Deborah Cooke: Author

Yesterday, it rained. It’s been springlike, but it got cold and damp, and well, I wanted something warm. In the afternoon, I made muffins.

I love muffins. I have pages and pages of recipes, many with little scribbled notes on the bottom for modifications and variations. I have never mastered the trick of mixing wet and dry ingredients in three turns, so my muffins tend to be small. They don’t always rise to the occasion (so to speak) but they’re good all the same.

Besides the recipes from my mom, my favourites are from several books by Edna Staebler. She wrote a book called Food That Really Schmecks and another called More Food That Really Schmecks, both based on how she’d been taught to cook and how her Mennonite neighbours cooked. They’re wonderful books. If you click through on the link on her name, you’ll find her obituary – she passed away a few years ago. Her books have been reprinted, though, if you feel the need to make some muffins.

Yesterday, I made Edna’s bran muffins and her ginger raisin muffins. Yum!

What do you make when it’s damp and dreary outside? And where are your favourite recipes from?