Do you know the muffin mom?
Oh yes I know the muffin mom. It's me. And Alison Roman.
The last few days have been rough. My husband and I both lost our cool with Gus - his dysregulation got the better of us, even though we should know better. We are both worn down for various reasons, my husband especially, and as he admitted later, he took that anger out on Gus.
I was unsure what kind of mood Gus would wake up in the next morning, half expecting him to be harboring ill will despite our attempts to repair. But the first thing he said to me (not shut up, go away) was, "Mom, can you make me muffins? Zucchini with chocolate chips."
It was delightfully unexpected and made me feel like he was giving me a get out of jail free card. It felt like accommodating his request would be a way to further repair with him. (Perhaps he's learning that baking is my love language.)
As if I needed any further proof, the request solidified my (self-appointed) title as muffin mom.
used this term in her newsletter recently and I felt seen.She and I, we’re muffin moms.
My second son’s arrival brought on my muffin era in more ways than one. When people asked if Finn was short for anything my husband responded, deadpan, "it's short for Muffin." And the nickname stuck.
This coincided with the early months of the COVID pandemic, so I was also in my sourdough era and my eating endless carbs era. Just as Alison Roman describes, “I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t putting on outside clothes, I couldn’t text you back, but I was making muffins.”
Muffin-making became a particularly common at-home activity to both entertain and feed the toddler (and myself) while nursing a newborn round the clock.
I kept a running list of muffin recipes from those days, which I recently came across in an iPhone note labeled Quarantine Week 1. It also included a tabulation of the annoying things my husband was or wasn't doing around the house:
watching the news: 2
doing dishes, laundry or general clean up: 1
sleeping: 9 (including 2 hours on couch)
outside doing “house projects”: 12
I don't remember what these numbers correlate to - Instances? Hours? Level of my annoyed-ness? Ha! Let's just say, not much has changed. My husband still prefers to busy himself outside, and I am still making lots of muffins (and doing all the laundry. He’s upped his game on the dishes though, maybe to a 5.)
Here is my list of top muffin recipes (as well as my preferred baking season and occasion!)
Banana muffins - An anytime staple. I just made these Kodiak Protein Muffins when I didn't have time to look up another recipe - just went straight to the back of the box.
In early summer when our tree is providing pantloads of plums: Plum, Cardamom and Cornmeal Muffins from Lidey Heuck.
Alison’s Blueberry of course (although historically my kids have NOT been into fruit muffins.) Will try again especially if we go berry picking this year!
Yummy strawberry (I distinctly remember making Bisquick strawberry muffins almost every time I spent the night at my elementary-school friend Emilia's house. The strawberries were absolutely steaming on first bite, yet we burned our mouths time and time again, never patient enough for them to cool. You’ve been warned.)
Chocolate chip all the time! These are the modern version of the mini Bisquick muffins of my youth. Truly bakery-worthy when made with sourdough.
Apple and pumpkin are fall muffins. I started making my Grandma Kaye’s apple muffins in 2020 and have modified many times.
Green spinach for St. Patty’s day (or whenever I'm looking to surprise the kids or just get more veggies in!)
Orange muffins. My neighbor passed on her mom’s recipe for Yoplait orange creme yogurt muffins (which I cannot find online). They were amazing comfort food when Finn was in his cast.
Muffins make even the most run-of-the-mill mornings a bit better, and I like to jazz them up for special occasions too. Here are first day of school muffins (with sprinkles).
I hope you make this a muffin summer. Join me and Alison as a muffin moms.
Unlike Alison’s, this post is sadly not sponsored by Minted, but I 100% agree that every muffin listed would make a delicious and thoughtful gift, especially paired with a handwritten note. (And almost all of them have!)
