the day. And while it IS one more thing to organize, it’s so loose and fun that you might welcome it as a breather, too.

Ok, here’s the way we do it:
1) We eat only round, red, orange, yellow, spicy-hot, and / or temperature-hot things, to honor the sun. (English muffins with either lemon curd or orange marmalade, sunny-side-up eggs, a corn tortilla fried in a round skillet with orange Cheddar and sautéed sweet peppers and hot salsa.) Or sometimes green things, to honor the plants-chlorophyll-growing-things effects of the sun. (Wagon wheel pasta with pesto or chimichurri, pizza with sautéed spinach.) Or sometimes things which grow or are manufactured in, or are associated with particularly sunny parts of the world! (Coffee, of course! Pineapple! Or how about Turkish coffee? Hummus in a round bowl with round crackers. Etc.) Also, remember that MANY COOKIES AND CAKES ARE ROUND. So you’re covered there.

Here’s a link to Nigella Lawson’s DELICIOUS Orange Cake - it’s gluten-free and very elegant and also, it reliably turns out great. We like to make a little chocolate whipped cream to top it with, but it’s totally lovely just as is. Nigella calls it “damp”, which is a gift for people who hate the word “moist.” It is the opposite of a dry cake. (https://www.nigella.com/recipes/clementine-cake?offset=36)

2) We give each other small gifts which we can connect to the sun or fire or light or plants or round, hot, yellow, things in some fashion. They can be obvious, like a bag of tangerines, or a beeswax candle; mildly more elaborate, like a box of strike-anywhere matches wrapped in gold wrapping paper, with a Sacajawea golden dollar taped to the box; or complex and requiring an explanation, like a vintage handkerchief, because if you’re trying to encourage a reluctant sneeze, you should look up at a light and the sneeze will happen. Or a Cookie Monster t-shirt, because cookies are round and often made of grain, which grows under the sun. You’re beginning to see the fun of this holiday, right? It’s delightful to us to make these connections.

3) We make a playlist - any holiday songs we especially like (“Good King Wenceslas” is never absent from a holiday playlist, at my house), plus “Here Comes the Sun”, of course. (Plus “Why Does the Sun Shine?”, by They Might Be Giants, OF COURSE.) Plus any sunshiney songs you can google or dream up.

4) If we get around to it, we decorate an evergreen bough with gold lights and yellow ribbon - this is super casual and NOT about glossy-magazine-perfection. (Sometimes, Christmas tree sellers will just give you a leftover bough for free if you stop by an ask.) Stick the branch upright in a Mason jar filled with marbles (round!), or lay it flat on your table and decorate it with pretty dead leaves and sticks. The more it looks as if Festive Raccoons decorated it, the better I like it, personally.

This year, Juliana and I are planning to give each other flashlights to use on our evening walks, but other years it's been a tiny vial of grapefruit essential oil and a wee jar of saffron, or a pack of metallic gold Sharpies, or a beach towel, or candied sunflower seeds.

We are wishing you a relaxed and fun holiday season, and much love and health in the New Year.

See you in the kitchen!

Love and kisses,

Veggie Annie

https://open.substack.com/pub/veggieannie/p/veggie-annies-skillet-winter-solstice

25/11/2024

It’s Thanksgiving Week! Every food publication in the US is currently posting useful food-prep timelines and matrixes (matrices?), easy pie recipes, impressive and tricky pie recipes, and debates about brining / not brining turkeys. (And let’s not forget the Butterball Hotline, which figuratively dries more anxious kitchen tears than a kindly Grandma.)

Your old pal Veggie Annie is re-posting my most perfect Thanksgiving side dish ever, free, as my gift to you!

Seeing as how Juliana and I are caterers, who make big-fancy meals almost every weekend for our living, the VERY LAST thing we ever want to do on Thanksgiving is make a big-fancy meal for potentially difficult relatives, with extra-fancy potential emotional minefields - AND have to clean the house first, just to add insult to injury. We like to just be together, be relaxed, be thankful, and maybe make some giant sandwiches, or get takeout.

If you are hosting the Big Meal, or are going to a lovely Friendsgiving potluck, or staying home in blissful peace and solitude, we wish you love and happiness and pants with an elastic waist and solemn reminders of the Native land on which we live, and so much gratitude for being here and breathing in and out. We are endlessly thankful for you.

This DELICIOUS dish is a fantastic addition to the Thanksgiving table! Bright, refreshing, crisp; an utterly perfect foil for all the rich, savory dishes on the menu. Another major plus: no oven required. You can take this pretty and delightful dish to someone’s house for dinner, and your hosts will be thrilled to know that you only require a serving spoon. (Make it just before you leave home, and wait to add the crystallized ginger until just before serving.)

https://veggieannie.substack.com/p/veggie-annies-skillet-sparkling-apple

06/11/2024

Guest post by Veggie Juliana -

Please join me in wishing our beloved Annie Marshall a happy 57th birthday!

She says that this morning’s news is the worst birthday present she’s ever gotten.

In this dread and despair filled hellscape that we are, apparently, now living in, I’m extra grateful for my Mama’s fierce love, her passion for justice, and her constant desire to right wrongs.

The horrors persist, but so does our Veggie Annie.❤️

All of us at Veggie Annie send our love to all of you, with particular tenderness for our LGBTQ+ and BIPOC beloveds.

Here’s a reposting of our recipe for Kitchen Witch Hot Cocoa, to stave off the darkness. https://veggieannie.substack.com/p/veggie-annies-skillet-kitchen-witch?utm_source=publication-search

28/10/2024

Just voted! I was glad to see that the line was robust here at the Washington County Board of Elections early voting spot. We waited about 35 minutes. You know me - mine was a straight blue ticket. I was particularly delighted to vote for Harris / Gus’s Dad. 💙💙

17/10/2024

It’s Bitchless Thursday! We are just home from a 16-day catering event at a gorgeous location in the Adirondacks. (These folks are very private, so no details about them or the spot.) It was a magnificent adventure! Fabulous vintage vibes throughout the place, absolutely stunning nature, and incredibly lovely people. It was also VERY hard work - each day was a full 14 hours on our feet! I’m feeling pleased with myself and extremely satisfied with this marathon work period - and so, so happy to be home!

Here’s 12 seconds of rain on the lake (which was 10 steps from the front porch), on a cozy, fire-in-the-fireplace, hot-coffee kind of morning.

Tagging the outstanding Juliana Lufkin and Keela Grimmette without whom none of it would have been possible. ❤️

27/09/2024

Hello, Cooking Friends!

How do I have so much STUFF?! It’s been a summer of sorting, paring down, donating, yard sales, and, more than anything, standing around with my hands on my hips, surveying the piles that still don’t seem much smaller. It’s a privilege to have so much, and also, I’m ready to have less!

But one precious treasure that I’ve come upon recently is my Dad’s baby book. In 1931, his folks adopted sweet baby Tommy Joe, and then documented tons of darling memories and details - swatches of the wallpaper in his nursery, lists of gifts for various occasions (so many sweaters! They lived in Chicago, and apparently, no one wanted that babe to get chilly in the Windy City!), telegrams from friends and family addressed to Master Thomas Joseph, welcoming him to the world and the family. My Grandma Ann even wrote out the recipe for his first birthday cake: Wellesley Fudge Cake, baked with nuts, in a loaf pan. It seems like kind of an intense cake for a 1-year-old, but I guess, back in the day, babies were more hard-core than we know! Did they serve black coffee along with the cake to Baby TJ and his pals? Could be!

We made this cake yesterday, and didn’t actually care for it much. It was quite dry, and the frosting was weird and hard to work with - like an unusually-extra-sticky hot fudge glaze, which, no matter how long we beat it, did not become frosting-textured. Ingredients, baking vessels and ovens change quite a bit over almost a century - not to mention tastes - so I didn’t necessarily expect a 1932 recipe to make a perfect-for-me cake in 2024. It was fun to try! Stay tuned in future issues, though, because now I need to make a GREAT Wellesley Fudge Cake.

Anyway, he would have been 93 this month! I hope you’ll raise a cup of black coffee with me for my lovely Dad.

Free Subscribers get this silky, incredibly easy Roasted Butternut and Feta Soup, which is gluten-free. Paid Subscribers get these scrumptious Vegan Green Chile Burgers, (also GF) which do take about 40 minutes to put together (plus baking time), but have a very high ROI.

The nights are getting a little cool here in the Mid-Atlantic, and I’m sending you thoughts of crisp blue skies, sweet nostalgia, and loads of Autumnal veggies.

See you in the kitchen! For more content like this, subscribe to my recipe newsletter at the link below!

Love and Kisses,

Veggie Annie

https://veggieannie.substack.com/p/veggie-annies-skillet-september-27

21/09/2024

Note that we will NOT be taking orders for pickup on October 4, 11, or 18. Pickup will resume on Friday, October 25. We are very excited to be catering a long retreat in the Adirondacks - but we’ll miss you guys!

Veggie Annie PROVISIONS

By Veggie Annie, through Community Garden Market

Are you heading out for the weekend? Going to your vacation home, a campground or cabin, or an AirBnB? Not into cooking on your vacation?! Eat more plants, and make it DELICIOUS!

Pre-order a PROVISIONS BOX by Veggie Annie by noon on Monday, September 23, and pick it up on Friday, September 27 at Community Garden Market in Berkeley Springs! Plus, a second pick up spot! Big Pool, MD - just 5 minutes off Rt 70W. We can arrange a time window that fits your schedule.

Minimum order $150.00. Build your box from our a la carte menu, or select one of our preloaded boxes.

Sign up for our email list in our Linktree to be notified of our weekly menus! https://linktr.ee/veggieannie This week’s full a la carte menu is listed in our Linktree!

Preloaded box #1…$150
Serves 4 - Coffee, dinner, dessert!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer of your choice
Split Pea Soup with Roasted Veggies
Green Salad with Tomato-Tamari Dressing
Chocolate Marmalade Cake with Whipped Ricotta Topping

Preloaded box #2…$170
Serves 4 - Coffee, breakfast, lunch, snack, activity!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer
Chocolate Almond Banana Breakfast Cake
Broccoli-Cheddar Soup with Biscuits
Almond Cookie Bars
Cookie Mix in a Jar
Raspberry Lime Mocktail

Subscribe to our recipe newsletter on SubStack! VeggieAnnie.SubStack.com

15/09/2024

Veggie Annie PROVISIONS

By Veggie Annie, through Community Garden Market

Are you heading out for the weekend? Going to your vacation home, a campground or cabin, or an AirBnB? Not into cooking on your vacation?! Eat more plants, and make it DELICIOUS!

Pre-order a PROVISIONS BOX by Veggie Annie by noon on Monday, September 16, and pick it up on Friday, September 20 at Community Garden Market in Berkeley Springs! Plus, a second pick up spot! Big Pool, MD - just 5 minutes off Rt 70W. We can arrange a time window that fits your schedule

Minimum order $150.00. Build your box from our a la carte menu, or select one of our preloaded boxes.

Sign up for our email list in our Linktree to be notified of our weekly menus! https://linktr.ee/veggieannie This week’s full a la carte menu is listed in our Linktree.

Preloaded box #1…$150
Serves 4 - Coffee, dinner, dessert!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer of your choice
Coconut Milk Curry with Butter Beans and Veggies
Green Salad with Maple Miso Dressing
Lemon-Raspberry Yogurt Pot Cake

Preloaded box #2…$170
Serves 4 - Coffee, breakfast, lunch, snack, activity!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer
Overnight Oats
Glorious Lentil Mushroom Soup
Individual Sweet Potato Chocolate Puddings
Cookie Mix in a Jar
Iced London Fogs

Subscribe to our recipe newsletter on SubStack! VeggieAnnie.SubStack.com

13/09/2024

The former President is loathsome in many ways, which, for the sake of my mental health, I will not dwell on here.

Let me just talk about Haiti. Haiti is the ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD to have freed ITSELF from slavery, and created a nation. This was a profound and unprecedented accomplishment, and let me tell you that most white Europeans were extremely uncomfy about it. Various leaders did what they could to intentionally cripple the new nation, and Haiti has suffered in many ways - economic hardship, strongman dictatorships, and corruption (not to mention environmental suffering) ever since. Bizarre, made-up insults to and accusations against Haitians are utterly unacceptable. De-humanizing a group of humans must never stand.

(You’ll recall from your early 20th century history that Jews being de-humanized was the first step on a very horrifying path.)

Today, Haitian people are made of steel and dignity, and we are very fortunate to have some of them in this nation of immigrants.

Here’s a recipe from Leah Penniman's book Farming While Black (which is awesome in every way, not just for this recipe!) for Soup Joumou, Haiti’s traditional New Year’s Day dish. Soup Joumou celebrates Haitian freedom, and is made in many variations by the diaspora all over the world.

I give it to you to honor those seriously brave, impressive, freedom-loving, self-determining ancestors and their amazing descendants today.

See you in the kitchen!

Love and Kisses,

Veggie Annie

https://open.substack.com/pub/veggieannie/p/veggie-annies-skillet-september-13

02/09/2024

Happy Labor Day! Mother Jones said, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.” Veggie Annie adds, “And put together this practically NO-LABOR chocolate-fondue-ish treat today, for the easiest celebration!”

Chocolate bar (a pile of chocolate chips would also be adorable and delicious) - any kind you like. Metal tray (or any tray.) Stuff to dip in the chocolate - fresh and/or dried fruit, pretzels, sturdy potato chips, shortbread, marshmallows, etc. Let the chocolate sit on the platter in the sun for 10-15 minutes, then arrange the stuff around it. (The chocolate will be melty, but will hold its shape, which adds to the coolness of this.)

Dip the stuff in the gorgeously melty chocolate, feel grateful for our fierce labor activist foremothers and forefathers.

01/09/2024

Check out our prepared food offerings for your vacation weekend:

Veggie Annie PROVISIONS

By Veggie Annie, through Community Garden Market

Are you heading out for the weekend? Going to your vacation home, a campground or cabin, or an AirBnB? Not into cooking on your vacation?! Eat more plants, and make it DELICIOUS!

Pre-order a PROVISIONS BOX by Veggie Annie by noon on Monday, August 26 and pick it up on Friday, August 30 at Community Garden Market in Berkeley Springs. Plus, a second pick up spot! Big Pool, MD - just 5 minutes off Rt 70W. We can arrange a time window that fits your schedule.

Minimum order $150.00. Build your box from our a la carte menu, or select one of our preloaded boxes.

Sign up for our email list in our Linktree (https://linktr.ee/veggieannie) to be notified of our weekly menus! This week’s full a la carte menu is linked in our LinkTree.

Preloaded box #1…$150
Serves 4 - Coffee, dinner, dessert!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer of your choice
Broccoli Fritters
Green Salad with Coffee Maple Vinaigrette
Whole Orange Snacking Cake

Preloaded box #2…$170
Serves 4 - Coffee, breakfast, lunch, snack, activity!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer
Overnight Oats
Texas Black Bean Hummus Cups with Veggies and Tortilla Chips
Individual Sweet Potato Chocolate Puddings
Cookie Mix in a Jar
Raspberry Lime Mocktail

Subscribe to our recipe newsletter on SubStack! VeggieAnnie.SubStack.com

26/08/2024

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffin recipe is free to all! https://www.facebook.com/share/65DWq8vYAhWiezQE/?mibextid=WC7FNe

It would be amazing if you’d subscribe to my newsletter, Veggie Annie’s Skillet on Substack. Free subscription or paid subscription. Veggieannie.substack.com

24/08/2024

Check out our prepared food offerings for your vacation weekend:

Veggie Annie PROVISIONS

By Veggie Annie, through Community Garden Market

Are you heading out for the weekend? Going to your vacation home, a campground or cabin, or an AirBnB? Not into cooking on your vacation?! Eat more plants, and make it DELICIOUS!

Pre-order a PROVISIONS BOX by Veggie Annie by noon on Monday, August 26 and pick it up on Friday, August 30 at Community Garden Market in Berkeley Springs. Plus, a second pick up spot! Big Pool, MD - just 5 minutes off Rt 70W. We can arrange a time window that fits your schedule.

Minimum order $150.00. Build your box from our a la carte menu, or select one of our preloaded boxes.

Sign up for our email list in our Linktree (https://linktr.ee/veggieannie) to be notified of our weekly menus! This week’s full a la carte menu is linked in our LinkTree.

Preloaded box #1…$150
Serves 4 - Coffee, dinner, dessert!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer of your choice
African Peanut Stew with Rice, Salted Peanuts and Lime Wedges
Green Salad with Charred Lemon Vinaigrette
Dark Chocolate Almond Flour Cake with 2 Sauces

Preloaded box #2…$170
Serves 4 - Coffee, breakfast, lunch, snack, activity!

Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Homemade Creamer
Overnight Oats
Texas Black Bean Hummus Cups with Veggies and Tortilla Chips
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Cookie Mix in a Jar
Iced London Fogs

Subscribe to our recipe newsletter on SubStack! VeggieAnnie.SubStack.com

22/08/2024

It’s Bitchless Thursday!

Here’s a free recipe for all cooks, as my Bitchless Thursday gift to you: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins! With a gluten-free option. This is one quick and delicious recipe.

I’ve been making these lovely treats for more than 30 years, from back when I was a young mom, cooking with my toddler. The original recipe came from a cookbook called All the Best Quick Breads and Muffins, by Joie Warner, 1992. Ms. Warner wrote a whole series of All the Best cookbooks, which were very popular, and all great, but this one was my holy book. I learned to bake reliably, and made muffin after muffin from it. (Including a mini-muffin recipe that called for crushed-up ginger snaps in place of flour - which caused my mother to give me this no-nonsense advice, “You have some perfectly nice cookies and you’re gonna spend time and ingredients and dishwashing to make some OTHER baked good out of them? What’s wrong with you?! Just eat the cookies! Christ’s sake.” My mom was funny and tender, but also took no prisoners.)

I’ve fooled around with proportions, substitutions and timing many times over the years - here’s the current recipe, with a simple gluten-free option. (Also, if you happen to have this book, Warner called them Brown Sugar Oatmeal Muffins, and added prunes, not chocolate chunks. The prunes are also very yummy! I’ve made them with diced apples, as well.)

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

10 minutes to put together, 20-22 minutes in the oven
Makes 12 muffins, or sometimes, 12 muffins plus one extra little ramekin

1 and 3/4 cups rolled oats (or gluten-free rolled oats)
1 cup flour (or 1 cup gluten-free flour)
1/2 packed cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter (2 ounces or 1/2 stick)
1 and 1/4 cup buttermilk (or put a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in a glass measuring cup, fill to 1 and 1/4 cup with whole milk, and let it sit for 5 minutes)

1 cup chocolate chips (I use Guittard large chips for this recipe - they are fair-trade and slavery-free, the chocolate flavor is excellent, and I particularly like the large, chunky chips.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put muffin papers in a 12-cup muffin pan, and spray the papers lightly with cooking spray. Or skip the papers and just grease or spray the cups of the muffin pan. (I like the papers for the sake of a bit less scrubbing, but YMMV.)

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 and 3/4 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together very well 1 egg, 1/4 cup of melted butter, and 1 and 1/4 cup of buttermilk.

With a rubber spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones, just until incorporated. Don’t overmix, or you’ll get tough muffins. (But then you’d get to say, “Tough muffins!” as a rude answer to people who complain about things they should just get over. Your choice.) Once the wets and dries are combined, stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips.

In general, I fill the wells of standard muffin or cupcake pans with 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter. (4 tablespoons is 1/4 cup.) For these cuties, I use 5 tablespoons, or a scant 1/3 of a cup per muffin. These don’t rise into a high dome - they make an equally pretty, mostly-flat top. You might have a bit of extra batter. In that case, I grease a small ramekin and bake the rest of the batter in it.

Bake for 20 minutes. If the muffins look golden and dry on top, they’re done. If not quite, bake for another 2 minutes. (Note that gluten-free flour and oats will make slightly less-browned muffins, even if they’re done.)

Always turn muffins out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool, or they will steam in their muffin wells.

I like to serve these warm, with the chocolate still melty - and I also like them cold, with the contrast of chilled, firm chocolate against the soft muffin. You can freeze any extras - 10-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven defrosts them right from the freezer. Or if you keep them on the counter for a day or two, you can do my favorite muffin refresh: cut the muffin in half, either direction, and toast the cut sides under the broiler, then serve with butter.

Hope this makes your Thursday feel extra Bitchless!

See you in the kitchen.

Love and Kisses,

Veggie Annie
https://open.substack.com/pub/veggieannie/p/veggie-annies-skillet-august-22-2024

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