Muffins to the Rescue (of the aging foodstuffs)

Pamela’s Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix saves my ass practically on a daily basis. It does contain a little dairy, but I overlook this for the sake of my sanity. This fast and easy mix allows us to have (quick) pancakes and waffles on the weekends like normal people and I can whip up muffins for the kids when I need to use up some fruit, or veggies, as it were. And kill an hour or so. Clara is the perfect age for "helping" and Iris is happy if you give her a spoon to lick.

Now if you're a from-scratch muffin connoisseur, you may not be impressed with this mix. But if it means the difference between having or not having some of the foods so basic in our culture, you may find it more than adequate. And like I said, it's an easy way for me to sneak in more local foods.

Zucchini Muffins

This past week I still had a ton of zucchini left after the arm-sized zucchini from the farmer’s market. (Wish I had a photo of that monster.) (This will teach me to buy the biggest zucchini when they’re priced by the item rather than the pound.)

So I made zucchini muffins. Followed the instructions and added about a cup of shredded zucchini. Yum.

pick, pick

These went so fast I didn't get any shots of the full bounty. Clara is tired of waiting for me to take photos of this last muffin so she resorts to picking at the crust in the tin.

It's not gorgeous, but it was yummy.

At last, sweet success. (God, she looks like her father here.)

Raspberry Muffins

I also had a bit of frozen raspberries left over from last year’s crop. I mistakenly put the bag in the refrigerator instead of the freezer and they thawed so I had to use them up. Again, the magic baking mix to the rescue! I used about 1 cup of berries.

My favorite bowls

(That bowl in the lower right was a gift [part of a set] from a dear friend for my wedding. Every time I use them I think of her. Happily, she's recently come back into my life after a long absence. )

She's pretty good at stiring, if she can stop licking the spoon long enough.

Normally, you put the fruit into the mix while it's still frozen so that it holds its shape and doesn’t “dye” the batter. But we weren’t going for aesthetics.

Next time, no paper cups

I did bake these a few minutes longer than the recommended 18 – 20 minutes because of the extra moisture. This worked, mostly, but I wish I hadn’t put these in cupcake cups. They stuck to the paper a little. Still, no one around here cared.

Ah, who cares if they're magenta?