Muffins

 Over the past weekend, I made muffins for my lovely mother-in-law and sister-in-law: cream-cheese-and-raspberry giant muffins.  They turned out pretty.  (I can't eat them, so I don't know how they tasted, but at least they looked nice.) I did enjoy the baking. 

As you may recall, in Days of Yore, I used to make muffins before Friday sparring class for taekwondo.  It was a small act of love, an act of Belonging: these are my people, and I will provide them something small and tasty after the effort of sparring class. Those days are long gone now - the Belonging turned out to be a tenuous camaraderie that fell apart for a multitude of Reasons, and the last straw was the one Monday when I turned up to taekwondo class and found a basket of leftover, half-eaten and neglected stale muffins on the counter. Effort for naught. The end of the muffin era. 

I don't have much of a muffin audience now, and so I only make them as gifts for special occasions and for special people. I knew that these particular muffins would be much appreciated, so I prepared them carefully and with love. 

The secret ingredient is always love.