January 8th

Breakfast: apple pumpkin muffins. These I got from Cindy Savoldi, and they're really delicious. The streusel topping really does it. The only problem is that it takes for-evah to make them. I got all the wet and dry ingredients all measured out and ready the night before and it was still 40 minutes until they were in the oven next morning. Here's the recipe:

2 1/2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. pumpkin
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 c. finely chopped apples

In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in apple. Spoon batter into 18 paper-lined muffin cups; sprinkle streusel topping over batter. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Streusel topping: 2 T. flour
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
4 t. butter

knife or pastry-blender this until it looks like coarse crumbs.

Dinner: planned Burgundy Chicken which I'll have to try and give out the recipe for later, because instead of having dinner at home, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the weekend so we could buy our new van. It's about a four hour drive away. Instead of this dinner, we had Bagel-Meat sandwiches and cheese and crackers in the van on the way down, it being one of our goals not to spend money on eating out in January. But the bagel-meat sandwiches were delightful. Also we ate Grandpa's leftover San Luis Valley Pizza Company pizza when we arrived, and it was Fabulous!!