Muffins, Crusty Loaves and Warm Fuzzies

As predicted, it was a busy day for me, but a thoroughly enjoyable one. I do love to cook and bake but I admit, I never did much of it when I worked a regular 9 to 5. Since I’ve moved to Germany and especially during the past 2 years, since I started working from our home, I have a lot more time and desire for being the domestic goddess that I truly am at heart. I love the smell of a well used kitchen and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside to be able to give my loved ones something warm and yummy that I just baked myself. The feeling is intensified even more when the ingredients are those that were grown on our own land, planted, tended and harvested with our own hands.

So anyway, here is a sampling of what I baked today.

The bread is a yummy thick-crusted multi-grained bread. Tonight we’ll have some with our cabbage soup. One of my goals for this year is to develop the habit and settle into a routine of baking all of the bread and baked goods that we use. I want to learn to can this year also. I’ve never done any, other than vague childhood memories of helping my step mom make pickles and tomato sauce one year. I’ll start with jams and butters and go from there.

The blueberry muffins are fantastic. I made 2 different versions. One is just plain blueberry, the other has a crumbly, buttery cinnamon topping. We like the cinnamon version the best 🙂 They are a bit sweeter, but not too sweet. I used 2 different recipes for these that I found on the internet. The batter I made following the “Best Blueberry Muffin” recipe and the topping I got from the “To Die for Blueberry Muffin” recipe.

You can find the two recipes here and here.