Oh! How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning!

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It is now officially Daylight Savings Time again. BOO! HISS! I hate Daylight Savings Time! It's true. I really hate it. DST totally screws with my circadian rhythm. I'm a nocturnal creature by nature. I also have a mild form of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS), which causes a "much later than normal timing of sleep onset and offset and a period of peak alertness in the middle of the night". This is why you may find comments from me on your blogs made at three or four in the morning. I'm usually wide awake!

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Since the World does not set its clock by my sleep patterns, I have had to try to adjust to the World's. This means starting my day at 6:00 a.m. to get my daughter up and ready for school by 7:15. That's the middle of the night for me! Losing that precious one hour of sleep in the morning sets me up for several months of blurry, bleary-eyed, feeling like total crap days, until the time changes back again.

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I think that one of the worst things about setting our clocks ahead one hour, is that most of us will now have to wake up to total darkness in the morning. Waking up to glints of sunlight streaming through your bedroom window is bearable, but greeting the day while the moon is still out is. just. wrong! UGH!!! When faced with the inevitability of what was to come on Monday morning, I decided to make a few things to bring a little "sunshine" into what was sure to be a dark and dismal experience!
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I hit pay dirt at the market the other day, citrusly speaking, that is. I not only found lots of lovely orange clementines, but I also found the most beautiful Meyer lemons, as well. This especially excited me, because I have never seen Meyer lemons there before. For weeks now, I have enviously read post after post by various bloggers, waxing poetic about both of these juicy, fruity little gems. I bought a dozen of each and, on the drive home, imagined all the delicious things I would make with them.

I decided to start with a couple of recipes that I had recently seen on two of my "must read" blogs. Lori at The Recipe Girl, made a gorgeous Meyer Lemon Loaf a few weeks ago. I remember thinking when I first read her post, that I wished I had access to those beautiful lemons. Well, my wish came true! I had Meyer lemons and so, I made that lemon loaf. Instead of making it in a loaf pan, I used a pretty sunflower cake pan that I had. You can find Lori's recipe for it here.

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Now, for the clementines. I knew just where to go for this one. Michelle from Thursday Night Smackdown had recently made Nigella's Clementine Cake and it looked and sounded just wonderful. I had been dying to try it ever since I read her post, and I made it on Friday night. You can find Michelle's recipe here.

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Of course, I couldn't wait for Monday to taste the cakes. Mr. SGCC and I have been enjoying them with our morning coffee these past few days. Both of them are excellent, as I knew they would be. Don't worry, though. I have some of each stashed away ready to help me combat those Monday Morning Blues. Thanks, Lori and Michelle!
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Oh, and by the way, the video clip at the beginning of this post is a 1932 animated short of Irving Berlin's "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" by the legendary Max Fleischer. Fleischer was a pioneer in theatrical animation and was the creative genius behind the Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons. As a matter of fact, Betty makes an appearance in this one. It is brilliant!

If you'd like to add a little more sunshine to your life, check out these great recipes:

Lemon Olive Oil Cake from Undercover Cook

Luscious Lemon Layer Cake from No Special Effects

Meyer Lemon Cake Roll from Tartelette

Coconut Lemonquat Tea Cake from Food Blogga

Meyer Lemon Cake with Fig Puree and Pistachios from Sugar Plum

Orange Date Bundt Cake from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Little Yoghurt and Orange Blossom Cakes from Milk and Cookies

Clementine and Olive Oil Cake from Cafe Fernando

Orange Cake with Mascarpone Cream from Sass & Veracity

Enjoy!