Apple Muffins or Apple Loaf

Nothing warms the heart like good food!














I don't often find recipes full of "healthy" ingredients. But this one for Apple Streusel Muffins already calls for whole wheat flour and oat bran so I don''t usually make any changes. It comes from the 1991 edition of Lighthearted Everyday Cooking by Anne Lindsay. (I notice that the most recent edition has a different cover.)

Here's the recipe:

1. Mix together:

• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  

2. Add: 1 1/4 cup of chopped chopped apple.

3. Mix together:

• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil
  

4. Stir liquids into dry ingredients.

5. Pour into muffin tins or loaf pan (or both)

6. Combine:

• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg
  

Then sprinkle this topping over muffin or loaf batter

7. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until done. (If I am making a loaf, I sometimes lower the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake it a little longer.)














Yummy!

Winterlude Ice Sculptures

Winterlude spans 3 weekends - so we had a second chance to head downtown to check out the festivities.














This time we visited the ice sculpture park.














There were intricate creations...














... as well as practical ice-items... like chairs!














An ice sculptor, demonstrating his craft with a chainsaw, explained that ice used for sculptures needs to be very strong. It comes, packed in cardboard boxes, from a Toronto company that sends ice around the world. Made from distilled water, this ice is frozen slowly, over a period of three days, the water in constant motion to eliminate bubbles.














Even making ice strong enough for sculpting is an art!

Feeding the Birds (or Squirrels?)

This bird feeder used to be attached with a suction cup to our living room window. For years we enjoyed watching birds - and occasionally squirrels - hang on it, snack on seeds.














That all changed in the year 2000 - the year of our major renovation... We removed the feeder, and it has been collecting dust ever since. This winter I have put it up again. I recently hung it on a backyard branch where it is visible from more windows.














As it blows in the wind, slightly covered in snow, I wonder if any birds will discover it. Are the sunflower seeds too large for small birds to eat? Will the cunning squirrels find a way to get into it?














Watching to see what happens is part of bird feeding fun!

Celebrating Winter

Winterlude, Ottawa's winter festival is here again.














Ice-sculptured reminders dot downtown sidewalks.

Walking through the market area, Terry and I noticed an outdoor barbecue outside one of our favorite restaurants...














(We were tempted but we didn't stop!)














There was outdoor shopping.














The market was busy.














After (indoor) croissants and lattes, we wandered past the national gallery.














The day was winter-warm (not to be confused with summer-warm), in spite of the snow.

More Pin Cushions

You can never have too many pin cushions!














After posting a blog on a few I use, I came across another one that belongs to my mother.














I think it was hand-made in Israel. It has the same basic pattern on both sides.














I may try to make one myself... It looks simple enough. It appears to be a square, but there are actually 17 stitches across, and 15 up and down.














The sides are joined with more cross-stitching.














I also found a round crocheted pouch my daughter used to use years ago. It's barely big enough to hold bus tickets and a few coins.I kept it because I loved the colors.














Now, I think I'll transform it into a pincushion by adding stuffing and sewing the opening shut...














There! Now I have another one!

Breakfast Cookies

I have long been fascinated by the concept of a "breakfast cookie" - a delicious sweet treat healthy enough to replace breakfast. I'm now hunting for one, not necessarily to replace breakfast, but to eat as a healthy snack.














I first heard the expression "breakfast cookie" from a friend, the mother of 8. She mentioned that she often baked them for her kids to eat on the run - presumably running for the school bus...

She created her own version of a healthy oatmeal cookie, but I never thought to ask for her recipe. Now that I'm looking for one, I wish I had. I've done online searches for "breakfast cookie," but I haven't found many that I consider a substitute for a healthy meal. Most are high in sugar or fat - or both.

My first experiment is this oatmeal cookie made with tahini paste (similar to peanut butter, but made from sesame seeds). I found the on All Recipes Dot Com Canada.














It resembles another Tahini Cookie recipe I found in The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook (published in 1972) - except that the online recipe calls for less honey, and chopped walnuts instead of sunflower seed kernels.

But as I read some of the online comments about this recipe, I am puzzled: some reviewers loved it while others hated it. (So I decide to give it a try!)

Tahini (and Oatmeal) Cookies

1. Mix together...

• 6 tablespoons of tahini
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

2. Add...

• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups oats (uncooked oatmeal)

3. Mix well. Then drop teaspoons full on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat.














4. Bake for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool before removing from sheet.














Why would I consider them a suitable "breakfast" cookie? I like the fact that there is no additional fat apart from the natural oil in the tahini and that the ratio of sweetening (honey) to oatmeal is 1:3.

Comment:
I like them better the day after making them. Next time I'll add raisins in addition to walnuts. This recipe might also be good using peanut butter (or almond butter) instead of the tahini... I may give it a try.

Martha to the Rescue!

I can't deny it - I long for excitement these cold winter days!

If I enjoyed skiing or skating ( ice fishing or skidooing), it would be a different story... But I don't... For me, winter is a time of living indoors...

So it was fun to receive an email from a friend...passing on a Martha Stewart tip of the day. I checked out the Martha Stewart website - and discovered there are a lot of free daily newsletters I could subscribe to, full of ideas for NEW things to do (new cookies to bake, new ways to organize the house...).

I need all the inspiration I can get... until the snow disappears...