freySite
the life and times of J T Frey
This was originally a recipe I found on Skinnytaste for chicken and broccoli stir fry. Other attempts I've made at stir-fry haven't been great, but this one really worked beautifully. I substituted thinly-sliced flank steak to mimic the Chinese takeout staple. For a more vegetal take, just add thinly-cut carrots, peppers, or snow peas.
The second recipe in the "we picked lots of blueberries" series, this one is just a few minor changes to a recipe by Megan Gordon for Cooking Channel.
This recipe is a hybrid of several different blueberry muffin recipes I found online. Many of the recipes I looked at had more sugar; this recipe allows the blueberries to retain a little more of their raw flavor and tang (which I like). Buttermilk could probably be substituted for the yogurt. The final batter is very thick, so be careful to avoid overmixing.
The spring of 2023 I finally went to the effort of netting the two small blueberry bushes in our yard. By late June I harvested about 2 pounds of berries. I also had on-hand the last of the sour cherries we picked at a local orchard. I went searching for a recipe for sour cherries and blueberries and found one on yayforfood.com. This is an adaptation of that recipe.
On our annual trip to the Outer Banks we pitch-in one night by making dinner: local fish and shrimp (usually grilled) are front and center on the menu. I was planning to do a bbq-ish theme this year, and since I can count on finding excellent salmon at the local seafood markets I planned for a bourbon barbecue glazed salmon. Which just meant I needed a bourbon barbecue sauce; this one is adapted from several recipes I found online. Redemption is a higher-quality bourbon with a very smooth taste, so I used a bit more of it than recipes that advocated for cheaper brands. And I always like to add the liquid smoke late in the cooking process. Adding the black pepper at the end keeps a bit more of the sharp bite from that ingredient, too.
The first time I went to Famous Dave's BBQ I tasted with some skepticism the small, flat cornbread muffin that came with my dinner. What a surprise: the muffin was very moist and just sweet enough while still retaining that fundamental taste of cornbread. So I decided that I'd try my hand at a tasty cornbread muffin that I could serve with any meal.
Yields 10 muffins.