Honey Whole Wheat Muffins

This month we have been enjoying fresh raw honey and also as a special treat honey in the comb from Abbi's honey bees. It has been a special treat that we have enjoyed on our bread with butter, in tea and even by the spoonful (the honey comb). It has certainly been a sweet and sticky treat! This morning however we branched out and had it in baked goods. Chocolate chip muffins were requested for breakfast so that is what we had, or the children had. Travis and I had chocolate chip muffins minus the chips and they were delicious. These are plenty sweet enough to be used like a cupcake and served with a little frosting to dress them up. The original recipe prior my modifications came from my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. It is my regular go-to cook book that my Grandma Cleone gave me for Christmas in 1991. It is getting very dog-eared and worn but I continue to use it regularly. It has all the basics in it.

Honey Whole Wheat Muffins

The orange zest adds a just-right touch to the honey flavor!

3 cups Whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 beaten eggs

1/2 cup kefir

1 cup milk

3/4 cup oil

1 1/2 cup honey

Zest of one orange

optional: mini chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl stir all of the dry ingredients together.

All at once add the liquid ingredients, mix together well.

Line or grease 30 muffin cups. Fill with batter 2/3 or so full. If you wish to have chocolate chips in yours add about a tablespoon to each batter filled cup.

Bake at 385○ for 18 - 20 minutes.

Serve warm and enjoy!

~Anna

♥ If your family is smaller that mine you can easily half this recipe or 1/3 it as I have tripled the original recipe for our family's needs. They should keep well for a few days, too, in your refrigerator, I wouldn't know since we finish them to quickly.

Savoring the end of summer

Here is a 'brief" synopsis of our perfect summer day, in pictures. We have had a lot of wonderful days recently. Weather and activity wise. I feel saddened that summer is coming to an end and the freedom it brings from knuckling down to schoolwork. Learning in a leisurely way is fun, though not productive enough to allow to go on always. I am trying not to feel too sad that we haven't gotten in as many bike rides and canoe trips as I had wanted this summer. Maybe fall will give us several more opportunities for those things.

So, onto today's delights,

We started the day off at the baseball diamonds. It was a sunny, high wind day and so delightful to be out in. Here is Gregory with some of his team mates, the Brown Cannon Balls! They were in great form, all of them, hardly ever getting struck out. The Green Lightnings were playing a mean outfield so they had to run fast to get on base.

This noon Harrison and Gregory were wanting to get right onto the computer when we returned home so I was suggesting books for them to read. Harrison thinks he has read all of the books in this house that interest him so I was trying to give him some new ideas. We have a lot of great books around here that he hasn't read, although he has read a large percentage of them, there are a few gems left. Today however was not the day to deviate from the old tried and true and this time he introduced one of his favorites to Gregory. For an hour after lunch Harrison read out loud the Boys Book of Sea Fights by Chelsea Curtis Fraser. I have never read the book but I think Harrison has read it enough times for every one in this house to have read it at least once. I should look and see if Chelsea has written any other books. This one is a good fit for him, in that it is geography and fighting in one cover.

We played board games and then while I let everyone have their computerized time I ran and got groceries. I have been on an every other week big grocery shopping, little grocery shopping pattern. The little week I just get the basics at Kwik Trip since they have the best price on milk and bananas. This was the big week. Some played dolls. I was the grandma and had to pick the beans for supper with a doll on my hip. Because Suzy wanted to see Grandma. For supper we enjoyed beans cooked in olive oil and a liberal amount of slivered garlic; fresh tomatoes; apples (from our tree) fried in butter, cinnamon and brown sugar; round steak baked in a lovely gravy and mashed potatoes. I actually had salmon since I am not eating beef right now. But the gravy looked and smelled very lovely. All in all it was a yummy meal. Although I threw in a picture of my lemon drop pepper plant we didn't eat any of those, I just like how many peppers it has on it. And they played some basketball.

So the end of a good day has come. I am including a picture from our walk on Monday evening since it fits the theme so well. They have been overhauling the train tracks the last week or so so we needed to check out their progress.

All my love,

~Anna