My New Favorite Recipe Pt. 2

(Heaven. Lemony-spice heaven.)

No, you didn't miss anything with the "Part 1". It was the same recipe and the resulting uncontrollable urge to tell everyone I know about it is part of why this blog is here now!

After our Friday Night Candlelight Dinner of Giada's Chicken in Lemon Cream with Penne from Everyday Pasta... (Mmmmm....was that good! Used the herbes de Provence we got as a treat several weeks ago perfectly. The flavors were amazing and I want to do it again, with less noodles and more veggies. Spinach, maybe) we came inside for tea and muffins. An unusual dessert for us, but it was really fun, I thought. Lights down low...the leaf out of the table, so we were all cozied together.... Quite coffeehouse-ish.

Anyway - Mango Raspberry Lawsuit Muffins are THE BEST muffins in the whole wide world.

This is only my second time making them, but they seem to take all sorts of abuse/substitutions and still emerge decadent, fragrant, light and fluffy. They're like miracle muffins.

I snipped the "liners" out of parchment paper. They look artsy, don't burn (yay! I was worried) and keep everything together quite nicely. First time, flavoring was the titled Mango-Raspberry. Bebe and I had the house to ourselves and wish we had written down the story we wove aloud that afternoon. (She knows that I am blogging about her now, perking up from a sound cuddle.) These are Citrus-Cassis. We just happened to have a lemon and some dried currants in the pantry. I added extra lemon juice, some craisins and a bit of applesauce to balance the moisture. The scent? Oh my. They would have appreciated oatmeal strudel topping, but the walnut is just fine. (French spices, lemons and dried currants, but no oatmeal. Something could be said about this....) Each muffin is garnished with a slice of crystallized ginger. Yum.

(Crystallized ginger by the Ginger People. Oh, how I love those little Ginger People! Did you see them dancing when you first visit the link??)

And now I bid you good night. There are 800 odd words to be written before midnight.