Elle's New England Kitchen

My inspiration for these came from of course, Mexican Hot Chocolate. I saw some somewhere online and decided to translate the cinnamon-laced chocolate drink to my my favorite little hand-held-excuse-to-have-cake-for-breakfast, muffins.

It wasn't very difficult--a basic chocolate muffin, and add some cinnamon and chocolate chips for good measure. And then a nice chocolatey, cinnamony streusel over the top. I found the streusel here, and just added a good dose of cinnamon to it. It's so good! Could've sat there and eaten the streusel with a spoon. A little crunchy that way, but so tasty.



These are my entry to Grace's Cinnamon Celebration. I love Grace! She makes the most delectable sweet things that constantly make me say "I want that!" And she's got a thing for cinnamon. Lots of cinnamon.

The winner of the Cinnamon Celebration is getting some Vietnamese Cinnamon bark. That's a good reason to enter right there! Head on over and give her your best cinnamon recipe!



Mexican Hot Chocolate Muffins

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter, melted
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Streusel:
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of flour
2 TB cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 TB of melted butter



Heat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
Sift the dry stuff together, and make a well in the center.
Add the butter, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla and chocolate chips.
Mix well, but don't overdo it.
Fill the muffin cups evenly.



Mix the streusel stuff until it's crumbly and top each muffin with some.
Bake for 17 minutes or so, and check for doneness.
Cool in pan for a few minutes then remove to a rack.
A cooling rack, not the old torturing device.
And really, I hope you don't have one of those lying around.
Because then you're probably too mean to make nice little streusely muffins.

To print this recipe, click here!




The Sisterhood Award


This award comes from Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. They are two of the sweetest ladies in the food blogging world, and I'm happy to have met them through their blog. Thank you, ladies! Now, all of you, get on over there and check them out--they have tons of wonderful recipes!

Here are the rules:

The rules for recipients are:
- Put the logo on your blog or post.
- Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
- Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
- Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


I happily pass this award along to these lovely blogs and sisters in blogging (in no particular order):

1. Kelly at Sass & Veracity
2. Kat at A Good Appetite
3. Grace at A Southern Grace
4. Shelby at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch
5. Deborah at B More Sweet
6. Lori at Recipegirl
7. Nikki at Canarygirl.com
8. Judy at No Fear Entertaining
9. Shaye at Smarter Than Pancakes
10. Dawn at Vanilla Sugar

I'm so thrilled to say that I've been awarded two more awards this week! I know I've said it before, but when I started blogging back in February, I didn't think anyone would care to read what I had to say, or look at the food I was making. But the food blogging community is full of amazing people that genuinely do care, and like to read and see what other people are cooking. Everyone I've encountered has been very supportive, kind and helpful. Seriously, not one sourpuss in the bunch!

Diva at The Sugar Bar has awarded me the “Arte y pico” Award. It's awarded to blogs for their creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogger community, no matter what language. Thank you, Diva! She has a wonderful blog, and a very cool blogging event that she just started that has to do with beauty products that sound/smell good enough to eat, and translating those flavors/scents into food. Fun, right? So go check out her blog, you won't be sorry!

And now I pass them on to five blogs, and here are the rules:

1)Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award with their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogger community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Post the rules.

My five go to:

1) Veggie Girl
2) Delicious By Nature
3) Vicarious Foodie
4) Parsnips Aplenty
5) Okara Mountain
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And second, canarygirl has awarded me with the Blogging for a Purpose Award. Basically, this award is designed to commend blog writers that are thoughtfully sharing their insights with the rest of the world. If you haven't checked out canarygirl's blog, you definitely should! She makes the most delectable food, ever. I've never made a recipe of hers that I didn't love--they're all fabulous! AND, she's having a giveaway right now--you can win a copy of her gorgeous cookbook! So...what are you waiting for? Get your butts over there and check out her blog--you won't be disappointed with her recipes, I can promise you that. And enter the giveaway!

I'm passing this along to some of my favorite blogs:

1) Pixie at You Say Tomahto I Say Tomayto
2) Amy at Delicious By Nature
3) Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen
4) Tiffany at Life After Gluten
5) Lori at Made Healthier

Thank you so much, Diva and canarygirl! I appreciate it more than you know!
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And I've been tagged by George at Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess. Farida at Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook has started a new tag called "Look What I Made." Basically, make a short list of recipes you've tried from other blogs. It's a great way to see discover other blogs and see what other people are cooking. Farida says:

"This is a great opportunity to give kudos to the fellow foodies whose recipes we used and inspire them to post more of their yummies. A way to say thank you for what they do. I also think this tag will help us discover some interesting recipes and blogs out there. There are a lot of delicious recipes hidden somewhere in the archives, and this tag may actually give them another chance to shine."

So let me look back and see what I've made!

1) Decadent Chocolate Cake and
2) Chocolate Ganache from Whole Grain Gourmet
3) Whole Wheat Brownies from Made Healthier
4) Raw Vegan Brownies from 28 Cooks

I'm sensing a trend here--are you? Chooooocoooolaaaaate. hahaha!! What can I say, I have a love/love relationship with chocolate.

5) Seared Ribeye Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce by Zen at Chefs Gone Wild

So there are five I've made, and now for my tags:

1) Grace at A Southern Grace
2) Lyb at And then I do the dishes
3) Deborah at B More Sweet
4) Ginny at Just Get Floury
5) Erika at What Else Can I Cook?


Whew, that was a lot to cover, wasn't it? I didn't think I'd ever get it finished, with all the links and stuff. It's 9:45 pm, and I started this around 4 this afternoon. Interruptions, I tell you. My family actually thinks I should feed them! ;)

I'll be back tomorrow with a food post (at least that's my plan). But how about a little teaser?

Yep--all of that juice and zest goes into one recipe, and it's sooo tasty that I hope I have some left for more photos of the actual finished dish! ;)

Goodnight!