Blood Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

Pin It Here's to my first food post in a while, so I wanted to make it worth it.  The blood oranges around here are fantabulous!  They were especially juicy around the time when I actually made these muffins.  There were a few weekends in a row we were treating ourselves to delicious citrus juices. It's one of the best ways to brighten up the long, cold winter.  Not to mention, it gives that needed boost of vitamin C during the nasty cold and flu season.  Speaking of cold winter, it's snowing again in Brussels!

Best juice ever.  

Unfortunately now, they are now a little out of season, but I am still able to find them and they are still pretty tasty.  My favorite way to consume blood oranges is in the form of a martini.  Blood. Orange. Martinis.  Yes, please.  I could also appreciate consuming them in the form of a mimosa, margarita or sangria.  I don't know why blood oranges make me think of cocktails.  Those all being out of the question now that I am knocked up (I am blaming that on the reason I have been so lazy, btw).... these muffins will have to do.  And they sure did.

I even made a pan of super cute mini muffins.  Finally, the perfect (and most fun) way to use up excess batter.  I used to make one giant muffin in a pyrex, but mini muffins are the way to go.

Delicious.  Melt in your mouth.  Mini Morsels of yumminess.  Yes, I really liked these muffins.

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Muffins 
barely adapted from For the Love of Cooking

Makes 12 regular and 12 mini muffins

Ingredients:

2/3 cup of white sugar
Zest of two small blood oranges
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup plain yogurt
Juice of 2 1/2  blood oranges (Mandatory: enjoy the left over half yourself)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened -( make sure it is soft, I had a little trouble being patient and my batter ended up being slightly lumpy... but the muffins were still delicious)
2 tbsp poppy seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F and grease muffin tin (mini one, too! So you don't forget - like I did initially).

Combine fragrant orange zest and sugar until thoroughly mixed.  Use your fingers if you have to.
Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a separate bowl.

Beat yogurt, juice, eggs, vanilla, butter and sugar zest together until uniform (or just slightly lumpy if you are impatient like me).  Slowly combine dry mixture with wet.  Add poppy seeds, gently folding them in.

Scoop batter evenly into tins.  Bake regular sized muffins for 15-18 minutes and small muffins for 10-12 or toothpick comes out clean.  Cool and serve.

Bon Appetit!

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Anacapri & Capri's Arco Naturale

Pin It Wow!  I should be ashamed of myself... I have been so wrapped up in only God knows what that I missed my Blog-o-versary!  A few months ago I was really looking forward to that day.  I had so many thoughts of what I would make to celebrate my blog-o-versary, and I downright missed it.  Hopefully I am out of this so-called "blog rut," long enough to prepare a fantastic 2 year blog-o-versary celebration.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I was contemplating giving up on the good old blog.  It's just such a time commitment and when you are lazy like me (especially lately), and your mac takes a crap, it can become a burden.  Blogging on a PC?  I don't like.  But enough about that, I'll just blog when I feel like it and in this upcoming year there will be some changes.  Now's not the time to quit.  I would hate to give up on the blog when my life is about to change so radically... and there is still travel and sometimes food to be documented!  So, speaking of travel, I'll pick up where I left off:

Capri.  It had been a dream of mine since I was 17 and I saw a photo of Capri to have my honeymoon there.  While, honeymoon it was not, and the weather didn't quite cooperate (the story of our trip to Italy) we still had a nice evening on the island and it was actually a gorgeous sunny day when we left Amalfi and headed to Capri!  This was on the Amalfi Coast drive somewhere between Minori and Sorrento.  We finally got some much needed Vitamin D!

We took the ferry from Sorrento to the Island.  Then continued on an insane bus ride up to Anacapri, where we were staying (literally translating to "above Capri").  As the bus drove up the hill side, there were some spots that looked straight down to the sea.  I pretty much loved every minute of it, but if you are afraid of heights, grab an inside seat.  Once we got to our really charming hotel with views over Anacapri, we decided to head to Capri and grab a drink.  While I had heard drinking & eating & doing pretty much anything in Capri can clear out your pockets, we weren't quite prepared to pay 10+ euro for a .25 beer in the city center.  So, we walked onward.  Thankfully, because we can across a sign that said "Arco Naturale."  I had read about this footpath and it was one of the things I wanted to see on Capri.  We took a chance and followed the signs through the winding village.  There was definitely some climbing involved (as with anything in the South of Italy).  According to Frommer's there are some "800 odd steps" to get there.  But the view. was. spectacular.

and with our feet. duh.

We made our way back to Capri through little paths like this:

and then hopped on the bus back to Anacapri.  We had dinner reservations at a small, local restaurant that our hotel recommended.  The food was delicious and the prices were reasonable for the island.  If you go to Capri, staying in Anacapri is much more affordable.  We took in the view from our hotel before going to bed.  We were exhausted.  Good night Anacapri.

We woke up to terrible winds and rain with thunderstorms in the future and after a hearty breakfast the hotel recommended we catch a ferry to the mainland as early as possible to avoid being stuck on the island if there were cancellations.  So with that, and a very rocky rough ferry ride back, we headed to Roma. Pin It