I don't know what it is about snow falling (and falling and falling) up here in horse country, but come the weekend, all I want to do is bake (and bake and bake). Sure, I have a sweet tooth, and so does Jaithan, but out here on the farm, when Hal and Luna are lazily grazing outside the kitchen window and the sheep across the street are ba-a-a-a-a-ing well before breakfast, baking somethIng—anything—just seems like the thing to do. So when the mood strikes, I turn to this book my grandmother Dottie gave me years ago.

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I love old recipe books like this. They're always so full of fun, witty sayings about a time when people really took pride in cooking and baking for their families. These days, most of us are probably so busy, who has time to make everything from scratch? I know I don't. But every now and then, especially here,, when Sunday rolls around and the snow starts to fall, it's Baking Day, and I have a plan.

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The standard muffins in this book were always a favorite of Dottie's. It's a pretty basic recipe, but she always liked to add bananas to the mix. Then she'd toast them and serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce. The Banana Muffin Sundae, she called it. How good does that sound?

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Now I'll admit—I'm a bit of a Collectahollic, and yellowware (a ceramic formed by firing yellow clay lining riverbanks in the Northeast and Ohio Valley) is one of my favorites. Back in the city, it just never worked with all that gray, but out here, with the natural wood tones in the beams and floor, we love it! So with my plan for the day in place, I began by sifting two bananas through a strainer.

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Next, I added all the wet ingredients (eggs, butter, milk, and vanilla) to the banana puree.

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As you can see, I kept all of my sifted dry ingredients separate from the wet, then mixed them in three equal parts, stirring each time between.

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With the batter done, time to fill the cups. Now Dottie, I remember, loved using paper. Problem was, they always did stick a little, but she didn't care. They were just prettier that way! And I agree. Spray them first, and they'll be fine.

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So with the snow still falling and the fire lit, what are you waiting for? Muffins this good ought to be shared.

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