Glorious Sunday

Around lunchtime today I decided to finally get out and try to rid our front flowerbed of GRASS! I am not sure how I allowed the grass to take over the bed, but it did. And I am still not sure how to get rid of all the roots. Mulch is good, but it ain't that good (pardon my French). My husband suggested drastic measures--poison--, but we are not going there. I know how devastating that can be. I will just have to see what kind of geotextile I can put down under the mulch. As the weather is still cold at nights, I have time to search for a solution.

In the meantime, I was able to rescue a few verbena plants with roots. With the daisy plants that I saved from the fall, I should be all set with perennials. Now to see if I can get some window boxes in order. When we lived abroad, my husband made neat hanging shelves under our windows for my geranium pots. We saw that idea in a really old Dutch painting. When I am sitting behind our PC, I will include a photo. Quite unique, I think.

We also made a trip around our property pruning our collection of trees. They all made it through the drought this summer, and now I hope the winter will be mild enough for them to keep growing. We are babying the citrus trees in the backyard, since this is our second planting in three years. If these don't make it, we will replace them with apples and pears.

It was leftovers tonight ( always yummier the second day). But let's have Just Plain Cooking:

Fruitful Bran Honey Muffins (Memaw's)

Set oven at 400 degrees F.

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/2 cups Fruitful Bran Cereal (or something that resembles that in 2012)

1 1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup honey

1 egg (slightly beaten)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, stir together bran cereal, milk, and honey. Let stand three minutes or until cereal is softened. Add egg and oil. Beat well. Add flour mixture, stirring only until combined. Portion batter evenly into 12 greased cups in muffin pan.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Serve warm.

Yields 12 muffins. These freeze well.

(While typing this I thought this was the same exact recipe as yesterday's raisin bran muffins, but the two recipes are different. That is more reason to try them both and compare, don't you think?

Don't forget to shop for silicone muffin cups. The first person who comments on this recipe gets a special set of brand new, still in the original store wrapper, silicone muffin cups. Hey, this is fun to give away prizes.)