One of my joys in life is cooking breakfast for my family. One time, many moons ago, I was gone from my family for a month as I traveled central and southern Poland. Towards the end of the excursion, when the new had long worn off and all I could ponder was my escape, folks asked me what I’d do when I got home. My answer was always, “Make pancakes for my kids.”

The measuring of the ingredients, assembling, pouring batter, watching for the telltale translucent bubbles that let me know when to flip, all of those things are zen-like for me. When I plop the warm cakes onto a plate with syrup and a fork I feel like a “real mom” and not that pretend mom I can sometimes be. (The pretend mom checks email on her iPhone while slamming down a peanut butter toast and cup of coffee while her kids grasp for her attention at the weekday breakfast table by arguing over who is allowed to break the Lego creation that the other recently perfected.)

Muffins are a similar sentiment only better. Muffins require recipe research and interesting ingredients. Sometimes they even involve chocolate chips, as they did the Sunday following this recipe:

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Muffins
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (I used regular because my dark brown was dry like gravel)
3/4 cup milk (I used almond milk, that’s why it isn’t bright white)
1/4 cup melted butter or 1/4 cup oil (I used oil because I had no butter and didn’t want to use margarine)
1 teaspoon vanilla (Next time I’m reducing it. I could taste too much vanilla)

Preheat to 400. Mix all the dry together. Then mix the eggs and sugar. Then add the rest of the wet to the wet mixture. Then you stir the wet into the dry, but only until just mixed. I like using paper liners with spray and after baking for 20 minutes, put them out and flip them on their sides. I don’t know why…I just do.

Enjoy! (It makes a perfect dozen)

PS Please remember that I’m in this phase with blogging and photography. Thank you.