Mix and Match Muffins

This is a recipe I have been wanting to try for a very long time.  I found it in a book called Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month, by Deborah Taylor-Hough.  I bought this book several years ago, before the big freezer died and I had room to put a months worth of dinners.  This past weekend I decided I wanted to try the Mix and Match Muffins.  We needed something for breakfast and since it was the end of the month I had no money (my husband and I are both teachers and get paid only once a month) to buy anything extra.  I had to use what I had on the shelves. These muffins are like the Burger King of muffins, you can have them "your way."  I will give a list of ideas you can use for mixing and matching at the end of this post.    Now for the ingredients I used.  First you start with the basics.

3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Sift these ingredients together in a bowl.  I used a metal drainer as a sifter since the only sifter I have is an antique one I keep in my kitchen for decoration.

The next ingredients need to be placed in a separate bowl.

2 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

Using a mixer, mix the egg, oil, and sugar until completely mixed.

Time to make these muffins the way you want them.  I used some things I had in the pantry; applesauce I canned this summer, currants leftover after making granola, and pumpkin I have started hoarding ( because it is a seasonal item and not available all year in my area).   Mix and Match add-ins should add up to 2 cups total.  Also add 3 teaspoons of vanilla at this time.

Add the mix and match ingredients to the eggs, oil, and sugar mixture and mix thoroughly

Add the dry ingredients and stir by hand.  Be careful not to over mix or you will get peaks and tunnels in you muffins.  Mix just until flour in incorporated in the liquid ingredients.

At this point if you like nuts or seeds you can stir them in now.  I had some sunflower seeds leftover from some granola I made, so I added those.

Time to put the mix in the muffin pans.  I use a small scoop to place batter in muffin cups.  This assures that your muffins will be uniform in size and that they will all cook evenly.

I lined my pans with cupcake liners.  This will saves clean up and it helps the muffins hold together if you decide to freeze them.  It also keeps them from sticking to each other in the freezer bag.  But if you don't have cup cake liners, you can certainly use cooking spray in the pans to keep the muffins from sticking.

This recipe made 18 regular sized muffins and 24 mini muffins.  The recipe says to bake them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.  I left mine more like 20 minutes.  I will be making a tropical version this weekend.  I want to use crushed pineapple, mandarin oranges, and coconut.

Here is a list of possible mix-ins:
Apples, grated or chopped
Applesauce
Apricots, chopped
Bananas, mashed or chopped
Berries
Carrots, cooked and mashed, or grated
Cherries, pitted and chopped
Coconut, grated
Cranberries, dry or raw, chopped
Dates or figs, pitted and finely chopped
Lemon, 1/2 cup juice
Marmalade (omit 1 cup sugar)
Mincemeat
Oranges, chopped
Orange juice, 1/2 cup juice
Peaches, fresh or canned, chopped
Pears, fresh or canned, chopped
Pineapple, crushed and well drained
Prunes, chopped
Pumpkin, canned
Raisins
Rhubarb, finely chopped (add an additional cup of sugar)
Strawberries, well drained
Sweet potato or yams, cooked and mashed or grated
Zucchini, grated and well-drained
As you can see, anything goes.  Would love to hear from you if you try this.  Let me know what mix-ins you used and what combinations you find work the best.  You can make it in a loaf pan instead of muffin pans.  You would adjust the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 1 hour.

Sweet Tea, the Wine of the South

Any woman worth her salt in the South has to know how to make "sweet tea".  I am not sure why sweet tea has never caught on in the North.  There is nothing like an ice cold glass of that delicious sweetness washing all over your mouth.  My family has traveled several times above the Mason Dixon Line and every time I think my children are going to go into DT's from the lack of sweet tea.  Luckily, the last time we traveled to upstate New York, McDonald's had sweet tea.  Don't you know that everyday we were there buying a large sweet tea.  I have relatives who live in California.  When they are visiting they love the sweet tea.  But I will never forget my cousing telling me how silly she felt ordering "sweet tea".  The first time we got her to do it, guess what, it was one of those rare places (a real swanky place probably owned by someone from the other side) that did not serve sweet tea.  She swore she would never order it again.  Some Southerners have been known to slip a little sweet tea in a baby's bottle, they say it calms the stomach.  I have never been guilty of putting it in a bottle, but you better believe I have put it in a sippy cup.  It does contain less sugar than a soda and black tea is known for having lots of antioxidents (ok, I feel better now).  So.... today I am going to share with you how I make my famous Southern Sweet Tea.  Yes, I said famous, it is asked for at all family gatherings, church gatherings, and my kids can easily drink a gallon a day.  Like I said, better than a soft drink.  Ok, lets get started.

First you need to choose your favorite tea.  I use whatever is on sale.  This I got for free with coupons.  Free always taste good.  Make sure it is the family size bags.  Place 2 bags in a four cup glass measuring cup and cover with at least 3 cups of water.

Put water and tea bags in the microwave and heat for 5 minutes.  You want it almost to the boiling point, but never ever let it boil, it makes it bitter.  Once it heats, let it steep for about 20 minutes in the microwave.

Remove tea from the microwave.  By the way, your microwave will be filled with steam and it is a great time to give it a good swipe with a dish rag to remove any food bits that may have splattered your microwave. 

Pour tea concentration into a gallon pictcher.

Fill pitcher to fill line with cool water.

Time to add the sugar.  1 cup of granulated white sugar.

Stir with a long wooden spoon until sugar crystals are visable.

Enjoy a long tall glass of sweet tea over ice and accented with a lemon if you choose.  I will be linking to Tip Tuesday at Tip Junkie here
Renee



Inexpensive Baby Gift

Here is an idea for baby gift.  A designer burp cloth.  What mom wouldn't want to wipe spit up with this?  Lol.  I used a cloth diaper and added a piece of flannel down the center.  I turned the edges under about a quarter of an inch and stitched around the entire piece.  I added my label and some grosgrain ribbon.  I have probably $1.50 in the entire thing.  The cloth diapers come in packs of 5 for about $5 a pack.  The flannel I got at Hancock Fabrics in the remnant basket for nearly nothing.  There is enough of it left to make at least 4 more of these.  The ribbon is $1 a roll and will probably make 4 or 5 of these designer burp clothes.

Bargin Decorating

So, I am at Lowes Hardware store looking for a new spikit (better known to people off the mountain as a faucet).  Ours had sprung a mighty powerful leak.  I didn't have much luck in the spikit department, but I did come across a real bargin on this Valspar paint.  It just happened to be the color I had been looking for.  I had bought some new furniture more than a year ago.  At the time I had a navy blue and green living room set.  It was set against my beautiful sage green walls.  Well this new set of funiture didn't have any green in it at all.  I had lived with the browns and blues against sage green back drop for over a year now.   So you can imagine how happy I was when I stumbled upon this beautiful Valspar paint with a clearance sticker on it.

   

  I don't know why this beautiful paint had been placed on the clearance rack or what caused me to stumble upon it, but it was perfect for my living room and I couldn't wait to get it home.

This paint normally sells for $30 a gallon, but this was marked $10.  I jerked it up so fast that the breeze could be felt all the way to the plumbing section

Here is a sneak peak of how it turned out.  I think it is beautiful.  I am working on some of the accessories.  They too are budget friendly.  I will keep you posted of my progress.

I love this color scheme!!!

Linking at Domestically Speaking

Wreath for the Front Door

My wreath for my front door was looking pretty shabby.  I made it several years ago and the wind had taken its toll on it.  I found an idea for a beautiful wreath on Pinterest.  I recycled the base of my wreath and spent about $2 on felt and this is the creatiuon I came up with, isn't beautiful?

Coupon Love

I am an avid couponer.  I am not as good as the one's featured on the TLC show extreme couponing, but I hold my own.  I went to Wal-Mart this morning and was able to purchase 20 cans of Campbell's soup for $0.40 a can and Dixie Crystals brown sugar for $0.54 a box.  This was made possible by using $1/5 off Campbell's soup coupons I printed at SouthernSavers.com.  I also printed my $0.45 off Dixie Crystal coupons from their coupon data base.  SouthernSavers.com is one of my favorite coupon sites.  They match up coupons with all of the stores in my area of the country.  I will post more deals as they happen, so stay tuned!!!