Oranges and Inspiration

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What kind of things kick-start you or just get you inspired?

I get inspirations from all kinds of different direction. Today my inspiration came from

Joy McElroy~Yesterfood

She shared her recipe for Clementine Simple Syrup.

I  had an abundance of fruit that had been hanging around since the holidays. Instead of the clemetines she had; I had naval oranges.

I followed her super simple directions and in a few minutes my syrup was done 

and 

cooling in a jar.

But...

I still have quite a few oranges getting very close to being thrown out.

So I thought some Orange Muffins would be quite good especially with the kids home from school.

They came out quite nice and there's still the smell of oranges in the air and the taste of orange on my lips as I set here.

As far as my recipes go, I followed Joy's recipe except I doubled it. I am also in agreement that I like the pulp too. It wasn't much and I didn't strain it.

The Orange Muffins  are my same basic recipe I always use with a cup of freshly juiced oranges and a spice or too thrown in. 

Orange Muffins

Preheat oven: 425 degrees

2 cup Self-Rising Flour

1/1 cup Sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla flavor

1 cup of milk (a little more or less) 

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Mix dry ingredients

2. Stir in egg, oil, vanilla, milk, and orange juice.

3. Mix well

4. Pour into prepared muffin pans 

5. Bake for 15- 20 minutes or until nicely golden 

Thanks for visiting and allowing me to share my inspirations with you.

Christmas & Cookies

Well around here we officially over The Christmas Holiday Break. I was back to work last night and the kids will be back to school tomorrow.

As much as I enjoy Christmas, I am ready to get back to a somewhat normal routine. When we're all home in this house it seems to be a constant of eating and a constant sink full of dishes. 

The very rainy holiday didn't offer up much else.

I've been pretty absent from the blogging community the past few months but we carried on with most of our usual holiday shenanigans but I just do them all with a camera in my hand.

The one thing I didn't do as much of this year was making cookies. We made a batch sometimes before Christmas but with there being no lack of other desserts I really couldn't bring myself to bother with them.

This morning I was going through a few reminders to get the kids minds back in the perspective places for going back to school when Jack asked, "Don't we need to make those cookies??"

Well of course...Jack we do need to make those cookies.

So we did.

These were a sorta' Gingerbread cheater cookies.

 I had seen a recipe for making cookies from a cake mix, egg, and block of cream cheese.

I made a different variation of the recipe but honestly the quick and easiness of the recipe didn't give me the kind of cookie that I prefer. The cookies were more like cake; not bad to eat but more like eating a really small cake instead of a cookie.

but...

Out of a bit of laziness and lack of preparation, I doctored the recipe a little and came out with a pretty good gingerbread cookie. They were still a bit soft for cutting out but they eat up just fine.

Are you wondering what the moral of this story is?

Well quite simply...

if you are down to the last day of your holiday

make cookies.

Any cookies is good cookies!