Yesterday we went over to our small local grocery store to pick up a few things in case the ice cometh and we found ourselves unable to safely walk on icy sidewalks. It's a very small store with a limited selection of items, but they're convenient for basics and they are one of only two stores (the other being Aldi, sometimes) where we can buy what are called jumbo oats here. These are like old-fashioned rolled oats in the US. What they call porridge oats are like what we knew as quick-cooking oats before we moved here. These range from sort of medium flakes to dust and we prefer the jumbo oats for porridge. Also, I make muffins with them (I think they'd be called buns here) and for that, the regular porridge oats do not work well. Since we'd started our last bag of jumbo oats and I wanted to make muffins with some of the fresh cranberries I got from veg man on Thursday, I put the jumbo oats on my list. We were bummed when we got to the shelf and saw only empty space.
This morning I realized that since the muffins use 2 cups of oats, and we only had the one already-opened bag, I'd better not make them. We decided to keep an eye on the sidewalk and maybe pop over to see if they'd restocked. By afternoon the sidewalk looked dry and people were walking and running normally. We both got into our books, though, so spent time drinking tea and reading. Just after 4, it was starting to get dark and I suggested we might want to go, since tomorrow will be around freezing with sleet/freezing rain/possible snow--or so they say. Off we went. Happy days! There were many bags of jumbo oats. As we got to the till and started chatting with Breda, the nice lady who works there, I said, 'You're restocked!' She laughed and said, 'I restocked this literally 5 minutes ago. The van is still out back. This is the time every week--Tuesday at 4.' So now we know. Had we gone any earlier, we would have found empty space again, so clearly it was best to sit and read for a while 😄😉😏 Too late to make the muffins today, since the oats need to soak for a while, but tomorrow is another day. Orange cranberry muffins with a hot beverage and books on a beautifully cold day? Sounds good to me!
Updated to add the link to the muffin recipe, which is here To the recipe as written, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract if you want, along with the sugar and egg.
6 comments:
Orange cranberry muffins - fresh from the oven. Be still my beating heart. Your challenge now, Shari, is to investigate ways to ship them to southern Ontario. I know that you are a true and loyal friend, so I know you will not be offering excuses. They won’t be fresh, of course, when they arrive, but delicious I am sure. And now you know exactly when the store has the correct oats, I venture to say, it won’t be the last time you are making them. And shipping them. That’s what friends are for!
Because I'm loyal and I care, David, I wouldn't want you to get stale, old, and considering the sometimes glacial speed of the mail, possibly moldy muffins. That's not what friends do! So I've updated the post with a link to the recipe so you can have some fresh, warm, and delicious instead, perhaps with a nice cup of good coffee if you'd like. It's an adaptation of a recipe for plain muffins I first found in The New Laurel's Kitchen Cookbook. I've made numerous different kinds over the years.
I shall pass this along without delay to the baker in the house!
As a friend of ours would say, good show!
Here’s the news, Shari. We have only dried cranberries in the house, but we do have frozen wild blueberries, and Miriam is going to make these muffins, perhaps even tomorrow, with the blueberries. I am sure they will be delicious.
Blueberries are excellent in these🙂 Hope you enjoy them!
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