Reflections on the Challenge

When I decided to start the recipe book challenge I didn't think much of it. In fact, more than being intimidated by it, I wanted to change the fact that of the sixty-five recipes in one of my favorite cookbooks I had only cooked thirteen.

You can imagine the number of recipes I have made in cookbooks I only sort of like.

Things weren't as easy as my over-confident side first perceived. I knew I could accomplish it, and that was the force that kept me going. Even so, there were moments I said to myself, "I'm never doing this again."

At least, not in such a short time frame.

So here it is. The run down of my thoughts on the challenge broken into a few simple categories:

Recipes I Predetermined Would Fail
Do you ever flip through the pages of a new cookbook and as you are mentally marking the recipes you want to try, simultaneously begin marking the recipes you know you will never try?

If I had not done this challenge, I know I would never have tried the following recipes. Granted, of them I would probably only make one or two again, with a few changes, but that at least shows that about 20% of things you think you won't like--you will.

Here they are: 
Olive Bread--would make again with less olives
Linguine with Clam Sauce--would make again, perhaps without clams
Jalapeno Poppers--too hot and too much of a hassle for me to make again
Burgundy Mushrooms--sisters loved them, would make them again for them!
Cheese Grits--never, I would never make these again.

Favorite Recipes
There are a few recipes in here that are of the original 13 that I had made before.* They include Katie's Roasted Corn Salad, PW's Meatloaf, Chocolate Sheet Cake, and PW's Perfect Pot Roast. However, here I mostly want to highlight some of my new favorites that I will, if I haven't already, make again.

*Note: I still made all these thirteen recipes again during the challenge.

Red Velvet Cake--the cream cheese icing alone is reason to make this cake
Buttermilk Biscuits--insanely simple and everything a biscuit should be
Oatmeal Crispies--the perfect melt in your mouth cookie when it's warm and crunchingly sweet cookie when not, please please please use chocolate chips in these!
Comfort Meatballs--like meatloaf in meatball form, and I defy you to recognize that there are rolled oats in there!
Guacamole--simple, delicious, make a bowl and it's gone guac

Recipes that Aren't For Me aka I'll Never Make Them Again
Some of these recipes fall into the category of "they just take too much time for what they're worth" while others were fails in flavor or quality.

Fried Chicken--far too much time and effort for what it was worth, especially when KFC does it just fine
Huevos Hyacinth--this one might be a personal preference but a slice of deli ham with some cheese and eggs isn't breakfast for me
Sherried Tomato Soup--too watery and sherry flavored 
Cornbread and Beans--lacked flavor

Recipes that Surprised Me
Some recipes I made with low expectations and in the end they surprised me.

Marmalade Muffins--I originally feared that they would be overpoweringly orange, thankfully they weren't
Chicken Pot Pie--this was so much easier to make and so much more delicious than I thought it would be
Marlboro Man's Sandwich--quick, easy, and delicious!
Egg-In-The-Hole--a detailed explanation of a classic
Cowboy Calzones--another easier than expected recipe, only addition I would make is to have some dipping sauce

Overall Thoughts

As I'm sure you've gathered, I have quite a few cookbooks. It would take me years to cook through them all. But this challenge has shown me, that although I stretch a little further in my cooking than the average housewife--there is so much further that I can go.

I wouldn't recommend cooking through a cookbook to just anyone. To do so, you must have a genuine desire to try new things, to attempt the difficult, and to set your own creativity on hold.*

*At least where the cooking is concerned. For presentation you can be as wildly artsy as you dare.

Also, you need to have the pocketbook for a challenge of this kind. While PW does frequently use many of the same ingredients in regards to her breakfast options and side dishes, when it came to main courses and desserts there was a plethora of variety--and in most cases, it was a costly variety.

Though I don't feel a oneness with PW as I believe that Julie Powell felt with Julia Child after cooking through her monstrous French cooking volume, I do feel as though when cooking her recipes I can gauge where she is going or what she might do.

It wouldn't be right if I didn't confess that at times the things I love about PW's cookbooks drove me crazy during this challenge. Whenever I get a new cookbook I read it cover to cover. For some cookbooks this isn't quite as entertaining as a PW cookbook, but I still do it regardless.

Yet the funny quips, detailed descriptions, and occasional sarcasm that are dropped in some of the steps of PW's cookbooks, after some time, would begin to aggravate me. This was usually my own fault. It mostly occurred during times when I was in a rush, hadn't prepped properly, or hadn't taken time to read the recipe through beforehand,

Though especially towards the end I wanted to be finished with the challenge, ultimately I look back on it with a sense of accomplishment. I feel as though I had truly owned the book The Pioneer Woman Cooks. If anything, it is always nice to have some sort of goal to work towards in life, whether it be big or small.

Recipe #63, #64, and #65: Prunes, Potatoes, and Chocolate

The day after Christmas I was feeling defeat. My goal had been to finish the recipe challenge on Christmas Day, and here I was with three recipes left.

Sure, I was only one day off. No big deal, right?

Still all I could think of were the days I put off making a recipe for the challenge. I thought I had so much time left, but when it came to the final week, I was scrambling. Juggling the challenge with trying to finish up Christmas shopping, wrapping Christmas presents, and getting the house in some kind of sane order--well, I guess I'm lucky I was only one day off.

Recipe: Prune Cake
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 40 min
Ease: 3
Taste: 6
Leftover Value: 7
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer!

PW's Prune Cake is in the breakfast section of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, however, the dust of the craziness of the holiday didn't settle until around 3 pm, so that is when I began to work towards finishing the recipe challenge.*

*Note: Yes, I did realize I had a chocolate cake left to make. And yes, I did realize that it would be just Hubby and me at home to eat these things...for dinner.

The most difficult* part of this recipe, you guessed it, were the prunes.

*Difficult, as in, added perhaps five extra working minutes.

The prunes are boiled to get them softened, and then are smashed before being added to the batter. I wasn't thrilled with their smell and was hoping that they would magically transform into clumps of sugar as the cake baked.

Sadly, they did not and when I ate the cake they remained my least favorite part of this cake. So much so, that my note in the book says, "could do w/o the prunes..."

I loved making the icing. In the recipe it looks terrifyingly hard, however, if specifically followed the ingredients literally work on their own to create this caramel colored icing that is poured over the warm cake.

I enjoyed it warm, but my sister-in-law (who we later would bring both the prune cake and chocolate sheet cake to at 9:30 at night) enjoyed it at room temperature.

Recipe: Chocolate Sheet Cake
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr
Ease: 4
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

This is one of the recipes from this book that I have made again and again...and again. In fact, I made it only a month previous to starting the recipe challenge. I made dinner for my sister-in-law's birthday and knowing the addictive wonderfulness that is this cake, she requested it as her cake of honor.

This cake is delicious warm or cold. If served warm, you must, I repeat MUST, have vanilla ice cream to serve with it. They pair so naturally, so beautifully, that I can't imagine forcing them to be apart. In my mouth, that is.

I don't know how the magic happens, but I have a hunch it has something to do with the cup of boiling water that is added to the cake mix.

The icing is poured over the hot cake and it is a flood of deliciousness.*

*Note: Make sure that the flood evenly disperses. It quickly begins to harden, and you don't want gaps of emptiness surrounded by mountains of icing.

I've noticed with baking this cake that sometimes 20 minutes leaves it a little underdone...like a fudgy brownie.

But, I'm not complaining about that if you aren't.

Recipe: PW's Potato Skins
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 2 hr 15 min (active and non active time)
Ease: 5
Taste: 5
Leftover Value: No leftovers!
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer (however, several timing changes must be made)

This recipe almost did not come to be.

This is the picture that I almost left you with:

But I refused to be beaten by potatoes. So I put on my big girl panties and told them, "I'm going to make potato skins out of you yet!"*

*Note: This really didn't happen. I sort of puttered around the kitchen shouting all kind of spud obscenities and then told them they were getting eaten whether they liked it or not.

The problem here is that 45 minutes was far too long for these potatoes to bake. Right away, let me tell you that 1. yes I did use russet potatoes and b. yes, I did cook them at the right temperature. She doesn't say to let them cool, and considering that in her Twice Baked Potatoes recipe they weren't cooled before slicing, I thought it would be okay.

Perhaps I just had difficult potatoes that day. Potatoes that knew just how close I was to the finish. Impostor potatoes.

It was difficult, but I slabbed them with oil and baked them for the extra time they needed. Then I threw the fixings on them:

And out of the whole crew, there was one, one cooperative potato skin.

Despite the potato carcasses scattered on the pan, Hubby and I ate every single last one of those beasts.

Then I felt a wave of freedom pass over me, knowing that my recipe challenge had finally come to an end.

Recipe #62: Christmas Muffins

Recipe: Marmalade Muffins
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 40 min
Ease: 2
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I woke up Christmas morning with an hour to spare before brunch with my in-laws. Despite my urge to lay around in my pajamas for that hour, I knew I must make at least one recipe. Fortunately, I still had two breakfast items left.

In an effort to not stress myself out too much during the holiday, I went to bed on Christmas Eve with my morning alarms turned off and no strict plans set for making any recipes. (Naturally, in the back of my mind I was planning what I would make if I woke up in time).

However, I did not plan out my ingredients. As in, the butter that should have been softened ahead of time.

I used the cheater's trick of cutting my refrigerated butter up and letting it sit for 15 minutes on the counter while I prepared the rest of the recipe.

Sometimes this works.

And sometimes I get impatient and use....the microwave.

The horrors, I know!

I was afraid these muffins were going to have too strong of an orangey flavor.

You know, these muffins called Marmalade muffins

Still, the zest of two oranges seemed like quite a lot to me.

The muffins were super easy to make, super easy as in everything went into one bowl and, aside from needing softened butter, they were all ingredients that could be easily tossed in.

One thing I will point out is that PW uses mini muffin tins.

In keeping with trying not to make any changes to her recipes, I used mini muffin tins. I used a mini muffin tin I already had and a mini muffin tin my sister-in-law, Kristina, gave me. She bought it after our Thanksgiving breakfast of minis and never used it.

I say all this to say that the tin Kristina gave me was a hair larger than my mini muffin tin.  The muffins that cooked in her tin came out beautifully. The smaller muffins, the ones that were cooked in my tin, did not. They stuck to the pan and were completely impossible to bring to brunch without hanging my head in shame.

I made a note not to use mini muffin pans again (even though the Kristina pan muffins all came out lovely), but my mother-in-law raved about the muffins, then stated that her favorite part was that they were mini.

Great.

All in all, they were a yummy breakfast treat. The orange wasn't overpowering, as I had feared. It was light and refreshing.

I expected them to be just another side item at breakfast, something that went unnoticed, but everyone loved them!

My favorite part was the sugar glaze poured on top just before taking them out of the pan.

My least favorite part was cleaning the pan.

Recipe #60 and 61: Breakfast Burritos and Linguine with Clam Sauce

Recipe: Breakfast Burritos
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr
Ease: 3
Taste: 4
Leftover Value: Did not save leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain!

On Christmas Eve morning, only six recipes remained in my recipe challenge. To say I had high hopes in completing on Christmas Day is an understatement. I managed to trick myself into believing I was Super Woman until around 3:00 pm when I decided I would have to be content with finishing the day after Christmas.

Jonathan wanted to see the new Annie movie, so Joel and Mallory graciously agreed to go with us bright and early* to see it.

*Bright and early as in 10:00 am.

PW's Breakfast Burritos were the natural choice to make for them for breakfast considering the 12 eggs it uses would have been a complete waste to make for only Hubby and myself.

Even with using frozen hash brown potatoes (which PW allows you to do, promise!), this recipe still took a solid hour to make. This is mostly due to the process of assembling the burritos, rather than chopping as was my issue with Migas. By the time I finished wrapping each burrito, I was a burrito wrapping pro.

The taste of the burritos was just okay. It wasn't something that I would ever request someone to make for me, or something I would ever desperately crave enough to make it again myself. It does, however, work as a nice on the go breakfast, considering that each of my movie companions ate theirs as we headed out to the theater.

While I will more than likely never make them again, I will say this, if you are the kind of person who orders the breakfast burrito at McDonald's, this might be an at-home healthier solution for you.

Recipe: Linguine with Clam Sauce
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 30 min
Ease: 3
Taste: 9
Leftover Value: No leftovers!
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

We had about an hour and a half to kill before heading to my parents' house to start our Christmas Eve festivities. While I had hoped to make PW's Potato Skins, Chocolate Cake and Linguine with Clam Sauce, I gave in to my human limitations and decided that I could only make one.

I had been on the fence* about the Linguine with Clam Sauce from the first time I saw it in the book. I have never had clams before, and the description of how Marlboro Man (PW's husband) reacted to this meal when she first made it for him hurt more than helped my preset opinion.

Note: There were actually only a few recipes in the book I felt this way about. More about that in the final summation!

Knowing this might not be a recipe I would love, and also knowing it might not be a recipe Hubby would even be slightly interested in, I made it as a light lunch. My brother, Joel, and his wife, Mallory, will pretty much eat anything I cook--they aren't picky at all, and they flatter me with praise, so it's nice to have them around.

Frying the clams was the worst part of this recipe. My entire kitchen smelled like a seafood market.

After the clams and garlic fried for a little together, a white wine cream sauce is created. This cream sauce is so divine it made me completely forget about whether or not I liked clams.*

Note: I think I do, but I'm still not sure.

I plan to make this substituting chicken for the clams, and occasionally, without any meat at all!

Mallory, who loves clams, said that when she makes this (because she loved it so much) she will use half the amount of noodles so that there will be more clams per serving. She's certainly right. If you want a lot of clams per bite, the recipe calls for too much pasta for this to happen.

My favorite part of this recipe was that from start to finish it took less than a half hour. My second favorite part was that within another half hour the pan was empty because the entire meal had been devoured.

Recipe #58 and #59: Pots and Peaches

Recipe: Perfect Pot Roast

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 3 hrs 30 min

Ease: 3

Taste: 10

Leftover Value: No leftovers!

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I blogged about this recipe three years ago. This was the year before I started the Orange Strainer. By reading this post, you can tell what a novice cook I was, allowing a pot roast to get the better of me.

Despite what you will read in my previous post, this is a ridiculously simple recipe with flavor that will amaze all who join your dinner table.

I'm on a mission to discover easy recipes that taste like they have been slaved over for hours.

That's the dream, isn't it?

Side veggies cook right in the pot with the roast, the juices create a delightful gravy, and the only additional item you'll need to make is buttery, milky mashed potatoes.

I served this for two of my brothers and my sister-in-law the night before Christmas Eve...you know, Christmas Eve Eve. I used a 3-lb roast because my grocery store options were that or a monstrous sized roast.*

*A word to the wise, monstrous is better than measly. This shrimpy 3-lb roast was barely enough for us all. In other words, we had to eat politely.

Unacceptable.

The meat is so moist and tender that you really don't need any gravy, but it's nice to know it is there.

Recipe: Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr 20 min (includes cream sauce chill time)

Ease: 3

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: 3

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

On her website, PW gives a cheat to making the cream sauce quickly. In the book, however, she says to chill the cream sauce for at least an hour. 

Because I'm a rule follower...this is what I did.

However, because another part of me is a little rebellious and stubborn, I did not use fresh peaches for this recipe.

I also did not use common sense in deciding what to use instead of fresh peaches.

For some reason, my mind immediately went to canned peaches.

I was smart enough to know I would need to drain the liquid from the can considering that PW used fresh peaches that she peeled and sliced.*

*Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work.

In all honesty, I wasn't trying to avoid peeling and slicing 6-7 peaches. It simply isn't the time of year for peaches. And while I planned ahead for time-of-year items at the beginning of this challenge with Katie's Roasted Corn Salad, I didn't when it came to peach crisp.

It wasn't until my peach crisp turned out looking like this, even after plenty of added baking time, that I realized, "Duh! I should have used frozen peaches!"

Even with the overabundance of liquid in this "crisp", the flavors all combined into this absolutely divine peach crisp soup.

A soup which I am pretty sure every one of us burnt our tongues on due to our over eagerness to eat it.

PW is right about the cream sauce. It is so delicious I could've drank it like a milkshake.

My thighs would have hated me for it, but my belly, mouth, and soul would have been happy.

Recipe #57: Migas

One of my New Year's goals for this blog is to blog better.

I know it sounds like a cliche goal, but both of my blogs began because of my passion for writing. This blog simply mixes that passion with another: my love of food and everything food related.

However, I find that sometimes I fall into the blogger mentality of just trying to get SOMETHING posted that I'm not always putting out writing that is of the quality that I want to represent.

No longer.

That said, hold on to your butts for the final five posts of my Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe challenge and then the final summation.

Recipe: Migas

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr

Ease: 3

Taste: 5

Leftover Value: 4

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer

I like this recipe. 

I know, great way to start off better blogging, right?

Yet, it must be stated.

You must understand that I really, truly did like this recipe before I go any further because, unfortunately, for as much as I like this recipe, I also dislike it.

At breakfast time, I am not ordinarily coherent enough to be giddy with excitement over a meal that has more than three steps. 

There are several, as in more than two or three, vegetables that require dicing for this breakfast.

Then, if all the dicing weren't enough, there are eggs to be mixed and corn tortillas to be fried and then cut into strips.

While dicing and frying aren't quite so complicated, (and I fried the tortillas in the same pan I eventually made the migas in--so there wasn't a too-many-pans issue) it is all very time consuming.

For breakfast.

Early in the morning.

With a cranky chef who would rather be still ducked under the covers than getting to work chopping, dicing, and frying.

Naturally, the veggies need time to soften a little.*

*Right here, right now, I'm going to rat myself out.  There are no red peppers in this dish.  There are supposed to be.  The rule was no substitutions, but red peppers make my heart throb and pound in my chest--and not in a swoon! type of way.  So, I used extra green pepper.

Here is the even more time consuming part of this dish:

After spending all that time dicing, after frying the tortillas, after waiting for it all to cook together, the eggs are poured over it all, gently mixed, and left alone to set.

I'm the type of person that stands over a pot of water as if my presence will make the water boil faster. 

That said, by this point, I couldn't contain myself and had to help the eggs along a little bit by mixing them a little and raising the heat a tad.

I made these on Christmas Eve Eve and Hubby had work to get to so I may have been a little anxious and served the eggs a little too soon.

They weren't horribly runny, but they could have gone a little longer.

The cheese, which is added at the very end, adds a nice punch of flavor to the mixture.  The dollop of sour cream was absolutely necessary and I'm not too proud to say that I added another heaping scoop to my bowl after I snapped this picture.

All in all, this was a fun way to experience eggs. I was afraid the jalapeno would be overpowering, but it added an interesting little kick to the eggs without too much heat. Hubby ate his eggs with the sour cream and hot sauce.

My only note would be to make these on a morning where you have a healthy hour to spend on breakfast.

Recipe #56: Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Recipe: Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hour

Ease: 4

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: Issues led to no leftovers

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer

You may recall, fruit and cake don't normally equate in my world.

Regardless of this, and regardless of the fact that I never, ever would have made this cake had I not been in the middle of a recipe challenge forcing me to make every single recipe in The Pioneer Woman Cooks, I am learning with each additional dessert I make with fruit that fruit only makes desserts better.

Except with chocolate.  I'm still learning to accept including fruit with chocolate. 

Except chocolate covered strawberries.  They are kissed by God.

Butter and brown sugar.

That is the story of this cake.

And an iron skillet.

It is pretty much essential to this recipe.

Thank God PW doesn't try to reinvent the wheel by making you cut up your own pineapple.

That would have crushed my soul.

Canned pineapple rings make life so much simpler.

The batter is basic and can be mixed together in the same amount of time that it takes for the butter and brown sugar to melt together.

Here is where my impatience yet again got the best of me.

I baked the cake in the oven for thirty minutes.

It seemed a little wobbly in the center, so I skipped the whole toothpick step and put it back in the oven for another ten minutes.*

*Note: PW says it should bake for 30-40 minutes.

After another ten minutes, I decided it had to be finished.  The toothpick was being rather difficult.  It would seem clean at some points and others appeared wet.  I reasoned to myself that it was the wetness of the fruit and that the cake must be finished.

Foolish, foolish girl.  I know.

The problem with this cake is that once you commit to flipping it out of the pan it is irreversible.

In my defense it really, really looked finished.

It was golden brown to a point that I worried it would burn.

Yet somehow, I should have saw the sign.

The sign that blared, "NOT FINISHED".

Regardless of this slop, Hubby and I cut off a hunk of the edge and devoured the cake while it was still piping hot.

The cake had a sweet crispiness to the edge, and the inside was moist and airy.  I made sure to grab a huge slice of pineapple to pair with my piece, and I loved each and every bite.

I'm sure I could have attempted to save the remnants of the cake, but it was beyond the energy I was willing to expend on cake.

Especially after I saw what was left in my cast iron skillet.

Recipe #55: Enchiladas

Recipe: Simple, Perfect, Enchiladas

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr 20 min

Ease: 5

Taste: 4

Leftover Value: There were leftovers, but no one ate them!

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

I always get excited over enchiladas and then I realize a few bites in that I'm not a big fan.

Particularly of beef enchiladas.

The chicken and cheese ones tend to be my favorite, but even with them I find I have my limits. 

You'll have to keep this in mind as you read my review of this recipe. 

I think my issue is the corn tortilla and the enchilada sauce.

But enough about me and my issues.  Let's talk about PW's Simple, Perfect, Enchiladas!

There is a long list of ingredients for this recipe.  First, there are about six ingredients that go into making the enchilada sauce (primarily, you guessed it, Mexican red sauce). The meat mixture contains four different ingredients, and then there is "the rest"--six more ingredients that don't fall into the sauce or the meat category.

Despite the long list of ingredients, the sauce and meat are fairly easy to throw together.

It is the assembly that changes this from being "Simple" enchiladas to "Simply Impossible" enchiladas.

At least for me.  Perhaps you might purchase more cooperative corn tortillas.

Several of my tortillas did this to me after I fried  them "just until soft" as PW directs:

I assume I let them cook until a little too soft, but how can one know when a tortilla has reached true 'just softness'. 

While it was aggravating, I pressed on.  I had extra tortillas.  I could spare a few to tear.

Oh yes.  After frying the tortillas, then they must be dipped in the enchilada sauce.  

That was loads of fun, as you can see.

When it came time to fill the tortillas, I realized just how small corn tortillas are and that their size does not equate to the amount of filling I wanted per tortilla.

Folding them and arranging them in the pan led to a few more tears.*

*That is tears as in the verb- tear: to pull apart.  However, the noun- tear: the fluid appearing in or flowing from the eye as a result of emotion, especially grief, was close to occurring.

In the end, they looked as good as any beef enchiladas I have ever ordered in a restaurant.

And the taste was pretty much equal as well.

Meaning that at first bite I thought they were positively amazing.

But halfway through I realized I didn't like them.

It was then I wished I had a chicken enchilada to start eating.

Recipe #54: French Breakfast Puffs

Recipe: French Breakfast Puffs

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 50 minutes

Ease: 3

Taste: 10

Leftover Value: 10

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

The word "puffs" is deceiving.  To me, it indicates that this is a light breakfast item.

While I could possibly eat two in one sitting, they are certainly not light items and therefore do not fall under the "puff" category to me.

A few items I consider to be "puffs": popcorn, croissants, cream 'puffs'*, rice cakes

*Shocker, right? 

Because these sugar muffins are delicious, I won't fault PW over the name.  I just wanted to make sure you understood they aren't as light and airy as they sound.

If you aren't into carbs for breakfast, you might want to save these for dessert.  Me, I'm perfectly fine with it.  In fact, my body craves pastries, bagels, muffins, and all other carb-a-licious items during the a.m. hours.

These muffins are so easy to make and so long as you can get over the fact that they are DIPPED IN BUTTER in the final step they might just become a household breakfast item.

The thought of butter dipped muffins first excited me, and then it bothered me. But when I realized that it essentially boils down to one tablespoon of butter per muffin, I decided it wasn't quite so horrible after all.

These muffins are like having cake for breakfast....or a cinnamon sugar Auntie Anne's pretzel.  Yum!  But the name has 'breakfast' in there, so it's okay.

The best part is that they are fabulous left over and apparently, according to PW, they freeze well.  That means a less hectic morning for me and the possibility of enjoying a breakfast that isn't in the form of a Cliff bar when I'm back at work and on the go.

Note: I just discovered that I blogged about these little beauties over two years ago!