Successes and Failures, in a Basket

So I had a recipe fail this week.  I wanted to recreate Joy the Baker's Simple Roasted Apricots with Honey Mascarpone, but instead of looking like this,

...it came out looking like this.

OK, so some of the ugly appearance may be due to the fact that I'm using my phone's camera rather than a nice one.  I'm still in the market for a new camera to replace my Olympus Stylus that now refuses to turn on, so any suggestions are welcome, especially if you have firsthand experience with a P&S/DSLR hybrid.

A lot of it may be the fact that I did not wait until the apricots were cool to put on the mascarpone, hence the liquidy, blobby mess you see above.  That can easily be avoided next time.  But I think the real problem is that her recipe calls for "a quick blast under the broiler," but I don't really know how to use a broiler!  I thought a quick look on Wikipedia would give me enough information, but when it came time to actually work the oven, I was confused as to why my apricots were getting limp and squishy instead of firm and slightly blackened on top.

So, needless to say, I said, "fork this one."  Both literally and figuratively.  I had this whole entry planned about how Joy the Baker has come into my life and helped to inspire me to write this blog, along with other food blog mavens... but that entry will have to wait until another time, when I can try another of Joy's decadent recipes, hopefully with a little more broiling prowess.

One thing I did manage to make successfully this week was this wonderful creation, made famous by V in "V for Vendetta":

It's an Eggy in a Basket!  I got some quick directions one morning from this recipe on Food.com - extremely simple and quick - and it turned out to be delicious, and not too bad-looking.  I really do need to get a new camera, though.

Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins (Times Two!)

Of course I had to make my first recipe post about muffins.  The title of this blog is not just an attempt at formulating a clever phrase that may be catchy one day (although that is certainly part of it); it is also an expression of my love for muffins, particularly chocolate chip ones.  Ever since I was young, I have had an affinity for these lovely baked goods.  I ate a muffin nearly every single morning for about a decade.  I never tire of them.  There's something so satisfying about the big kind especially, with the large, mushroomy top that you can pop off with little effort, revealing a soft, moist cylinder of cake underneath.

So, for these reasons, I knew I had to incorporate muffins into my first real post somehow.  I have actually never made muffins myself before.  I have always bought them from my local deli, bakery, and/or grocery store.  But recently, I acquired quite a lot of muffin mix from my local Winn Dixie.  (I say "acquired" rather than "bought," because Winn Dixie had a deal going on through which I got 6 packages of muffin mix fo' free when I bought 3 boxes of General Mills cereal, which we needed anyway.  Love when that happens!)  So I thought I'd take advantage of all the muffin makings I had (and still have) stashed away in my pantry.  But a blog post about adding milk to muffin mix is not very interesting.  So I thought I'd do a wee experiment: I'd make one batch of muffins with the mix, and I'd make one batch from scratch, both the same kind of muffin, and I'd see which tasted better and why.