Cinnamon-Sugar-Doughnut Muffins!

So, before Mr. CSF arrived, Matt and I heard horror story after horror story about how awful it is to have a newborn, and how we'll never sleep again, and how we'll never have time to cook again, and yadda yadda.  It was kind of terrifying.

But here we are now, nine days in, and it's really not bad.  It's actually pretty fun.  Have there been some moments at 4 a.m. when Charlie started crying and I have been a wee bit on the grumpy side and asked him, "Again? Really? Already?"  Sure.  But I don't have to go to work for a while, so it doesn't really matter if I'm up at 4 a.m. because I can go back to sleep when he does.  And the boy sleeps a lot.  Apparently, that's what babies do.

Matt went back to work on Thursday, and I had the baby for most of Thursday, Friday, and all day yesterday, and it's fine.  We've still been able to cook dinners and clean the house and take showers.  It's good.  It's fun.  It's like a giant exercise in time management and napping, two things that both Matt and I are pretty good at.*

I mean, it doesn't hurt that I grew the cutest baby of all time in my uterus.

And maybe in a week he'll become a difficult baby and I'll be eating crow, but until then, I'd rather eat the Cinnamon-Sugar-Doughnut Muffins from the Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook, since doughnut muffins probably taste way better than crow, and because they're super fun and easy to make, too.  I think they are like a little more adult version of cinnamon toast, which was one of my faves when I was a kid.  These muffins make me wish I drank coffee, too, because I think they'd be a perfect accompaniment to a good cup of coffee.  What a delightful Sunday morning treat!

Oh, what?  You wanted to see another picture of my cute baby?  Okay!

Back to the cookbook.  I know I've already raved about this cookbook like a million times, but if you need a baking cookbook, you really should get this one.  It's out of control.  And if you're not a baker but want to be, you should get it because the recipes are so accessible and don't use a bunch of crazy stuff you could only find at a farmer's market in Portland.

To sum up:  motherhood is not as hard as they make it out to be on Teen Mom (haha, Audrey!), Charles is so cute that I don't mind getting up to fatten him up, doughnuts taste better than crow, and you should buy the Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook.

Here's the recipe.  Have at it, party people!

Cinnamon-Sugar-Doughnut Muffins
From The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook (my favorite baking cookbook of all time!)

Ingredients

For the Muffins
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, preferably aluminum-free
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons buttermilk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs

For the Doughnut Coating

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions

To make the muffins: Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly spray 12 large muffin cups with vegetable oil spray.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cardamom.  In a medium bowl, combine the milk and the buttermilk.

In a large mixing bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium speed, cream the butter for 2 to 3 minutes.  Turn the speed to low and gradually add the sugar.  Continue to mix until the mixture lightens in color.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating just until combined.  Add the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the milk mixture, mixing just until smooth; do not overmix.

With a large ice cream scoop or spoon, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them approximately two-thirds full.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are firm to the touch and lightly golden.

While the muffins bake, set up two bowls to dunk them in.  In one bowl you will have the melted butter, and in the other bowl you will have the cinnamon sugar.

Let the doughnuts cool completely on a wire rack.  Dunk them in melted butter, then coat them with the cinnamon sugar.  The muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

******

Oh, what the hell.  Here's one more picture of Charlie.

*Are you mad that I ended that sentence with a preposition or what?  

Weekday Fun

Here's what's awesome right now.

1.  Matt and I are rocking the socks off of parenthood so far, if I do say so myself.  We've always made a great team, and the last few days have even been fun.  Shoot, I slept for 9 hours last night (not all at once, but still), and little CSF is a pretty chill baby.  It's early yet, we know, but our incredible abilities to nap and our time management skillz are really coming in handy right now.

2.  The Elvis Presley Pandora station.  Charlie loves it.  

3.  Dog brothers.

4.  Mad Men.  We finally saw the season premiere (watched it in about 3 different installments), and it did not disappoint.  What did you think?

5.  Birthdays!  Yesterday was 31 for me, and while there wasn't much partying down, it was a nice day full of good food and snuggles and presents and love.  And about 30 minutes after I realized that I'd forgotten to go to Back in the Day Bakery to pick up some cupcakes for myself, a wonderful friend stopped by with 4 cupcakes and a card!  Shoot yeah!

Birthday present from super husband!

6.  The cutest baby this side of the Mississippi.

Hope you're doing well and getting lots of sleep!  

Love and Marriage

Me:  Carseat's installed, nursery is finished, freezer is stocked.

Matt:  Cool.  Now all we have to do is raise a human from infancy to adulthood.

Krampus!

So, I've mentioned before that my parents never taught my brother or me about Santa Claus.  They also didn't let us go trick-or-treating.  (But our sister, who is 15 years younger than me, both believed in Santa and got to go trick-or-treating.  It seems that by the time you're on your third kid you don't care if it frolics around with Satan.)  And while I'm very bitter about being denied the chance to go door-to-door seeking out candy, I'm kind of whatevs about the whole Santa thing.  I think I even enjoyed the power that came with being the only kid in the first grade who wasn't so silly as to believe in some bearded fat guy coming down a chimney.  Plus, even if my parents had tried to tell us about Santa, our belief would have been short-lived because I was the master at finding my presents hidden around the house.

Matt, on the other hand, believed in Santa [for an appropriate amount of time], and enjoyed the magic and wonder that accompanied the whole North Pole/fat man/elf/toys legend.

Now, as Matt and I have these weird moments where we realize that this time next year there will be a [likely mobile] little human in our home, we're faced with some big decisions.  Do I really have to make my beautiful tree kid-friendly?  What do we do when Mitch steals the baby's toys?  What do we do when the baby steals Mitch's toys?  Can a 9-month old eat marshmallows?  And, finally, Are we going to tell our kid about Santa?

Now, next year we're probably in the clear, but the year after that we have to know.  And I'm a little blah about telling the kid about Santa, but Matt thinks we probably should.  Actually, I should say that I was a little blah about telling the kid about Santa, until I learned about the best part of the Santa story that nobody ever told me.

Krampus.

Now, you're probably way more hip and knowledgeable than I am, and you've probably known about Krampus for decades, but I just found out about him. But if you're like me and didn't know, well, let me fill you in.  Krampus, according to the almighty Wikipedia, is a scary/evil mythical creature recognized in Alpine countries who accompanies Santa on his Christmas Eve journey around the world.  While Santa leaves gifts for the good children, Krampus kidnaps the bad children, puts them in his sack, and takes them back to his lair where he devours them for his Christmas supper.

Amazing!

Please please please can we tell our kid about Krampus?  It just makes the whole Santa story come alive for me!  Matt says it might be too scary (especially when I suggested that if our little spawn had been bad, then I could plant a burlap sack that was stamped "Property of Krampus" somewhere in the house) and Shecky said that it borders on child abuse.  But people, think of all of the fun possibilities!*

I tried to argue to Matt that there is no crime in Alpine countries**, and that it was probably because people believed in Krampus there.  He rebutted that, no, instead they have really high suicide rates.  Then he stopped, thought, and added, "Or maybe those weren't suicides.  Maybe Krampus just ate them all."

So, it's big grown-up decision-making time.  Do we tell our kid about Krampus or no?



*Like, "Oh, I used to have a brother named Darryl, but he got taken by the Krampus when he was six"  or "See this scar on my arm?  It's from where Krampus grabbed me when I was seven.  I narrowly escaped."


**Which is probably not true at all.