Friday, November 9, 2007

I don't feel odd

My husband came home from work today and mentioned that he had shared some of the muffins that he had taken in his lunch and that I had made yesterday with a coworker. The coworker thought they were great and was amazed that I had made them. This coworker friend of my husband has this strange notion that I am not "for real". My husband often shares some his lunch with this coworker and often takes homemade soup, bread, and cookies that I have made. My husband, in the past, talked about how I often grind my own wheat to make the bread. (It is a little hand grinder. The kids love to do this with me)
Here is Sophie grinding wheat for bread this week.

I do not consider myself a great cook. I am getting a lot better at making breads however. Mostly I just follow recipes and somehow thing turn out alright. But my husband's coworkers find this so amazing that I stay at home, cook a sit down dinner every night and even sometimes breakfast for the family, and especially that I have so many kids (Three kids here is considered a lot). They have this mistaken idea that I am wonder woman. Either that or I just really odd. My husband thinks they are secretly jealous because their wives refuse to do these things. I consider myself lucky to be able to stay home. It isn't easy and we sacrifice a lot to be able to do it. But I wouldn't want it any other way.

Here is the recipe for the muffins that received such praise. Nothing extravagant but rather tasty!
It is from the September 2007 Family Fun Magazine. I love the recipes they include in this magazine. They are easy and my kids, usually, will eat them.

Cinnamon Ripple Muffins

Marbled with a buttery cinnamon ripple, this muffin is much like an individual serving of coffee cake. Need we say more?

Cinnamon Ripple

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
4 Tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons Cinnamon

Muffin Batter

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking poweder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all the cinnamon ripple ingredients in a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to blend them. Set the mixture aside. Then heat oven to 400 degrees and grease the bottoms only of 12 standard muffin cups.

Next, make the batter: In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Stir in the dry ingredients just until the batter is blended. Then spinkle the cinnamon ripple over the batter and use a flexible spatula to fold it in a couple of times.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake the muffins for 13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes before removing them. Makes 1 dozen

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't feel odd either, but so many of the home arts are just not practiced by very many women anymore. It's really quite sad. But I'm very grateful that I can stay home and really work on homemaking. Those other women just don't know what they're missing out on!

belliesue said...

I'll have to agree with your husband's coworker's...you are amazing! I'm always so impressed when I catch up on your blog and see all the fun things that you do. You're an awesome mom and wife! Keep up the great work.