The night before Christmas Eve Santa’s probably on an absolute war path, trying to get 1,000 things accomplished and taking no prisoners. Naturally he’s a little more agitated and short than he needs to be with Mrs. Claus because of everything he has to knock out. His relentless nagging imaginably yields a lot of eye rolling from the elves too, but he is a man on a mission to be prepared for the most epic night of the year. Santa has to be a frantic nut job leading up to Christmas, otherwise how can he relax and be his expected jovial, jolly self on a day revolving around him? No one wants to wake up and find surly Santa irritably chucking presents under their tree.
This is how I feel the eve of Mother’s Day.
Most likely, I think mothers everywhere madly double up on their regular scheduled duties in order to be prepared for all the tasks they will not be “allowed” to do on Mother’s Day. We can’t, in good conscience, casually suggest on Sunday a two hour bike ride followed by frolicking in nearby park if we know no one will be wearing clean underwear the following day. No way. All this breezy, carefree relaxation comes at a cost, namely monumental preplanning and logging some serious overtime.
This also must be why Mother’s Day falls on a Sunday. On Saturday night, after all the extra tasks are done, I can pretend the wine bottle magically only held two glasses of wine by drinking out of the trendy, monstrous-sized wine glass. Then I can exhaustively (and slightly drunkenly) fall asleep, knowing I will peacefully enjoy a duty-free Sunday (and also sleep off the “two” glasses of wine). If this wasn’t Mother’s Day eve protocol, I would either be the most obnoxious micro-managing woman on the planet on Sunday, or they would have to handcuff me to not accomplish piling up housework. No one wants to wake up to find surly, irritable Mom critiquing homemade cards on Mother’s Day.
On this Mother’s Day eve I amped up my duties by making a copious amount of muffins. I’m taking part in a new recipe challenge and blogging collective called The Marinate. A group of food bloggers are mailed surprise culinary kits with various ingredients to inspire original recipes.
Therefore, my all experimentations on Saturday yielded a ridiculous amount of muffins. Good news for you, here’s the perfected recipe that you only have to bake a reasonable amount of. After a lot of trial and error to get the texture of the muffin spot on, I have to say they turned out stellar. So yes, I logged some serious hours in the kitchen Mother’s Day eve, but bonus for me, delicious breakfast was already made in the morning just waiting to be brought up to me on a tray.
So my frazzled Mother’s Day eve might really pay off in more ways than one. I did enjoy a peaceful, burden-less day. There was lots of snuggling, homemade card reading, and lounging around. Plus I only simply had to raise an eyebrow if the kids were misbehaving, which they keenly interpreted as, “You better pull it together or you will be taking a long ride on the Mother’s Day Guilt Express, and the feel wrath of Daddy reign down on you.” I used it freely and with no shame in my game because what other day does a raised eye hold such power? I hope you all had an equally relaxing and carefree Mother’s Day.
Blueberry Cheddar Sausage Muffins are a whole breakfast wrapped in one fantastic muffin recipe.
- 2 1/2 cup flour, or a gluten free all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 1/2 cup (8 oz.) crumbled breakfast sausage
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Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. In a smaller bowl whisk together cooled melted butter, maple syrup, eggs, and yogurt. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture and stir to just combined. Gently fold in blueberries, cheddar cheese, and cooked sausage.
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Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from muffin tins and cool on wire rack.
Gluten Free Adaption: You can replace the flour with an all purpose gluten free blend. I prefer Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour blend. If you are using a gluten free flour, I recommend adding an extra egg in the recipe to achieve a fluffier, more tender crumb.
Make ahead instructions: I cooked the sausage several hours ahead of time and stored covered in the fridge until ready to use. The muffins you can cool completely and store in freezer bags to eat at a later time.
Nicole Rose says
As usual Melissa, you’re cracking us up! Your muffins look delish! Good luck!!
xo Devorah, Karmel & Nicole