Orange-colored Sunday!

Orange you glad I can cook, so I don’t have to do stand-up? 😛

I’ve had quite the domestic and laid-back weekend filled with a double date, cleaning, Doctor Who, a girls night in, chick flicks, cooking and baking. And it was wonderful! Today’s kitchen adventures, as posted below, are Orange & Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins, and a Pureed Carrot Soup. I just hope I don’t turn orange…you are what you eat, right?

Orange & Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins – Adapted from Erica’s Sweet Tooth blog.

Still warm, freshly-glazed orange dark chocolate muffins

The glaze is still dripping from the sides!

 

Actually, I followed the recipe almost exactly, except that I used the zest of 2 naval oranges, and then the freshly-pressed juice from the same oranges. That didn’t produce 2/3C juice though, so I supplemented with a little bottled lemon juice, which turned out perfectly. I also used freshly-pressed orange juice for the glaze afterwards. MY GOD are these amazing! They taste like a muffinized version (that’s a highly scientific term, by the way) of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges (which, if you haven’t had one, are delicious).

Pureed Carrot Soup – adapted from Whole Foods Market Cooking

My parents bought me a PINK Cuisinart immersion hand blender for my birthday, which made me ecstatic! I didn’t even know these things come in colors, but wow, is this awesome. So, I had to put it to use. I had recently come across this soup recipe and when a trip to the grocery store put some nice carrots in my cart, I knew now was the time to whip this up! Or blend it, rather.

IT’S PINK!!!!!!

This also turned into the first time I’ve EVER used the broiler. I admit, it was a little scary to peer in and see FLAMES going at it over my carrots, but how neat! My oven’s broiler is at the bottom, so using it kept my feet nice and toasty warm as I was working over the stove – dual purpose!

Sautéing the veggies

The “adaptation” comes in when I didn’t have 6 cups of vegetable broth. I did, however, find that I had about 2 cups of chicken broth leftover in the fridge, so that, plus 4 cups of water, plus some spices made up the broth that I used. Which turned out just fine. Nothing like a little kitchen improv, right? 🙂

Nice little cup of soup 🙂

I followed the rest of the recipe, mostly, and it turned out a little liquidy, but quite delicious. I didn’t make the grilled cheese as suggested (I’m off to Zumba next, so too much food would be a bad choice). But grilled cheese would definitely taste perfect with this.

Anyway, enjoy! Time for me to work off all this orange food!