Banana Walnut and Chocolate Chip Muffins

This winter is shaping up to be a real marathon affair. This morning, I knew we'd need  some sweet starts to the mornings this weekend, as there will be MORE SHOVELLING to do. New England is bracing for one more significant snowfall and I am whining already! And just as I whined my way through making these muffins, the mail arrived and I had two small parcels to cheer me up - a postcard written by Sprout Kate regarding a cheery breakfast at the Neue Galerie's cafe and posted on on a lovely painting/card by Egon Schiele and a parcel that contained a book by Tasha Tudor called The Springs of Joy from my dear friend, Diane! No more whining ...just cheerful thoughts of loved ones that cared enough to pass the joy on ...

Hurray For Berry Season!

So ... I bought this mega-muffin pan a while back to satisfy the muffin maniac in the grey cottage. And this past weekend, I made muffins from the first of the wild blueberries that SB brought down off of Gap Mountain. A worthy muffin recipe with a BIG pay off. These muffins are double the size of a conventional muffin/cupcake tin offering. Not that we're gluttons for a good muffin or anything .......

Kaleidoscopic Cups and Savory Muffins ....

It's amazing the gadgets and nifty little kitchen items there are in the world these days! Who would think that I could get a charge out of these little silicone muffin cups ... but I do ... now.  First of all, they came to me free and clear from the people at New York Baking Company, and anything free is like manna from heaven to a Yankee like me!

Butternut Squash Muffins with Pecans

Cooking with leftovers today! These muffins are positively luscious ... sweet and moist and perfect with ice cold milk ... I played with Nigella's maple and pecan muffin recipe that comes from her Feast cookbook. The resulting muffins could pass as cupcakes if you iced them, but we're just dusting them with confectioner's sugar and having them with some butter slathered on.

Saturday Morning @ 10 O'Clock ... Time for Muffins

So, here you go! A project for the morning ... roast a couple apples! Get them nice and sweet and lemony and cinnamon-y! Let them cool because in a little while you are going to make the nicest tea time snack! And there's a bonus! There will be plenty of leftovers for breakfast tomorrow morning! How sweet is that?

BYOB - Cider Doughnut Muffins

What could be easier than a simple apple flavoured muffin, dipped in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar? It's a dead ringer for the seasonal apple cider doughnuts that will be popping up at the coming Fall festivals!

Breakfast of Champions - Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

There's been a lodger in the grey cottage for the past couple weeks. Eric, the baby of the family, has moved home for a bit while he begins his new job and continues his classes in machine work. I love to see him enthusiastic about this new chapter in his life. He gets up raring to go and comes out of work each day with something to tell about the manufacturing process or what he has learned. He has purpose and a revived sense of self-esteem ... and that's a good thing. No more feeling beleaguered at a job that doesn't seem to be going anywhere ... my boy's feeling like the top banana ... the sweet one, the one worthy of making something really good of life and not waiting around for the sweetness!

Blueberry Season!

Silent Bob took his first exploratory hike up to the blueberry banks on Gap Mountain yesterday morning. He came back with a nice big bucket and chortled about it being a good berrying year. Then, he plunked the bucket on the counter and asked what I thought I might make with the bounty.


Well, that was a no-brainer! Muffins and pie!

Orange Muffins with Candied Ginger

Random Bakes of Kindness

When I want to 'treat' someone, I usually bake them muffins or cookies. They're easy to transport, can be 'increased' easily if I need big batch offerings, and they are the recipes at which I excel - brag, brag, I know, but it's true.

Anyway, I'm always on the hunt for good recipes to add to the arsenal and this one is a new find. I was digging around on a site dedicated to muffin recipes ... wahoo! The recipe originally had chopped figs, but I liked the sound of candied ginger with all that citrus. I also like the idea of an orangey citrus glaze drizzled over the tops of the cool muffins. I've never been one for dietary discretion. What can I say? Besides, this sweet treat is for one of the sweetest folks I've met of late.

... a baker's dozen muffins ... some for a sweet girl and some for me

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Sometimes you just need a sunny porch, a good sweet muffin, and a cuppa Joe. What more can I say? Norm, a Facebook friend, posted a link to a recipe for Snickerdoodle muffins the other day. I happened to read it mid-morning... just about coffeebreak time ... the rest is history.

Another Yummy Muffin, Please!

Our friends John and Nancy visited us this weekend ... we had such a great time catching up and laughing over old times during 'the college years' ! Sitting with muffins and coffee was a perfect way to start Saturday morning. Thankfully, I'd planned ahead for breakfasts and had a platter of muffins ready for warming up. Nancy liked them immensely!

A New Week- A New Batch - Honey Muffins

Orange Glaze Drizzled Honey Muffins

Last weekend, Susan over at From Beyond My Kitchen Window made the most delectable and healthy muffins. I told her that I'd be getting out my mixing bowls and making them my muffin-of-the-week as soon as possible. Well, it's Sunday and it's a new week and I've just come home from being on the road for a week-long junket. Silent Bob and I took a road trip to Cleveland, Ohio. There was yummy (but not very healthy) food consumed on the road - can you say baseball park hotdogs, beers, deep-fried calamari, mango margaritas, cheesy enchiladas, and grilled paninis? Did we take pictures of food? Of course not! We were too busy stuffing our faces to think about photography ... sorry. On the way home, I got to thinking about making the muffins and of course, I started thinking of ways to change them up a bit ...

Another Day, Another Muffin ... Maple Walnut Seasonal Mix

I was cruisin' the supermarket the other morning and happened upon the beer/wine aisle ... can't think how that happened, but it did. Good old Sam Adams and about a kazillion other micros were touting their seasonal brews. Boy, it was a tough decision! I picked up the latest mid-sized box of Noble Pils from Sam Adams' brewhouse and moved on to get the makings for my 'muffin de jour', or should I say my 'seasonal muffin' ?

Spiced Blueberry Muffins and Tea

More on the summertime rant ... I went to visit a friend's mother yesterday and shared lunch and chatter in her sunny little apartment.  As I made my way home, I kept thinking how fun it is, sharing tea and a sweet something with friends.