homemade english muffins

today is labor day. usually, we have some big travel plans, but this year, we stayed home. we didn’t even have any big “fix the house” projects planned. and i had a very satisfyingly productive day, checking off little items that have been on my “could do” list for…a very long time. today, i marked off, “transfer addresses to new address book” and realized that most of the addresses in my old book are either a) outdated and no longer true or b) for people i haven’t spoken to since middle school or c) for people i don’t even remember. my new address book is much less full. hey, send me your address!

i also (yesterday) crossed off “organize excess magazines in craft room.” mr. happy stuff cut down the remains of a tree that had been halved by a tornado last year and worked on fixing our homemade tivo. the other biggie for today was “fix window screens.” we’ve had a three-corner tear in the screen of the window right next to our front door that has been there for a long time. i keep expecting the cats to take advantage of it and break free, but instead, the last time ginger escaped, she chose the basement screen to burst through. granted, those are at ground level, so they’re super tempting for a clean getaway…. anyway, i replaced the screen in 3 windows today! woo hoo! we’ll see if the one on the front window holds….it’s a little not-so-taut.

then, there were a bunch of things not on any list that i got done today too! i made raspberry freezer jam, i prepped to make grape jelly tomorrow, i tried out a new zucchini casserole this evening (sort of a lasagna with zucchini instead of pasta), i made some new cute refrigerator magnets, and i made english muffins from scratch. they’re kind of time consuming. they’re a yeast dough, so you have to mix them, cut them out, wait for them to rise and then you have to cook them on the stovetop on a dry skillet, 10 minutes each side. i can only fit about 3 english muffins in my pan at one time and the recipe made about 15 muffins. you’ll want to stick around the house to make these. (quick question for the brits: do they call them “english muffins” over there too?) but i wanted to try making them from scratch because i remembered this one time that granny happy stuff made homemade english muffins. before i’d tried hers, i was pretty convinced that i hated english muffins. storebought ones were dry and kind of sour tasting and bleh. my grandma’s homemade english muffins changed my mind. they were delicious!!! so, i decided to try my hand at this recipe that i’d seen in a magazine once and copied out. the finished product is pretty good! still not quite as soft as i remember grandma’s being (maybe i’ll try a different recipe? maybe i’ll roll them thicker? cook them less long? hmmm….). so, i served them alongside the new zucchini casserole for dinner with butter and garlic powder. mr. happy stuff says, “we’re having english muffins for dinner?” and i say, “yes, i made them from scratch! how are they?” and he says, “tastes like an english muffin.” the intonation here implied, “why in the world would you go to the effort of spending 20 minutes to cook three muffins and then repeat the process 5 more times when you can purchase a perfectly nice package of 6 thomas brand muffins in about 5 seconds?” sigh. i pointed out that he appreciated the difference between a home-brewed batch of beer and a can of miller lite and he said (in reference to the muffins), “it’s not that i can’t tell the difference, it’s that i don’t care.” maybe i’ll just finish the muffins all by myself. anyone else want to try one? i could try shipping a few. maybe with some fresh grape jelly? just send me your address so i can add it to my new address book.