Why Warm Oven

School was about to begin for my kids and I wanted to bake something special to mark their first day going to new schools.  It had to be healthy and yummy and something I could bake the day before, so muffins seemed like a good choice.  Now, at least once a week, my oven is warm and my kitchen smells good from my new muffin experiments.  I'm on a quest for the perfect muffin-- healthy, delicious, and easy.  The perfect muffin will be something I feel good about giving my kids for breakfast or snacks, and that they want to gobble up.

Now that the weather is cool, there is additional motivation for baking muffins-- it's a fun thing to do inside with the kids, and a warm oven makes for a warm  kitchen and home.

When I was a teenager, my parents gave me a book called 'Muffins' by Elizabeth Alston.  My mother wrote on the first page:

Your assignment for 1989-- bake one recipe each month.  I love you.

As a teenager, I was not so thrilled by this gift and the book was put on the bookshelf and forgotten.  But somehow the book managed to stay with me through all my moves.  Needless to say, the book has now been rediscovered, the mission of 1989 surpassed, and it is one of the inspirations for my muffin recipes.

Other recipe inspirations come from the 'Joy of Cooking', the 'Splendid Table' podcasts, and countless websites and blogs, including these two favorites: Simply Recipes & For the Love of Cooking

I suspect, my muffin obsession will soon wain, so eventually the Warm Oven may be full of other sweet or savory quests... but for now... the quest for the perfect muffin continues...