Morning Glory Muffins

And in the morning, I'm making muffins!
Okay, so maybe that quote from Shrek is actually "in the morning, I'm making waffles!"

Here's an easy to way to prep ahead for making fast and easy muffins in the morning. 

A friend of mine gave me her recipe that she makes regularly, and I blogged about it last September (find recipe here).  But, I kept thinking about it because I still had half a box of All- Bran cereal in the pantry and also that I liked a muffin called "morning glory" at a local bakery that included carrots.  So, I decided to have another go at it with carrots, and maple syrup.

These muffins were moist and sweet and delicious too.

Makes about 24
Ingredients 

1/2 cup real maple syrup

1 cup boiling water

3 cups All Bran cereal

1 cup of sugar 
1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2½ cups flour (you can substitute ½ whole wheat)

2½ teaspoons baking soda 

½ teaspoon salt
1 cup finely grated carrots

2 cups buttermilk 

3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Pour hot water and maple syrup over All Bran and let set to cool.

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and mix well. Mix together with a fork the flour, salt, soda. Add alternatively the buttermilk and flour mixture. Blend in cooled All Bran, carrots and walnuts. Batter can be used immediately or cover and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use (I get mine ready the night before and bake them in the morning. Spoon batter from container without stirring into greased muffin pan (or use muffin papers). Bake at 400 degrees in a preheated oven for 20 minutes.

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"Essence" Orange Ginger Martini

Essence of ginger, and orange together in perfect harmony.  Spicy, refreshing and delicious, I recommend that you get some ginger liqueur if you don't have some. 

This one is for a friend, he knows who he is. 

You can see below, my orange is a little worse for the wear, however it was still very juicy and flavorful!  You could also use bottled orange juice too

Makes 2
Ingredients

1 jigger ginger liquor

2 jigger Vodka

1 1/2 jigger orange juice

A splash of ginger ale
A splash of Grand Marnier

Add ingredients to an ice filled martini shaker. Shake, shake, shake and then strain into a chilled martini glass.

Poor little orange.  Don't worry, we gave it a good send off.