Author: Annie

Yes. I am THAT She Devil. The original, shedevil at vix.com. You know: I am: mom, attorney, fathers' rights advocate Actually, I'm a lawyer -and- I play one on tv. Yep..that's me.

My Awesome Strawberry Banana Honey Whole Wheat Muffins

Saturday is muffin day at Casa Mitchell Young, and these muffins have been declared the best yet. And I have to admit, they are darned good! No sugar (using just honey) and completely whole grain (100% whole wheat, or see my special ingredient for a variation), they are delicious, and very good for you!

Annie’s Strawberry Banana Honey Whole Wheat Muffins
Makes 12

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1/4 to 1/3 cup dried strawberries
boiling water in which to soak the straweberries (be sure to save some of the water for the recipe!)

2 ripe bananas (medium sized)
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup oil (we use canola)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup of the water you used to soak the strawberries

Put the dried strawberries in a container, and cover with boiling water. Set aside.

In your mixing bowl, mash the two bananas, and then beat in the eggs. Add all of the rest of the ingredients, except the flour, in the order listed, stirring well after each addition. Before adding the flour, drain the strawberries, reserving the liquid and add the strawberries. Measure 1/4 cup of the water you used to soak the strawberries, and stir in the 1/4 cup strawberry water, along with the flour.

Spoon into your muffin tin, and bake at 325 for 15 minutes, or until muffins look brown along the edges (the top may not look done before you take them out of the oven).

Variation: Substitute 1/4 cup coconut flour for 1/4 cup of the whole wheat flour. Yummy!

Boy Suffers Acid Burn from Lik-M-Aid (Wonka Fun Dip)

This is true because it happened to our son. If anybody else has had this happen we’d like to know. In May of 2007 our son had a package of Lik-M-Aid (also known as Fun Dip) by Wonka. We never let him have this kind of junk, but he had gone to a store with a friend and returned with it. Within a couple of hours his entire mouth was ringed by an acid burn. That was in May …seven months ago, and despite numerous dermotologist appointments, and two topical prescriptions later, it still hasn’t gone away. It will seem to start getting better for a few days, then come right back.

For the better part of a year, our son has had an ongoing injury around his mouth that won’t heal due to this Wonka candy. Now he has a small mole on the edge of the injury area, with a hair growing out of it. We will be going back to a dermatologist soon, and hope for the best. Sigh.

If anybody has had any similar experience with this sort of acid burn from candy, please let us know.

Anne

My Favourite Charles Dickens Christmas Passage – And It’s Not from Dickens a Christmas Carol!

Most people, when they think of Charles Dickens and Christmas, think of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. But many of Charles Dickens novels feature Christmas passages, and while Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol is of course a classic, one of my favourite Dickens Christmas passages is the one from the Pickwick Papers.

Here it is – isn’t it lovely?

And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Christmas
brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment. How many
families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far
and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and
meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual
goodwill, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight;
and one so incompatible with the cares and sorrows of the world,
that the religious belief of the most civilised nations, and the rude
traditions of the roughest savages, alike number it among the
first joys of a future condition of existence, provided for the
blessed and happy! How many old recollections, and how many
dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken!

We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot
at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous
circle. Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have
ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then,
have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the
eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old
house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest,
the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstances connected
with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each
recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but
yesterday! Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the
delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the
pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the
traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and
his quiet home!

And so, Happy Christmas to All!