At about mid-Summer things begin to take on a strange sort of likeness, and the weeks mediocre monotony fog into one blob of life: days are peculiarly undefineable; weeks run along together with no particular mile marker telling you what time of month it is; and the months, from about May until August all seem to be alike - hot, humid and full of garden time. Little else.
Humidity creeps up on its unsuspecting, non-prepared victim: dehydration, sunburns, irritation and fatigue are all common symptoms of the season in a non-centeral-air-conditioned, seventy-five year old farm house in the middle of the prairie.
Two nights ago we ate dinner with the storm windows open and the screen windows "protecting" our home from natures wild elements. However, the screen on the windows, somehow, failed to keep the insects and bugs out of the house. As we ate, the bugs and insects, attracted to the dining room lights, would fall onto our dinner plates in a stupor, amidst the food; smacking our foreheads; buzzing around our ears; colliding with one another...
Last night, after a long day of cleaning the porches, harvesting from the garden and finding things to keep onself occupide in somewhat challenging ways, the weather decided we had not experienced enough adventure, even when the sun had gone to bed. Somewhere around eleven thirty at night, after the two youngest children had gone to bed, mom had cleaned herself up from the garden and dad had eaten, the syrin of our small twon blared in our ears... What could it possible be now? Surely not a tornado! Of course, this was the exact problem. A funnle cloud began building about a ten-fifteen minutes North-West of our, now seemingly insignificant, farm house. Lukely, after forty-five minutes of waiting, the tornado passed.
Because the outdoors are so hot, with added humidity, and bugs rule the great plains, one finds comfort in reading, catching upon studies, and expanding their knowledge and growing in their skills as an artist, within the confinements of their home. This is especialy relaxing when chilled, iced, or blended icey drinks are available!
Creativity blossoms, and physical exersion is kept to a minumum (this is easy for me to say, considering we no longer own any aniumals that require our frequent attetions, such as goats, sheep, horses or cattle. We merely have two dogs we care for and barn cats, who generaly fend for themselves.
However, for a true working farm, a family is constatnly working to sustain the productivity level of their home! Having owned goats, chickens, ducks, geese, sheep and a horse)
Yesterday morning, as the hat rose and the humidity strengthened, I honestly did not want to eat much of anything. However, I am a firm believer in that a person ought not skip a meal, ever, if at all possible, and at the very least eat something light, high in carbohydrates and fiber, or high in fiber and vitamins, or both, but low in protien.
So, with great anticipation I took the journey of finding evough staple foods in our kitchen to bake something. After creating a mental inventory of all taht stocked our shelves (this does not consist of much, so late in the week), the most appealing sounding food that came to mind where muffins! So far, I have only baked muffins from scratch one other time, this year. They are a fun treat, when baked sparingly.
We own a lot of Taste of Home magazines, which is where I get most of my recipes for muffins - yummy! The one I found in Taste of Home's April/May 2008 issue (on page 41) was Lemon Crumb Muffins.. Ohh, ooh!! Hmm... I can smell the delictable aroma of fresh-out-of-the-oven, moist muffins just waiting to be eaten.
They were SO wonderful! Especialy with a cup of hot, or iced tea :)
Lemon Crumb Muffins
Yeild: about, 40 muffins
6 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 eggs
2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
2 cups butter, melted
3 Tablespoons grated lemon peel (I substituted this with one more tablespoon of lemon juice)2 Tablespoons lemon juice
STREUSEL:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar (sucanat, if you wish to avoid white sugar)
1/4 cup cold butter
GLAZE:
1/2 cup sugar (this can be substituted with honey, if you so desire)
1/3 cup lemon juice
In a larg bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda
and salt.
In another bowl, whisk eggs, sour
cream, butter, lemon peel and juice.
Stir into dry
ingredients just until moistened.
Fill greased
or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.
In a small bowl, combine flour, and sugar;
cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse
crumbs. Sprinkle over batter.
Bake at 350*F for 20-25 minutes or until
toohtpick comes out clen.
Cool for 5 minutes
before removing from pans to a wire rack.
In a smal bowl, whisk glaze ingredients;
drizzle over warm muffins.
