Cranberry Muffins with Orange Zest

These flavorful and moist muffins are healthier than your average muffin because they're made from whole grain flours as opposed to regular white flour. I'm still learning to work with whole grains, so mine don't rise much, but it certainly hasn't hurt the flavor!


Preheat oven to 400°

1 c oat flour, sifted
½ c whole wheat flour, sift
1 ½ T baking powder
¼ t salt
2 T white sugar
¼ c melted butter, cooled
1 egg
zest of 1 orange
1 c buttermilk or soured milk
1 c dried, sweetened cranberries

Soak cranberries in sour milk for at least 3-4 hours. Overnight is fine. When the cranberries have plumped up, strain from milk with a slotted spoon or pour through a sieve. Add water to strained milk to make 1 cup.

Butter and flour muffin tins, or use paper liners.

Sift both flours with the baking powder and the salt. Set aside.

Beat the sugar and the butter with a whisk until light. Add egg, beat until smooth. Add soured milk. Grate the orange zest directly into the mixing bowl and beat until well incorporated.

Add flour mixture into the wet mixture. Mix just until moist. Fold in cranberries.

Fill muffin tins almost full. These muffins will not rise much.

Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes.

Butter is my favorite food group.

I made butter today. My sister told me I'm insane, then she asked me how long it took to churn it, then she went on to tell me about the butter SHE churned for some brownies she made. Insanity runs in families, for sure.

I made my butter from the raw milk I bought yesterday. I scooped the cream off the top with my vegan mom's ladle. Don't worry, Mom, I washed it with hot, soapy water. Along with all your other dishes that I used in this process. The little lumpy things in the cream that you see to the right of the ladle are my kefir grains.

I don't know exactly how much cream I started with - I would have measured it, but didn't want to lose any of the creamy deliciousness by having it stick to the side of a measuring cup; I was sad enough to lose the stuff that stuck to the ladle. I'm going to say I used a cup, cup and a half, something like that.

The process was really quite simple. I used a big metal bowl, although I should have used the biggest one I had because the cream was splattering everywhere. I actually know better than this, but I was so intent on getting started that I wasn't really thinking. I used a hand mixer, mainly because I don't have a stand mixer. If you have one, I recommend you use it, it just saves on arm fatigue, but Mom's Oster did a good job.

Basically, making butter is like making whipped cream, but you keep whipping past the whipped cream stage. I remember making whip cream at family holidays. I was the official whipped cream maker, and every time I made it Grandma, Mom or one of her sisters would shout into the kitchen, "Don't whip it too long, it'll become butter!" Sure enough.

I got Mom's Oster up to high speed and just let it run, using a spatula to scrape the sides. First I got the soft peaks of whipped cream, then it began to get lumpier and less pretty. After a time little chunky bits began to poke up from the liquid as the water separated from the cream. I understand this is supposed to be buttermilk, but mine was quite thin, more like fat-free milk, so I'm not sure. Comments on this are welcome.

Once the buttermilk (for lack of a better word) was spattering out of the bowl uncontrollably, about a 1/2 hour into the process, I decided my butter was done. I used the spatula and pushed the lumpy butter against the side of the bowl, allowing the buttermilk to gather at the bottom. I poured this off into a container for later use in something yet to be determined.

I then scooped up the butter and packed it into a little dish. I ended up with about 1/2 a cup. A lot of people salt their butter, I do not. Mainly because I like to bake, and salted butter doesn't work well in baked goods.



I spread it on a good hunk of bread and, well ... I'll be making butter again.

Raw Milk

I found a raw milk source. I'm so excited I can barely stand it. Yes, I'm a hippie, despite all my cute shoes.

By and large, in this country it is against the law to sell raw milk commercially. I don't understand the myriad of rules in the various states regarding the sale of raw milks, so please don't email asking me, but feel free to gripe about it in the comments section below.

I know that I was able to buy raw milk in California at my local Whole Foods in Berkeley. I couldn't buy raw milk at a grocery anywhere in Florida. Here in Oregon I found raw goat's milk in a few of the health food stores, but no cow's milk. Go figure.

I did find a very nice farmer here in Eugene who sells raw Jersey cow milk. Her name is Paula, she has two cows and a pristine operation. We had a long discussion about cows and nutrition and the benefits of raw milk.

Paula has two cows. In addition to allowing them to graze freely on her 29 acres, she feeds them a feed mixture of her own making. She looked everywhere for a feed that didn't include soy or corn, but whenever she asked all she got was blank looks. Soy and corn are not not part of a cow's natural feed. Nor did nature intend humans to eat them in the quantities that we now do. They're used primarily as filler, and are both a source of allergies and create digestive problems. Don't believe me? cut them both out of your diet for awhile and see if you begin to feel better. Check food labels - you'll find one or another of them in almost all pre-packaged food items. In addition, they're two common food stuffs we have in our diet that have been heavily genetically modified. They are no longer a true whole food.

So why raw milk, you ask. When milk is pasteurized, it is super-heated, to kill off any bacteria that could potentially cause illness and to increase shelf-life. But the super-heating also kills off the beneficial bacteria, stripping the milk of it's best properties. Click here for a more detailed explanation.

I can hear a whole bunch of you right now protesting this - milk can carry diseases! Yes, it can. To produce raw milk there has to be strict adherence to cleanliness, and we're just not going to get this from large farms. It's too expensive and time-consuming, and will cut into their bottom line, our health be damned.

I'm not advocating anyone run out and buy raw milk and begin feeding it to their family, nor am I going to list the benefits of raw milk as a whole food - this is another of those subjects that must be researched and decided on by each individual. I do encourage this. Keep in mind, not all farmers are careful with their equipment, and just because one sells raw milk doesn't mean that milk is going to be clean. Ask around, research, know what you're looking for before you buy.

When I say "whole foods," I don't mean the grocery store

I've been threatening to write a blog on this subject for a long time. Well, I've been threatening to do a lot of things for a long time now ... but that's not my point ... I'm here now, so I'll just get to it.

Whenever the subject of nutrition comes up and I say something about whole foods people assume I'm talking about the grocery store. I'm not. I shop there sometimes, but like every other grocery I've ever been in, I can say that 90% of what they sell can be easily removed from everyone's diet. Here's the rule of thumb: if it comes in a bag, a box or a can, don't eat it. There's more, but that's a good start.

That said, I do love my junk food, but it's an abusive relationship. I eat the things I love - the boxed mac n' cheese, the Ben & Jerry's, tater tots ... mmm ... tater tots ... and seemingly, junk food loves me: I never really gain very much weight. But haha, the joke's on me. For me weight isn't the issue. Instead, when I'm off my whole foods diet and onto the basic American diet (which has and is quickly spreading to the rest of the world), I'm plagued by health issues.

Any of this sound familar: fatigue, sore joints, light-headedness, foggy thinking, mood swings, depression, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, (insert complaint here), the list goes on. Chronic diseases are rampant, and while I'm not a doctor and have no intention of issuing medical advice, I can say without a doubt that anyone experiencing any disease in their body and/or mind cannot hurt themselves by introducing more whole foods into their diet. Try it, your body will surprise you.

And I will now say something else that will upset a lot of people: doctors know almost nothing about nutrition. Do your own research, but stay away from the ridiculous, like: cure your cancer with the cabbage diet! Be smart, okay?

So what are whole foods, you ask. Whole foods are foods that are as close to their natural state as is possible - vegetables, fruits, whole grains, CLEAN meats and animal products. I steer clear of pre-cut and packaged veggies, and when I say clean meats, I mean animals that have lived comfortable lives and been fed their natural diet. Cows are not meant to eat corn and soy. Pigs should not be eating rendered animal parts. Chickens need bugs and greens. There's a lot of info on this subject, you'll have to google it.

This blog will focus mainly on my experiences with whole foods, my search for the right foods and my experiments as I learn to work with them to produce the things I love, but that will love me back with the gift of good health.