Blood from an Orange

I love blood oranges. I don't think they taste remarkably different than their orange-fleshed brethren, other than being a bit more tart, but the just look so gorgeous. Unfortunately, this recipe doesn't highlight their glorious colour, but enjoy their blood as it runs into your juicer! Speaking of juicing, these are a particularly challenging citrus to juice: their flesh is pulpy and their skin, while thick, isn't particularly skookum, so they kind of crumble when using a traditional juicer like in the photo above. I discovered that if you gently work from the edges of the halved orange inwards and around on the juicer, it's better than if you do the typical whole-hearted push & squeeze of a lemon or lime. This recipe originally arises from a search on the internet which turned it up, but of course, I couldn't leave it alone! Naturally, you don't have to use blood oranges, but that's what I had in my fridge; so, for breakfast this morning:

Blood Orange Muffins

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup quick or rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp grated rind
2/3 orange juice, freshly squeezed (or "squozened" as we like to say)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped sunflower seeds (hulled, of course!)

Mix flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Combine juice, oil and beaten eggs with rind. Mix liquid into dry until just incorporated (don't over stir). Place into greased muffin tin (12 muffins), filling each cup to about 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes.

Snowy Sunday

Last night we started getting a dump of snow, but then it changed to rain and started to melt. So I reckoned we'd be free & clear of the white stuff in the morning.

Not so much! This was the view from our front doorstep at about 11 am this morning.

So on such a crappy weather day, I thought it'd be nice to bring some sunshine into our house in the form of lemon muffins. There's nothing like having a bit of lemon zest zing to clear the drab dull winter blahs, and lavender to revitalize the ugliest of morning grumpies.


Lemon Muffins (originally from The Complete Harrowsmith Cookbook: All Three Harrowsmith Cookbooks in One Volume
, but adapted, of course!)

2 cups flour (you can use 1 cup unbleached and 1 cup whole wheat, for a nice hearty texture)
1/2 cup honey
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
zested rind of those lemons
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 tsp lavender florets finely chopped
2 eggs

Combine dry ingredients. Combine moist ingredients. Stir moist into dry until just incorporated. Spoon into greased muffin tin about 2/3 full, and bake at 400° F for 15 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Dave just finished the lighting last night in the kitchen, so we've got track, ambient and also light over the stove top because of the range hood (installed about a month ago).

Hmmm, with this much light, I can really see what needs cleaning! Sigh.

Crunchy Banana Breakfast Muffins

"Bananas" posted by Crias on WetCanvas Image Library

I can't resist hot muffins for breakfast, so while I don't do it every day, I like to bake them fairly often. We have some bananas and I thought that'd be a good muffin base, so I checked my trusty Harrowsmith Cookbook for a recipe and came up with the following, which actually isn't the exact recipe: I forgot 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 Tbsp oil, I don't use salt nor can I use nuts, plus I added a bit more banana and changed the 1 cup unbleached flour to a split between that and whole wheat flour! I think I might next time include the oil, but it turned out with the extra banana in my version to not be necessary. I might also add just a touch of cinnamon next time, but really, they were good as is.

Crunchy Banana Muffins

1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 egg, beaten
2 mashed bananas (approximately 3/4 to 1 cup)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup chopped sunflower seeds

Combine dry ingredients. Combine moist ingredients. Add moist to dry and mix until just moistened, and stir in sunflower seeds. Spoon batter into well-greased muffin tin to two-thirds full. Bake at 400°F for 18-20 minutes.

Grouse & Raspberries

Ruffed Grouse
From USFWS via Wikipedia

We had a lovely grouse breast sitting in our freezer. Dave got the ruffed grouse this autumn up at Dad's; he also brought the gorgeous tail back too, but Murri unfortunately found it. Needless to say, we came home to find feathers from one end of the house to the other, and a very tired, but smug, cat.

I haven't ever cooked grouse before. Dad made us slow cooked stewed grouse a few autumns ago, but we don't have a slow cooker. So I thought I'd wrap the breast halves in a slice of bacon and bake them. They turned out quite well, and weren't too dry at all. I made these raspberry corn meal muffins, but had some leftover raspberries. So I deglazed the roasting pan with red wine and boiled off most of the moisture, then added the raspberries and continued to boil for a while, adding a touch of corn starch at the end. This sauce was ladled onto the grouse & our side salad, and was a nice accompaniment.

Raspberry & Corn Meal Muffins

1 cup corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup lemon juice (should be two lemons, squozed)
1/4 tsp zest
1 cup raspberries

Grease 12-cup muffin tin and preheat oven to 400°F. Combine dry ingredients. Combine moist ingredients. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in wet mix. When partly blended, add fruit & zest, and mix sparingly. Bake at 400°F for 15-20 minutes.