I have never baked in someone else’s kitchen before, but I was out in Sooke, BC, visiting my Mom, and bake in her kitchen I did.
Of course I was in Canada, so all the ingredients were just a little bit different. The salt is in a square container instead of a round one, the baking powder is in a funny canister, the flour is organic so the texture’s not quite the same…it’s those little Canadian differences.
And here I was in a kitchen that wasn’t my own! The grater was bigger than mine, the spatula was more pliable, the measuring spoons had less heft…it’s like I was on the Planet of the Slightly But Not Significantly Different Baking Tools. (Cue scary music.)
My mission: make pumpkin muffins for a very deserving friend of Mom’s, and make carrot oatmeal muffins for Mom & Stephen. Also, I wanted to keep saying “muffins” a lot because it made Robin just a little bit crazy. (If you can’t drive your big sister a little bit crazy, you’re missing out.)
Mom & Stephen get their eggs from a local “egg lady” and they are so pretty! They’re called Blue Eggs. And no factories or chicken abuse are involved whatsoever.
I made the pumpkin muffins first. The pumpkin mixture had a different texture than I usually get, since I was using organic pumpkin, and the eggs were medium instead of large.
The flour was different too, it had a slightly heavier texture, but it was also organic so I figured that was a good thing. It was harder than usual to incorporate everything, though, and it took much longer than I expected.
Eventually I got it done, and got the sugar mixture for the tops ready as well. It was a thick batter and glopping it into the muffin cups required some extra care.
And I had nothing to worry about. They turned out great.
Robin even ate one!
Then I whipped up the carrot oatmeal muffins.
And a delicious time was had by all.
As for Sooke, it’s beautiful there. There’s a lovely area near Mom’s called Whiffen Spit that is perfect for long walks and gasping at views.
Victoria is also a beautiful city, and my food highlight there was the caramel chili chicken from a place called Foo.
This particular item, available at the Tim Horton’s at the Victoria Airport, was a little scary, though.
I think I’ll stick to east coast bagels. I did pick up some good treats, though, including impossible-to-find-in-NY maple sugar for use in a specific cookie recipe I’ve been holding on to. Keep an eye out.
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