Maple Salmon with Cider Glazed Onions

 
Another easy salmon recipe. The hardest part was waiting for it to finish cooking on the grill.
Slice a red onion and saute for five minutes in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Add one cup apple cider to the onions and cook until the cider has evaporated. While the onions are cooking, salt and pepper you salmon fillets and pour one tablespoon of maple syrup over each fillet. Wrap the fillets in a double layer of aluminum foil and grill for ten minutes.  When ready to serve, top the salmon with the cider glazed onions.

I served the maple salmon with a fall inspired brown rice.  Dried cranberries, chopped broccoli and slivered toasted almonds were added into the pot of cooked brown rice.  Delicious!

Bacon Maple Cupcakes....

The beginning of April wasn't one of the most appealing  months this year. To me it had that November feeling.  Naked trees and dull gray skies.  The knolls, fields and lawns still had that worn down pressed hay look. 
To make up for the gray ugliness of early April, Mother Nature has blessed us with maple syrup.  Delicious Grade A Amber Maple Syrup.

This mouth watering delicious recipe uses two of my most favorite ingredients.  Enjoy!!

Bacon Maple Cupcakes
Ingredients
* 4 1/2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
* 1/2 tablespoon bacon drippings (left in the fridge to become solid)
* 1 egg
* 5 tablespoons brown sugar
* 4 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 1/4 cups self rising flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* pinch kosher salt
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1/4 cup of minced bacon, cooked and drained
What you’ll do–
* 1) Cook some bacon in a fry pan (about 6 thick strips). Reserve the drippings and place in the fridge to solidify. Mince 1/4  of a  cup of the bacon.
* 2) Beat the  the butter and solidified bacon fat until light and creamy. Add the brown sugar and maple syrup and beat  until combined.
* 3) Add the egg and beat until incorporated.
* 4) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and powder together.
* 5) Add some of the flour and mix, then some of the milk, then continue to alternate the dry and wet ingredients, ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in the bacon. Taste and add more maple syrup, flour, or milk if needed for desired taste. Keep in mind the maple frosting is very sweet, and to add in very small increments for alterations as maple syrup in large amounts can break a cake batter.
* 6) Scoop into cupcake papers and bake at 350 F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate the pan after the first 15 minutes for even baking.
Maple Syrup Frosting
Ingredients
* 4 tablespoons of butter.
* 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.
* 1 cup of powdered sugar.
* turbinado sugar (optional, but recommended)
* coarse grain sea salt (optional, but recommended).
What You’ll Do –
* Combine the syrup and butter until combined. Add the sugar, a bit at a time, and whip at high speeds until combined. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Sprinkle on sea salt and turbinado sugar for decoration and added flavor.
*Top with crumbled bacon.

Ina's Maple Oatmeal Scones

After my visit to Parker's over the weekend I knew I just had to make something with maple syrup.There are a few cookbooks that I always seem to go to when I need a recipe and Ina Garten's cookbooks most often fit that bill. Here are her delicious and easy maple -oatmeal scones.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick cooking oats, plus more for sprinkling
• 2 tbsp. baking powder
• 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 pound cold unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup cold buttermilk
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 4 extra large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk or water, for egg wash

Glaze

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar,and salt.  Blend the cold butter in at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is in pea sized pieces.  Combine the buttermilk, maple syrup, and eggs and add quickly to the flour and butter mixture.  Mix until just blended.  The dough may be sticky.

Dump the dough out onto a well floured surface and be sure it is combined.  Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4 to 1 inch thick.  You should see lumps of butter in the dough.  Cut into 3 inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush the tops with egg wash.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are crisp and the insides are done.

To make the glaze, combine the confectioners sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla.  When the scones are done, cool for 5 minutes and drizzle each scone with 1 tablespoon of glaze.  then sprinkle some uncooked oats on the top, for garnish.  The warmer the scones are when you glaze them, the thinner the glaze will be.

As you can tell by my photo above they really are  good size scones. The recipe states it makes 14 large scones, I made 16 scones out of this batch.

Parker's Maple Barn

This past weekend we took a short trip up to New Hampshire to one of my favorite places to have breakfast. Located in Mason New Hampshire, you can read all about Parker's Maple Barn Restaurant here. They have a great gift shop with loads of their very own maple syrup and maple products.

The restaurant was packed so I felt awkward about taking out my camera and snapping pictures while everyone was eating their breakfast. Unfortunately, there are no photos of the inside to this quaint  little restaurant.  I did however manage to snap a few of the outside area .

We assumed that the license plate must belong to the owner of Parker's.  After all it is a genuine working maple sugar farm. 

Parker's is usually packed and the wait can be up to one and a half hours. We were lucky this weekend though and got in and seated in about twenty minutes.  But for times when we are not so lucky and the wait is longer we can go to The Outpost  and purchase a  maple donut and a cup of hot coffee while we wait.   The small Outpost building happens to be right next to the sugar house pictured below .

After you get your donut and coffee there is this sweet little covered bridge with benches inside to sit and wait for your name to be called over the loud speaker.

We however did not have a seat in the bridge this time but  instead  went directly to the gift shop to stock up on maple syrup and other maple products that struck our fancy

The gift shop was fun,  our breakfast  was delicious and as usual the ride up was well worth it.