Don't Clean The Stove!

Not while baking, anyway. The stove still had a few sticky patches from yesterday's chutney - on the oven door handle, so I didn't notice it yesterday. This morning when I popped a batch of muffins in, I noticed the stickiness. So I grabbed a sponge, wiped away, and cleverly managed to shift the temperature dial from 190 to 230. So there I was, sitting in the lounge, confident that the timer would go off in good time to test them. Not being in the kitchen, I didn't even get the smell cue. Bugger.

They were not burned through, so trimming off all the burned bits was actually possible. I cut off the tops and scooped out the crumb - I had two inside bits of muffin and a couple of feijoas for breakfast. Obviously I wouldn't present these to guests, but it would be a waste to just chuck them in the bin when parts of them are still edible! It was lucky that I'd decided on Texas muffins, so that cutting off the crusts actually left some muffin for my breakfast.

I had been very pleased with my muffin idea. I had about half a jar of a light sweet orange marmalade left behind by guests, that I was not ever going to eat. Using it in muffins seemed like a good plan. I also found some frozen cranberries at one of the chicken shops at Belco markets a month or two ago. And while I've seen recipes using whole cranberries in muffins or teacakes, I've never made any until now. The berries are very sharp, so the muffin needs to be sweeter than usual to compensate. They are good, really!

The rest of Sunday worked out a bit curate's eggish, too. I went for what should have been a lovely lake shore walk with B2, combined with a visit to Kingston markets. I bought no knickknacks - I really have too much Stuff and ought to prune rather than buy. I was also resistant to the lure of yet more jams, honeys, spice pastes, chilli sauces etc. I need to use some of them up before buying new ones. I did buy some great fat green olives, a crusty Italian loaf with rosemary and roast garlic, and a couple of packs of Wagonga coffee. And for a real luxury, some gorgeous fresh raspberries.

The problem was that although it was sunny when we left, an icy cold rain started falling when we were a good 10 minutes walk away from shelter. Not pleasant at all, we had no choice but to soldier on back to the car. That bit was no fun, and now I've come over all dwarfish. (That's sneezy and grumpy and dopey and sleepy.) Bugger.

Recipe: Cranberry Marmalade Muffins
1 cup white selfraising flour
1 cup wholemeal selfraising flour
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries
1 egg
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 teaspoon orange flower water
* Preheat oven to 190C.
* Warm marmalade slightly so it will mix easily - 30 seconds microwave.
* Mix marmalade, milk, oil, egg and orange flower water well in a small bowl.
* Mix flours and sugar in a larger bowl.
* Mix cranberries through the flour, toss to coat.
* Mix liquids through the flour mixture
* Spoon into 6 Texas muffin cups
* Bake for 25 minutes or until done


Notes: Don't turn the oven up!