More Muffins

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I’m on a roll now with my weekend muffin making and so I thought I’d post a few more successful recipes.  I’ve pretty much gotten it down to a smooth process, making two separate batches each weekend.  I pull out all the ingredients at once and have everything at the ready.  This weekend I made two batches in just about an hour.  And will enjoy them all week long.

 

Tart Cherry Muffin

Tart Cherry Muffins
Ingredients list:
1 large egg, beaten.
3 ½ cups of unbleached flour.
2 cups of milk.
¾ cup of tart cherries, drained.
1/3 cup of vegetable oil.
1/3 cup of chopped pecans.
¼ cup of sugar.
1 tablespoon of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
2 teaspoons of almond extract.
1 teaspoon of salt.

Instructions:
In a suitably sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and the sugar.
In another bowl, combine the beaten egg, milk, almond extract, and vegetable oil; blending thoroughly.
Mix the ingredients together gently.
Gently fold in the drained cherries and chopped nuts.
Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins filling each about two-thirds full.
Bake at 400°F (205°C) for 25 minutes.

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Strawberry Muffin

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar. Using a potato masher, lightly mash berries; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a glass 2-quart measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to combine.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with remaining sugar.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Raspberry

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole-wheat flour, or whole-wheat
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) raspberries

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 large (1/2-cup) muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper liners.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the lemon in long strips. Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar. Add buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla and pulse until blended.
Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
Bake the muffins until the edges and tops are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm.

Honey Rhubarb Muffins

Honey Rhubarb

Ingredients list:
1 cup of oats.
¾ cup of unbleached white flour.
1 cup of diced rhubarb.
1 tablespoon of baking powder.
½ teaspoon of salt.
½ cup of honey.
½ cup of skim milk.
1 large egg.
1 tablespoon of grated ginger root.
1 tablespoon of canola oil.
Paper liners or cooking spray.

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with oil.
In a bowl, combine the oats, flour, diced rhubarb, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, stir together the honey, milk, egg, grated ginger and canola oil.
Form a well in the dry ingredients and pour the milk mixture into the well.  Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Divide the batter among prepared muffin cups and bake for about 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and spring back when touched.

Feeling Crafty

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Last Saturday morning about 4 am, I was wide awake laying in bed wondering how I might better organize my jewelry. I don’t wear much, but in the past year I’ve become slightly obsessed with cocktail rings. They were starting to pile up on my dresser and they are so bold and beautiful that I really was doing them a disservice. So I opened up the web browser on my smart phone and searched for “ring organizers.” There were lots of options, but none that really caught my fancy. And then it came to me. Why not make something that would display and organize most of the jewelry I wear regularly. And I came up with a plan.

 

 

Modified from a padded bulletin board concept, I put together a framed organizer using fabric, batting, high density foam, foam core board, and a frame I’d picked up at SCRAP for $5. I used the design of a dresser top ring organizer and created padded “slots” with the high density foam for the rings to slide in to. I chose a fun and bold fabric that matched the colors of my bedroom decor and sewed on buttons to hold necklaces. I’ve used quilting pins to hang the tiaras above the rings. I’m pretty pleased with the result. I like quick craft projects. And this one would have taken an afternoon, if I hadn’t been derailed by other life stuff. So I finished it up over the course of about 2 days, all told.  I didn’t have a pattern or a plan, that’s pretty much how I work.  But if you are looking for basic directions to get you started that you can modify to your needs, I would start here.

The Truth About Lies

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The other day, I was flipping through the photo stream on my phone looking at all these word/quote images I’ve collected through Pinterest recently.  I was preparing to post this one to my Facebook wall. I was as close as only having to touch the post button when I was like “fuck that, this is so messed up.” I had saved this image because at the time I came across it, it struck a chord in me and I felt in agreement with it. But not now and hopefully not ever again. And I hope you won’t be either.

I recently was faced with the very real possibility that a relationship I cared very much about and had invested a significant amount of time and energy into was based primarily on lies.  And for a not-so split second I thought I might fall apart.  And truth be told (ha!), I kinda did (little bit).  But then I was like “fuck this!”   The way the relationship made me feel at the best of times, the good things that came into my life because of it, shouldn’t be diminished because some asshole doesn’t have the balls to be honest and truthful with himself, me, or anyone probably.  Unlike him, I was all-in.  For  reasons I won’t disclose, I felt safe–completely safe to be totally me: authentic, emotional, crazy, raw, sexy, giving, trusting … all-in!  And I learned so much about myself.  And I won’t let someone else’s lies take that away from me.

When someone lies to you, it has very little to do with you as an individual and has absolutely nothing to do with your worth.  Lies are about the other persons concept of self and worth.  Either they don’t believe they deserve to be authentic and honest themselves or they have an inflated sense of self that allows them to use lies to take what they want and move on.  I think this is true in all relationships — friendships, business, etc.

Here’s what, I know we all tell a little “white” lie from time to time to get out of sticky situations or whatever.  I’m not talking about those kinds of lies.  Although I do believe that these kinds of lies have their own impact on our lives and we all have the ability to rise above them.  I’m mostly referring to the lies that have the greatest impact on someone’s life.  Those that change the way a person may react, that impact the decisions of an individual, that manipulate and twist the truth into something unrecognizable.  I encourage you to not be that kind of person.  And most of all, I want you to believe that when someone else tells you this kind of lie, it is not about you!

Here’s how I’d rewrite this quote:

 

Unfinished Words

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From time to time, inspiration for writing strikes or is–well, triggered.  Some times a piece is complete, often its not.  These are my unfinished words.  I will share them here from time to time in hopes of capturing them more in their entirety for future works or just to preserve them as they are.

Written 5/2/2012 12:30am…

It’s this one.  Moments like these when the darkness overcomes you and every pore of your body is crying out for respite.  When you reach out for the comforting reassurance of another and realize you are alone.

It no longer matters how you got here, you are here.  Hyperventilating, your body contorting as if possessed by a demon.  It is, in part, an exorcism.  You’ve had that insight, that moment of clarity, regardless of how excruciatingly painful it is that he is only ever going to be capable of hurting you.  Hurt.  Even if he’s not trying to, everything he does and says, the very essence of his being fills you with it.  He has no capacity for seeing or understanding it.  Does not feel the sharp edges of his words slicing through the beating tissues of your unprotected heart.   He smiles, licks his lips.  Nodding a brief acknowledgment in your direction, blind to the broken shadow of the woman he once claimed love for.

You were only his prey.  And leaving you cold and lifeless, he moves on.

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

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So this childhood song has been going through my head repetitive lately and its driving me a bit nuts.  I’m guessing it’s because I’ve recently become obsessed with making muffins every weekend.  It started fairly innocently, I had some bananas that were beginning to turn and at first I thought a loaf of banana bread would be good but then changed my mind to make muffins.  They turned out delish and the perfect dozen made just the right amount to be able to take muffins to work for breakfast the rest of the week.  Which was desperately needed.

Although I know it’s a crucial way to start the day, I’ve never been much of a breakfast person.  Until the last few months when I acknowledged that yes, I do find it much easier to get through the entire day in a better mood if I start the day with double espresso and some tasty pastry.  For months, this meant a stop at the Starbucks drive thru the four mornings a week that I come into the office.  For my fellow Starbucks fans, you know how quickly that can add up.  For months, I’ve also been coveting these amazingly gorgeous boots.

Dr. Marten Triumph 1914 Women's Floral Print

And in March I decided that if I could abstain from my morning visits to the coffee gods for the month of April, then I could absolutely afford these boots (lets not talk about the other bills I could pay with the same funds).

Well it’s April 26th, and I’ll admit that I have caved to the pull of Starbucks once.  But only once!  And the muffin obsession has come in handy.  With the espresso maker that was already quite available for use in my office and the muffin supply, I am quite content each morning.  And soon, those boots will be on my feet.

Thank You Muffin Man!

Here are the three recipes I’ve tried in the last couple weeks.  Last week I made two different batches and shared the extras with the wonderfully amazing Sarah from notblueatall.com (seriously, read her blog–luv it!!).

Happy Baking!!

Banana Muffins

These were delicious.  And lasted well in ziplock bags for the week.

Banana Muffin

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

 

 

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
  • In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
  • In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Pear Granola Muffin

My favorite so far.  These are really, really good.

For Muffins

Pear Granola Muffin

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 D’Anjou pears (2 cups), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
3/4 cup plain granola

For Granola Crisp Topping

(or use an additional 3/4 cup plain granola)
1/2 cup granola
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar, yogurt, and butter. Make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add egg mixture to well, and mix in flour mixture until just combined. Gently fold in the granola and pears.
  • Make Granola Crisp Topping: In a bowl, toss together 1/2 cup granola, 1/4 cup each all-purpose flour and packed light-brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cut 3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter into pieces; add to granola mixture, and rub in with fingertips until clumps form.
  • Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Sprinkle with granola topping. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cranberry Orange Muffin

These look amazing.  But I found them to be a little dry.  I’m gonna look for another recipe that includes yogurt or something similar.  If you like your muffins a bit denser though, this is a good recipe.

Cranberry Orange Muffin

1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for preparing the muffin tin
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2/3 cup granulated sugar, plus up to 1 tablespoon for topping the muffins, if desired
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk

 

 

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Put the cranberries and orange juice in a small saucepan, and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Remove berries from the heat, and set aside to cool and plump. Drain off any excess liquid and set aside.
  • Lightly brush a 12-muffin tin with butter. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
  • In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand-held mixer in a large bowl, cream the butter, orange zest, and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
  • Fold the flour in 3 parts into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk in 2 parts, until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack. Serve warm.

 

 

 

The Politics of Facebook: The Art of Unfriending

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Often I see posts on Facebook from friends talking about how so and so has “unfriended” someone because of a comment on their post or the things that friend was posting on their own Facebook page.  The concept of unfriending is interesting to me, the impact it has on the one doing the unfriending and the one being unfriended is unique to the social networking universe and so illuminating on the choices we make virtually that we might not make in the “real world.” Unfriend wasn’t even a legitimate word until 2009 when it was officially added to the lexicon by the final authority on all words, The Oxford English Dictionary.  In fact, it was the OED Word of the Year in 2009.  I could get all word geeky on you and tell you that it’s a unique word because it uses an adjective prefix and assumes a verb sense of “friend” which until Facebook came along, wasn’t used as a verb either.  But that’s not what this post is about.

I’ve spent the last 50 plus days reevaluating the connections I have with people in my life, both those who are physically and virtually present (you can read more about this here and in a future follow-up post).  This process has included a deep look at the people I interact with on Facebook and it invoked changes that initially I wasn’t sure I would follow through on.  People use Facebook for a myriad of reasons: keeping in touch, posting their political and social opinions, sharing concepts and ideas, etc.  And there have been many an article and even some research done on how “real” people are on Facebook, what people share, how they interact and its impact on people’s emotional health.  (Check out a couple of articles here and here).

In all things, I strive every day to live out my most authentic self and that includes on Facebook.  I post real (without manipulation) images of myself; share details of my daily life; rant about social, political, economic issues; clearly and plainly share my views; invite others to events that I think will be fun and interesting; share links to articles that I think people should read; get up on my “soap box” every once in awhile; and practice radical self-love.  To those who know me well, it should come to no surprise that I live my life “out-loud.”  It’s not something new.  At a relatively young age, I earned the nickname “Broadcaster” amongst  family because I was always  letting others know what was going on with everyone and everything.  That has not changed in my adult years.  Essentially, I live by the philosophy “if you are shocked by what I say, then you obviously haven’t paid attention to who I am.”  I share all this with you as background for how I approach the friending and unfriending politics of Facebook.

As I said before, I am VERY open and VOCAL about my beliefs; some will label them as “liberal” with a capital “L.”  And with this in mind, I’ve become much more selective in who I friend when I get a request or see a Facebook “friend suggestion” in the sidebar.  This wasn’t exactly my practice when I initially started using Facebook and began getting requests and suggestions from people I grew up with and from friends of friends.  I grew up in what I would consider the VERY “conservative” state of Nebraska.  If there was a double capital “C” for conservative, Nebraska would own it (in my opinion).  And some of the people on my current Facebook friends list weren’t even actual friends when we were growing up, living in the same town, going to the same small schools.  In fact in today’s culture, some of them would actually have been considered bullies.

Seriously cute prehistoric baby dino.

I grew up as a fat child, in an often harsh environment, and there are people on my current friend list that made my life as a child nearly unbearable.   I was frequently called “Godzooky,” which leaves the inevitable reference to my mother as well.  If anyone thinks this was something easy to overcome, take a moment to reconsider.  And in the present day, I’m still fat.  Fabulously Fat and Happily Healthy! As an adult who is comfortable and confident in my own body, I can give these people the benefit of the doubt, consider the environment they were raised in and hope for the best.  In many cases, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.  By others, I have seen exactly what I thought I might – jokes and images poking fun and shaming fat people, amongst other things.  Along with this issue, come many people’s narrow minded beliefs about sexuality, gender, religion/spirituality, politics, etc.   Oh, there is so much more to be said about this, but I’ll get to my point and perhaps share more about it some other day.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve developed very specific personal guidelines for the practice of “friending” and “unfriending.”  And for now, they seem to be working.

  1. Always practice the benefit of doubt.  People change and unless you can tell by viewing their page that they haven’t, it’s just good practice to offer an olive branch and hope for the best.
  2. Friend people who ask. You never know what kind of impact you might have on their life or vice versa.
  3. Engage people in debate, challenge their beliefs, and provide them with solid evidence of your view.  Whenever someone posts something that I find derogatory, prejudicial, untruthful, ignorant, etc. I always challenge them first with facts not just my opinions.  If they engage in the debate, cool.  Sometimes they choose to unfriend me. I’m totally OK with that.
  4. Be open to change for yourself.  I’ve frequently been challenged and enlightened by someone else’s views and evidence.
  5. Practice restraint.  Unless something is flagrantly negative, demeaning, shaming, hateful, etc. again, I engage in debate.  When it appears to have no impact (over time) I let go.  Unfriending can be pleasantly freeing, for both parties.
  6. Know yourself and the friends you really care about.  I mentioned before that I practice radical self-love; I embrace all that is me; believe and practice the Health at Every Size (HAES) philosophy.  A good deal of my friends and family do not.  My page is frequently filled with posts from people I care about who are desperately trying to change their body type.  Either through extreme exercise, dieting, or stomach amputation.  I see reports of people doing popular work outs or contributing their hard earned money to the multi-billion $, failure inevitable diet industry.  While I care for these people and wish desperately that they could find a place of peace within themselves, I do not wish to be inundating with their updates of perceived success and ultimate failure—over and over again.  These are the people whose status updates I chose to “hide.”  Hiding allows me to check in on them from time to time.  And as long as they’ve not hidden me and my radical self-love self, then they get the added benefit of all my self-love messages which hopefully will have some positive impact in their life. (Sidebar: I recently noticed a friend who posted about “suffering from being overweight.”  If you are suffering from the size of your body and you don’t have an actual medical condition causing that suffering (and I don’t mean one of those that the diet industry pays the research community to claim is caused by being fat), then please consider reading the book Health at Every Size, free yourself from societal and self-shame, and get busy living!  I recommend a good belly dance or hip hop dance class to get you started on the right foot.
  7. Don’t tolerate hatred.  Hatefulness is nothing but ignorance unrefined.  People who hate make a choice to remain uninformed, close-minded, shallow, unaware, etc.  I refuse to tolerate out and out hatred regarding race, gender, sexuality, size, ability, and more.  When I see it, I unfriend it immediately.

At the end of the day, what truly matters to me is the authentic interaction I’ve had with people, virtually or otherwise.  I don’t care about the number of people in my friends list.  Unless I’ve been thoughtless in my words and actions, I don’t care if I’ve offended people. And it’s because I notice some of my real life friends struggling with this virtual reality of friendship that I offer the above advice. Life is all about expressing yourself. You do you, umma do me.

 

 

Independent Woman

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“All the ladies who truly feel me
Throw your hands up at me”
-Destiny’s Child

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about being an independent woman.  A Lot!!  When I think about why, it’s clearly due to the state of chaos my personal environment has been in for the last ten days.  Earlier this week, I found myself in tears–mega tears y’all, because I was completely worn out from the stress that goes along with undergoing a major construction project in one’s home.   And it got me thinking.  Why was I crying?  Other than feeling uneasy about having my home–usually my sanctuary away from the chaos of life–be the source of chaos in my life, nothing else was really much different than usual.  And then I was able to place the source of the emotions, I was really tired of dealing with this level of stress alone.

Alone.  That word can hold a whole lot of “stuff.”  Don’t confuse this with being lonely my friends. That’s a whole different state and not one I often find myself visiting.  But I am frequently alone, absolutely in my day to day living and choice/decision making.  While labels can get sticky, my preference is to label this choice, and yes it has been a choice (mostly) as being an independent woman.  I’ve been on my own for the most part since I was 18.  I’ve lived with family, roommates, and friends on various occasions and have definitely relied on support from family in the past.  But for the last ten years plus, I have been alone.  Lived alone, paid my own way, made my own choices about health, home, and happiness.  And I have no regrets.

I watch my friends who are married or in significant relationships where decision making is shared—or not; while I admire them, I don’t at all envy them.  I like my space; I like to come home to a quiet relaxing place where no one else is putting demands on me; I like to make choices about what I do, when I do it, where I go and how I get there, how the money I’ve earned is spent and what will happen in my home.  That’s not to say however, that when the chips are down and things get a little rough, I don’t wish there was someone to share that burden, just a bit.  And it’s not just the rough times, I also want someone to share in the laughter and play that life usually sends my way.

I used to believe that the desire and perhaps ability to commit (perhaps true love) would come to me when I had learned to love myself; the “if you can’t love yourself, how can you love someone else?” theory.  Well, if I loved myself anymore y’all it would be illegal in 46 states.  So that certainly can’t be it.  Perhaps my independence puts people off.   If it does, so be it.  I think I often make being alone look easy.  It’s not at all.  I’ve kissed a lot of frogs in the search of a partner.

I know a lot of strong independent women.  Most of my friends are such, either by choice or circumstance. I admire them the most.  We all are doing quite well on our own and in support of each other.   But that don’t mean, that we wouldn’t all take a helping hand and heart along our journey from someone who loves us.

And men, being with someone who is strong enough to make their own decisions and has their own interests, is actually a good thing; a really good thing.  It frees you up for some of that beer drinking, video game playing, hunting/fishing, kind of stuff you like to do without us in tow.   And yes, while we can buy our own diamonds and our own rings, we’d be equally as happy to share that expense with you!

Destiny’s Child – Independent Women

Not My Mother’s Cranberry Sauce /or/ Drunken Cranberries

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When I was a kid, cranberry sauce was the kinda-red, aluminum can shaped, jiggly stuff on the fancy glass serving dish that only came out on holidays.  Once it hit the table, it was sliced (yep, “sliced”) and passed around to those who would partake.  And many did.

Not me.  I wasn’t having none of that.  I can’t recall actually eating cranberry sauce as a kid, and as an adult when I had t he opportunity to eat what appeared to be the real stuff, I most often let the serving dish pass by me without a second thought.

A couple of years ago, a friend posted on FB that he’d just made the best Cranberry-Orange Sauce for Thanksgiving dinner and that piqued my attention.  I asked him for the recipe and have been making my own version of it, with the addition of Grand Marnier, ever since.  And its good, so good that people who typically let the cranberry sauce pass right by them, have been convinced to give it a try and been won over by its yumminess.

Really…give it a try.  Again, as is pretty standard with my recipes, its soooo easy to make.  It’s the right combination of sweet and tart.

Note: Beyond your traditional holiday meal. This cranberry sauce works well with desserts too.  Last Thursday I had a little bit of it as topping on some pumpkin ice cream…seriously amazingly delish!

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

1/2 can frozen orange juice concentrate (keep frozen)
1/2 to 3/4 c. water
1/4 c. Grand Marnier
1/2  to 3/4 c. sugar
Pinch of salt
One 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, rinsed

In a medium saucepan, heat water, orange juice, sugar, and salt over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves (2-3 minutes). Stir in the Grand Marnier and cranberries and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the cranberries burst and the sauce has thickened slightly (approx 7 minutes). Sweeten w/ add’l sugar, if desired (usually doesn’t need it). Let the sauce cool before serving.

 

Asparagus Soup

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I was chatting with a friend last week over instant message and she mentioned going home to make asparagus soup.  Now I had never had asparagus soup, but it was one of those cold, grey days where soup sounds like it will warm you right to the bones and I really like asparagus, so I was intrigued.  In fact, more than intrigued.  For some reason I felt like I too needed to go home and make asparagus soup for dinner.  And once that thought entered my mind, I knew that nothing else would satisfy my hunger for dinner that evening.  My friend didn’t really have a recipe, but she told me how she makes hers generally and I looked through some recipes on the Internet to get a general feel for how its made.  This is one recipe I was truly going to just wing it with.

So I stopped by the grocery store (don’t even get me started about the lines) on my way home and picked up the few mandatory ingredients…asparagus, and then settled in to making it.  Not only was it simple and quick, it was delicious.

My recipe ended up making about 4 servings.  I froze two for future asparagus soup needs.

Creamy Asparagus Soup (cream is optional)

2 tbsp. butter
1 cup of yukon gold potatoes, chopped
6 cups of diced asparagus
1 qt. chicken broth
1/2 c light cream (optional)
2 tbsp. grated or flake Parmesan cheese
pepper and salt to taste

Prep the potatoes and asparagus.  I like to leave the rubber band on the asparagus when I cut off the bottom (woody) portion of the stem and dispose of them.

Reserve a couple of tops from the spears to use as a garnish if you want to make it look pretty when you serve it.

Melt the butter in a large soup pot, then add the potatoes and cook for about 3-5 minutes.  Add the asparagus and chicken broth.

Simmer until the asparagus is tender, 10-15 minutes.  Add the cream, Parmesan, pepper and salt to taste.

Use an immersion blender to blend up the hot soup.  This part helps to make the cream optional.  Essentially by blending the veggies, you are “creaming” the soup.  However, if you prefer the added richness (which I do) of the cream, then go ahead and add it in.

Serve very hot.  Garnish with steamed asparagus heads and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Prep time: 15 minutes.  Cook time: 20 minutes.