On a lighter note....

Food!

Also, I get to see my baby in two hours.

And food!

I've been well overdue for some baking therapy, and it hit early in the morning last week.

Since a cheesecake isn't exactly practical at 7am (and you can't eat it till it sets anyway), I figured something like muffins would be a tad bit more practical. and healthy. Look at me being good.

Since we are in the midst of that whole fruit thing with the kids, we had some pears sitting around that were being neglected and needing to be used. And then I remembered a recipe that I saw at GoodLife Eats a few months ago. Bingo!

Brown Sugar Pear Muffins.

Except I didn't have any almonds. And there were still a couple of kids sleeping, so grinding up some wheat flour wasn't happening. I use one of those killer blenders for grinding (go to youtube, look up "will it blend"), and let's be honest, it's loud when there is a bunch of wheat flying around in that jar. It only takes 2 minutes to get 5+ cups, but it's loud! Not worth waking kids.

Hmmm....

Time to tweak.

For the almonds-quick oats.

For the wheat flour-well, more white flour. a little ground flax too. and a little more oats.

Cardamom? Yah, no on that too.

And vanilla beans? Well, there's a reason I just had a friend talk someone she knew who was going to Mexico into finding my favorite vanilla. That's plenty good for muffins!

Hey, my kids will eat just about anything. Especially if it looks like cupcakes. It was worth a shot.

They turned out surprisingly well.

Also, I noticed when I went back to link that recipe that we have the same little square plates.

Love the plates! Yes, I love dishes the way I love shoes. All that means is I have to be creative with storage space.

When you add the sunlight streaming in through the windows that morning, it made for a very happy start to the day!

My tweaked version of GLE's muffins:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup quick oats
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  
• 1 cups brown sugar
  
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 3 cups grated fresh pear, drained of excess water

Streusal Topping

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 Tbs cold unsalted butter, sliced
  
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

Mix streusal topping, cutting in butter with pastry cutter. (or forks, or knives or whatever works. Truthfully, a hand mixer usually does the trick well too) Set aside for later.

Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and grated pear until it's all well mixed. Drop into muffin cups, top with streusal topping, bake for 20-30 min until they look done. And smell delicious.

Mmmm....muffins.....

Also, it doesn't hurt to wait a few minutes so that you don't burn your tongue.

And check out Goodlifeeats.com....some great recipes!