Cranberry Orange Muffins

Because I am such a suzy homemaker, I made my dear dear husband muffins on Wednesday, so that he could enjoy them for breakfast on his final day of work on Thursday.  Little did I know while slaving away over these delicious muffins, that the light of my life would be so hungover from his leaving party on Wednesday that he would be completely unable to consume anything without projectile vomiting for the entire day on Thursday.  I'm not joking, he showed up on the door step Wednesday night looking like a soiled tween after his first party with alcohol.  He also kept repeating "wig for Doodle" because apparently he had acquired an Elvis wig for our poor dog.  I guess thats a post for another day.

But nevermind that, at least I had muffins.  Very good muffins indeed, thanks to Madhuram's Eggless Cooking.  Yes, eggless *gasp*! Have I taken my vegetarianism to the next level and gone vegan on you?  No, but we were out of eggs.  And these were surprisingly good.  They were very zesty and not too sweet.

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar ( I used a mixture of light and dark, but mostly light)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Wet Ingredients

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons ground flax seed (a hippy ingredient I'll admit, but I had it on hand because we put it in smoothies, its a good supplement for vegetarians.) 
• 1/2 cup water
• Zest from one orange
• 1 cup freshly chopped cranberries

Start by preheating the oven to 375 F or 190 C.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  In a food processor, add 1/2 cup of water and 2 teaspoons ground flax seed and blend until it gets frothy.  Squeeze 2/3 cup of orange juice, (from about 2 oranges) and add water to the juice till you reach one cup of liquid.  Add the flax seed mixture and the orange zest to this and stir well.  Pour all the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until it just comes together.  Gently fold in your cranberries.  Spoon into muffin liners and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes (mine took more like 23 minutes to be exact).  

Let cool (just a bit though, they are SO good warm), unwrap and enjoy!  

ps.  We just finished these off yesterday, and that means they kept well for at least 5 days.  

pss.  In case you were wondering, my husband also thought they were amazing after he recovered.

A Hike in the Forest and a Friend of Yogi Bear

Today we went on a little adventure to Epping Forest.  Nick and I love hiking there, and before we got Heidi we always said how much fun it would be to go there with a dog in tow.  We decided to make time for it today, even with the moving, since we won't have another chance to go there ever again.  It was more fun than we could've imagined.  Heidi was running laps around us.  Her gun dog genes kicked in and she was in her element.

She was definitely living up to her pointer name!  (and Nick managed to catch her in the act... finally!)

We sneaked into some Bear Grylls style shelters, but decided the whole survivor deal isn't for us.  They were a bit soggy and cramped inside.

Then we tried our hand at some wildlife photography... and got some pictures of these underwater lovers.

I tried my best to get a good shot of this bird, but it was not cooperating.  I have to admit it looked a lot more interesting before I blew it up on my computer anyways.

Also, we met a lot of fun dogs, including the son of this year's Crufts champion, the Hungarian Vizsla named Yogi!

Of course, Nick had the camera at that point, and I thought the owner would think I was effing weird if I was like "Nick take a picture of that dog!  We're in the presence of greatness!" Apparently, the guy bought him three and half years ago, before Yogi was a doggy sensation, and didn't pay much for him at all.  For those of you who don't get it - let's just say this guy hit the jackpot as far as buying a purebred dog goes.  I'm usually the type who is all "Have your pet spayed or neutered" ala Bob Barker, but man this owner must have been so pumped his vizsla still had the family jewels in tact.  He's gonna get paid a lot of money for letting his dog bang some bitches... Do you think his pick up line will be,"Hey there Boo Boo!"??? 

(you know... like Yogi bear and Boo boo? Yes? No? Are my obscure pop culture references lost on you?)

Sweet Potato Hash Browns

I haven't been cooking anything fancy lately.  We've been too busy with the move for me to do much experimenting in the kitchen.  I'm just trying to keep my cooking short and sweet and move along to the next task.

One thing that has been reoccurring a lot lately is sweet potato hash browns.  Sweet potatoes are nutritious and delicious, and by cooking sweet potatoes this way instead of baking them in the oven, it saves a lot of time.  This dish is pretty versatile so nothing is exact and don't get yourself worked about about anything.  It'll turn out.  I didn't add any onions or leeks this time, but sometimes I do, so you could try that if you wanted.

Ingredients

• A handful of mushrooms
• 1-2 sweet potatoes, (grated - done in a few seconds with a food processor)
• a Paula Deen sized knob of butter
• Salt and pepper to taste.

 In a pan, brown your mushrooms in a bit of butter.  When they are tender, add your grated sweet potato.  Cook the sweet potatoes and mushrooms stirring frequently until everything is tender, adding seasoning. Depending on your preferences you may want them to brown a little to add that extra crunch, or add some more butter if you're channeling your inner Paula and if they're not getting soft enough.  Obviously its up to you!

Serve with some eggs, sunny side up.

Its pretty much the perfect dish at any time of the day.  Its sweet enough for breakfast, but not overly sweet for dinner, and obviously lunch is no problemo.  If you grate extra sweet potato, it keeps perfectly well in the fridge and makes whipping this up even quicker and easier.

Thumbs Up for the Big Move

I've had a bit of bloggers block lately.  Mostly because we're pretty stressed with moving right now.  In fact, we're really stressed, and sometimes we wonder if this move is even worth it.  Now, perhaps I'm a product of my Catholic upbringing, but I think God does send us signs from time to time, and I think he just sent us one....

Conversation with Nick...
Nick- "Kelly, we really need to move out of this neighborhood."
Me - "Why?"
Nick - "A missing man's thumb was just found here."

Yes, if you don't believe me, here is the article.  A man has been missing for about a week, but his THUMB turned up in our neighborhood.  I wasn't a fan of being chased through the park while running, or the nasty little pervert that flashed me outside our house, or the story Nick told me of the man who ran into our street with his eyelids and mouth sewn shut - and I think this is definitely the last straw.  We'll be leaving now.

Dear God,

Point taken.

Love,

Kelly  

Okra Stir Fry

Those of you who know me, know I have a bit of an obsession with Indian food.  I know I'm so pale I'm practically see-through, but I'm pretty sure I actually WAS Indian in a past life.  I mean that would explain the fact that I can't go into an Indian restaurant without scarfing down enough food to make up for the fact that my very white parents had neglected to serve curry on a regular basis for my entire childhood.  One of my favorite dishes is Bhindi Masala, basically okra cooked in spices - though please don't depend on me for any literal translations.

I don't know why, but despite my love for it I have been a bit hesitant to delve into the world of Indian cooking.  I think the number of spices can be a little overwhelming, not to mention expensive if they're not already stocked in your pantry.

However, now that I'm a grown-up married person and I have an impressive collection of spices, I no longer have any excuses.  So here goes, my first attempt at a Bhindi dish, from Curry Bible.

Ingredients

• 280g/10oz Okra
• 1 red pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (I just used a bit less ground cumin)
• 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala

Slice off the tops of the okra, and then chop into bite-sized pieces.  

Slice the red pepper, and dice the onions.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, and when hot add the mustard seeds and cumin.  Remove from the heat and add the garlic, stirring for about a minute until it's lightly browned.

Then add the okra, red pepper, and onion, increase the heat to medium-high and stir fry for two minutes.  Add the chilli powder and salt, and stir-fry for three more minutes.  Add the garam masala for stir-fry for one minute.  Remove from the heat and serve with rice.

This was SO easy.  I don't think I followed the instructions minute to minute perfectly, but it still turned out delicious.  The spices gave it a nice smokey flavor, and it was so colorful.  As a bonus - I think it's quite healthy!

While I don't think this will stop my all too frequent Indian deliveries, I think it could put a nice dent in them and add a little something to my cooking repertoire.