Banana Streusel Muffins

For the past couple of years, my oldest has requested that I bring muffins to a Christmas Eve breakfast for the swim team. The team swims 100/100's first thing in the morning and get out of the pool famished. Most of the parents bring something from casseroles to biscuits and gravy to fruit to chocolate milk. I've brought other things over the years, but apparently I make the best muffins. How can I refuse?

This year I brought a dozen each of three different kinds. My Brown Butter Blueberry Crumb Muffins (which I always promise you the recipe for and still haven't shared) and Cinnamon-Sugar Donut Muffins are "required", but I wanted to throw in another kind this year. My swimmer loves banana bread and muffins, so I decided that these Banana Streusel Muffins were the way to go.

Spiced Blueberry Peach Streusel Muffins

I'm super excited about two things today: delicious muffins (I'm super picky about muffins...weird, right?) and an amazing giveaway—both of which are related to a book that you have to get your hands on if you don't have it already, The Vegetarian Flavor Bible. As you may have guessed, this comes from the same people who brought us The Flavor Bible, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.

If you're not familiar with either, they are both very useful, working books. Not so much cookbooks, because they don't contain recipes, but rather tools. The Vegetarian Flavor Bible has around 550 pages...the first 90 or so are an introduction to a proper vegetarian diet. You'll find vegetable protein sources. as well as tips on how to maximize flavor. Plus, there's an extremely cool timeline of Vegetarianism Through the Ages. Even if you do not adhere to a strict vegetarian diet, there is so much to inspire in the first 90 pages alone.

Moving on to the remaining 450+ pages, you'll find ingredients listed alphabetically from Acai to Zucchini Blossoms—this is where you'll turn to match flavors. Under each ingredient is listed most (or all) of the following things:

• Season: peak growing season for ingredient
• Flavor: ingredient's primary taste
• Volume: relative flavor, or "loudness" of ingredient
• What it is: a brief description of less common ingredients
• What's healthful about it: nutrients, health benefits, etc

Bacon Cornbread Muffins + a Cooking with Frank's® RedHot® Cayenne Pepper Sauce cookbook review

Surprises can come in the most unexpected packages. Recently, I was offered the chance to review a copy of the Frank's® RedHot® Cayenne Pepper Sauce cookbook. I was happy to, because I've always enjoyed Frank's, especially on basic hot wings or (best of all) Buffalo Chicken Dip. I thought I'd probably find a couple of tasty dishes to try. To be completely honest, I wasn't really expecting that much. I don't know why. I had some sort of preconceived notion about "brand" cookbooks in my head...that it was probably somewhat basic. In a happy surprise, I was proved wrong.

Let me back up a moment and note that the cookbook itself is actually not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the manufacturer of Frank's® RedHot®; it is independently published and written. And it's written by a blogger. Aaaaaahhhhh, no wonder it's not boring and ho-hum. I mean, I may be a wee bit biased, but I know the hard work and long  hours that most food bloggers put into recipe testing and development. After learning that, it made sense that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the recipes in the book. It might be worth noting that I read through the book, and added my numerous bookmarks before reading about the author, Rachel Rappaport.

Hot sauce lovers are going to want this book on their shelves. It does contain things you might expect, like chicken wings and dip—but they go beyond run-of-the-mill. You can also find things more out of the ordinary, like jello shots, ice cream, and even cinnamon buns...and yes, they all have hot sauce as an ingredient.