Bake the muffins at 375 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes if you’re using the regular-size muffin pans, and 30 to 35 minutes if you’re using the jumbo muffin pans.
When the time is up for the size of muffins you made, test your muffins with a cake tester, long toothpick, or thin wooden skewer by plunging it into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean with no muffin batter clinging to it, your muffins are done. If it still has sticky batter on the tester, toothpick, or skewer, return your pans to the oven for additional 5-minute increments until they test done.
Remove your muffins from the oven and let them cool in the muffin pans on wire racks or on cold stove burners for at least 10 minutes. Then turn the muffins out of the pans and cool them right side up on wire racks until they feel warm, not hot. Then line a basket with a napkin and place them inside to serve them.
Serve your muffins with plenty of soft butter. They’re delicious!
Yield: Approximately 18 regular-size muffins or 12 jumbo muffins.
Michelle’s Note: Despite the fact that Mike was there the night I first made these, there were two muffins left over. Hannah and I stored them in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator and heated them in the microwave to have for a snack. If there had been more leftover muffins, we would have sealed them in a freezer bag and frozen them to accompany another meal.
Chapter Seven
Mike and Lonnie left shortly after Ross and Norman. Once they were gone, Hannah and Michelle cleared the table, rinsed and stacked the dishes in the dishwasher, and tidied up the kitchen. When they were through, Hannah poured a glass of white wine. “Do you want a glass of wine?” she called out to Michelle.
“No, thanks. I’m going to turn in for the night. I want to get up early and try another recipe. Aunt Nancy gave me an idea today, and we’ll have it for breakfast.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not going to tell you because it doesn’t have a name yet. It’s just an idea.”
“What’s in it?”
“You’ll find out in the morning. I’m just hoping it’ll work.”
Hannah smiled as she headed for her customary spot on the couch. The moment she sat down, Moishe jumped down from his perch on the back of the couch and settled in her lap.
“I thought you’d deserted me,” Hannah said, scratching him behind the ears. “You spent the whole night begging scraps from the guys. If you keep that up, you’ll have to go on a diet again.”
“Rrrowwww!”
The yowl was definitely irate. Hannah knew him well enough to recognize the difference between contented and alarmed. He was looking up at her with wide, startled eyes, and Hannah gave him another pet to reassure him. “Just kidding,” she said. “You’re okay. And if you’re not okay now, you will be when I go off to the Food Channel competition and you go to stay with Norman and Cuddles.”
Hearing the name of Norman’s cat, Moishe’s favorite kitty friend, gave Moishe an expression that Hannah interpreted as a kitty smile. Moishe purred very loudly, and settled back down in her lap. Norman had offered to keep Moishe while she was in New York, even before Hannah had thought to ask him.
“I think Norman missed you the past couple of weeks,” Hannah said. “What do you think?”
“Rrrow!”
“That’s right. I’m glad you agree with me. You get two days to play with Cuddles and both of you can sleep in front of the fireplace in his bedroom.”
“Rrrow!”
Hannah smiled. She knew full well that Cuddles and Moishe didn’t sleep in front of the fireplace. They slept on feather pillows in Norman’s bed. Norman had told her that.
Since Michelle had already gone to bed and Hannah didn’t know how to access the show they’d recorded, she settled for watching the Food Channel live. They were showing a chef Hannah didn’t recognize, and he was preparing shrimp scampi. Hannah watched intently. She’d never made shrimp scampi, and Ross might like it. He’d told her he loved anything with pasta, and he’d raved about how good her Fettuccine Porcini was when she’d made it for him.
Hannah turned up the volume so that she could hear the chef. She still couldn’t hear the directions, and she turned it up even further. It took her a minute to realize that the reason she had to have the volume so high was because the cat on her lap was purring so loudly.
She glanced down at Moishe to find that he was staring intently at the screen, ears perked forward and tail twitching in excitement as the chef deveined the jumbo shrimp.
“So you like this episode, do you, Moishe?”