Milk and Muffins

Already back to the store. I had to buy some milk for the little ones. I did hold off on buying muffin mix, though. I'll make my own instead. (My daughter has a summer birthday, so they will celebrate with muffins on the last day of school. So cute.)

I usually make my own baked goods. My mother always made cakes from scratch, and box cakes just taste fake to me. My only exception really is brownies -- maybe that can be an experiment soon -- they just taste so good from the box, that it's hard for me to believe that they'll be as good from scratch. Why do I have this idea about brownies? I don't know. I guess I'm just following what my mom did. Cakes from scratch, brownies from a box.

On one of the blogs I read recently, a tip to reduce grocery spending was to make something every day. I thought this was a great tip. You don't have to make every meal from scratch every day. Combine some leftovers, toss a salad, whatever. But the key is to make something. Yesterday, for example, I made bread (2 loaves, because the first loaf was so delicious that we decided we'd better get the bread machine cranking again). With the bread machine, this doesn't even really feel like making anything. It's more like pouring. Pour in water, flour, honey, oil, salt, yeast. Press button. 3 hours later..... voila!

Making something -- it seems so obvious -- but I like the fact that the tip is not "make everything", but just one thing. On Sunday I made beans. We'll have beans to eat all week (or maybe not, as my husband can eat beans 3 meals a day).

Anyway....I'm a cake snob. I'm a muffin snob too, to tell the truth, but I almost succumbed to total laziness. Almost. I don't understand why people will go to the trouble to buy a cake mix and mix in a few ingredients, but they just can't skip the box and mix in a couple more ingredients. I've timed myself. I can get a cake in the oven in about 8 minutes, from "Hmmm..... I think I'll make a cake" to cake in oven. Being a cake snob can be a little antisocial, especially if your friends know about your snobbery, and especially if you have kids. What do most kid birthdays have? Cupcakes from a box. People know that my favorite food is cake (bad, but SO SO good), so they must notice that I don't eat the box cupcakes. But! My friends are also quick to point out (and share) homemade cake because they know that I will appreciate it.

I shouldn't be such a snob about the cake, perhaps. The same behavior that I don't understand with cake is exactly what I do with brownies. Why can't I get over the box? Must .... get... over ... the box.

I also don't understand frosting in a can. Blech! My mother taught me how to make the best buttercream frosting ever; it's also ridiculously easy. Once you go scratch, you never go back.

Mom's buttercream frosting:
1 stick butter (can use vegan version for vegan frosting)
1/2 bag confectioner's sugar (or so...)
a little milk
a little vanilla
cocoa (for chocolate frosting)

Soften the butter, mix in as much confectioner's sugar as you can. Pour a LITTLE (like a tablespoon) of milk. Taste it. It's probably pretty buttery. Mix in more sugar, adding drops of milk as needed. Put in about a capful of vanilla (1/2 teas?). Mix in cocoa if you're making chocolate frosting.

This makes enough to frost a whole cake, but if it makes too much, it stores in the refrigerator for quite a while.