I am trying like mad to get interesting, diverse foods on the table for breakfast ... for all of us. It's working sometimes. And in keeping with my desire to have our baked goods be actually, you know, baked here and not somewhere else, I decided to see how muffins might go over. We've never been big muffin eaters around here. In fact, I was never much of a muffin eater at all. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever made muffins for the people that live here with me now. This might explain how, when I first went to make these puppies (on National Blueberry Pancake Day, no less) and had everything assembled, I stumbled when I couldn't find my muffin tins. Luckily, I hadn't yet cracked an egg.

My neighbor Catherine came to the rescue, and the next day we were all systems go. Muffin time. I had plenty of cookbooks to scour through to find a good blueberry muffin recipe, but what I didn't have was time. Thank you, All Recipes! Quick internet searches can be hit or miss, and this one definitely hit. We had them for breakfast (or sometimes lunch, ahem), but I heard tell that those we returned to Catherine in her empty muffin tin were perhaps consumed with ice cream... However you have them, I'd venture to say they aren't so humble anymore.

From All Recipies To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Batter

1.5 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk (or more)

1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 400º and line muffin tin with muffin liners. (You could skip the liners and grease your tins, but that never seems to work for me.) In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a one-cup measuring cup, add egg to 1/3 cup vegetable oil and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture and fold in the blueberries. Fill liners nearly to the top.

Cinnamon Crumble

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 1/5 teaspoons cinnamon

Combine all ingredients and mix with a fork (or your fingers, which, quite honestly, are easier), and crumble on top of blueberry batter before baking.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

The original recipe calls for 8 large muffins, but because of how our family works, I knew that 12 would work better for us. My liners weren't completely full, and I reduced the cooking time just a bit. Enjoy!

I don't turn to baking, as some do, in times of distress. I'm not a baker, as some are (I'm looking at you, Mom!), by nature. But my boy likes a sweet after dinner, and it's hard to deny a 13-year old his food, be it savory or sweet. It seems better that his dessert choices be homemade rather than pre-packaged as much as possible (let's face it, I'm not superwoman). So I've been baking cookies. Last week, when we got home from the surgeon, but before we headed to Raleigh for the MRI, I had a misty, drizzly, gray few hours before I had to grab Callum from school. I was heartsore and worried. I found it hard to settle. I'd meant to make chocolate crinkle cookies over Christmas but somehow had never gotten around to it (Thank God my mom was here to ensure we were fully stocked without my help!), and I still had all the ingredients. Did I have time (and energy) to make some cookies?

I almost didn't do it. As I said, baking doesn't necessarily consititute comfort to me. Making soup? Sure. Pulling together dinner? That'll soothe me. But baking? I often feel like I've stumbled into Neel's lab, forgetting key ingredients only to have to grab them once my hands are coated in flour. But my hands and my mind needed occupying, and Callum needed cookies. So there you are. Cookie time.

I went digging for the recipes I'd found in December. My friend Alice introduced us to Chocolate Crinkle Cookies years ago, and we love them. Crisp on the outside and chewey on the inside, they're subtle and flavorful. Satisfying. The recipe she shared with us is long gone, but the internet prevails! Sadly, most of the recipes I found called for the dough to chill for several hours, and that was time I didn't have. The one I landed on (finally!) was this, from Williams Sonoma. I don't know. (Shrugs.) Given my reluctance about baking, it seems fitting that this recipe is designed for kids and that the first line of instruction is, "Be sure an adult is nearby to help."

I don't know if you remember, but way back in October, I memory-laned a bit about my family cookie jar. It's hard to replace something so beloved, but I was determined to try. I wanted a cookie jar that evoked the feel of my beloved childhood favorite, not some ridiculous dancing fat man with a kerchief around his neck. I'd had my eye on an owl jar from West Elm but had yet to pull the trigger. I'm so glad I didn't, because will you look at what my mom brought up at Christmas time?

Savory or sweet, it's a little goal of mine to always keep something in this jar.

baking history :: humble muffin {life}

baking history :: chocolate crinkle cookies {life}