seldnei | Bake, Laura! Bake like the wind!

This morning my mother-in-law made blueberry muffins from a box, and asked us how they were.

dealio and I agreed that they were fine for box muffins, pretty good. She mentioned that she was going to make them for Christmas morning, when the clan converges upon the house.

"Laura could make some from scratch," Scott said.

Um. Yes ... I could, conceivably, make blueberry muffins from scratch. I allowed as such, but added what a pain they are to make, in my opinion (

sugarcoatedlie could probably make them in her sleep). "I could make lemon ginger muffins, if I had the recipe."

Well, after a quick search and discovery of the entire cookbook on Google Books, I am now making lemon ginger muffins, chocolate chip muffins, and homemade bread. Of my own volition. All day tomorrow. Scott promised to help and be my kitchen slave.

This is, I feel, the first true test of my baking skillz.

I'm only really nervous about scalding the milk for the bread. My grandmother can scald milk by eye and nose, but I tend to get all antsy, so I like to use the kitchen thermometer and wait until it's 180 degrees. I'm more Alton Brown, I guess.

Of course, the family has been regaled for years with stories of my cooking disasters--the CoCo Puff marshmallow birthday lump, the post-hurricane gingerbread house (both of which were edible, if slightly disturbing and unattractive)--so I have to wonder if anyone will be brave enough to try my stuff. I could probably goad

nocmaar into it by impugning his manhood ...