You should probably know...

..how much i LOVE to bake.

the process, the incredible aroma, and of course the finished PRODUCT!

it was my way of telling people I LOVED THEM or a way to BRIGHTEN somebody's day.

"When you make a cake, you truly express your

desire to please the people you love, and show them how much you care."

Roland Meisner (former pastry chef of the WHITE HOUSE)

When I was in highschool, my family life was far from perfect and it was really tough being at home sometimes. (but we won't get into that now) Two things helped me release my stress. Running and BAKING! (now that I think about it I probably just ran to counter act all the baking.. aka eating!) And bake I did! Starting out with all these different ingrediants and mixing them all together to make a DELISH TREAT was an amazing thing. And I was so happy, I just whipped, mixed, cracked eggs, and iced. And everything else just seemed to fade into a background for those wonderful 2 hours. Baking is therapeutic. It’s satisfying. It's DELIGHTFUL! So ever since then I've been passionate about baking! I am always the first to volenteer to bring baked goods to any event. And recently this Christmas season I had a COOKIE SWAP EXTRAVAGANZA where every made their favorite cookie and we all swapped cookies and went home with a plate full of everyone else's cookies! (see below- TABLE FILLED WITH COOKIES!)

DELICIOUS, no? Needless to say, I adore baking. And my dream job would be a job where I could bake all day and maybe even one day own my bakery! Paula Dean is my role model (using all that butter without a single care!) and Merridee Erickson of the cutest Bread & Bakery, Meridee's, in Franklin is my inspiration. And this is probably why Izzie is my favorite character on Grey's Anatomy.

SO in honor of this post I am sharing one of my MOST FAVORITE recipes: homemade CINNAMON muffins

THESE are my famous NEW YEAR's DAY MUFFINS! make them every JAN. 1st... gotta love tradition.

2 medium eggs.
3 cups of flour.

1 cup of milk.
1 cup of sugar.
5 tablespoons of butter.

5 tablespoons of shortening.
3 teaspoons of baking powder.
1 teaspoon of salt.
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.
1 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Topping:
1 cup of melted butter.
1 cup of sugar blended with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

Grease 12 three-inch muffin pan cups. Cream together the butter, the shortening and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, salt, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon and baking powder. Stir in the flour and milk alternately until mixture is just combined. Fill muffin cups to the top. Bake at 350F oven for about twenty minutes.

Allow to cool for a few minutes. With each muffin, dip in the melted butter. Roll each muffin in the cinnamon sugar blend.

ENJOY!! (i promise you won't be disappointed!)