In my kitchen …
… making blood orange jellies with orange and lemon juice, sugar, water and some gelatine leaves with a splash or two of Slamseys Marmalade Gin. A perfect mid-week pudding when we just want a spoonful or two of something sweet.
In my kitchen …
… muffin making. Not sweet American muffins but proper English muffins made with yeasted dough, cooked on the girdle where they puff up before your eyes. We twist them open and toast them to eat with a generous spreading of butter and jam or a poached egg. If I was trying to impress then I could have made hollandaise sauce so that we could have Eggs Benedict, but instead we sandwiched the egg between each half so that the egg yolk ran down our chins when we bit into it.
In my kitchen …
… making giant Jaffa cakes. I know, why would you, when it’s easy to buy a packet. Well, sometimes it’s fun to try. Of course there were comparisons. Why isn’t there a little hump where the orange jelly goes? Why have you used marmalade? They’re a bit soft for Jaffa cakes. A work in progress.
In my kitchen …
… the view from the kitchen window. The soil is too wet and cold to do much with at the moment so mostly I just dash out to dig some leeks or to empty the compost bin. But soon it will be spring and there’ll be lots to do. Meanwhile, I’m happy to potter in the kitchen at the weekend.
Once again, I’m joining in with Celia’s In My Kitchen series at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial as we tour the world to see what everyone has in their kitchen this month. If you have the time, check out some of the different blogs that are listed on Celia’s page.
LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS 
G’day I admire anyone who can grow vegetables and herbs Anne as seems I did not inherit my dad’s green thumb! LOVE your English muffins and Jaffa cakes bring back so many wonderful childhood memories!
Thank you for this month’s IMK also!
Cheers! Joanne
Beautiful photographs on your post today Anne, its due 15c here at the weekend, Spring is on its way!
The sun is shining and the birds are singing so fingers crossed that it lasts.
I’ve always wanted to make muffins and crumpets. Am trying to think how to do this with my sourdough. Yours look so professional. Did you use a ring on the griddle?Absolutely love the homemade Jaffa cakes – a great inspiration! My family will gobble them up.
James Morton has a recipe for sourdough muffins in his book Brilliant Bread that I’m going to try next. I cut the muffins out before I put them on the girdle. Also tried baking them in the oven but they didn’t look as good, though they tasted fine.
I keep forgetting that muffins ( the English kind) are firmer dough than crumpets. Not having watched The Great British Bakeoff, I didn’t know about James Morton’s book. I’ve just downloaded it on kindle. It certainly is a “brilliant” book. Amazing baker for someone so young. Now for those sourdough muffins…
I’ve borrowed this book from the library so many times that I should really buy it.
Go for it!
I could just eat one of those muffins right now! and what a great view of your garden, I’m looking forward to seeing the progres in your garden over the coming growing season
I actually clicked through the girdle link because I thought it was a typo but apparently not. So now I know – what a beautiful thing to have in your kitchen. Those English muffins are impressive – as are the jaffa cakes.
The homemade jaffa cakes look delicious. Hope you don’t mind me mentioning but your last two posts don’t show up properly when I open them from my mobile phone. I wondered if you had changed something recently?
Bother. No idea why they aren’t showing up – quite honestly I just press buttons and hope that everything works. Will investigate further. Thanks for letting me know.
Your muffins look magnificent – far nicer than any from the supermarket – and why not make jaffa cakes – there is that satisfaction of knowing you have made it yourself and knowing exactly what is in it. I get very suspicious of the texture of some of these biscuits in packets and how they are so light while sitting on the shelves for months!
I share your suspicions 🙂
I love your pictures. And I checked out the girdle, it is awesome!
Such an inspiring post! Makes me want to do more!
Ha ha, I had no idea that what we Americans call English muffins actually are English. I thought maybe it was a little like French fries, AKA chips, which are not particularly French. I love your photo of the garden in early spring… mine is currently covered in snow but I’m already looking forward to digging.
I’m so glad my garden isn’t covered with snow – I’m fed up with winter. In my old recipe books (pre 1990s) only Muffins are listed and there’s no mention of American muffins at all.
I think american muffins could also be called cake, but then we’d have to admit to eating cake for breakfast 😉 BTW I’ve always wanted to make English muffins, but they seemed a little intimidating… your photos are beautiful and inspiring!
What a wonderful kitchen garden, I’m looking forward to what it looks like in the spring and summer.
Great pictures. Are there such a thing as sourdough English muffins in England? Time to branch out with my starter from Celia.
James Morton has a recipe for sourdough muffins in his book Brilliant Bread. I’m sure that anything you can do with commercial yeast can be made with sourdough.
I fancy some blood orange jelly on one of your toasted English muffins to go with the cafetiere of coffee I am about to pour!
Wow Anne, look at your beautiful photos! I am impressed. I love those muffins, something else I need to try one of these days!
Gorgeous things in your kitchen as always – I love the jellies & muffins, your family are very lucky. Rushing out into a damp garden to grab leeks & empty compost sounds very much like my garden action at the moment too.
I haven’t even bought my seeds yet. Must get more organised,
Hey Anne .. Oh I love what’s in your kitchen! Jaffa cakes included! Wish you lived closer, I’d invite myself over 😃
Any time you’re passing Julie …
So lovely to made your acquaintance through IMK. I haven’t come across blood oranges this year where I live in South Wales, so feel that I have missed out. I am so envying your garden plots, I am getting back into growing veg at home, so hopefully we can compare notes. You seem so organised.
I’ve noticed that they’re often labelled Blush Oranges, which seems overly pc to me. Ha, I wish I was organised – those beds make the garden look far more organised than it really is.
Love your giant Jaffas. Last year I asked for a giant Jaffa birthday cake. There was a layer of orange jelly between the sponge and the chocolate/cream icing. Yummy.
Mmm that sounds good. Maybe I should be making even bigger ones.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/giant-jaffa-orange-cake
It has had some bad reviews, but ours came out well (made with Veggiegel, as we don’t eat gelatine).
I could make a meal of those muffins oozing with melted butter. I’d follow it of course with some of those Jaffa cakes – just for a well balanced meal.
I like the view outside your kitchen window better than the one out mine! Somewhere under 4′ of snow are daffodils just waiting to pop up…I know they’re there.
Those muffins look superb Anne! Are they a family recipe? or from the same book you mention in the comments above? I’d love to give them a go sometime. Lovely as always to see what’s been happening in your kitchen (and veggie garden too!) this month. 🙂
I used the recipe from Jane Grigson’s English Food but I’m sure there’s lots of recipes online.
Thanks Anne, I’ll check it out this week sometime. Cheers!
Anne, your blood orange juicing photo is worth of being in a magazine. Great use of the light and shadows, and the oranges really pop with colour. Nice looking English muffins! I have seen recipes for making these, but have never been game. Not that I have a girdle (note from your earlier port, not griddle!) but I’ll have to give them a go.
Oh, and you had me at ‘Jaffa cakes’. They look a treat! I think anything homemade is going to be better than shop bought. Made with love, eaten with joy. Cheers, Kirsty xx
For years I kept meaning to make muffins and then once I’d made them realised how easy they are. Have a go.
I wish all my cooking was made with love and eaten with joy! Some is less joyfully received than others.
Those muffins look amazing, is there a recipe?
The recipe is from Jane Grigson’s English Food book; I’m sure there’s a recipe online somewhere too.
Absolutely envious of your garden! We converted our smaller back garden to a kitchen garden many years ago, but wanted more space so we now have a nearby allotment as well. But I wish it were at home, so much easier to spend a short few minutes doing another task!
I’m joining IMK for the very first time this month but hope to take part regularly!
Our kitchen table overlooks the vegetable garden so I can see exactly what needs doing – not that I rush out to pull the weeds that I watch get bigger every meal time.
IMK is good fun – hope to see in your kitchen again next month.
Anne, what a lovely read and a treat for the eyes! I, too, am fond of poached eggs on English muffins with the yolk dripping down my chin. 🙂 Your muffins look positively scrumptious! I’m also admiring your raised garden (despite the wet weather)… all good things come to those who wait. But, I already knew you “knew” that. xo
The best test for whether my egg is cooked to my liking is how much dribbles out of the muffin.
I had a surfeit of blood orange marmalade at my house last year so made some marmalade vodka. Great minds think alike Anne – though I’m sure your is much classier and looks a darn sight more professional! Spring is on the way…. cheers
Blood orange marmalade vodka sound delicious. It must have been a gorgeous colour.
Anne, I don’t know how I missed this post. I was just over at Debi’s blog checking out her Jaffa cakes and she mentioned yours, so I had to come over and have a look. I don’t think we have them here. Very interesting. Your view looks so cold. It is cooling down here at last.
I love the sound of your orange jelly! I made some blood orange marmalade a few weeks ago – wish I’d thought to add a splash of gin to the mix. Would love to try your jelly and your work-in-progress Jaffa cakes…
I have finally got around to the IMK post for march, just in time to start again for April! i have been trying to get into my garden for a month, but it has been to hot and humid to plant anything 😦 so the opposite of your problem! Thanks for sharing! Liz xx
Giant Jaffa cakes. So yum. And blood orange jellies and muffins! Oh delish.