Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A tasty bit of Nostalgia


Yesterday my brother texted me a surprising question out of the blue:
"What was the name of those muffins Sharon used to make when we were kids?"

Instantly I knew the ones he was referring to: these delicious chocolaty muffins with a cream cheese center that sunk in the middle to the bottom with chocolate chips on the top! When I make them they don't taste as good as hers did.
I myself had called Sharon, the lady responsible for the yummy muffins, quite a few years back for the recipe. She lives in my hometown, and her house was our second home. My brother and I spent all of our free time there with her kids, who were our best friends.
As a mother now, I shudder at the possibility of my kids' friends taking over my house like we all did back in 1990. If those kids weren't at our house, we were over there. As well as the neighboring kids! At any given time there could have been 10 kids over there.  And when we were, Sharon always, always had stacks of big margarine containers shoved to the side of her counter and filled with goodies. I know now how hard she worked, and that poor woman came home after her shift to a houseful of kids, and all of us lounging here or there, watching TV and eating her food. I have no idea if she made all of that for us, or if it was something she just did, and I don't know how she found the time to make all of that between raising her three kids, working full time, and spending part of her time doing various church activities. Of course she had help from her husband, but he worked full time too, and also had to come home to us kids draped all over his house!
If I asked her now she may say she'd never change a thing, or she may wish she had had more free moments of quiet time after her long shifts as a cook. But I do know that many, many memories were made there in that home, with her kids and my brother and I, and we had the privilege of not just having two parents, we had four. That means the world to us, so thank you!

I almost don't want to share this piece of my childhood with you all, and I'm not sure what she called these muffins, so Melany, send me a line if I've got it wrong!
Enjoy.

Chocolate Surprise Muffins

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift Together:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
In another bowl:
1 cup
1 cup sour cream
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Stir and add to sifted dry ingredients. Stir to combine.
In a small bowl:
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup hot water
Dissolve and add to chocolate batter. Place in muffin cups.
Beat in a small bowl:
4 oz cream cheese
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
dash salt

Put tsp of filling on each muffin. Top with a few choco chips. Bake at 350 for about 13 mins.

Yummy. These muffins take me all the way back to 1990.