Given the ‘please let treats be treats!’ rants that I so often go on and my refusal to hide vegetables in cookies or beans in brownies, it may surprise you that my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe is whole wheat. Truthfully, it surprised me too, but one bite into the first warm cookie from the first batch of these I ever made and the recipe instantly replaced the former Tollhouse cookie recipe that had been my previous go-to. I don’t think I’ve made that recipe since, but I have made these many, many times.

These whole wheat chocolate chip cookies come from one of my favourite and most used baking books, Good to the Grain, by the lovely and talented Kim Boyce. If you don’t already own this book and you like to bake, you need to get it and start working through it. I, in fact, own TWO copies of this book, since, when I had to leave my books behind and live in Vancouver for six months to finish up my nutrition degree, I decided I simply couldn’t live without it so ordered another copy to live there. So, whether I am at home in Stockholm or in my mother’s kitchen on the west coast, I am never without this book. It’s that good. Listen to me, I’ m being serious; get it.

Let me also tell you about my chocolate chips. Many months ago, Leanne posted a recipe on her blog which prompted me to leave a whiny comment about how I can’t find chocolate chips in Stockholm. Leanne thought that was sad, and so she sent me some. For real; a woman who I had never met in ‘real life’ spent a good amount of money to send chocolate chips across the Atlantic and up up up to my Swedish kitchen. That dazzling act of kindness spurred many lengthy emails back and forth, a return package loaded with Swedish goodies, and, what I feel is a true friendship. We’re like a modern day Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. I sincerely hope that, just like those two, we one day get the opportunity to meet in person.

Leanne is, at any moment, about to give birth to her first child. As I’ve baked these cookies with the last of the chips she so kindly sent me, I’d take a plate round to her, would that I could. This virtual gift will have to suffice for now, but please, please, somebody bake her up a batch (they’re easy, Physicist, you can do it!).

One year ago: Rhubarb Muffins

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe:

This recipe makes a LOT of cookies. If I’m making a batch at home just to have around the house, I very often make only a half batch. Boyce’s instructions makes much fewer and much larger cookies – about 20 the size of your palm. I use a #70 cookie dough scooper which drops down about a tablespoon of dough. At that size it bakes up into about 5 dozen much smaller cookies. That’s the size I like them, and the baking time I’ve suggested here is for the smaller size. For the mini chocolate chip cookies I made for the cupcake toppers I used a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon to scoop the dough and baked them for just a few minutes.

Recipe from Good to the Grain

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3 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

8 oz / 240g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch / 1 cm pieces

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

8 oz / 240g chocolate chips, or dark chocolate chopped into pieces

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Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl use a whisk to mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (not the whisk, mom!) mix the cold butter pieces with the sugars until well blended, about two minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time. Give the bowl a good scrape down and ensure everything is well combined, then add the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the wet mix all at once, and blend until just barely combined. Next add the chocolate and mix until evenly combined. I like to finish the mixing with a wooden spoon; Boyce recommends turning the mixture out onto the counter and using your hands to knead everything together.

Use a spoon or cookie scooper to scoop even rounds of dough onto your prepared cookie sheets, leaving enough room for the cookies to expand.

Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes, rotating the pans half way through baking. Best is to pull them from the oven when you see them browning around the edges but you still think the middles are slightly under done. Cool on a wire rack.

These cookies are best when they are still warm from the oven, with a big ol’ glass of milk.

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Know what you’re eating: what’s good about this? What isn’t good about home made chocolate chip cookies? And seriously you guys, these ones are the best. Yes there is whole wheat flour, so they may be marginally more healthful than a cookie made with straight up all purpose, but there is butter and sugar and chocolate in there a plenty, so please don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re eating a health food. Enjoy your cookies! Damage control: How about this healthy and fiber loaded Wild Rice and Chickpea Salad for dinner? Ever wonder about the burnoff? According to this article, you’d have to run at 8km / 5 miles per hour for 30 min to burn off a chocolate chip cookie. Woah!

Do ahead: Cookie dough can be made in advance and kept in the fridge, covered, for a few days. Or you can scoop it into balls and freeze them to be pulled out and baked at a later time. Baked cookies will keep in an air tight container for a few days, or frozen for much longer.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

You guys. Remember last week when I said I was going to tackle a batch of these chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes for Paul’s birthday? Well tackle them I did, and oh man, they were good. I followed Annie’s advice and made them over a couple of days, which made the many steps a little less overwhelming. I was worried the cookie dough filling and then cookie dough frosting would be too much, but it was just right. If you have a special occasion coming up and want to pull off some impressive cupcakes, I suggest you make these. And I also suggest you ensure you’ve got plenty of people to feed them to, because these aren’t the kind of thing you want to end up home alone with.

Anyways, down to business.

What’s good around the web is a weekly series where I share some of what I’ve been reading around the web. Each week I’ll be posting links to five nutrition related articles, good recipes, and just general good reads. I hope you enjoy it!

If you’ve got at article or recipe you’d like to see featured, please email me.

What’s good around the web?

1. Scarlett Johansson has something to say about body image and being  healthy.

2. David Lebovitz has something to say about how he eats, and things he does.

3. This is an old but good article which argues against hiding vegetables in food for kids.

4. I like what these ladies have to say about snacking.

5. Spring salad with strawberry basil dressing. Yum.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

Sometimes I do this thing where I decide I need a break from sandwiches for lunch. I try to pack other things; stir fries, fried rice, I recently even made fried millet and packed it for lunch. Like, woah. And, grain salads. Grain salads pack well, they have good chew power, and are more often than not nutritional powerhouses. It’s picnic food. And isn’t a packed lunch sort of like a mini picnic?

Sometimes I do this thing where I take massive liberties. Like here, for example. Slaw? Okaaaaaayyyyyy. I guess, in the loosest sense of the word we can call this a slaw. In my brain this is a slaw because I use components of a slaw I often make; diced apple, red onion, and a tangy yoghurt dressing. Then I take some liberties; broccoli instead of cabbage. Kamut. Don’t call it a slaw if you don’t want to, if you can’t wrap your mind around the slawness of it all. Go ahead and call it a grain salad. Then pack it for lunch. Or for a picnic.

Kamut? Kamut is an ancient relative of durum wheat which has never been hybridized. The grain is 2 to 3 times larger than the average wheat grain, and takes substantially less water to grow. It has a high protein (7g of protein per 1/4 cup (46g) of kamut) and fatty acid content, but a lower fiber content than regular wheat due to it’s larger size (don’t worry, there is plenty of fiber in this recipe with all the broccoli in this slaw). Kamut berries have a nice chew to them, and a nutty, almost brown buttery taste. Often people with sensitivities to other forms of wheat are able to tolerate kamut. If you aren’t, however, I’ve listed some possible substitutions in the head notes below. Lets get down to business.

One year ago: Sweet Potato Lentil Quinoa Baby Cakes 

Broccoli Kamut Slaw Recipe:

Can’t find kamut berries? No worries. Wheat berries, spelt berries, farro, barley, or brown rice would all do the trick just as nicely. Kamut, though, is worth seeking out for the chewiness and nutty, buttery flavour.

Serves 4 as a main, more as a side.

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1 cup uncooked kamut berries

5-6 cups of chopped broccoli florets and stems (from 2 heads)

1/2 medium red onion, finely diced

1 medium – large apple, diced into small squares

1 cup plain yoghurt (I used 3.5% Turkish yoghurt)

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper

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Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt generously. Add kamut berries, reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Test kamut berries towards the end of cooking. They should be chewy and toothsome, but not crunchy.

Rinse broccoli and dice it all up into bite sized florets and bits of stem. When the kamut is just about finished cooking, add the broccoli to the pot. Give it a good stir so the broccoli gets well incorporated, and cover for 2-3 minutes. Broccoli should be just barely tender and not at all mushy. Remove the pot from the heat, strain broccoli and kamut, and give everything a good rinse under cold water. Drain well.

Place broccoli and kamut in a large bowl. Add diced red onion and apple, and toss well.

In a small bowl whisk together yoghurt with apple cider vinegar, and a little salt and pepper to taste. Pour dressing over the slaw, and mix until everything is well coated. Taste, and adjust seasoning as necessary. Serve.

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Know what you’re eating: what’s good about this? Broccoli is good for you! It is a great source of vitamin C, dietary fiber, and high broccoli consumption is thought to be beneficial in the prevention of heart disease and some cancers. Yoghurt is a great source of calcium, vitamin B12, and protein, to name a few. The live bacterial culture is very beneficial for digestive health. Aim for lower fat yoghurts whenever possible. Kamut is a high protein form of wheat. It is a good source of vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, pantothentic acid, copper and complex carbohydrates, and is often tolerable by those who are sensitive to other forms of wheat. An Apple a day keeps the doctor away! Apple is a good source of fiber, and vitamin C. The nutrients in apples are concentrated skin, so buy organic, give them a good wash, and keep the skin on whenever possible.

Do ahead: This slaw will last for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge. I packed it for lunch for 4 days in a row, and it held up just fine.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful mommas in the world! I thought I’d share a picture of my beautiful mom and I today. This is one of my favourites. (That moment was captured by the lovely and talented Melia)

What’s good around the web is a weekly series where I share some of what I’ve been reading around the web. Each week I’ll be posting links to five nutrition related articles, good recipes, and just general good reads. I hope you enjoy it!

If you’ve got at article or recipe you’d like to see featured, please email me.

What’s good around the web?

1. Clearly I’ve got rhubarb on the brain (mayhaps because I haven’t had any yet!). Karen’s strawberry rhubarb pie looks amazing.

2. An interesting read on table sugar vs high fructose corn syrup. Are all sugars created equal? Maybe not.

3. Speaking of sugar, we’ve got a birthday coming up in this house. The birthday boy loves cookies. And cookie dough. And cupcakes. That in mind, I’m going to tackle these. I’ll let you know how it goes.

4. Nutrition ABC’s, an interesting series written by a registered dietitian. Here is F is for Fat, parts one and two. Good info.

5. More on sugar … the rise of type 2 (formerly called adult onset) diabetes in children. Can we fix this? Should sugar be taxed? Regulated like a drug? What do you think?

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday! But you didn’t need a reminder, did you? Last year on Mother’s Day my family teamed up with another family we’re super close with for an epic Mother’s Day barbeque. We had gourmet burgers and a zillion burger toppings and salads and our mom’s stayed off their feet for the entire night. This year I’m on the other side of the world, so I thought I’d help you all out with some ideas for a fab Mother’s Day Brunch. You’re the best, moms, I salute you.

Does mom like eggs? How about poached eggs on crispy polenta (above). You can assemble a build-your-own station for your brunch table.

Breakfast pizza! How could you forget? Make your mom a breakfast pizza!

Roasted pumpkin and kale frittata . Even though spring has (mostly) sprung, you should be able to find winter squash in the markets still. And kale is back in season. If mom likes kale, this frittata will rock her world!

Or! If you’re lucky enough to have fresh corn and tomatoes in your life, here’s another fab frittata: Grilled corn and tomato frittata!

Egg quesadillas are fast and easy and moms love them. Well, my mom loves them.

What if you had some home made granola on your brunch buffet? What if you made your mom a big ol’ jar of it to take home and enjoy later? Aww, she’s so proud of you! Cranberry walnut granola is big time yummy.

But so is this one: No (refined) sugar chocolate coconut granola. It’s a tough call. Make them both!

Does your mom love muffins? But muffins that are on the healthier side? Banana spelt weekend muffins are a sure fired win.

Rhubarb muffins! Rhubarb is in season now! My mom tried to trick me into thinking that rhubarb was dessert when I was little and I didn’t believe her because that junk was growing in the backyard AND it was sour. Now I love it! Moms are always right.

My sister-in-law loves these Orange Earl Grey muffins. She’s a mom. Somebody make her some!

(Pssssst! There are way more muffin recipes here!)

Can we talk treats now? It is Mother’s Day, after all, and your mom deserves a treat. Chocolate zucchini loaf with quinoa is all the stuff that treats are made of, but still with a healthy dose of veggies and whole grains in there.

Banana hazelnut pancakes are just straight up treats. No fooling around here.

Home made bagels! Seriously, your mother made you. Make her some home made bagels already. You might become her favourite (admit it, mom!).

Maple oat scones are another great treat that also happen to be loaded with whole grains. Total Mother’s Day brunch material.

Maybe let’s make our moms some cake. Moms deserve cake. This cranberry spelt streusel cake is awesome, especially if your mom is a streusel topping stealing fiend. You know the type. You can swap out the cranberries for another in-season fruit if you like.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

Folks, I have a tried and true pizza dough recipe. One I’ve been using for years and years. One I know off by heart. One I know by smell and feel. One I know I can slide off of my peel and onto my stone and turn out a damn fine pizza.  This? Isn’t it.

Here’s the thing; I have a pizza dough recipe.  I have a brownie recipe. I have a scone recipe. My old faithful, never let me down, work every time recipes. But, variety is the spice of life, right? So I’ve been challenging myself to try new things. Also? At the outset of our last pizza party (back me up, friends, Paul and I throw one hell of a pizza party) my pizza stone cracked in half. When I read about this pizza dough, which is not only mostly whole wheat, and no knead, but also is cooked not on a stone but in a skillet, I wanted to give it a whirl. 

One Friday morning not too long ago I stirred together the ingredients for this pizza dough, covered the bowl with plastic, and then went to work. I came home a good 10 hours later, schlepping a bag of pizza toppings along with me, and turned the oven on as hot as it would go. All I needed to do was organize my toppings, press some of the dough into my (well greased) skillet, and I was in business. 20 minutes later I had a pizza and 4 back to back episodes of Grey’s Anatomy all to myself. It was one heck of a Friday night. I put the rest of the dough (which I had attempted to divide in 3) into the fridge, covered, and went to bed.

The pizza I had made on Friday night had been a little thick for my taste, and not quite crispy enough. I wanted more. I wanted better. I wanted to see if the dough was still viable. So, Saturday morning I cranked my oven, greased my skillet, and pressed a thinner layer of dough in for a second go around. I made a simple pizza with spinach, tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella, and then at the last possible second when everything was brown and bubbly like I like it, I cracked a couple of organic free range eggs over the top and threw the whole thing under the broiler for a minute. Out of the oven, a handful of fresh arugula and a few grinds of fresh salt and pepper – breakfast pizza? Yes please!

Will this replace my tried and true pizza dough? No way! Will it grace my kitchen many times more? Heck yes! Especially as the base for this glorious breakfast pizza. Looking for something interesting to add to a Mother’s Day brunch this weekend? Give this a go!

Mostly Whole Wheat No Knead Pizza Dough Recipe:

Let me say a few things about this dough; first off, this is sticky business. If you have a pizza stone, put it away. This dough is waaaay too wet and sticky to possibly slide onto a stone. Get out a skillet – I used my large, shallow Le Creuset skillet, but a cast iron skillet would be a great tool as well, or for a bigger pizza, a large cookie sheet would work too. Secondly, don’t be shy about greasing your skillet or sheet pan if you want your pizza to come out easily. I used olive oil this time, but I might try butter next time. Lastly, with well floured or greased hands, spread your dough as thin as you can get it without tearing holes in your dough. I found my first pizza to be way too thick and not crispy enough. The breakfast pizza I took as thin as I could, and it was just right. Oh, and a word about the flour; I used whole wheat flour and bread flour – all purpose flour in Europe generally has a much lower gluten content than in North America (and within North America, Canadian AP flour has a higher gluten content than American AP flour) so depending on where you live you could use AP flour or bread flour, just do a little research into the gluten content.

Makes enough dough for 2 – 4 pizzas, depending on the size of your pan or skillet and how thin you like your crust.

Recipe from The Food Matters Cookbook 

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2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour or bread flour (see head note)

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups water

2 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for greasing.

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In a large bowl, combine flours, yeast, and salt. Stir in 1 1/2 cups water. The dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set in a warm spot to ferment for 6 – 12 hours. The longer it sits, the more yeasty (good!) the flavour will be.

When you’re ready to make your pizza, heat your oven to 500 F / 250 C or as high as your oven will go. Let the oven pre-heat for a good hour if you have the time.

Generously oil a large baking sheet or oven proof skillet.

Flour or oil your hands (I found oiling them a little more effective) and fold the dough over its self in the bowl a few times.

Divide the dough into half or quarters if you’re making smaller pizzas, and gently press into the skillet or sheet. Try to get the dough as thin as you can without tearing holes into it. Brush the top of the dough with olive oil, and let it sit while you’re getting your toppings ready.

For my breakfast pizza I used:

-tomato sauce

-fresh baby spinach

-buffalo mozzarella

-sliced tomatoes

And baked for about 15 minutes, until cheese was brown and bubbly. Then I cracked 2 eggs over the top, and returned to the oven under the broiler for about 1 minute. I threw a handful of fresh arugula and some fresh cracked pepper and salt over the top, and ate immediately.

Know what you’re eating: what’s good about this? It’s pizza! You made it! It’s delicious. Sure, this pizza dough is made from 2/3 whole wheat flour, and whole wheat flour is higher in fiber and nutrients than all purpose. But! It is flour and this is pizza no less! Let’s moderate! We’ll enjoy our pizza on the weekend (you did read that I ate an entire pizza for dinner on Friday and then another for breakfast on Saturday, right?) and then we’ll move on with some healthy eating.

Damage control! How about we move on with a delicious green smoothie for breakfast the next morning? Try this one!

Do ahead: You can (and should!) start this pizza dough 6 – 12 hours ahead of when you want to make your pizza. You can start it in the morning for a pizza dinner, or the night before for a breakfast pizza. My dough seemed to survive reasonably well in the fridge overnight, I just let it come to room temperature for about an hour before I made my breakfast pizza.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

What’s good around the web is a weekly series where I share some of what I’ve been reading around the web. Each week I’ll be posting links to five nutrition related articles, good recipes, and just general good reads. I hope you enjoy it!

If you’ve got at article or recipe you’d like to see featured, please email me.

What’s good around the web?

1. Very interesting article on the high cost of obesity. I hadn’t considered things like increasing fuel costs.

2. At one of the places I work there are plump little stalks of rhubarb poking out of the ground. When they’re bigger I am 100% going to steal a few stalks and make this rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake.

3. Here is a good read from the New York Times on the relationship between food deserts and obesity, and Marion Nestle’s thoughts on it.

4. Real, fresh, foods leading global snacking trends? I like the sound of that.

5. I bet this Honey Sweetened Lemon Butter would be just the thing to make a real treat out of  these muffins.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

When I think back to this time last year I think mainly of two things; sweet, sweet relief at my exams being over and my nutrition degree finally finished; and, pudding. The last semester of my degree, certainly the final push, was largely fueled by pudding. Not this pudding exactly, but a similar pudding, one that I made so often I had the recipe and technique committed to memory and could pull it together on one study break and have it chilling in the fridge to snarf down on the next one. I hadn’t made pudding since graduating last year, but recently when I came into a liter of organic whole milk, it was the first thing that popped into my mind.

This pudding is all goodness. It is built from milk, honey, a vanilla bean, some cornstarch, and an egg is whisked in at the end for extra protein and richness. This is the kind of thing I refer to as a weeknight dessert; it isn’t heavy, or too rich, or too terribly sweet. In fact, like many things I make for weekday consumption it teeters on the edge of just barely sweet at all. You can change it up as you see fit. Don’t have whole milk? I’ve made this with 1 and 2% milk and it turns out, while slightly less rich, just fine. Like your pudding a little sweeter? Go for it.

Milk and Honey Pudding Recipe:

You may have an opinion about how thin or thick you like pudding to be. This one is fairly thin and jiggly. If you like a thicker pudding, adjust the amount of corn starch accordingly. This particular pudding held it’s gel for only a couple of days, and then the leftovers became a sort of delicious honey vanilla sauce. I believe this is due to enzymes in the honey acting on the gel structure in a way that sugar would not. It isn’t a big deal and won’t affect the taste, but be forewarned that this is a consume within about a day kind of a deal, if you don’t want your pudding to eventually liquefy.

Serves 4 as 1 cup servings, or more as smaller servings.

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1 liter organic whole milk, divided

1/4 cup honey

4 Tbsp corn starch

1/2 vanilla bean OR 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 egg

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Combine 3 1/2 cups of milk with the honey in a large pot, and set it over medium heat.

Slice your vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds out with the back side of a knife; place them in a large bowl, and toss the empty pod in with the milk and honey. In the same bowl with the vanilla seeds, whisk the corn starch and remaining milk into a smooth paste, then whisk the egg in as well.

Once the milk and honey has come to a boil, remove from heat and pour it very slowly into the bowl with the cornstarch and egg, whisking constantly to avoid scrambling the egg. Once combined, pour the pudding mix back into the pot and return to the heat.

Stir the pudding constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon until it just barely reaches a boil. The pudding should thicken in this time enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, and pour the pudding into a bowl or into several small bowls, and set in the fridge to cool. If you don’t like pudding skin then you can place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent it. Chill for a few hours, or until you can’t wait anymore, and then enjoy.

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Know what you’re eating: what’s good about this? Cow’s milk, for those who don’t have trouble digesting it, is a great source of locally available, low-cost, high quality protein. Milk is a great source of iodine, calcium, vitamin D, riboflavin, vitamin B12, and phosphorus. Eggs are an amazing source of high quality protein, vitamin B12, choline (important for your brain), carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Eggs are satiating; a study found that those eating  a low fat diet which included 2 eggs a day for breakfast lost nearly *twice* as much weight as those eating a bagel breakfast with the same calories and mass, with no increase in blood cholesterol levels. Honey is a beautiful natural sweetener which has antioxidant and antifungal properties. Did you know honey has been used as athletic fuel and as a healing agent for thousands of years? Be mindful of a couple of things: first, your honey is only as good as the plants providing the pollen. Don’t skimp on honey, buy the good quality locally produced stuff. Second, calories are still calories. Honey is a great alternative to sugar, but it is a sweetener no less. Again, we need to moderate.

Do ahead: This pudding can be made ahead of time and allowed to chill for several hours or overnight. I don’t recommend you make it two days in advance, as the gel doesn’t hold very well.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

Since I’ve been writing travel posts lately I thought I’d dig up a photo from another trip. Any guesses where this was?

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What’s good around the web is a weekly series where I share some of what I’ve been reading around the web. Each week I’ll be posting links to five nutrition related articles, good recipes, and just general good reads. I hope you enjoy it!

If you’ve got at article or recipe you’d like to see featured, please email me.

What’s good around the web?

1. I think this is a great approach to teaching kids (and bigger people!) about balanced eating. We must learn to differentiate between healthy foods and treats without getting trapped eating middle of the road foods too often.

2. I love me some Nutella once in a while, and I’m fully aware that it is a treat. Frankly I think this lawsuit is a little ridiculous. What do you think?

3. We’ve talked about what dietary fiber is and why it’s such an important part of a healthy diet before. This article is a great resource with a list of high fiber foods you can include in your diet.

4. Wendell Berry, a champion of the real food movement, is one of my heroes. I have one of his many profound quotes at the bottom of my about page. Mark Bittman recently spent an afternoon chatting and eating with him, and wrote a beautiful article about the day.

5. Trying to lose weight? This study finds that eating less and exercising more is more effective than diet products. Makes sense to me.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012

Budapest had never really been on my list of ‘must visit’ destinations. We decided to look into it because a couple of our friends had been there separately and absolutely raved about it. We found some cheap tickets and got a recommendation for a good hotel, so why the heck not? Budapest.

My liver was a little trepadatious after having spend a couple of days in Brussels, but I assured it that Budapest would be different. I totally lied to it. We did at least (mostly) make a switch from Belgian beer to Hungarian wine. And there was to be pálinkas. If my liver had known about pálinkas it probably wouldn’t have let me get on the plane. Sorry, liver.

Did you know that Hungary has 22 wine regions? We spent the better part of an afternoon looking for The Wine Center of Hungary (or something) which we had read about in the tourist brochure provided by our hotel. It sounded promising. Information on the 22 different wine regions, wine and spirit tasting, and so on. It was in the castle district, so we set off and tried to find it. A major red flag should have been that many different people we asked in that area had no idea what we were talking about. When we finally found it it was not, as I had been expecting, a large wine cellar full of barrels and information and samples. It was, rather, a dusty looking space reminiscent of a hotel conference room (in a pretty crappy hotel) with nary a person in sight with the exception of a guy at a counter who handed us a laminated list of wine tasting options at an obnoxiously high price. So, we reneged, and instead did our own Hungarian wine tour, winding our way down from the castle district hopping from one restaurant or wine bar to another, stopping for an occasional pálinka. At least we saw the castle.

After several hours of this we managed to find a hole-in-the-wall of a restaurant a bartender had recommended to Paul as having the best goulash in town. We sat at the bar and ordered some drinks and food. The goulash was reportedly fantastic, the staff was charming, the wine was good. Shortly after this picture (below) was taken I returned to my seat and in the process of hoisting myself onto the bar stool I smashed into the overhanging wine glasses with my head, sending shards of broken glass raining down onto the bar and into the well. All of the ice and lemons had to be thrown out and done over, and as we were leaving a while later I was still finding shards of glass on the floor. Apparently you can dress me up …

We decided to go to a Turkish bath, which apparently is the thing to do in Budapest. We headed for an off the beaten path bath which had been recommended to us by the same bartender. She said it wasn’t touristy and was where the locals go. Okay, then. I think that 16 years of working in aquatics has somewhat taken the joy out of this kind of thing for me. I’m not particularly fond of going into water anymore, and I hate getting my hair wet. I also have an in depth knowledge of pool chemistry and filtration, and if I haven’t personally maintained the water or at least tested it it makes me a bit suspicious. The bath house we went to was indeed void of tourists, and with good reason. It was undergoing some sort of construction and I found it dirty and the water tepid even in the hottest pools. We didn’t stay long.

After the baths we thought we’d head to the market where we could stock up on Hungarian paprika and other local specialties. I love markets and this one was said to be huge and spectacular. We arrived at about 2:15pm only to discover that on Saturdays the market closed at 2pm and to be told that it was totally closed on Sunday. Another fail. We did still get lots of paprika and wander around a couple of supermarkets, but not quite the same.

Although much of our trip to Budapest seemed a comedy of errors (and I haven’t even told you how Paul and I somehow lost each other on the first night and each got totally scammed taking separate taxis back to our hotel…) we did try some really interesting Hungarian food. To put it mildly, we carbo loaded. Potatoes and sour cream were front and center in many of the dishes we tried. My personal favourites were the gigantic potato pancake smothered in sour cream, and the potato cottage cheese noodles (similar to spatzle) smothered in a sour cream sauce. We found an outdoor market on Sunday afternoon and sampled these and a few other things. I marveled at being in a country with liquor laws that allowed for beer and wine to be sold in plastic cups you could just wander away with. We were clearly not in Sweden. Or Canada. 

Paprika stashed in our bags, we headed back to the airport on Sunday evening. Naturally, our taxi driver tried to scam us, but we were wise to his trickery. We headed back to Stockholm a little wiser, a lot fatter, and definitely in need of a liver cleanse. Thanks, Budapest, you were an experience.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2012