Sunday's Plate

You know there is nothing quite like the taste of a superb muffin. It's a filler and a delight at any meal. Making a good muffin is not hard, and it takes relatively little time. Muffin batter lasts a week in the refrigerator, so it's a good investment in time.

Think about muffins when you are making dinner because you can put in a dozen muffins and have them for dinner and then for breakfast the next day.

Making a muffin requires what most people have in their kitchens without shopping:

Flour - now is the time to use that whole wheat flour! But any flour will do. For a family of four - making twelve muffins, you'll need two cups of either white or whole wheat.

You'll need a half a cup of sugar. Any kind will do. Brown sugar will make the muffins denser, and white sugar will make the muffins lighter. Half and half...well you can figure it out.

You'll need a teaspoon of salt.

You'll need baking powder - a heaping teaspoon. Be generous with your baking powder; it can mean the difference between muffins that are "gluey" and muffins that are light and airy.

You will need an egg.

You will need half a cup of butter, oil, margarine, crisco - this helps bind and gives the muffin flavor.

You will need something wet -milk, juice, applesauce even water. You will need about a cup.

That's it. Now isn't that easy? You mix all your ingredients and bake at 350 degrees in a greased cup cake tin for about twenty minutes.

Now, if you want to be creative, you can add other things to your muffins while you are mixing them.

Some of the things you might consider are raisins, nuts, bananas, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, maple flavoring, vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, apples, orange rind, almond flavoring, lemon rind, lemon juice, jam, oats, peanuts, onion, bacon, cheese bits...and just about anything you can think of.

A muffin, after all is just a little dinner cake, so the sky is the limit.

A muffin made with great goods from home might just be the best thing you've eaten all week.