Cranberry Orange Muffins

I love muffins! Here is a delicious way to use all the lovely fresh cranberries that are on sale at the store right now. (Or freeze them to make these any time. They are delicious!

Cranberry Orange Muffins (makes about 30)
2 cups wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp grated orange zest
3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Lightly grease muffin pans.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Stir in orange zest and cranberries. In a large bowl beat butter sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in juice. Add flour mixture, stirring until just moistened. Scoop into muffin cups making them about 2/3 full and bake about 25 minutes or until muffin bounces back when you press lightly on top.

Orange Cream popsicles

My son has been gaining a big interest in cooking this summer. He watches Good Eats with me, and asks if we can make various recipes. He helps when it interests him, but leaves boring things like stirring for long periods of time over the stove, for me to do.

At his request, we searched for and chose a recipe for creamy orange popsicles. I'm not really sure what prompted that request - we'd looked at popsicle recipes before, but never creamy orange ones or any variation close to that and I can't remember him ever having an orange creamsicle either. But whatever the reason, that's what he wanted to make as a surprise for his dad one day, so we started them.

It's a drawn out process, as you make a sorbet and a custardy ice cream mix and then shape them or mix them in a mold as we did. The recipe we used was from Gale Gand at the Food Network.

However, I didn't juice fresh tangerines or lemons, we used canned orange juice and lemon juice in the name of simplicity. And we used popsicle molds instead of making little balls as her recipe suggests. I put in chunks of sorbet and then squished the custard mix over the top. They may not be as pretty as store bought ones, but the taste was even better! Try 'em! :)

ETA: We loved these a TON. We're going to be making them again I'm sure. I have a few ideas for streamlining and making it a one day process, they are so tasty!

Orange Meringue Pie

Happy Pi Day! (3/14). In celebration of pi day, we made an orange meringue pie. Yummy yummy! Not as tart as lemon meringue, full of happy orange flavor and topped with a tasty meringue topping. What more could you want?

(Great thing about this recipe is having all the ingredients on hand and no trips to the store!)

Orange Meringue Pie (from About.com)

• 1 baked pie shell, 9-inch, cooled (I always use Martha Stewart's pate brisee recipe)
  
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons finely grated orange peel
• Meringue Topping, below

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour, and salt. Stir in warm water and orange juice. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and begins to boil. Set mixture over boiling water and continue cooking for about 10 minutes longer.Beat egg yolks lightly then beat a little of the hot mixture into them. add the egg yolk mixture back to the hot mixture in top of double boiler, whisking well. Cook 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from over the hot water. Blend in the butter, lemon juice, and orange peel.

Let mixture cool, then pour into cooled baked pie crust. Spoon meringue (below) onto pie, spreading to crust edge to seal filling in. Bake at 325° for 15 to 18 minutes, until nicely browned.

Meringue Topping

• 3 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, optional

Beat egg whites until frothy; add cream of tartar and continue to beat until stiff enough to hold up. Add sugar gradually and continue beating until stiff and glossy. If desired, add vanilla or other flavoring.

Orange Marmalade

Ahh, the lovely taste of Orange marmalade...

I have never made orange marmalade, and since I didn't make any jam earlier this summer (I'm blaming the whole moving thing) I had to figure out some sort of homemade spread to make for my toast and sandwiches and such. But buying lots of frozen berries isn't exactly cost effective.

I actually love the taste of orange marmalade, even with the peels in, so that was a plus too.

I still had to buy oranges and lemons but I think that is a bit cheaper than the frozen berries. Next I had to peel the zest off of all those fruits. Fun! The lemons were considerably more cranky about being peeled than the oranges.

Next was peeling off all the yucky white pith and cutting the fruit into slices. Tip - remove the white stuff inside the fruit too. I forgot. D'oh! I was fishing it out later which was totally not effective.

Next, mix up the fruit and pectin and set aside. Boil the peels in water (or juice) until they are soft. Then add the fruit and heat up and add the sugar. Bring to a hard boil for atleast a minute and then put into jars for canning.

It went marvelously, but never set up completely. Marmalades are harder to set, and maybe I should have used extra pectin. Though some recipes use pectin from the seeds only, and not commercial pectin!

Marmalades can take up to 2 weeks to set. Mine never completely did, guess I needed more pectin. It works fine though as a sauce/loose jam. Tastes great. I plan to make another batch once oranges are really in season, maybe that will help!