Plum Poppy Seed Muffins

This recipe is adapted from Deb Perleman's Smitten Kitchen Cookbook which my dear friend gave to me for my birthday last year.

The plums I used were from the tree in the back yard. I put in a cup more of sugar overall because I love my sugar and wanted more of a desert than a muffin. The plums were not fully ripe and so that is also why I added more sugar.

• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces or 85 grams) unsalted butter, melted and browned and cooled, plus butter for muffin cups
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (50 grams) packed dark or light brown sugar
• ¾ cup (180 grams)  full- fat plain yogurt
• 1-1/2 cup (125 grams) all- purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons (20 grams) poppy seeds
• 2 cups pitted and diced plums, from about ¾ pound (340 grams) Italian prune plums (though any plum variety will do)

Wet ingredients 

The book Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

Dry ingredients 

 Do not use the mixer at this point. Fold the fruit it so as not to turn the fruit to mush.

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Ready for the oven

I used cupcake holders with foil on the inside which helps bake and remove afterward.

To share at work with co-workers

Insects R Us

I love to spend time with the insects in the garden. 

I find myself becoming very zen watching their behavior.  

I  enjoy killing aphids by hand. 

I do not use poison. 

Dragonflies are 99.9 % effective at hunting. The best predator. 

Largest praying Mantis in my garden

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A slightly smaller Mantis

I bought an egg sack earlier in the year and 3 or 4 occupy parts of the whole garden.

Smallest Mantis in the garden.

Proud to have attracted a Monarch butterfly

An elusive jumping spider

Damselfly. Also 99.9 % effective at killing what it intends to kill. A pollinator and a defender. 

One of my local pollinators 

Butterfly on Tomatillo 

Hello, Ladybug.

Snail.

Pesto to Pizza

I grew the basil myself.

Varieties: Lettuce Leaf Basil & Corsican Basil (purple)

The Corsican Basil is an heirloom variety that is said to have originated where Napoleon grew up.

Pesto:
2 Cups of fresh, homegrown, basil
2 Tbls pine nuts
5 cloves of roasted garlic (put a whole garlic clove in the oven at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes to an hour and then pop the 5 out you need)
1 Cup of grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 Cup of Olive oil

Add basil, pine nuts, garlic, & cheese to blender and mix into a pulp. The leaves will stick to the sides of the blender so periodically stop the blender and scrape the sides. After the leaves have made a pulp, drizzle the olive oil in until the desired consistency.  More cheese creates a 'dry' pesto while more oil creates a 'wet' pesto.

I made the pizza sauce from tomatoes from the garden but forgot to take pics during the process.

Sauce:
1 yellow onion 
2 Tbls butter
3 large homegrown tomatoes 
1 Tbls honey
1/2 Tbls dried cayenne pepper
1 Tbls black pepper
1 Tbls dried oregano
1 Tbls dried thyme
1 Tbls dried basil
1 Tbls salt
1 can of tomato paste (6oz)
1/4 Cup homegrown basil
6 roasted garlic cloves (use the rest of the roasted clove from the pesto)

Saute onion in butter until browned. Add diced tomatoes, honey, spices, can of tomato paste. Add roasted garlic and fresh basil at end. Add sauce to blender and puree until it looks like pizza sauce. 

I like the mozzarella from Trader Joes. We get whole, but I suppose you could use the 2%. (if you hate cows) 

Remember to roll the dough out on parchment paper. It will be a dream to move from the oven to the counter

It barely fits on our baking stone!

Bake for about 20 mins.

5 mins before taking it out, brush the crust with some of the pesto oil that has separated from your extra pesto

Glamour Shot!

Watermelon from Start to Finish

Watermelon Seed

I was so proud cause bugs had started to eat the base, but it proceeded onward

Watermelon Flower

I thought I did not have any watermelon growing, and then I found this huge guy growing in the sweet potato planter. Success!

Quarter for size comparison 

It was so sweet and perfect. 

So proud

I cut it up and took out the seeds. They were white but hard like the black ones are normally. I put some of it in a Watermelon Smoothie.