pet peeves

People that don't use turn signals.
People that read over my shoulder.
People that turn every conversation into one about themselves.
Bad grammar.
People that write checks in the express line at the store.
Wal-mart-pretty much everything about Wal-mart annoys me!
Junk mail.
Slow computers
Telemarketers.
The term semi-homemade??!!??
Sandra Lee- I'm sure she's a wonderful person...she annoys me.(see previous pet peeve)
People that leave their shopping cart in the parking lot rather than walk a few steps to put it where it belongs.
Men in too short shorts.
Know-it-all's.
People with no sense of humor.
We all have them, those little things in life that just make you crazy. These are just a few things that annoy me. I could go on but I wanted to keep this post to a reasonable length.
What brought on this little rant you ask? I made chocolate muffins a couple of days ago and was reminded of one of the things that really gets under my skin. I get really annoyed me when I'm reading through recipes on websites that have reader reviews and someone writes a review of a recipe that they completely changed and then complain about how they didn't like it. I'm all for using a recipe as a guide and changing it up to suit your personal tastes. Writing a review and sharing the things you changed is fine. I find that very useful. However when someone completely changes a recipe by making substitutions, additions, etc.. that don't work out, it's not the recipes fault. You screwed it up! Please don't rate and review a recipe you didn't make.
Then there are those reviewers that start the review with "I don't like ...but I thought I'd make this anyway and I didn't like it." Okay.  If you don't like ginger and make ginger bread, chance are your not going to like it. Is it really  necessary to write a review?  Major pet peeve! Anyway...

In my continuing effort to eat more healthful foods and sneak in fiber where possible, I bought some milled flax seeds. Flax is a great source of fiber, high in Omega 3's and helps lower cholesterol. All great things. Milled flax seeds can be used in baking and I'd seen a recipe for chocolate yogurt muffins. Mmmm chocolate muffins as health food. Perfect! As I was getting ready to make these muffins, I decided to make a few changes and substitutions to the original recipe. I used Hersey's Special Dark cocoa powder in place of regular cocoa. The darker the chocolate the better for you it is, right? That was a good substitution. The recipe called for vanilla yogurt, I used plain yogurt and added 1 tsp. vanilla. A little less sugar, also good. Everything was fine up till this point. Just as I was measuring out the dry ingredients, I saw the bag of King Arthur half white half wheat flour I'd just bought. Oh yeah a little wheat flour and these muffins are officially in the health food category. It can't hurt to add wheat flour...umm yeah, not the best baking decision. The muffins were still okay but the wheat flour made them too heavy and really changed the flavor. The flax already adds a bit of a nutty flavor but combined with the wheat flour it was just too much. I'm not saying they were throw out terrible just less good then they would have been. Totally my fault. I made a substitution that just didn't work well. Actually I made them a couple of days ago and they tasted better a day or so after later than they did straight out of the oven, or they've just grown on me. So here's the recipe as I made it but except for the flour change.  Without that mistake these muffins would be quite good. And that's my review!

Chocolate Yogurt Muffins

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/3 c milled flax seeds
1/2 c cocoa (I used the Hersey's Special Dark cocoa powder) 
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt 
3/4 c sugar 
1 c yogurt 

1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c vegetable oil 
1/4 c milk 
1/2 c chopped nuts

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease.

In a large bowl, blend dry ingredients together. In another bowl, blend yogurt, vanilla, oil, and milk. Add nuts and chocolate chips to dry ingredients and pour in liquid stirring until just blended.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups filling about 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 18 - 20 minutes or until done.

Yields 12 muffins using a regular size 12 muffin pan.