Bless my mother. Not only did she have to tolerate a crazy little Emily (my nickname wasn’t Tricky for nothing), but we had a home cooked meal on the table every night after she worked all day long. Besides great Southern food each night, before snuggling me into bed she would ask what I wanted for breakfast the next morning so she could ensure I would go to school with a full belly. Lamb. I think my response each night was “ORANGE MUFFINS PLEASE!”. She would grin and politely inform me that I couldn’t eat orange muffins every day. See even as a youngin’ my food loving brain couldn’t comprehend the “you can’t eat this every day” scenario; kind of how I feel about bacon as an adult.

When I did get orange muffins, usually on Saturdays as a treat, I would run into the kitchen snag about four and watch morning cartoons – especially Rainbow Brite. Something about them was just so delicious to me. They are a little more dense than a regular muffin and the slight orange taste is perfect. Slap some melted butter or honey on these and you’ve got a delicious breakfast.

I’ve been talking about these to David so much that I finally decided to make them this morning. Since I yapped about them at length  I was a little nervous for him to try them! I followed my Mom’s recipe pretty much to the letter except a few additions of my own which I’ve marked in the recipe below. I got back from Pure Barre class and if you’ve ever taken this class you know (1) you can’t feel your entire body (2) you are going to be insanely sore tomorrow (3) you might kick something (if you could move your leg) if you don’t eat. I scarfed down two in a matter of minutes and the taste of the muffin warped me back to my little Emily days. Ahhh, don’t you love food items like these?  David loved them too. I’m hoping we can make our own special memories  in our  house with my Mom’s orange muffins (and all of her other delicious recipes). Sniffle.

 Orange Muffins

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 cup of flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt*
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together salt, flour and baking powder in a small bowl; set aside. Cream butter and sugar until very well blended. Add eggs, then add dry ingredients alternatively with juice. Add vanilla. Pour into greased muffin pan and bake for 30 minutes.

*I added in a little bit of salt and also marscapone cheese, about 1/4 cup after adding the last of the orange juice, to give it a little richer flavor.