Question about muffins and a reminder.

[japple]

I made some cranberry orange oatmeal muffins on Sunday, using a basic muffin recipe with a bit of tweeking.

1 cup AP flour
1 cup oats,
1/2 cup veg. oil
3/4 cup orange juice
1 egg
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
orange zest, cranberries

They tasted very good, but were extremely fragile, even after they cooled. I let them completely cool before storing them in a tin, but for some reason, they seemed wet and sticky the next day. Today, I tossed the remainder out for the birds who are really enjoying them. Can anyone tell me why they were so wet and how I can avoid this next time? Thanks!

Reminder: Make suet to feed the birds during these cold winter days. Use lard, bacon drippings, peanut butter, cornmeal, oats, sunflower seeds, or anything else. Dried fruit can also be added. The birds will eat store bought suet, but they will fight for the homemade stuff.

[yellerpup]

1. Thanks for the reminder to feed the birds.

Last spring we had a surprise snowstorm after the male robins returned from their migration. We are in an apartment building and can't put anything outside the windows, but I made breadcrumbs from all the whole grain bread I had, scrambled some eggs (I know, but protein), chopped nuts and seeds and put it on the window sill. I did this until the snow melted enough for them to be able to find food. The payoff is that all summer long when I left the building, one of those boys would call out to greet me!

[japple]

4. That's a good story, yellerpup! It

reminds me of the time when my husband made a pound cake from a boxed mix. It was so horrible we couldn't eat it, so we crumbled it and threw it out on the snow for the birds. A large flock of robins came in and cleaned it out in a big hurry. We always laughed about that: who knew robins had such sweet tooths?

[yellerpup]

5. Birds are very interesting!

So, they have sweet tooths and will eat boxed cakes! Good to know. I wonder if they taste it or just get a good sugar rush out of it? I was so touched that my boy robins remembered me months later and never failed to say hello. Animals are amazing.

[Denninmi]

6. I have a lot of pet birds.

Poultry and waterfowl mostly. And some doves.

The doves are fairly finicky -- seeds, a little bit of fresh produce.

OTOH, my chickens, turkeys, ducks, and Japanese quail all will pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

The chickens and ducks got into a big pink sheet of Owens Corning foamboard insulation due to my poor carpentry skills, when the outer layer of one wall of the chicken coop came off. Ate most of it in a day. I was sure they would die gruesome deaths from bowel impaction or something. Didn't seem to phase them a bit.

The turkeys got hold of a paper feed sack and had a grand time eating about 90% of it before I found out and took it away from them. Also didn't hurt them.

It's not like they're hungry. They have access 24/7 to regular poultry food, and get all kinds of treats and goodies on a daily basis.

[yellerpup]

7. I miss having poultry and the fraish aigs that go with them.

Chickens and ducks are fun to be around. I've never been around doves, quail, or turkey except wild ones. The first time I ever saw a wild turkey I thought it was a female peacock, but what gracefully built birds they are! I remember feeding the chickens and ducks on my grandparent's farm and they are definitely eating (and pooping) machines--not much different than we are in that respect. :rofl: You post such fantastic photos of food...do you have any pics of your pet birds? Our dear hippywife in this forum also keeps chickens if you haven't discovered that in common yet. Nice to have you around Denninmi. Thanks for your contributions! :hi:

[Denninmi]

9. Here's some of the gang.

Turkeys



Ducks



Japanese Quail



Dove with newly hatched squab



Alas, I don't have any photos of my chickens all grown up. This is what my Isa Browns looked like when I first got them last June. I also have 3 Rhode Island Reds:

[Tesha]

10. Wow!

You've got quite a gaggle of birds! Or is gaggle just for geese?
I really envy you.
We just have 3 parrots...

and a deck full of visitors. Plus the hawks that keep the population in balance.

The cheeky chickadees that land on the feeder while you're still filling it.
The huge red-headed woodpeckers hanging on the suet.
The cardinal family - where the males keep watch while the females feed.
The coffee clatch of mourning doves.

Assorted finches and titmice(mouses?) and juncos...

We love our birds.

[yellerpup]

11. Oh, thank you!

What gorgeous birds! They look happy and well fed. It's been ages since I held a chick in my hand. I love the city but at times I really, really miss the farm. So sweet of you to share. :loveya:

[japple]

12. Those are great pictures! Thanks for sharing. And that baby dove

:loveya: is precious.

[Denninmi]

13. We actually, that's mom.

I see I only got the eggshell in the photo.

Here's one with the baby. It was, as Elaine said on Seinfeld, a rather "snuggly" baby, actually.

[tigereye]

14. that's so interesting- I've never seen a baby dove

cool looking pin? feathers. What lovely birds! Thanks for sharing.

[trud]

8. doves

I put birdseed and unsalted shelled peanuts out on my deck. Almost everybody (sparrows, blue jays, skunks, squirrels, opossum, foxes) eats the peanuts, but the doves don't touch them. I was guessing their beaks are not strong enough to crunch nuts. (Those little sparrows seem to have beaks like nutcrackers.)

[Denninmi]

2. Well, a couple of thoughts:

1) It seems to me that half a cup of oil is quite a bit for the amount of flour and oats.

2) There is a lot of liquid in there aside from the oil -- the o.j., the egg, and the zest and cranberries. You didn't say whether you used fresh or dried cranberries, but if they were fresh, that added some moisture.

I think I would try maybe cutting the oil to 1/4 cup, maybe adding another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour (but, you'd have to kind of add part and see if the batter seemed ok, don't want to make it too stiff), and consider using dried cranberries if you used fresh.

Hope this helps.

[japple]

3. That makes sense. I used dried cranberries. Next time, I'll

cut back on the wet and increase the dry ingredients. The batter was a bit thin.