Make them today: Healthy Morning Muffins

Recipe courtesy Every Day Food January 2010 issue.

Makes 12 muffins.

Well, it's official...

I could never be Scottish!
(Sorry Bruce, I tried.)

Every year, my Uncle Bruce and his lovely wife Chris cook up a giant feast for Burns Night in their farmhouse up in Maine. While the deer roam the snowy forests of their property, they stay warm inside with friends, food and laughter.

On the menu every year is Cock-a-Leekie soup (chicken and leek soup), Tatties (mashed potatoes), Bashed Neeps (mashed turnips), Typsy Laird (sherry trifle) and of course, haggis.

Bruce has been begging me to come to their annual celebration of the great poet, Robert Burns for as long as I can remember. Since we've got two little ones under the age of three to contend with, travel hasn't been top on our list since routine is the name of the game in this house (for now).

So this year when Bruce knew we couldn't come yet again, he surprised me with my very own haggis:

[Did you read that? LAMB HEARTS AND LIVER. Agghhh!!!]

... some Scottish music to get in the right frame of mind;

...a book that gave a brief background on Robert Burns as well as a sample menu, how to address the haggis and different poems and toasts to give on Burns Night.

Well, let's get on with it and talk about the haggis.

Fortunately, it doesn't smell bad at all while cooking. It's almost a sweetish smell that scents the air as it boils in the pot. It also doesn't taste as bad as I thought it would.

But, {and this is a big BUT}, I think haggis for me will be like my experience with Vegemite in the 4th grade; it will likely remain a once-in-a-lifetime taste experiment. I just couldn't get over the hearts. And the liver.

Troy on the other hand was thrilled that the haggis was lamb; but that man will eat almost anything. I'll eat lamb once in a blue moon; usually just a bite off of Troy's plate or if we eat gyro's (where you don't taste the lamb flavor as intensly) since it is seasoned; so I knew that I'd have a little bit of a harder time with it. Troy is a lamb lover through and through though so he gobbled it right up.

{Incidentally Bruce and Chris, if you were hoping that I'd turn vegetarian after this, this might have sealed the deal.}  ;-)

The bashed neeps were a strike for all three of us. I had never had turnips before and I was really hoping that I would like them,  but the stong scent wafting up from the pot made it hard to take that first bite. However, taste it I did and must say that the Earth can keep them buried deep in the soil where they came from. They were a lovely shade of orange though. :-)

Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes; and we love them! Potatoes are definitely beloved in this house so we had a great heaping pile of them. The cock-a-leekie soup was also well recieved but how can you not like chicken soup? Especially with barley in it!

All in all, it was a fun experience and one that we aren't likely to forget. Here's some pictures from last night:

Thanks for the adventure Bruce and Chris!

Sunshine's New Rays

This sunny little friend has a new tooth on its way!

She started 'growing' this snaggletooth last Thursday and has been chomping at the bit (literally!) to see it push through.

Pretty soon, she'll be shining those pearly whites at us.

Then she'll really be beaming.

For reals. :-)

{Goose Down Feather Cloud} Tranquil Day

Here come the clouds; feathery, whispy and as light as goose down.

They swirl above the roof tops and spread across the sky like watercolor on wet paper.

Downy and light, here now and gone again in the whistle of the wind.

Two fair weather friends; hands clasped, spirits soaring as they whisk along the street.

One Mother Heart flutters joyously with Mother Nature.

Tufted, feathered; the sky above is a good night sleep's sweet {cirrus} dream.

Come float along the Indian Summer breeze with me!

This hazel eyed surprise reflects the angelic winged sky.

What delights these two take in!

Fresh balmy air, slumbering summer grass, chirping bird calls and warm sunny rays.

What do you see?

Let the breeze bob you along home where it will play and eddy outside your door and in the chinks of your keyholes, waiting to join you for another adventure.

At the end of the day, watch the golden rays give way to twilight haze.

Sweet mid-winter's dream!