Good Food - Ina's Coffee Cake Muffins

I am in the middle of making these muffins right now and absolutely must share the recipe. This is my second time making them and they are soooo good that I have told Gary I may never make muffins from a box again. This is saying a lot, since I tend to put Sandra Lee to shame.


Ina makes these with blueberries, but I think you could make them with whatever you have on hand. The first time I did them with the same cinnamon/sugar/pudding mix I use on my cinnamon rolls (ANOTHER recipe I must post sometime!), and tonight I am making them with chocolate chips. The batter is really delectable simply on its own.



So here you go!

INGREDIENTS:
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 c. sugar
- 3 extra large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 t. pure vanilla extract
- 8 ounces (about 1 c.) sour cream
- 1/4 c. milk
- 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/2 t. kosher salt
- (add ins...2 pints blueberries, etc.)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place 16 (ish - depends on the size of your muffin pans. I think Ina uses the big ones.) paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top (Ina suggests using a ice cream scoop - it works brilliantly) and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.



If you can make it through without practically licking the paddle clean, you are a better person than I. For the record, it is WAY better than cookie dough.

And just because I know 98% of people are reading this in hopes of seeing her rather than a new recipe:

Baby vs. Grinch - Seven Months

Is it just me, or does she look exceptionally fat in this picture??

Maybe one of my favorite Grinch pictures so far. It's funny - you would think that he would scare her, but he's really one of her favorite stuffed animals. She just sees him across the room and starts giggling.

Seven Months

This has been hands-down one of my favorite months.

Maggie is just developing more and more into her own person with each day. I'm not quite sure how to fully describe it, but she is so much more aware of what's going on around her. She's also starting to interact with us more...which is a ton of fun. Almost like she understands us.

This month she conquered:
- Sitting up on her own. She still has the occasional topple, but she's fairly steady most of the time.


- "Solid" foods
- Sleeping sans swaddle
- Taking longer than 30-minute naps (most days)
- Putting herself to sleep
(The last three can be summed up in one word: FREEDOM!)

She loves:
- Playing games/songs with her hands (pat-a-cake, Father Abraham, etc.)
- Talking and singing. She says "Heh" a lot, which we like to think is her saying "Hi" or "Hey" back to us, but we know she's a long way from talking.

I like this picture because it looks like she's telling you a story with a sassy attitude.

- Peek-a-boo (more than happy to play this on her own)
- Putting EVERYTHING in her mouth (STILL)


- Being outside. Thankfully it's been a wonderful spring so far.
- Her dad. Her face when she sees him every night after work just melts my heart.


Seeing/hearing them play and laugh together is one of my favorite things.

- Rolling. Doesn't show too much interest in crawling, but can roll across the room before you can turn around.
- Every morning when I get her out of her crib, I go over and open up her blinds. She gets the biggest kick out of it. Even though she can't quite grab on, she still tries. Every morning.


She also started reaching this month...for things, people...it's just awesome to see her understand and express what she wants.

I apologize for the slew of pictures. Sort of. I've been nearly glued to my new camera lens since Friday night...and what better subject to practice using it on than a roly-poly baby??

The Little Things

Thursday, April 15:
G: "So, I just want to be sure that we're on the same page and that we're past the point of expectations and big surprises for birthdays."

Friday, April 16:
A GREAT birthday. And not because Gary fed me that line the night before to throw me off track, but because he did just that. And you know what? It was the little things throughout the day that meant more to me than a million surprise parties or expensive dinners or ginormous Costco cakes.

Some highlights:
Waking up to this.

My morning present. Maybe a hint that I need to be out in the yard a little more? But awesome for two reasons: a) super cute Target design, b) I didn't ask for it. Either of these would be amazing on their own, but together? Wow. (I know - it takes very little to impress me)

Came downstairs to the Happy Birthday sign. "Really?" You ask, "You're really excited about a sign??" Considering that usually the Birthday Fairy is played by generally one person in the house and that I didn't even know that he knew where the sign was, yes, yes I was.

Shortly after Gary left for work I just about had a panic attack when I heard the back door open again. Almost had another panic attack when he came in with a box of Munchkins. Mostly chocolate ones. Evil or Knight-in-shining-armor? You decide.

Leftover birthday cake from a previous celebration. Made even better and more hilarious by the fact that it didn't transport home quite so smoothly.

Like I said. It's the little things.

OH - there was one surprise. But I couldn't take a picture of it because it's going to be a long, long time before I put my old lens back on my camera. And it's kind of hard to take a picture of the thing you're taking the picture with. (insert a million smiley faces and exclamation marks) Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

That's My Man

Mint and Daffodils

Last year we made the decision to give our front and side yard a facelift. In the never ending list of things to do on our house, it seemed like the best option in terms of improving that which affected others' view of things the most.

The backyard, however, remained untouched virtually all year. You think I'm joking.

So now that spring has sprung, we're starting to turn our attention to the back yard. Overgrown beds, weeds, dilapidated fences...we've got our work cut out for us.

It never ceases to amaze me that pretty much EVERY time I do yard work I end up thinking, "There's a sermon illustration here." It starts to get annoying. (Maybe that gives you a better idea of just how many weeds we have)

Last weekend as I was pulling, raking, digging and shoveling the weeds out of a certain severely neglected bed, I was thinking through my grievances of the annoying things in our yard. WHY are there so many weeds? ("there's a sermon illustration here") WHY are they so close to the ground and invasively hard to get out? ("there's a sermon illustration here") WHY do I continue to neglect things and be lazy when I know that it will just be more work for me next year? ("there's a sermon illustration here") WHY do plants keep coming up even when I've cleared these beds a million times before? ("there's a sermon illustration here") Specifically...WHY do I continue to dig up random tulips and daffodils only to replant them and they continue to grow in the same spots? And WHERE did this enormous hunk of MINT come from?? I didn't plant MINT!

And then in the midst of my little inner-rant it struck me that in all of this were growing MINT and DAFFODILS...two entirely lovely things. I mean, I have a dead tree full of carpenter ants in the front yard and I'm choosing to be annoyed with mint and daffodils??!

All week now I've been pondering the mint and daffodils in my everyday life. And now suddenly I can't wait to get back out and work in my garden again.

The Hiding Place

Seriously, I have continued to be stumped by the sock saga. Mainly because they CONTINUE to disappear. Yesterday I discovered that I only had ONE matching pair and that pair was dirty, so Maggie wore mismatched socks all day. I was starting to think the no sock days of summer would have to hit our house early this year.

Even today as I was loading the dryer I found myself peeking my head inside like a crazy person wondering, "Is it REALLY possible for a dryer to eat socks? Where would they go? How can I find this out?"

And THEN. Tonight my mom made a fantastic discovery. She was getting ready to do the "clean" cycle on her laundry machine (something that will likely not happen for several years in our house) and as she was reading the instructions (even if I did do the clean cycle, this is something even less likely to happen) they mentioned something about making sure there were no clothes or things stuck in the gasket. AS SHE WAS SAYING THESE WORDS I pulled away the gasket and low and behold a rather large pile of socks was there staring me in the face. Ten to be exact. TEN!

YES! I feel so vindicated! I have WON the sock battle!

So GO! Now! Reclaim your socks!