Bake and Blog: Eh. Close Enough.

My grandparents grew up in the Great Depression.

Cutting the cake at their anniversary celebration. Photo credit: Adriane Heins

They also were married for 65 years before my grandpa passed away last fall.

Photo Credit: Adriane Heins

My grandpa Heins was a hoot. A hard-worker. A resourceful farmer. A strong, Christian husband, father and grandfather.

Then again, my Grandma Heins is a hoot, too. She used to say, "Grandpa's got the brains, and I've got the body."

Anyways, my grandparents grew up in the Great Depression. Obviously this helped frame who they were and dictated how they did certain things.

For example, when my grandma sent over cookies to our house, she always sent them in a cereal box and bag. You know, wash out the bag in which the cereal came and cut out the back of the cereal box to create a holder.

This also carried through to her baking. You cook with what you do and don't have on hand. If you wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies but had no oatmeal, then you'd just make raisin cookies. Or if you had an excess of watermelons that were overly juicy, then you'd make watermelon juice. (Don't try that one, guys. Just don't.)

She hit quite a few winners though. And when she would, my mom would ask her, "Can I have that recipe?"

My grandma would give her this look:

Photo credit: Adriane Heins

And then she'd just laugh. She didn't use recipes. She grew up in the Great Depression, you know. And well, honestly, she's just a darn good cook.

So I've always strived to cook like her. Little bit of this, little bit of that. And there you have a masterpiece.

Although in my case, it usually ends in a catastrophe.

Like yesterday for example. Joel and I were getting ready to leave for a friend's wedding in town and I wanted coffee for the drive. So I turn on the Keurig, grab my to-go coffee mug, throw in a K-Cup and stick my mug under spout.

Next thing I know, I'm yelling, "JOEL! Oh dear. This is bad. Very, very bad. Oh dear."

I didn't take off the lid of my to-go mug. We now have coffee-stained carpet. It's kind of like tea-stained paper..right?

Anyway, I went a little baking crazy this weekend.

Falling apart muffins are like deformed M&Ms. You just gotta eat 'em.

Actually, we just had 3 overripe bananas.So, first I made these chocolate chip banana muffins for Joel. Because without fail, every time I make them, after Joel takes the first bite he yells, "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABE." And then sinks back into the couch (which he wishes was a recliner), closes his eyes, and has a quiet moment for the muffin. I think this means he doesn't hate them.

Also. Speaking of bananas.

So two bananas were used for the above mentioned muffins. We still had one banana left, and I had just bought some craisins and whole wheat flour at the store. So I googled "Whole Wheat Banana Craisin Muffins."

I found "Whole Wheat Carrot-Raisin Muffins" instead. And I thought, "Eh. Close enough."

My first mistake was the carrots.

It calls for 1 cup carrots, shredded and peeled. Does that mean you measure out 1 cup carrot sticks and then shred them? Or does it mean you have to shred a full cup of carrots?!

I decided to shred 1/2 cup. And I thought, "Eh. Close enough."

Then you mix together the dry ingredients.

It calls for:

2 cups whole wheat flour

I used 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 measuring cup with part whole wheat and part all-purpose flour.

1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

I used 2 mounding teaspoons.

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

And then I also added baking powder because if you're going to put something in the oven, it ought to rise. Except I don't remember how much I put in anymore.
And I also added cinnamon because...it's cinnamon.

Then, you mix together the wet ingredients.

It calls for:

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

I just used one of those cute little containers.

1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup honey

I used 1/4 cup for two reasons. 1) I can't imagine wasting that much honey! and 2) My 1/4 cup was already dirty. Ain't nobody got time to wash more dishes. Close enough, right?

1 tsp vanilla

I used however much was left in the bottle. Hopefully this means I'll remember to add it to the grocery list.

2 tablespoons orange juice

We have apple juice. We used apple juice.

Next, add the carrots.

It was at this point that I realized the recipe didn't call for bananas at all. AKA the whole reason I was making this second round of muffins in the first place.

Sigh.

I decided to just Grandma Heins it and call it close enough.

Finally, mix it all together and add in your craisins (or raisins). The recipe calls for 1/2 cup. I don't have a clue how much I added.