Day 20...Cooking Through 25 Days of Gooseberry Patch Christmas

I woke up this morning craving some Sugar-Topped Muffins. I've been making these muffins since my children were younger, but they weren't made with cake mix...just the usual flour, baking powder, etc.. I think we like this recipe better..they seem to be lighter. I can cut this recipe in half too..and the flavor is still the same!
But of course, after all were baked and eaten, I realized I had my blog material right in front of me and did not even bother to take photos! So, I'm ‘borrowing' a photo from Gooseberry Patch again. You can find this recipe on pg 107 in Christmas book 8 and also on pg 271 in Christmas All Through the House.

Sugar-Topped Muffins

18 1/4 oz pkg white cake mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
½ t. nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
½ t. cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Blend cake mix, milk, eggs and nutmeg on low speed with an electric mixer until just moistened; beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Fill paper0lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees until golden, about 15 to 18 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Combine sugar and cinnamon on a small plate. Brush muffin tops with butter; roll in sugar and cinnamon mixture. Serve warm. Makes 2 dozen.

And this is just F.Y.I....For those of you who don't cook a lot....Cutting this recipe in half is pretty easy. Take the cake mix out of the box and you can see the mix through the plastic bag. It'll be pretty easy to determine how much is half. For the 1/3 cup of sugar, I just fill a 1/3 cup measuring cup half full! Everything else is pretty simple.

Since October 1993, my family and I have kept a Family Journal. I kept this journal on the coffee table with a pen attached to it. If one of us had something on our mind, a quote from one of the kids, a picture one of the kids drew, etc., we would put it in the journal. Two of my children were pretty young then, so it seems that we mostly wrote about them...the funny things they'd say and do. When one of the kids had a picture in the paper, we'd put that in there too. We also started homeschooling about the same time, so I'd put some of their papers that they'd write in there. The pages are worn, some are dirty from the kids dirty hands, some have chocolate on them from the kids eating candy while they were writing...they actually look vintage now. 
The list of what is in this journal is long....but it's certainly full of memories...memories we probably would have forgotten if we didn't write them down. I'd like to share some of them with you!

 Sometimes, I wrote in the journal the exact same way the kids said it to me....I wanted to remember how they talked when they were younger.

 Here are a few of the comics the kids would cut out for me and tape in the journal. They loved to find comics that sounded like our family!

Thank you Gooseberry Patch for another awesome, warm, make my house smell yummy while they're baking, recipe!!!


Have a great day! Stay warm, be safe, be sure to tell the ones you love that you love them!