When I make muffins I am usually fueled by grandiose visions of myself as an amazing muffin baker. As I pull out bowls and begin measuring flour I picture guests biting into my muffins shouting "OMG - these are amazing!!" I crack eggs and daydream about how I will style my booth (Muffin Magic) at the local farmer's market. I fold in the fruit and imagine what outfit I will wear on Steven and Chris when I'm asked on the show as their resident muffin expert.....
You know that really delicious muffin you MUST eat every time you frequent that particular coffee-shop, even though you already ate breakfast that morning? Yeah that's the level of muffin I am striving for. I have had these muffins on exactly two occasions created by the average lay-person: once my 85 year-old neighbor Janice(who rides her lawn-mower like a rodeo-queen but thats a whole other story) and once when my Mother- in-Law made them. Farm girls make the best muffins.
I have tried on many occasions to recreate these muffins without success. After being vague on the numerous occasions I harassed her about it, my Mother-in-Law finally wrote down her recipe for me. And wouldn't you know it as she passed on the recipe she casually mentioned in passing that its a cake recipe. Oh, muffins made out of cake? Duh! Obviously thats the secret to ultra-delicious muffins.
Whats the main difference between muffins and cake you ask?
Sugar, lots an lots of sugar.
When I finally made these muffins, they were magically delicious - definetely that bakery quality I was striving for. However they still weren't quite as good as when my Mother-in-Law makes them. I'm fairly certain this is because she didn't admit to the real amount of sugar she puts in. And I don't blame her because I'm pretty sure in this day and age making these muffins would be considered politically incorrect...
If you browse the internet 3/4 cup of sugar seems to be the norm for most muffin recipes or at least its the amount people admit to. So I find it interesting that every time Donna serves these muffins she calls them her "healthy muffins made with honey." I'm pretty sure she's overcompensating because last time I checked no recipe with 2 cups of sugar in it (even if one cup is honey) is ever healthy for you.
I like how our parents generation think pasteurized honey is somehow classified as health food. It goes hand in hand with an earlier time of innocence in human history before we were all concerned about saturated fat, diabetes, obesity and a general state of health and well-being in general. It hearkens back to a time before we exercised or couldn't sleep at night because we worried about endangered species and using up all of our resources.
And speaking of honey, aren't bees now endangered? Which is why farm girls make the best muffins. They had free reign with ingredients because baking wasn't a politically charged act back in the day. That being said these days when I make my politically incorrect muffins, I reserve them for special occasions like company or celebrations.
After all a girl can't be too careful. I'm told the camera adds ten pounds....
Donna's Politically Incorrect Rhubarb Muffins
2 cups white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup honey
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
2-3 cups chopped rhubarb (mixed with 2 TBSP of sugar)
Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Grease muffin tray well
3. Mix 2 cups white flour with baking powder and salt
4. Mix sugar with softened butter. Add eggs and milk
5. Add to flour mixture and stir until well mixed.
6. Fold in rhubarb
7. Spoon into muffin cups, sprinkle with topping and bake aprroximately 35 minutes (until well browned)
Freezing actually enhances the flavour of these muffins.
My friend Jane is a good person and a great mother; she has two kids and they watch television.
I have felt like a bad person ever since my husband mentioned that friends of ours only let their 4 year-old daughter watch television for the first time last week. You know that moment all Moms experience, when the mother you are talking to tells her son "No running around with that lollipop in your mouth," and you look and see your own son has been running for half an hour like that and it has somehow escaped your notice, not to mention undermined all of your credibility as a parental figure.
Well lately I've been a real jerk when it comes to television in our household. Ever since we moved for some reason I have had it on way more often - as background noise if anything. Since we haven't yet hooked up the cable I have strayed from classic C.B.C. kids programming (which I think does have some educational value) and have been putting on kid's movies instead. The clincher came when our renter Cory mentioned to my husband how he had watched Ice Age 3 times today.. If we had been having dinner at the time I might have kicked him under the table. Instead, I changed the topic of conversation to when our neighbor was going to fix the taped up window in his truck that he breaks into every morning by untaping. Deflect, Deflect Deflect Deflect!
In the meantime, I pondered how it was that our friend Lily was able to make it through an entire day without her children watching t.v. Did I mention that Lily has a two year-old and a four year-old? Both Breastfed!! Lily was obviously the Mother Theresea of stay-at-home Moms, patron Saint of never-ending patience and endless self-sacrifice. And me? Well I was obviously a jerk.
While I thought that my kids were watching maybe 1 hour to an 1 hour and a half of television a day intermittedly, when I thought deeply about it I realized that I could possibly have the t.v. on as much as 4 hours a day without even realizing it...So I went on a quest to remove television from our home.
And it was Hard, in fact the closest thing I can compare it to is the withdrawl I felt quitting smoking. You know that morning cup of coffee and little bit of tidying you like to do in the morning? That's gone. That little bit of me time, flipping through a magazine or a few minutes or throwing on a quick coat of nail polish? Gone gone gone! I'm not gonna lie to you ladies and gentlemen, in the beginning - sans television - you are full out balls to the wall and on more than one occasion when my husband got home I wanted to jump in the car and make a getaway, or simply run down the street yelling at the top of my lungs.
However gradually after a week I found a new routine which involved reading more, playing more, getting out more, and having way more quality time. Going cold-turkey allowed me to get to know my children better and be able to gauge when was a good time to throw in some laundry and make some beds without having to result to using the television as a baby-sitter. Plus my kids were actually way better behaved.....
Going without television also involved less "me" time, a less tidy house, doing less laundry, getting less done and occasionally forgetting to feed the kitties. Ultimately however, it really did put me way more into the moment with my children and allowed me to experience way more great Mom moments - those magical times when you feel like the luckiest person in the world to be a parent.
We all have those moments when another Mom - hopefully unconsciously - makes us feel like a total jerk. There's that classic Mom adage: "we all have to do what works for us - and blabbedy blabbedy - not judge other Moms"...yes yes I know! I'm just saying' that we are all bound to experience these uncomfortable moments (and sometimes the best thing is to dismiss them), but if there is a lesson to be gleaned from them they can be great.
That being said, I think being a better Mom isn't always about striving for those ultra-high ideals like no television or a no sugar diet. Sometimes being a bettter Mom is letting go of them. "What, no television?" my friend Jane questioned me when I told her about Lily's rule. I could tell she thought it was really extreme. Jane is the person who reminds me that its okay to let your kids eat breakfast on the couch, make a huge mess with lego all over the living room, or leave a dirty house to go to the lake on a sunny day. I love her for that.
Ultimately Jane and Lily may appear to have very different parenting styles but they are actually really in tune in terms of what they are both seeking: to be in the moment as often as possible with their children.
I always refer to myself as the impure purist because I have great intentions but am never able to carry them all the way. T.V. has crept back into our life a little. If I am having a major Mom meltdown moment, am desperately trying to cook dinner before my hubby gets home or am starving and haven't eaten all day, I think television can play a valuable role here for 15 or 20 minutes.
The main appearance television makes in our home now is in the form of old Disney videocasettes we will watch together as a family occasionally in the evening. This hearkens back to a former time when television truly was a treat - remember looking forward to watching the Sunday night Disney movie? Or TGIF Fridays? This is the sensibility I want television to have in our home.
If any case if I am feeling guilty I simply remind myself: my friend Jane is a good person and a great mother; she has two kids and they watch television.
