Two scoops in Every Batch: Raisin Bran Muffins

It’s funny how types of food, like people, can have stereotypes attached to them.  In America, it seems like whole grain flour and wheat bran are given a bad rap because of their (unfair) association with “bad-tasting health food”. Yet the Irish seem to embrace these products, with traditional baked goods like brown bread and oat cakes relying primarily on whole grain flours for taste and texture.

Odlums, an Irish flour milling and packaging company, originally established in Portlaoise by the Odlum family (in 1845!) has a whole range of flours, most of them whole grain (wholemeal). Odlums makes wholemeal self-raising flour, organic wholemeal flour, coarse wholemeal flour, extra coarse wholemeal flour and strong wholemeal flour to name just a few. It reminds me of the way Eskimos have so many words for snow. Like "aqilokoq" for "softly falling snow" and "piegnartoq" for "snow that is good for driving a sled".  

Sweet Ireland, the land of baked goods where so many varieties of flour get their due. How refreshing.

Recently, I saw an article entitled how to make Old-School Bran Muffins from Scratch online and, as a lover of whole grains and bran, I knew I had to make them.  I was sure they would be delicious but I needed to “spin this” so that I could describe them to my family as something other than whole wheat, bran or healthy. Any of those terms would be bound to conjure up images of dry, hockey-puck style muffins in Paul’s mind and through osmosis, in the minds of our children (and by “osmosis” I mean that if Paul isn't waiting by the oven door ready to pounce on any fresh baked goods that may emerge, the kids know there's something wrong).

Then it came to me...RAISIN BRAN! Everyone loves Raisin Bran.  Have you ever seen the amount of sugar sticking to those raisins? As if the raisins themselves were not basically pure sugar.  Sugar dipped in sugar. No matter. This was just marketing. The mere association with Raisin Bran would make them forget all about the whole wheat and surprisingly, even the bran. It seemed to work. We each ate one fresh out of the oven (they were delicious) and I froze the rest. The next day after school, when I turned my back on Emmett and Isla for an instant to unbuckle Eve from her carseat,  I turned back to find them each eating a muffin - straight out of the freezer! They were all smiles, even more so when I warmed up their muffins and slathered them with butter.

My deep thinker, contemplating...muffin.

You can find the recipe for Raisin Bran Muffins here. I was one tablespoon short of butter so I replaced it with a tablespoon of coconut oil.  Otherwise I didn’t change a thing. And of course, I used Odlums Coarse Wholemeal Flour for the whole wheat flour called for in the recipe.  Odlums flour can be found at the Irish Boutique.  

Saturdays: Breakfast for Dinner

Saturdays are sort of a free-for-all around here.  Some Saturdays we are all about cooking, cleaning and getting other housework done, some are packed with activities and socializing and some are just plain slow and lazy.  If we aren’t having anyone over for dinner, Saturday’s evening meal can be a free-for-all as well.  Soup, leftovers and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches come to mind.  We aren’t a big breakfast-for-dinner family but on weekends anything goes. This weekend we had some sausages, courtesy of the Boutique, in the fridge and not much else. We added some eggs, beans, toast with butter and Vegemite for me and rice for Paul and made it a meal.  It made me wonder why we don’t do breakfast for dinner more often.  

I'm so thankful that I always have sausages in my freezer and beans in my cupboard.  Have you been by the Boutique lately? They've got a new freezer and its stocked with all of the good stuff. Brown bread, soda bread, sausages, black pudding, sausage rolls and so much more. 

Kale and Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing

This one enjoyed her Holiday immensely - chocolate and whipped cream still on her face. 

Happy New Year! How was your Christmas? We had the perfect low key day with our family and closest friends this year. According to my father-in-law, Christmas dinner in Ireland is usually a roast turkey but after just having one on Thanksgiving we usually find ourselves wanting something different. This year we decided to do lamb.  We also had mashed potatoes, rice, roasted vegetables, creamed spinach, green bean casserole and finished with a lovely Guinness pudding from the Boutique.  

I don’t do resolutions, not in the strict sense, but I’m doing a little bit of reorganizing around the house, donating some old clothes and hopefully, going to get around to decorating those rooms of the house that we somehow haven’t gotten to in the last five years (how did that happen?). I’m also thinking about all of the new recipes I want to try in 2017.  Actually, I keep a list.  I’ve been keeping a log of each new recipe attempted and notes about what worked and what didn’t since 2011. I think I can credit this blog with making my 2016 list the longest one yet. In 2017, I want to have more people over for dinner and I hope to get Isla cooking and Emmett taking on more complex tasks in the kitchen.  Yesterday he asked me for his own knife, so I think he’s ready to up the ante.

Today we are keeping it easy. Salad. Not because it’s a new year or because we were particularly gluttonous over the holidays.  We weren’t too bad, except that Emmett discovered the frozen disks of cookie dough in the freezer and realized that it meant we could make fresh cookies whenever we want. Then he FORCED us all to eat way too many cookies.  Oops, not that last part, but still.

Greens. While kale has become ubiquitous and somehow, against all odds, loved by all, Brussels sprouts remain sort of polarizing.  You either love them or hate them. I love them (I’m so predictable).  They are adorable. Mini-cabbages! Grown on a stalk!  What’s not to love? I never make them for the holidays because I’m pretty sure my brother-in-law doesn’t like them but now that Christmas is over, here they are. I think that even a Brussels sprout hater could get behind this shaved Brussels sprout and kale salad with maple-mustard dressing. I like this just the way it is but you could add bacon or chicken or both and make it more of a meal. It also travels well. And, because it is best eaten at room temperature, it’s a great option for those times when you have to bring something.

Kale and Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing

For the salad:

1 cup shredded Brussels sprouts

2 cups shredded kale

1 large apple, thinly sliced

1 handful of dried cherries or cranberries

½ cup crumbled chevre, feta or blue cheese

½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped

For the dressing:

½ cup walnut oil, or canola oil

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup cider vinegar

2 tablespoons coarse-grained mustard

½ shallot, minced

2 teaspoons chives, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Ok. You know how to make a salad. For the dressing, I usually just shake up all of the ingredients in the cool little dressing shaker my mom bought for me, or when that’s already in use as it was today, a mason jar.

I think Paul and John were both happy that the kids wanted this toy cash register. The beginning of their training to work in the stores? Starting them young.