Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Over the holidays, we typically eat a lot of indulgent foods. The desserts, cookies, cakes, chocolates and all that.. but also delicious breakfasts. Muffins are relatively easy to make and these are no exception. What use is breakfast if you spend all day making them? Ricotta tends to add a nice light texture to baked goods and these were delicious with a light lemon flavour. I found them a bit on the dry side and I wonder whether that was because I used light ricotta.  The recipe was adapted from A Year in the Kitchen, who adapted them from Rosa’s Yummy Yums. A perfect muffin which contrasted and complemented our overindulgences this holiday season.

This is my submission for the new year’s Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Haalo at Cook (Almost) Everything at Least Once.

Pan-Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage

This weekend, we had our first Taste Space potluck where we each made a dish to share and learn more about/from each other. I am excited about how this blog will bring us together as new and old friends, with lots of yummy food!

My contribution was this lovely pan-fried pumpkin gnocchi with brown butter sage, from the Steamy Kitchen.  I have made her pan-fried lemon ricotta gnocchi which were simply heaven on my tongue (moist, melt in your melt soft, with a hint of lemon within a pillow-soft cheese base), so I knew they were coming from a great source and would be easy to make.  Personally, I prefer the lemon ricotta gnocchi, but the pumpkin was a nice change.  It has a heavy cheese taste as there is lots of ricotta and parmesan cheese within the gnocchi. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the best dish for a potluck, as the gnocchi toughened up a bit while they were being kept warm in the oven as we took the photos (yes, I did sneak a few to make sure they were cooked all the way through).

Not only was this the first time I cooked with pumpkin, it was also the first time I cooked with sage, so I am submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Lynne (wrap-up posted here). Don’t worry, I have plenty more pumpkin recipes to come and I still have to investigate other uses for sage in the meantime.

Hearty Apple Cranberry Loaf

Sometimes I love how picking up a new ingredient leads you into different culinary directions.  I had lots of buttermilk left over after I made the fluffy blueberry buttermilk pancakes so I made the orange-cranberry scones and also this hearty apple cranberry loaf. It wasn’t long that I declared that I wasn’t a foodie hippie, but here I am a month later making cakes with ground almonds, buttermilk and ricotta with a minimal amount of flour (at least I didn’t go looking for muscovado sugar, and replaced it with brown sugar instead). And it was good. Moist, dense yet flavourful. The fresh cranberries were a wonderful addition. I liked the cake, and made a few modifications from the original at Sprouted Kitchen, but likely would not go through the fuss of buying such fancy ingredients a second time. This week, they all just perfectly came together at the same time.