#TastyParTEA: Earl Grey Waffles

So.
I agreed to take part in an event that was celebrating all things tea.  And I enjoy tea...but usually black with a little sugar in winter, or iced with lemon and sugar in summer.  And frankly, orange pekoe is about as exciting as we get in my purchasing around here.
But despite the fact that I am not a tea snob, I do know what a good cuppa tastes like.  Each year for Christmas, one of the gifts that I buy my mother is the Little Black Tea Collection from Steeped, which includes the most wonderful Earl Grey known as Earl Grey de la Creme.  And it is.  Smoky, creamy and with the most delicious finish.  It's a great tea.
Earl Grey tea is tea flavoured with oil of bergamot.  It is used to flavour baked goods, sauces and chocolates.  When I looked for a recipe featuring tea, I started at the Steeped website.  I saw this, and was sold.
I present to you now Earl Grey Waffles:

#SecretRecipeClub: Cinnamon Roll Muffins

So.
It's time for another edition of Group A's reveal for the Secret Recipe Club!  Actually, it's a rather sad occasion as this will be the final reveal day for Group A.  Sarah E has decided to send us out on a high note, and the club will be folding.  I've had almost 3 wonderful years searching other blogs for a recipe to make and share.  It's been exciting to see what people think worth sharing from my own little corner of the internet.  I'll need to find a new challenge.
So, this time when I went looking for my last recipe with the club, I decided I had to stick with what I do best - breakfast carbs.
My monthly email sent me off to peruse Sights, Bits and Bites.  Marla is relatively new to the kitchen, and says she works in the smallest kitchen known to mankind.  I also did that until recently.  She loves cats, but currently has a boyfriend and a pet hamster.  I don't think I recommend having the hamster and cats simultaneously, but cats are a lovely way to pass the time.
While looking through Marla's recipes, I came across a few things to consider:  Freezer Breakfast Burritos looked easy and yummy, as did Lasagna Soup, which needs to make an appearance on my Sunday night supper table (and in my lunch) soon.  But carbs as always screamed my name.  Like my last reveal, this recipe is somewhat of a portion controlled one.  But no matter.  Once can always eat 2.
I present to you now Sights, Bits and Bites' Cinnamon Roll Muffins:

#SRC Bonus Post: Monkey Bread Muffins

So.
I haven't been a very good blogger recently.  I have, however, managed to keep up with my Secret Recipe Club posts if nothing else.  I love being given a reason to explore someone else's blog and make a recipe.  Sometimes, it's a challenge to make something that I've always wanted to try.  Sometimes, I make something that just sounds way too good.
Always, I procrastinate.
This month, with 5 Mondays, our fearless leader Sarah put out the call for a special reveal day of fall dishes.  I was thrilled to be assigned April's blog over at Home Sweet Homestead.  April is a wife and monther who is a Flexitarian after the onset of adult allergies and food intolerances.  I loved going through her recipes and saw many things that interested me including these Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies  and this Peanut Butter Cheesecake Dip.  Apparently, peanut butter makes me think fall.
Unfortunately, I haven't made either yet.  With time running short, I whipped up a breakfast treat with lots of cinnamon.  It's not pumpkin, but it is delicious.  And monkey bread is always fun.  Who doesn't love monkey bread?
I do, obviously.  I present to you now Home Sweet Homestead's Monkey Bread Muffins:

#Secret Recipe Club: Peanut Butter Banana Bagels

So.
It's time for another episode of the regular Secret Recipe Club!  Once a month, a group of bloggers get together, are given another blog to peruse in secret, choose a recipe and make something from their assigned blog.  I so enjoy doing this every month, and look forward to seeing whose blog I will be looking through for something delicious.
This month, I was thrilled to be paired with Erin of the The Spiffy Cookie.  I've enjoyed working with Erin in the past on multiblogger events, and enjoy drooling over her pictures of food on Instagram.  Erin, like myself, isn't a fan of mushrooms; but she does love all things peanut butter and chocolate (also like myself) and bakes...a lot.  How could I not make something peanut buttery after looking through her blog?
I seem to be on a breakfast kick at the moment, so I considered her Pumpkin Pecan Waffles and even something somewhat healthy with her Carrot Cake Oatmeal, but then I found this.
I have been intrigued by recipes containing PB2, but have never tried it.  I also decided to challenge myself and make something that I hadn't made successfully before:  bagels.  With bananas in the freezer, I was ready to go!
I present to you now The Spiffy Cookie's Peanut Butter Banana Bagels:

Breakfast: Chocolate Zucchini Chocolate Chip Waffles

So.
After last summer's fun with my friend's waffle iron, I kept thinking I should buy one of my own.  I thought about it for a whole year (which I am wont to do), and finally picked one up on the cheap at Kohl's when J and I went to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday in Toledo.
But what to make first?  I have an absolute pile of waffle recipes pinned to my Breakfast board on Pinterest.  There's pumpkin, and snickerdoodle, and gingerbread...but I was looking for wow factor for the first waffles from the new toy.
I started searching again for something with wow factor, that would use things in my fridge.  I'm pretty sure I picked it with this recipe. Seeing as I had buttermilk leftover and a couple of zucchini from our Good Food Boxes, this was a no brainer.  Seeing as there was cocoa and chocolate chips involved, I'd found my wow factor.
Even better?  This made enough for 2 brunches the day of and more for the freezer for later.  You know, when I want a bit of a day brightener.  That can always be achieved through chocolate chips for breakfast.
I present to you now The Candid Appetite's Chocolate Zucchini Chocolate Chip Waffles:

Freezer Friendly: Walnut Zucchini Muffins

So.
Despite the fact that as I write this we haven't been on vacation yet (Friday's coming!), I've started planning for my Back to School cooking extravaganza.
Three years ago, I discovered the genius of freezer meals.  After buying a Taste of Home freezer magazine, I tried cooking and freezing meals that would make my life easier upon my return to work.  It totally does make my life easier.  We eat at home during a stressful time with the startup of school and being away weekends for football.  I've started my lists and my inventory of the deep freeze so that we have some more healthy choices than the nearest restaurant.
To that end, I'm stocking not only dinners but breakfasts as well.  I need something that can be quick, or on the go; but not just peanut butter toast when I can't think of anything else.  My Christmas present from last year has been a help:  a Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich maker that we pull out maybe once a week.  I also try and stock bagels, and often have cooked breakfast sausage links so I can make quick scrambled egg wraps.  I also enjoy muffins from time to time.
My mother makes lots of different muffins that are delicious, and if you look at my index I make lots of different flavours too,  Muffins freeze well, are portable, and can use up things that are lurking in your produce drawer.
Speaking of produce, if you and I are friends on Facebook, I've been posting pictures of my Good Food Boxes this summer from The Stand in Burford.  J and I have eaten more fresh fruits and vegetables for an incredible price because of these boxes!  We've had things like this:

 Every week, there is a head of romaine lettuce, and a field tomato.  The rest is seasonal, so we've had carrots, new dug potatoes, garlic, corn, green onions, peppers of all colours, field and hot house cucumbers, green and yellow beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic scapes, red onions, and zucchini.  We've been picking up the box and then meal planning to use as much as possible from the box.

 Fruit-wise, we've had tons of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches, and yellow plums.  J eats the blueberries.  The rest are left up to me.
I've been freezing what we can't eat (mainly strawberries and beans), and knowing that in winter we will have lots of things to choose from out of the excess of our bounty from the summer.

But there are many things that we get that can't be frozen.  And vegetables like zucchini need to be made into another form to be frozen.
When I saw this recipe in my Taste of Home freezer magazine, it was like it was meant to be.
I present to you now Harriet Stichter from Milford, Illinois' Walnut Zucchini Muffins:

SRC: Lemongrass Ginger Pancakes

So.
It's time again for the Secret Recipe Club!  What's that, you ask?  Well, it's a group of food bloggers who are all assigned another blog from the group (in secret, hence the name) and then we all reveal on the same day at the same time.  Fun, right?  I enjoy getting my assignment every month and finding something to make from a blog that I don't know a whole lot about.
This month is no exception.  I was assigned the blog Crazed Mom, written by Nicole.  Nicole is a mom of 5 teenagers, and I am exhausted just thinking about that.  She's a writer, and she makes some delicious looking and sounding food.
I have to admit, when I started looking at her blog, I didn't get past her Breakfast offerings.  As the owner of a new waffle iron, I'm all about waffle recipes right now.  I eyed these Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes, because I have ricotta needing to be used in my fridge and blueberries right now; but Nicole made these for an SRC reveal.  I also really want to make these Pumpkin Spice Latte Doughnuts, but I would need a doughnut baking pan...and I'm still playing with my waffle iron.  Then I found something that totally caught my attention.
As some of my friends on Facebook know, I was literally giving away some of my Gourmet Garden stir in paste herb tubes from past blogging events.  I love their products (just ask, and I'll tell you!), but there are some that I've never known what to do with...like Lemongrass.  It's intimidating looking at the store, and I've never used it.  But I have 3 tubes of it in my freezer.  I saw the picture in the index with the Gourmet Garden tubes, and saw that this would use up (albeit a small amount) of my Lemongrass stash, and I was in!  Plus, the leftovers are freezable, as we start the grind towards school.  I'm starting my freezer cooking to make the fall easier.  J and I both enjoyed these for breakfast, and they'll be great out of the toaster with maple syrup this fall too,
I present to you now Crazed Mom's Lemongrass Ginger Pancakes:

#BookClubCookbookCC: Pearl Earring Roundup and Breakfast!

So.
It's been a month since I issued the invitation to join the #BookClubCookbookCC and read Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier before making Griet's Vegetable Soup or something else inspired by the book.
I'm going to start with what others made before talking about my own literal dish that J and I ate on a Saturday morning while listening to Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe.
Let's see what the crew made, shall we?

Andrea from Adventures in All Things Food made a Rainy Day Vegetable Soup with the vegetables that she could find...but I don't think I'd like turnip in my soup.  Mini red skinned potatoes are much more appealing!

Likewise, Ashley of Cheese Curd in Paradise opted to make a Quick Vegetable Soup for a weeknight dinner.  With tomatoes, this looks a lot like a soup that people in this house would enjoy!

Emily from Life On Food made the soup from the cookbook.  Doesn't it look delicious?  With a Spring that doesn't seem to be warming up, soup is still in regular rotation here.  Good way to chase away the chill.

Finally, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm made a Colour Your Palate Soup with a pun on the painter's palatte and the zinginess that this soup would bring to your own tasting palate.

Renee at Tortillas and Honey decided to take inspiration from the book, and make a dinner like one described in the book with her Herbed Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Parsnips.  I love roasted parsnips.  This looks lovely.

Likewise, Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla took inspiration from Griet's relationship with the butcher's son and made Lamskoteletten op zijn oud-Hollands (Lamb chops old-Dutch style.  I love lamb, and never cook it.  Now I'm hungry.

Finally, Erin of the Spiffy Cookie thought outside the box, and took the vegetables and bacon of the soup and made a spring-like Bacon and Vegetable Pizza.

But what did I do, you ask?  Well, I went literal.

On a cool Saturday morning, I made a Dutch Baby with Lemon Blueberry Sauce.  (Recipe after the jump).

Secret Recipe Club: Strawberry Maple Baked Oatmeal

So.
It's been a while, but after taking a month off, we're back with a new edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  It's now been 2 years of my belonging to the club in which you're paired up with another blogger and you make something (in secret) from that blog.  Then we all reveal on the same Monday and see what we all made.  Fun, right?  I certainly think so.
This month, I was matched with Rachael from the lovely blog Pizza Rossa.  Rachael is an Australian in Switzerland who has been a vegetarian since she was 18.  J and I are...not...vegetarian.  But J's decision to make healthier choices when eating and my promise to cook a meatless entree every week meant that a vegetarian blog would be a boon to trying something new.
I perused a bunch of recipes, trying very hard to stay away from my old standby on a vegetarian blog, the baking.  Rachael has a bunch of lovely looking baked goods including Cinnamon Challah (or Raspberry Swirl!  So pretty!) and Lemon Macrons with Lemon-Lime Filling (but I'm still intimidated about making macrons.  Rachael has PB&J macrons too.  I totally want to try those as well!!).  I also debated entrees, and found one.  I'm actually sharing it later today as my first recipe post for #FreshTastyValentines!  But then I found this for breakfast, and I wanted to make it too.  Just as well I need 2 recipes for today.
I have made baked oatmeal a couple of times.  I'm always happy with the results and the fact that I then have breakfast for a week that you'd think I'd make it more.  When the weather is like it's been here for the past while - cold, damp, and with a wind that cuts through you, this is a welcome breakfast treat!
I present to you now from Pizza Rossa, Strawberry Maple Baked Oatmeal:

#BookClubCookbookCC: Gingerbread Pancakes

So.
After taking December off, the #BookClubCookbookCookingCrew returns in January with the Pajama Chef's invitation to make Mrs. Enger's Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Icing and read Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.

I was excited about reading this.  I thought it sounded good from the synopsis in the cookbook.  I turned to my local library's catalougue...
...and discovered that I could only get it in audiobook form.  10 CDs.
I am not new to audiobooks.  My mom gives us one each year for Christmas, and we often read them in the fall as we go to and from football weekends.  All you need is time.  My old commute would have been perfect.  My 5 minute commute now is not so much.  I only made it through 3 CDs.
While the story was interesting, and I probably would have finished the book in paper form, I just couldn't find the time or the interest to sit and listen in the house to the book.  Not even Swede's poetry could get me into it.
I had, however, already decided what I was going to make as my recipe this month.  Pancakes!  Pancakes are mentioned a couple of times early in the story.  The first is as dinner when duck hunting, but it was the second time that cemented what I planned to make.
Reuben and his father go to a revival meeting at the local church.  Reuben sneaks out and shares an orange with his current infatuation before announcing that he can cook...and the 2 of them make pancakes in the church kitchen during the revival.  I giggled as they prayed in the sanctuary, aroma of frying batter heavy in the air, inspiring turns of phrase that were so, so awesome.
Reuben and Bethany didn't make pancakes like these, but they smelled so, so good on a cold Saturday morning in the house.  Say grace and dig in.
I present to you now from Judicial Peach, Gingerbread Pancakes:

#SRC: Pumpkin Pecan Cream Scones

So.
It's time for another episode of the Secret Recipe Club!  In fact, it's time for the last 2015 edition of the SRC.  I've so enjoyed spending the last 2 years delving into other blogs and making wonderful creations from other people's impressive recipe indexes.
This month's entry is no different.  I was assigned Mother Would Know, a wonderful blog written by Laura.  She dispenses the wisdom that you could get from phoning your mom while cooking (something I sometimes do) with none of the nagging (something I probably appreciate).  I stuck with what I know (carbs) when finding recipes to try.  While I was drawn to Chocolate Cranberry Streusel Muffins and Western Omlette Muffins, I opted for something that would use up things in my fridge:  namely heavy cream and pumpkin puree.
I present to you now Mother Would Know's Pumpkin Pecan Cream Scones:

Brunch Classic: Buttermilk Waffles

So.
In the summer, I was stocking the freezer for the upcoming school year.  I was looking for breakfast ideas - things I could quickly reheat and eat in the morning before scampering off to school for the day.  I was reading my freezer magazine and came across a few waffle recipes that sounded good and different, seeing as I don't own a waffle maker and therefore never make waffles.
I did what any blogger would do who is cheap and suddenly has a hankering for waffles:  I posted a message on Facebook, asking my friends if they had a waffle iron I could borrow.  My friend Carrie (who I torment on FB with recipes that are "so easy even Carrie could make them!") got me by posting that she had one; which she totally didn't, and thus dashed my hopes briefly until one of my other friends who actually owns a waffle maker offered to lend me hers.
It was in this manner that I ended up making waffles at the end of the summer to freeze and eat during the fall.  I pinned a bunch of recipes and made a few.  This was the first, and as a starting point, these were fantastic.  They're light, buttery and delicious the day you make them and again later reheated in your toaster.  I totally recommend borrowing a waffle iron.
I present to you now from Sally's Baking Addiction Buttermilk Waffles:

Secret Recipe Club: Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake

So.
It's not my regular week for Secret Recipe Club, but I offered to pick up an orphan for Group C and post with them this week.  I'm really glad I did.  Partially because after this month I won't really have time for a while, and partially because it gave me another opportunity to explore a new blog and make something yummy.
I was thrilled to get Jane's Blog, The Heritage Cook.  When I joined Group A of the SRC, Jane was our fearless group leader.  I had gone to her site after getting the email with my first assignment, and had poked around a little thinking that there would be lots to choose from when I drew her name as my assignment.  Then the groups changed.  Jane left for Group C.  I was never assigned her blog.
By happy coincidence, I was assigned her blog as the orphan.  I suddenly poked about her blog with purpose!
Jane is a native Californian, and has been gluten-free for 3 years. She has chocolate Mondays.  There are so many things that I'll need to go back and make more!  She has fabulous looking food, and it took a while to find something until I promised to bake for my custodial staff.  I have a meeting today, and I promised to bake for them.  Then I found this recipe.  It was obviously meant to be.
I present to you now the Heritage Cook's Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake:

Secret Recipe Club: Maple Apple Walnut Muffins

So.

It's time once again for the Secret Recipe Club!  After taking the month of July off, I'm so happy to be back.  I missed having the chance to go through another blogger's recipes, select something yummy, and recreate it in my own kitchen.  Want more details?  Check out the site here.

This month, I was assigned the wonderful blog, Chef in Disguise.  Sawsan is an orthodontist who lives in the United Arab Emirates.  She makes gorgeous looking Middle Eastern food that sounds wonderful!  And yet...well...I stayed pretty close to home for the recipe that I finally made.  More on that later.

Sawsan's recipes looked wonderful.  I considered ma'amoul, a shortbread stuffed with a variety of fillings (but I didn't have the beautiful moulds that Sawsan used).  I also liked the looks of Spinach pastry triangles, but J wasn't convinced.  I also discovered that Sawsan is an avid baker.  I wanted to make her Nutella Twist bread because I have yet to meet a Nutella recipe I don't like.  I finally decided on her One Year Blogiversary recipe, Cinnamon Sweet Bread that looked gorgeous, and I was excited about trying the twisting (go look at the picture...I'll wait for you.  Trust me.  It's worth the click!!)

Then I started thinking about the size of that bread.  And the fact that J would probably help me with just a piece or maybe two.  So I started looking again.

I finally found this recipe, and it sounded delicious...and freezable...and not nearly as exotic as where I started.  But trust me when I tell you that the ingredients are staples in a Canadian gal's kitchen, and you need to make these muffins.  Need I tell you!  I've polished off two while writing the recipe preamble, and am trying to decide if a third would ruin my lunch.  It might, but it would be a great way to go!

I present to you now Chef in Disguise's Maple Apple Walnut Muffins:

Secret Recipe Club: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones (and scones a-plenty!!)

So.
My mother informed me today that she's been checking up on my blog and hasn't seen anything new recently.  It's not that I'm not cooking, I just seem to not be writing these days.  I'm hoping that will change in May, simply because there are some blogging events coming that I need to be writing and preparing for.
The first of these events is the May reveal day for the Secret Recipe Club.  Every month I so enjoy going and looking at a new blog and seeing the sorts of wonderful things that they make that I can try too.  I didn't know how thrilled I would be when I started poking about Kate's blog Kitchen Trial and Error.
Kate's journey to blogging is similar to my own, but she takes much prettier pictures.  I found so many things I wanted to make.  In fact, I went back today to write my post and discovered this Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin that is now on the menu for this coming week.  I also keep meaning to make this Gingerbread Deep Dish Apple Pancake that I've even bought the molasses to make...but it hasn't happened...yet.  Perhaps next weekend.  I settled on scones partially because they're one of Kate's favourite things, and partially because I'd never made them.  I actually made 3 different types all from Kate's blog - 2 types for a staff meeting (which were quickly gobbled up), and 1 type for J and myself to eat while watching Spring football one Saturday morning and then over the next couple of days for breakfast.
I had to decide which one to tell you about, and chose the one with my favourite flavour combination, but I also made the Coconut Lime Scones:

And the Cinnamon Scones (which are killer - especially the icing):

But this is another post all about the glory that is chocolate peanut butter.  I present to you now Kitchen Trial and Error's Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones:

Breakfast: Baked Peanut Butter Apple Oatmeal

So.
I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest.  I love that I can organize the interesting things I find and use it to plan for vacations.  I hate that I forget how I've reorganized things when it seems to be getting out of control.  I also hate how much of a master Pinterest is at the art of time suckage.
I can lose myself in pretty food pictures for hours.  I can click and click on home renovations that I don't have the time or the abilities to recreate.  But sometimes, one of my friends pins something that looks delicious, and I don't need to look so hard to find something that I'd like and might be good for me.
Case in point, this recipe.  My friend Lauren pinned it and I thought it looked so good.  I am often on the hunt for new things to make for breakfast that can be made ahead, and that is warm and delicious.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to eat breakfast regularly, and I've become much better about it.  When desperate, I have toast and jam; but I have looked for options that are a little more hot and filling.  About once per week, I do some sort of egg wrap for J and I, and I've frozen pancakes to reheat in the toaster.  I finally decided to make a batch of the baked oatmeal that I'd seen all over but not tried, and when it contained peanut butter, so much the better!
This was perfect and simple.  It also made enough to eat for the whole week.  I portioned it out into reheatable containers and stacked them in a corner of the fridge.  J and I both enjoyed this the first morning and reheated in the microwave with milk as the week progressed.  I definitely need to make more baked oatmeals!
I present to you now Two Peas and Their Pod's Baked Peanut Butter Apple Oatmeal:

Mardi Gras: Carrot Cake Pancakes

So.
Today is Pancake Day.  It is now 6 weeks to Easter, and I don't think I'm giving up anything for Lent.  Seeing as this is the first that I've even thought about it, I don't think I am giving up anything; other than perhaps winning on Roll up the Rim.
I decided that this year for Pancake Day that I would make a new recipe, and I went looking through my pins to find something interesting.  I found these.  They were even labelled "healthy".
Carrot cake is one of my favourite cakes.  The pineapple, the nuts, the cream cheese icing...so good.  While it is so good, it's also not really a breakfast option, nor the healthiest thing to eat on a regular basis.  Frankly, pancakes aren't really something to eat on a regular basis either.  But seeing as Marketplace announced that Nutella was akin to spreading candy on toast, pancakes can't be that bad...especially when you don't have the stuff in the house to make the cream cheese glaze.
Besides...I didn't have ground flax either.
I present to you now my take on Amy's Cooking Adventure Carrot Cake Pancakes:

Freezer Friendly: Breakfast Sandwiches

So.
I haven't been very good about eating breakfast.  In the summer, I spend each morning with a cup of coffee, orange juice and toast or muffins.  But during the school year, I get up as late as I feel I can (I'm still at school an hour before classes start) and blow through the kitchen to make my lunch, a coffee to take with me and a glass of juice while I read my email and texts so I know what I'm walking into in my day.
Work means I don't always get around to lunch.  When students eat, I'm running the halls supervising, and I often don't stop until I realize I'm nauseous/light headed/parched; usually around 2.  I know I need to eat, and I'm trying to come up with ways to eat quickly and easily in the morning, even if it means taking breakfast with me to eat at my desk.  I have been pinning recipes for breakfasts for a while now.  Mostly, they are things that can be frozen and reheated.
J and I have a tradition on Sundays of going to McDonald's for breakfast before church.  We order egg mcmuffin combos to eat at the restaurant and large cafe mochas that we take with us to the theatre where our church meets.  Every week, I order a bacon and egg mcmuffin.  When I saw a variety of recipes for frozen mcmuffin copycats, I decided to give them a shot.
I present to you now my take on freezable Breakfast Sandwiches:

Got Milk? Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

So.
I made jam last week.  2 kinds - strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb.  Seeing as I just used the recipe that came with the Certo, there's no reason to post, other than to say it's delicious, and you should hope you're on my Christmas list.  J was astounded with the amount of sugar that I went through in 2 days making jam.  But really, when the recipe is fruit, sugar, and pectin and you got 14-15 bottles of jam, what can you expect?
The reason I bother to tell you about the jam is that it shut down my cooking.  Completely and utterly.  After being so busy in the kitchen I started doing nothing.  But there was a sort of reason, namely these muffins.
Last Saturday morning I got up and started to measure everything out for these muffins.  I made the filling and froze it, lined the 2 muffin trays, stirred together the flour and spices with a fork, and then reached for the sugar....
...and was half a cup short.
While this shouldn't really have derailed things, it totally did.  I added sugar to my grocery list and assumed that I would go later Saturday.  But I floated in the pool and enjoyed the weather.  So we talked of going on Sunday.  But we went for a drive and to enjoy the weather.  You get the idea.
Finally, we went to the grocery store and I bought my sugar, but I had become accustomed to moving the muffin things I'd set out around my kitchen so I could cook other meals; and so I put off making these muffins again.
This morning, I came down earlier than usual to make sure everything that needed to go out with the garbage.  I saw the bowls on the counter and decided it was time to have warm muffins with my coffee for breakfast.  Just under a week after I started the process.
I would recommend that you don't wait as long as I did to make these.  They're great.  But if you do wait until you have enough sugar and your motivation to return, I won't judge.
I present to you now The Girl Who Ate Everything's Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Coffee Cake Muffins

So.
In my quest to eat breakfast, I don't always think of muffins, but I think that perhaps I should.  It would be easy to make muffins more often than I do, and make a variety.  They freeze well, and can be changed up to suit what's in the cupboard.
Take these muffins as a case in point.  While there is a streusel topping on these muffins, there's very little else that makes me think "Coffee Cake".  No cinnamon, no nuts, but the original recipe called for raisins, which I guess you could put in coffee cake if that's how you roll.  That's not how I roll.
But I was pretty sure that these muffins would be wicked boring with nothing in them.  I still had some dried cherries leftover from making Hot Cross Buns, and I also had a small package of dried blueberries.  Both of those would be excellent in coffee cake!  And really, if I didn't have either of those, chocolate chips would be darn tasty in these little cakes too.
Plus, it's a recipe towards the Magazine Challenge.    That's not a bad thing.
I present to you now from the April 2006 issue of Everyday Food, Coffee Cake Muffins: