Things are heating up in Toronto! And I’m not talking about temperature, although temperatures are pretty hot too! On Friday we began hosting the Pan Am Games (and ParaPan Am) which is a really big deal. At last count, Canadians are holding the most medals (yay, Go Canada Go!) with 24 in total with 10 GOLD! The U.S. is in close second with 19 total and 7 Gold! The last five years have been leading up to the next 2 months, with revitalization and new construction. We built new stadiums, tracks, pools and revitalized a number of venues across the city, including repaving all of the roads in High Park!
The opening ceremonies were held in the Pan Am Ceremonies Venue on Friday (formerly the Rogers Centre) with internationally renowned Cirque de Soleil delivering a once in a life-time show with their usual fanfare, culminating with Donovan Bailey base jumping from the summit of the CN tower! And, if that wasn’t enough, the CN Tower had the most amazing fireworks!
The Pan Am games have only been on since Friday and we’ve already had some shenanigans in our fair city. We had a guy use mannequins to access the HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicle lanes where you have to have 3+ in the car) during the games. The Brazilian Men’s Cycling team thought they’d use the Don Valley Parkway (a major north/south highway in Toronto) as their practice venue on Sunday morning! No one was hurt and they were escorted to safer ground as cyclists are not permitted on our highways. Then, totally unrelated, a dead racoon was memorialized on a quiet downtown Toronto residential street as Animal Services failed to pick up the little guy for over 12 hours! Yes, we’ve had some entertainment indeed!
And if all of that isn’t excitement enough, we have some very special friends coming on Friday and I’m cooking up a storm in anticipation! Then the following week I will have an extra special surprise, but you’ll have to wait and see who that is.
This little recipe was born out of the need to use up a couple of apples, I wanted a healthier muffin without the normal oil component so I created this moist, tasty and generously-sized muffin.
Apple Streusel Muffins
A Kitcheninspirations Original Recipe. Makes 12 good-sized muffins.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cup peeled and shredded apple
- 1/2 cup chopped dates
- 1 cup bran buds
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
Ingredients for Streusel Topping:
- 1/4 cup oatmeal
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C). Butter and flour 12 muffin cups. Set aside.
- Layer the milk, bran buds, apple and dates making sure bran buds are covered in the wet ingredients, set aside for 5 minutes. In another bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
- Prepare the streusel topping by combining all ingredients and rubbing in butter until crumbly. Set aside.
- Add beaten eggs to the bran bud mixture and stir well. Fold the flour mixture into the bran bud mixture until just combined.
- Divide batter into 12 muffin cups evenly. Top with streusel topping and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes clean.
Several months ago, I was asked to style a commercial for the Steven and Chris show. Chef Daniel Mezzolo is the famous executive chef from Gusto 101 (please recall the lovely Kale Salad I reinvented). We worked after the show taped so I had a 3pm call time and it didn’t end until well after 11pm that night. It was a long day but it was a blast, I hope you enjoy this short clip.
Well done fir the commercial. Great!
Excellent Apple streusel muffins too,…mmmmmmm!
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Thanks so much Sophie.
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😉😉
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These muffins look great…I love that you used oatmeal in your streusel. And I particularly love that they are relatively guilt-free for a large muffin. Must try these. Really cool work that you’re doing!
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Thanks so much Betsy, it’s been totally fun!
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I love these muffins! They look so delicious and filling (not like some other flour-only muffins I avoid making because they can be eaten endlessly….).
Congratulations for the commercial styling! You have been doing such a fascinating work!
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Have you learnt how to talk with your hands yet, Eva? It’s all I can focus on in the clip. Busy times in YYZ, I was supposed to be passing through today, but everything changed and I ended up in Cuba.
Delicious muffins, btw. I love ones that aren’t too sweet.
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Hi David,
It would have been great to meet up for a coffee! Do let me know if you’re ever out this way, JT and I can pop out to the airport in no time (we now have a dedicated train). I’m meeting a very famous blogger next week! Cuba would have been better in the winter; I’ve never been but my dear Mom and her husband loved it.
Have I learned how to talk with my hands? You must have forgotten that I have Hungarian roots! Just for fun, JT sometimes holds my hands down while I’m telling a story and the words just slip away!!!😳
Often, I find some muffin recipes just too sugar laden. Thank you for your comment.
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Sounds like there are big doings in Toronto! Always fun to have diversions, isn’t it? Anyway, what cool muffins! Love streusel. Fun clip, too — thanks for sharing that with us.
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Thank you kindly John, we’re doing very well in the games, over 64 medals (and still 4 up on you guys 😉). Thank you for your kind words.
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Eva, these muffins are just my style! I adore apple anything, plus I love that you added bran—and that scrumptious streusel topping! Job well done on the ad!! xo
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Thank you Liz, Chef Daniel was lovely to work with. The muffins are quite tasty, indeed.
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Wow wee! You guys have definitely had some excitement, I’ll say.
Our HOV lanes are (luckily) 2 people or more.
Anyways, these muffins look moist and tasty indeed! Enjoy your celebrations of the games 🙂
xx
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Hi Dana, excitement? Still ain’t nothing like Boston’s latest news: your snow mound from last winter FINALLY melted!! Yup, that tidbit made into Toronto news yesterday. 64 medals and we hear that Boston’s snow mound melted. Go figure. Our HOVs are normally 2, but for the duration of the games, they were bumped up to 3 (personally, I believe they’re going to leave them at 3; remember what they said about income tax?)
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Mmhmm…yup…3 it is, haha!
And that’s holarious about the snow because our mayor was taking bets from folks on how long it would take for that last snow pile to melt.
Wonder who won..
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Eva, I am love with all things with streusel toppings, love these little muffins! I have had many people ask me about calorie and food ingredient nutrient information. What plugin are you using to gather this information for your recipes? Thanks so much for you help. Take Care, BAM
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Thank you for your kind words Bam. I sent you an email regarding the calorie calculator.
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I have never heard of the Pan Am Games and am not sure of what countries would be involved except definitely not Oz. How exciting to be on top of the leader board. I love that image of the muffin with the butter! I’d love one of your streusel muffins for breakfast. Congrats on styling the ad – well done! xx
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Hi Charlie, they are the Pan American Games, including all of the Americas! I’m not surprised that you’ve not heard of them. If the games weren’t here in Toronto, we probably wouldn’t hear much about them either! Thank you for your kind words.
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I haven’t heard of the PanAm games in such a long time. We do get the Commonwealth Games here like you do. I LOVE muffins with a topping and apple is my favorite muffin. Perfect breakfast.
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Hi Maureen, thank you for your comment. It is indeed a perfect breakfast.
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You guys have been busy! A friend linked to the dead raccoon story. That was crazy funny (well not the death of the raccoon but what they did to memorialise it). I’m the biggest fan of streusel on muffins! 😀
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That raccoon was a very funny story, poor thing. We have so many of them, it was good that he didn’t look like he died a tragic or violent death (most die from being run over by cars). We’re fighting some right now, who like to visit our backyard and toss all the pillows and leave little tufts of dirty hair all over the furniture…perhaps I should print out the memorial as a warning to them!
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Those muffins would make a great breakfast for me. Love esp. the streusel :-))
Have fun with your friends!
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Thank you kindly Angie, they certainly did!
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Lovely styling Eva, did you have to do all the shopping? What happen to all that food after the commercial is taped? Sure was a long day but what an opportunity. You should post the spareribs you styled.
Going to any of the games?
I will have 2 muffins for breakfast please.
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Hi Norma, usually I do have to do all the shopping but for this particular project I did not, the day stylist (an employee of the Steven & Chris show) had everything there for me — I may have had to pick up a few extra tomatoes on the vine, but nothing major. Thank you for your kind words. No, we don’t have tickets at the moment and with Paul and T coming on Friday we will not have time to go. The games are spread out all over the city, will your sister go to any of the games?
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No my sister will not be going to the game, I think she prefers to watch the events on TV.
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Looks delicious! And it sounds like you do have a lot going on in Toronto right now. Enjoy your visitors. 😉
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Hi Kristy, there are over 7,500 athletes and they have entourage as well…the city is absolutely booming with people! I think I may escape to the cottage ;-)!
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awesome, healthy apple muffin for starting a day!!!
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Thanks so much Dedy, it is a very tasty muffin.
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Everything’s better with a little butter. Including the Pan Am Games I bet. Speaking of the Pan America games they get so little coverage in the LA paper (in fact none today). Considering they are a pre-cursor to next year’s Olympics I wonder why that is? America is typically obsessed with sports. Maybe now that Wimbledon is done maybe there will be same space. Enjoy the hoopla in any case (maybe with a little butter?). GREG
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Thanks Greg, it’s not just LA, but before they games came to Toronto, we heard very little about them in the past! It is rather strange as you said it is a pre-cursor to the Olympics. Yes indeed, everything is better with a little butter!
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