Miss C's Raisin Oatmeal Muffins

It's pretty exciting for a child of any age to get the opportunity to help out in the kitchen, and it's exciting for everyone when that child comes up with a recipe all on her own and it comes out with huge success and everyone is more than delighted to eat every last crumb.

That's what happened for my 8-year-old this morning. She wanted to make muffins, but not just any muffins. "Raisin Oatmeal" muffins - all from her own recipe creation. She pretty much knew exactly what ingredients she wanted in these muffins and for the most part she knew the exact measurements of each ingredient. With very little help on a couple of ingredients and their proportions, Miss C's raisin oatmeal muffins came out perfect and delicious.

I hadn't even used oatmeal in gluten-free muffins yet, so it was a trial all the way around - and one I'm glad my daughter insisted on. As my mother, who is visiting at the moment, stated while she ate a muffin with her tea, "These are perfect dunking muffins!"

Projected prep time: 5-10 minutes; Projected bake time: 18 minutes

Makes 12 muffins

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla

2 1/4 cup Pamela's baking and pancake mix

1/2 cup organic cane sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup certified gluten-free rolled oats

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with baking cups.

Mix dry ingredients together and then add liquid. Fold in raisins.

Hold bowl for little sister while she stirs the ingredients together.

Bake for about 16-18 minutes. Muffins are done when they spring back when touched, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Eat them warm or at room temperature, but they are really good warm!

Enjoy!

Mother's Day, and Easy Muffins

  "A Mommy who cares for us, a Mommy who lets us do a lot, This is the Best Mommy.
  I Love you Mommy you who care you are great to S and me.
  You are the Best Mommy for us, We love you much, so we give you these to thank you for the things given to us." -written by C

The writing above? A gift given to me a few months ago, just because, from my oldest, C, and youngest, S.

Below, another just because gift of a little necklace of beautiful beads on string, a spin paint art design and another note with a heart with a gold circle and glitter: "A Golden Wish ... Just for you, you are the Best Mommy"

The occasions? Just because. My heart swells. I am blessed.

I have two precious daughters. The oldest turned 8 a few months back and the youngest will be 5 in a couple of months. They are both fiercely independent, intelligent, strong-willed, defiant, ornery, opinionated, adventurous, curious, bright, inquisitive, beautiful, talkative girls. I call them "spirited."

My friends and family speak the truth when they say we have our "hands full." Boy, do we ever. They are not laid-back children, nor are they compliant in any way, shape or form. Neither was I, so I suppose I'm getting payback several times over.

They can out-argue any adult. It's impossible to "win" an argument, especially with C. We have to be pretty firm in our boundaries and try to follow through every time. I'm worn down by the end of the day.

But I'm not complaining. I wouldn't change a thing about my daughters. It makes things very difficult at times, yes. It is a challenge. But all of these traits will serve them well to help them go as far as they want in life.

They are so alike in so many ways, and yet so different. One is in love with all things in nature and chases children with slime pulled out of a pond, all in good fun. The other is all princess and dress up, but still likes to play and dig in the dirt. They both love music. And reading. And cooking. And art. And their family.

They have by far the biggest hearts I've ever seen in children. They are sharing, kind, loving. Compassionate and caring. They may have awful cat fights with each other, and an hour later be cuddling on the couch with a book. I often find artwork or love notes, flowers, flower petals and pretty stones from both of them hidden under my pillow, on my nightstand, in my recipe "thinking" notepad, on my desk. A potholder for spring, with each color representing a part of spring, presented with new buds and a baby pine cone ...

I love these daughters of mine.

As Mother's Day nears tomorrow, I reflect back on my first Mother's Day. I didn't have a baby to hold. My first child had gone to heaven early in my second trimester five months before. I was still bitter and longing and broken. I wanted people to remember that I was a mom, too, but then that was another reminder that I wasn't a mother to a baby on earth.

When we called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day that day, she said, "Happy Mother's Day to you, too, Caneel."

My mom knew I needed that. I have a great mother. I was a challenge for her, just as my girls are for me. But she stuck with it and loved me through the hard times and the good times equally. And I'm so thankful that God gave me the mother I have.

I know I make mistakes in parenting, and I know my daughters will remember some of those mistakes. But ultimately I pray that they will know how loved they are through it all. I want to be a mother deserving of the children given to me.

Tomorrow I want to cuddle with my children and let the world pass by. I'm going to try for a day to forget about all the cares and concerns of the world at large and my own world, and just enjoy my family. I probably won't turn the computer on, until it's time to Skype my mom. I don't know how or why I was so blessed with these incredible daughters and amazing husband, but I'm thankful I was.

I wish a very Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there. And a Happy Mother's Day to my own mother, and my mother-in-law. And for those of you who have mothers who have passed from this earthly life, I hope you are filled with good memories of them tomorrow.

In honor of tomorrow's special day, I've decided to share with you an incredibly easy muffin recipe. I didn't really intend to ever share this recipe, because it's just adapted from the back of the Pamela's baking and pancake mix.

However, I made these muffins one day, with blueberries, and the girls love them so much that, while I was on the phone, they set up "props" for a photo shoot with one of the muffins. When I hung up, they excitedly dragged me to the table and told me they had everything ready for taking pictures for my blog. They had pulled out things I had forgotten I even had to use as props. It wasn't what I would have chosen, but I couldn't possibly refuse them.

So I took photos of the blueberry muffin, exactly the way they had set it up with the muffin broken open and all, and knew that one day I needed to post the photo, with the recipe.

Blueberry, exactly the way my daughters set it up

It's an easy one. It's one that you can scoop the mix from the bag and throw together in a matter of minutes. It's one that adults, or kids, not used to baking or new to gluten-free baking, can pull off without being intimidated.

Banana chocolate chip

So if you're one of those people, or one day you need a super-quick but yummy breakfast/brunch, this is for you. They are good. My favorite three ways to make them are blueberry muffins, banana muffins and banana chocolate chip muffins. Make what works for you. It's versatile and you can do whatever flavor you want. As stated above, it's adapted from the recipe on the back of the Pamela's mix.

Blueberry
Projected prep time: 5 minutes; Bake time: 18-25 minutes
Makes 6-8 muffins (I always double it)
1 1/4 cups Pamela's baking & pancake mix
1/3-1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup organic cane sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla
1/2 cup blueberries, frozen or fresh
(Optional: Sometimes I throw in a spoonful or two of milled flax seed or Salba/chia seed)

Banana/Banana Chocolate Chip
Makes 6-8 muffins (I always double it)
1 /14 cups Pamela's baking & pancake mix
1/3-1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup organic cane sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

(Optional: Sometimes I throw in a spoonful or two of milled flax seed or Salba/chia seed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin (this is for regular size muffin tin) with baking cups or grease the tin.

Mix all ingredients together (use your judgment on how much milk, you may need to use up to 1/2 cup), except the fruit. If you are using just bananas, then mix them in last, mixing very well. If you are using chocolate chips or blueberries, fold them in last.

Spoon batter into prepared tin, about 2/3 full in each. Sprinkle a little organic cane sugar over the tops of each. Bake for 18-25 minutes (regular size muffins), until they bounce back a little when the tops are touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Happy Mother's Day.

Best. Ever. Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I can tell you right now this will probably be one of my favorite posts to this blog, which will explain my obsessive amount of photos. I've had a love relationship with chocolate chip cookies my entire life. They played a big part in my growing up years. I think if I had to pick my favorite cookie in the whole wide world, it would be the chocolate chip cookie. That's a hard one, because there are SO MANY cookies that I absolutely LOVE and would categorize as "one of my favorites" (and with the exception of my family's recipe of pecan pralines, which are not a cookie but a candy, and I have tried unsuccessfully many times to make perfect like my Aunt Karen who my oldest has dubbed "The Praline Queen"), chocolate chip cookies would be my most favorite all-around, eat-it-for-any-occasion cookie.

My mom started having "Cookie Day" for me and my siblings when I was about 11 years old, give or take a year. I'm the oldest and there are five years each between me and my brother, my brother and my sister, so they were much younger when Cookie Day started for their friends.

Once she started it, it stuck. Every Thursday she would allow us to have friends over after school for homemade chocolate chip cookies and lemonade, or cocoa if it was cold outside. Kids would have the bus drop them off at our house, or their parents would, and for about an hour and a half we would chow down on the best chocolate chip cookies and lemonade or cocoa, talk, laugh, play and just have fun being kids, and later, teenagers. It was brilliant of my mom, really, because she got to know the kids really well at the same time. Thursdays became almost sacred for our friends, knowing they'd get those cookies and a relaxing time after school.

As we got older, less friends would come regularly. Extracurricular activities, practices and rehearsals began to take more after-school time, and later, after-school jobs. By the time I was a teenager with a job and lots of practices, I rarely was there for cookie day but Mom was still having it for my siblings and their friends. I had friends who loved Cookie Day so much that sometimes they would still stop by to grab a cookie or two, knowing it was Thursday afternoon. And now, as adults, several of my friends and my siblings' friends still reminisce about Cookie Day.

Naturally, now that I have children of my own, I've reincarnated the Cookie Day tradition. It started this year for my oldest (2nd grade) and maybe next year (or the following) I'll feel I can handle more kids of different ages and will let my youngest invite friends as well. She is currently enjoying hanging out with the "big kids." For now, though, I'm holding it on once a month and on Fridays. My mom was brave to have it once a week, and I'm not there yet. I can say, though, that it warms my heart to hear all those giggling girls enjoying my cookies with pink lemonade. And they do enjoy, very much, these gluten-free cookies.

My mom used the Nestle Toll House recipe for her chocolate chip cookies, usually without the pecans, and no doubt making variations on occasion based on the ingredients at hand. She usually made the dough a day ahead and then refrigerated it, which is what I also try do. I nearly always add the pecans. I love pecans.

I also use the Nestle Toll House recipe, with several changes as you will see below. As with so many of my other favorite recipes, it was a trial and error process for me to finally perfect the gluten-free chocolate chip cookie. I tried different flour blends and recipes, with none of them quite making it based on some texture and/or taste issue, however minor or major they might be. I also tried several chocolate chip cookie mixes, and while all of them were certainly edible and a couple were even outstanding, none matched THE TASTE I'd come to know and love. Given my extensive love affair with the chocolate chip cookie, it had to be just right.

And it finally was.

Projected prep time: 10-15 minutes (minus putting on pans); Projected bake time: 9-11 minutes
Makes approxmately 5 dozen.
2 1/4 c. (level) Pamela's Bread Mix & Flour Blend & Flour Blend (not baking & pancake mix - NOTE: PLEASE SEE COMMENT 20 BELOW, AND MY REPLY. I HAVEN'T HAD A CHANCE TO TRY NEW STUFF)
1 tsp., with a small pinch removed (see below), baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. salted butter
1/4 c. organic sugar
3/4 c. light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c. dark brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp. pure vanilla
2 large eggs
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (unless you are refrigerating dough for a later use).

When I use baking soda, I nearly always level the spoon out and then take the tip of my finger and dip a little out of it. I don't know if you can tell in the photo below, but I tried to show it. I do this for the chocolate chip cookie recipe. Also, any time I use baking soda I first pour the spoonful in my hand and then sprinkle it into the ingredients making sure to separate any clumps there might be. It's no fun to be eating something wonderfully sweet and then get a bite of sour baking soda because it was clumped.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

I've found that for the best chocolate chip cookies with this adapted recipe, you really need the sugars I list above. Use organic sugar as specified, not the refined white sugar. It will make a difference.

Also, when using brown sugar, always make sure you're using pure brown cane sugar. Many brown sugars, even "big" brands are not really true brown sugar. They are refined white sugar mixed with molasses. You can tell the difference if you taste this kind and then true brown sugar. Organic pure brown sugar will be true brown sugar, and so will the C&H brand. If you can't get either of these, check the ingredients on the label and it will probably tell you what kind of brown sugar you are dealing with.

Alright, now let's move past that lesson. Beat the butter, sugars and vanilla (I usually let it dribble past the teaspoon so there's more than a teaspoon of vanilla in there) together until creamy.

This is always one of my favorite parts in baking certain things. The combination of pure butter, pure vanilla and pure brown sugar has got to be one of the best tastes -- and smells -- in the world.

So, go ahead and get a little spoon of it to taste before you put the eggs in.

Oh.So.Yum.

Now add your eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Gradually beat in your dry ingredients, then your chopped pecans (unless you are opting out), then your chocolate chips (probably want to do this at a much slower speed or stir them in by hand so they don't get chopped up in the mixer).

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets by rounded tablespoon or teaspoon (but does anyone really use an actual measuring spoon to do this??), depending on how big you want them. For little girls who will no doubt be eating at least five each, I do the "teaspoon."

At this point you can also stick them in the freezer, wait until they are frozen, then store them in layers between wax paper in the freezer until you are ready to bake them.

Bake (top rack if you're using a gas oven) 8-11 minutes. I turn them around halfway through baking. If your oven seems to be baking them faster, try checking them at 6 minutes. You want them to be browned on bottom and a little on edges but not too overdone. You want them to be crispy on the bottom and edges and just a little on the outside, but still really chewy at the same time.

Cool 2 minutes on the sheets ...

then transfer them to a wire rack.

I hope this inspires you to start your own Cookie Day.

These will keep in airtight container for a few days (if you can even manage to keep them around that long -- in our house, that's impossible!), but if you don't plan on eating them all in a few days, seal in an airtight freezer container or ziploc and freeze.

Enjoy!