Chicken & Dumplings

Disclosure: I received a complementary copy of Jubilee by Toni Tipton-Martin for review

It’s cookbook review time, and this one was fantastic!  The cookbook is a collection of recipes that represent African American cooking over the course of the last 200 years.  Tipton-Martin’s goal in writing Jubilee was to bring to light the diversity in African American cooking beyond fried chicken and soul food.

Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking: A Cookbook by Toni Tipton-Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well written, and beautifully photographed. I learned a lot about the history of African-American cooking and how much more it is than fried chicken and soul food.

My favorite part was the inclusion of recipe snippets taken from Tipton-Martin's extensive collection of antique cookbooks. They added a fascinating dynamic to modern recipes.

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Tipton-Martin traces the history of African-American cooking back to the days of slavery when culinary skills were typically developed either

1.      by necessity as in the field slaves who had to make do with whatever second-hand ingredients came their way or,

2.      by aptitude as slaves working in the kitchen. 

It was a fascinating read.  Plus, the recipes looked amazing – I have many bookmarked to try!  My favorite part, however, was that Tipton-Martin included snippets from her collection of antique cookbooks next to many recipes, giving the reader a glimpse of how a particular recipe may have looked long ago.

Bitoque (Portuguese Steak & Eggs) #eattheworld

It’s the 10^th of the month, which means we’re traveling the world for this month’s Eat the World Recipe Challenge!

This month’s challenge takes us to Portugal!  I had a great time searching Portuguese recipes, and had quite a list of options.  Yet, I kept coming back to Bitoque.

Bitoque is essentially what I’d call a Farmer’s Breakfast.  Two proteins, two starches, with a side of salad.  This is meant to fill you up for a full day of hard labor!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

Today I have a pumpkin muffin for you.

A pumpkin muffin with frosting.

So is it really a muffin or is it a cupcake?

Despite what the frosting says, and the fact that I ate these for dessert, these are, in fact, muffins.

Let’s call the dessert muffins ok?

So what makes these a muffin and not a cupcake?