What’s the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?

Honestly, I don’t know. But I do know that I can eat a muffin for breakfast without anyone (aka my husband) giving me that “Oh-no-you-shouldn’t!” hairy eyeball. You get a free pass for breakfast with a muffin. You don’t get a free pass for breakfast with a cupcake.

But even if this WERE a cupcake—and I’m not saying it is—winter is here and I need some meat on my bones in case my car crashes into a snowy ravine in the country and I end up wasting away for days on end waiting for someone to notice I went to Wal-Mart.

Wait. I don’t need to rationalize. These are muffins, not cupcakes!

Ginger Coconut Muffins

These are a wonderful, moist and a bit spicy muffins that will make your heart sing. A bit of ginger, some cinnamon and a handful of coconut make it a not-your-usual-morning-cupcake-muffin. So drag out those muffin tins and bake away.

Ginger Coconut Morning Muffins

1 1/3 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup unsulferated molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with tulip liners or other muffin cups of butter and flour 15 muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.

In a mixer, beat together butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Add molasses and beat until smooth.

Boil the water and add the baking soda. Gradually add this to the butter mixture. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until blended. Stir in coconut.

Pour batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean.

P.S.

Don’t forget You Need This Book. Leave a comment there by the end of the day tomorrow to be included in the drawing.

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Robin
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The temperatures here are in the low 30s today. It’s snowing. It’s blowing. My fingers are so numb from working outside cleaning the chicken waterers, I can hardly feel them. But despite the cold, the snow and the wind, one courageous little chicken mustered up the courage to lay her first egg today.

Along with the daily collection of six eggs from the red, black and leghorn chickens I found a small, bluish-green surprise. It could only have been from one of the two Easter egg chickens.

easter egg 2

Now the question is, which Easter egg chicken produced this winter surprise?

Was it Meredith?

Meredith

Meredith

Or was it Dorothy?

Dorothy

Dorothy

The chickens aren’t talking. They’re wily that way.

P.S.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win this book.

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Robin
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Dec 04
2009

You Need This Book

Okay, maybe you don’t need this book. But lots of other people need this book and maybe you know one of them who could use it for Christmas.

Here’s your chance to save $19.95 plus shipping and win a FREE (gasp), yes FREE copy of The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden, by Valerie Easton. (You can see my review here.)

The New Low Maintenance Garden by Valerie Easton

If you want to re-claim your weekends and still have a beautiful and productive garden, Easton offers ideas on how to accomplish just that, including choosing the right plants, incorporating edibles, using hardscape, working with nature and overall simplifying your garden.

To enter for a chance to win, just leave me a comment to this post and tell me why you need this copy of The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden OR leave a tip of your own on how to simplify your gardening tasks. A winner will be selected using a random number generator.

Comments close on Wednesday, December 9. The winner will be announced on Thursday, December 10. Yes, in 2009.

Go!

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Robin
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Right Now at Bumblebee

March 7th, 2010

It’s official. Dawn over at Owl Hollow News won the Grocery Gardening drawing.  Congratulations, Dawn. I hope you enjoy the book.

What’s on your plate today? The weather here is sunny and at least not frigid. I’ll continue my early spring garden cleanup and also clean and repair bird houses. The bluebirds have made their return and are already checking out the real estate. What a joy to watch over my Sunday morning coffee.

Robin

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March 6th, 2010

I find this one of the most anxiety-producing times of the year in the garden.

As I head outside and begin the winter cleanup, the whole summer garden thing just seems incredibly overwhelming. There’s so much to do. And I’m just one person out there. Honestly, I felt like sitting down to have a good cry about mid-afternoon. But I managed to put one foot in front of the other and actually got a good amount of tidy-up work done. Tomorrow will be more of the same.

Thank you everyone who left a comment explaining how you approach reading and leaving comments on blog posts. The cumulative input has been extremely helpful. The overall consensus is that you’ll read comments if it’s an interesting discussion. You don’t usually subscribe to comments because it clogs up your email box. And you’ll only check back to see if the author has responded if you’ve left a question. That about sums it up.

On another note, I have selected by random number generator the winner of Grocery Gardening. She’s been notified. When she responds back, I’ll announce who she is.

Thank you everyone!

Robin Ripley

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February 22nd, 2010

My lawn is a wreck.

I went outside to re-fill the bird feeders—AGAIN. The parts of my lawn that don’t look like the frozen tundra resemble a swamp. With every step I take my foot sinks down at least an inch. Walking to the feeders I can see my path in the mud.

I also see that we lost one small ornamental tree by the driveway as well as one of my rose trellises, which succumbed to the weight of the snow.

Spring better hurry up and get here. I have a lot of work to do.

Robin

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February 17th, 2010

Are you sick of everyone talking about the weather? I am too, but here goes…

There is so much snow on the ground, I don’t know when it’ll all melt. On top of that, much of it has iced to the extent that moving it from one place to another requires a pick ax. Walking in the back yard to fill the bird feeders is like walking on a bumpy ice rink. There are trees and bushes that need a bit of first aid to remove partially broken branches, but I don’t dare risk skating across the ice with my pruners. Not yet anyway.

Still, there is hope. Although we’re expecting snow flurries today, the weather should warm up into the forties in the next few days, providing some melting relief.

But really, all this unrelieved WHITE is getting to me!

Robin

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