One Year Blogoversary, Muffin Monday and a Giveaway!

As you can tell from the title, there’s a lot going on here today. See, it’s my one year blogoversary today! Well actually it was yesterday but I would still like to celebrate this big day by hosting a fantastic giveaway.

When I first started this blog, I didn’t know what to expect. I was just doing what I love – cooking, taking pictures, and posting about it. Little did I know that blogging involved a lot more than that, like being incredibly frustrated with the way the pictures turned out, having an epic fail in the kitchen so you don’t have a post ready for the next day, getting lazy and having writer’s block, and spending your life savings on kitchen props. BUT with all that aside, I’ve come to fall in love with food blogging. It’s the only thing keeping me sane these days, with Jason being gone and me having to find a job in the public health field with this terrible job market going on these days. I’ve also met tons of great people through other food blogs, Twitter, instagram, and Pinterest. Through these social avenues, I’ve become part of a wonderful foodie community where it isn’t the slightest bit weird to take a picture of our artery-clogging lunch or awesome Chobani yogurt sales at Target. That’s why I’m giving away a donut pan – because I love you guys. And also because EVERYONE needs a donut pan in the kitchen.

Now that I got all that sappy stuff out of the way, let’s talk about this week’s Muffin Monday. We were assigned a savory basil and ricotta muffin, but I jazzed it up a bit by substituting fresh basil instead of dried, and adding sun-dried tomatoes and freshly grated Parmesan. The end result was a muffin with an incredibly light and fluffy texture from the ricotta with just enough saltiness from the Parmesan, not to mention the fresh basil flavor and chunks of sun-dried tomatoes in every bite. These would be the perfect appetizer and/or side dish to any meal, or you could simply grab one on your way to work for a nice portable breakfast.

One year ago: Hot Wings

Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Ricotta Muffins (adapted from Cafe Fernando and Bowl Licking):

Yields 12 muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup ricotta
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup julienne sliced sun-dried tomatoes in oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. (If you don’t want to use paper liners, you could coat a muffin pan with cooking spray instead.)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the ricotta, Parmesan, olive oil, milk and eggs.

Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.

Add the basil and sun dried tomatoes and gently toss to combine.

Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray.

Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Place into oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

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GIVEAWAY:

Remember when I posted about the Baked Red Velvet Donuts? Well a lot of you said that you needed to buy a donut pan. So since you guys are so awesome, I am giving away a Wilton nonstick donut pan to one lucky reader. You can choose between a 6 cavity donut pan, a 12-cavity mini donut pan, and a 6-cavity heart donut pan.

Here’s how to enter:

Simply leave a comment letting me know which donut pan you’d like to win and what your favorite kind of donut is.

For three optional additional entries (leave a separate comment for each):

Giveaway ends on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time. The winner will be selected by random.org and contacted by email. If there is no response after 48 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to US residents only.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I was not paid and/or reimbursed to host this giveaway. This is provided by me, myself and I.