Making a House a Home

Your home will smell so delicious when these are baking!! Your family will be happy to be welcoming in the new season with these yummy breakfast treats!


Happy Homemaking!!

When Mr. U and I were first married, our town had a quaint coffee shop called Calico Coffee. At first, we visited every once in a while. Then it turned to weekly visits and before we knew it, we were there at least twice a week!!

We went in for breakfast. The owner had WONDERFUL coffee (and offered endless cups, too, if you ate in her shop!!) and big, Texas sized muffins. Yum!! I can still smell the fresh coffee brewing, the warm muffins coming out of the oven and hear Andrea Bocelli playing over her sound system.

Unfortunately, the coffee shop closed a few years ago. But the owner was kind enough to share a few of her recipes with me!! Mr. U's favorite, by far, and her best-seller-muffin was the Sausage Cheese Muffin. Y'all, it is SOO delicious!! Maybe you should surprise your family one morning with this scrumptious offering.

Sausage Cheese Muffins

3 cups Bisquick *
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup grated cheddar (feel FREE to use MORE cheese!!!)
1 pound sausage (we use hot)
1 1/3 cup milk

Brown sausage and onion until brown. Drain. Stir together Bisquick and cheese and then sausage/onion mixture. Stir in milk and mix well. Pour into prepared muffin tins (we use Texas size muffin tins). Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.

* I will almost always use 3 cups of self-rising flour and then cup in about 1/4 cup of Crisco instead of using Bisquick.

Note: ALWAYS watch your oven! Oven temperatures vary so your oven may cook slower OR quicker!!!

I make muffins quite often. They are the perfect "fast food" for mornings. I've been making different muffin recipes for years and each time I've used a spoon to get the muffin mixture into the muffin tin. A mess would ALWAYS occur and I'd always try my best to get all the little spills cleaned off the edges of the pan. What a pain.

But recently, I heard Ina Garten recommend using a regular ice cream scoop to, well, scoop the muffin mixture into the individual tins.


Aside from the fact that I have heard her mention this MANY times before and I COMPLETELY ignored her, you know what? It worked!! And it worked PERFECTLY, too, I must add!! All the muffins are incredibly close to being the same size! And it was MUCH quicker than trying to spoon it all in!!

I should have listened sooner!!!

I was supposed to go pick blueberries with a friend earlier this week, but our schedules got mixed up and we weren't able to go. However, she came by the house a few days later with two big bowls full of blueberries!!! She knew I wanted some so when she had extra time, she went and picked a lot for herself AND for our family!!! How sweet is that??!!!

Since my family and I LOVE fresh blueberries so much, I have to share how good they are for you!! They are full of antioxidants, help lower cholestorol, help with vision (including nighttime vision), help improve brain function (memory and learning), protects against colon cancer, and they have lots of fiber to help with elimination. You can read more about blueberries here.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of blueberries, I should share with y'all my family's FAVORITE blueberry muffin recipe!!! We've been making these for years to eat and share with others. I hope y'all enjoy them as much as we do!!!

Blueberry Muffins

1 cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1) Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
2) In large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Add flour, milk, baking powder and salt. Stir just until all dry ingredients have been moistened. Mixture should be lumpy. Gently fold in blueberries (if you aren't gentle, then your batter will turn blue!!) and fill prepared muffin pan.
3) Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and centers spring back when gently pressed. Remove from pans and serve warm.

Makes 12 muffins.

(I should also tell y'all that I have sometimes put the zest of 1/2 a lemon in this batter. Oh yummmyyy!! I'll bet it would be good with some orange zest, too!!)

These were perfectly wonderful!! The texture, the taste, everything. Well, everything except I only made 12 of them. Next time, I'm doubling the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (but not hot!!)
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease or line 12 muffins cups.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in melted butter, milk, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. (I use an ice cream scoop for this! Super easy!!) Sprinkle the top of each filled muffin tin with a smidge of sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until they are slightly golden on top.

Oh y'all!! We had these for breakfast Saturday morning and they were DELICIOUS!!

I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman. She said they make 12 muffins, but I made 18 of them. You can click on the link to PWs French Breakfast Puffs to see her exact recipe. Below it is written with a few changes I made.


French Breakfast Puffs

3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening (Crisco)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 sticks butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 18 muffin cups. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside. In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening, then add eggs and mix. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Fill prepared muffin cups 1/2 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden. In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.


We found that these tasted BETTER after they had cooled for about an hour.

I am sure y'all will enjoy them, too! Happy eating!!

Just made another new recipe from Pinterest.  BOY you can discover some yummy things on there!!!

This one is Zucchini Tots or Zucchini Bites.  SUPER!!  I loved them and the girls said they were, "okay".  Then they proceeded to eat them all.  Ahem, 'nough said.




1 cups zucchini, grated
1 egg
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup cheese Parmesan (I used the canned stuff)
1/4 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian style)
Tiny pinch of salt
Fresh black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with non-stick spray, set aside.
2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water- like when using frozen spinach.
3. In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, salt and pepper.
4. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill the muffin cups half full. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.

Y'all!! I recently discovered an awesome website!!  It's called Sally's Baking Addiction- sounds awesome, right?  On top of all the super yummy recipes she shares, the gorgeous pictures she takes, and all her COOKBOOKS Y'ALL, she hosts a Monthly Baking Challenge.  Yum!!  Count me IN!!!!

This month's challenge is Chocolate Lava Cakes, you know like the fancy schmancy kind you get at nice restaurants.  The picture on her blog?  Gorgeous!!  So, of course, I had to jump on in and give it a shot!!!

And this is what came out of my oven....

Easy and SO delicous!! And these freeze nicely, too! Perfect to have on hand for on-the-go breakfasts or a quick snack! Yum!


Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, slightly beaten


1 Heat oven to 400 . Stir together all ingredients except butter, pumpkin, buttermilk and eggs in large bowl. Stir together all remaining ingredients in medium bowl. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened.
2 Spoon batter into paper-lined or greased muffin pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan.




And, of course, these are much more fun to make when you have a helper. :)

Thank you, Kelli and Mrs. H, for two wonderful recipes!!!!



Country Cornbread Muffins
12 servings

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk together the egg, sour cream, oil and milk. Stir into the dry ingredients just until combined. Spoon into greased muffin tin. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm with butter and enjoy!


Texas Chili
6 servings

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (15 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1 can (15 ounces) mild chili beans
1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
grated sharp cheddar cheese
sour cream

In a large saucepan, cook the beef and onion over medium heat; drain. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beans. Add the seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Serve steaming hot with cheese and sour cream. Enjoy!

Note: This is not the exact chili recipe from Kelli and Mrs. H. I had to adjust the heat level for Elizabeth. :)