Whiteley Creek Homestead

From my January/February 2013 Whole Living Magazine, comes Banana-Apple Buckwheat Muffins. The recipe is included in a 21-day "eating clean" challenge that includes weekly menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus snacks. The plan focuses on cruciferous vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. Processed foods, sugar (small amounts of honey are used), alcohol, coffee, and common allergens such as dairy and gluten are eliminated. Susan Blum, M.D., founder of the Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook, New York, oversees the cleanse. Each week, a different well-qualified guru in the nutrition arena provides the recipes. The week three menu, where this muffin recipe came from, was created by Louisa Shafia, author of Lucid Food Cooking For an Eco-Conscious Life. I have a copy in my kitchen. She also documents her life through recipes on her lovely blog lucidfood.com.  

Banana-Apple Buckwheat Muffins

Makes four muffins (or six if you double the flour, as I did). Heat oven to 350°. Place four paper liners in a regular-size muffin tin. In a bowl, whisk together ¼ cup buckwheat flour (I used ½ cup… perfect), 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp sea salt. In another bowl, whisk together 2 large eggs (I used 1 egg), ½ mashed banana, and ¼ cup honey (I used 2 tbsp). Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, then fold in ½ finely diced peeled and cored sweet apple (I used 1 whole small apple and did not peel it), and ¼ cup chopped walnuts. Fill the batter to the top of the lined cups and fill the remaining cups halfway with water. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack. Note: To make 12 muffins, I used 1 cup flour, 1 egg, 1/4 cup honey, and doubled the measurements of the remaining ingredients.

The idea for the log pedistal cake stand came from one of my daughter Jessica's fort & field Pinterest Boards. Her link led me to an instruction page on bhg.com (Better Homes and Gardens). Just type Nature Crafts For Your Winter Table into the search box. For my log pedistal, I used a log that had been hollowed out to hold a candle. It was a gift that we received from our friends, Brad and Terri, years ago. For the platter… my cutting board. A cross section cut from a tree. A purchase from a shop in Beaver Bay, Minnesota north of Duluth while enroute to Silver Bay where we visited Dick's Aunt Evelyn. Repurposing. Using items one already has… especially meaningful ones. Pure genius. Pure love.