Boxcar Kitchen

...are two things that I have started waking up to on a regular basis.

Raspberry current jelly is a family favorite. It was always the first flavor opened and very often the last one hoared in the back of the pantry to be opened only in the throws of winter. The combination of the sweet tart fruit on warm toast was enough to blow away any February storm.The soft pop of the lid was a reminder of warmer days, grass growing between your toes and the hours spent crouched on the ground scouring for fruit that always seemed to multiply by the minute.

Although I adore almost everything current, I do not have a passion for picking them. Tedious, is how I would describe a current harvest and little green worms always seem to make their way into my picking bowl. Currents are best when they are shiny red in the sunshine in a bowl, already removed from the bush. So when my dad called me to tell me that he had sacrificed his Saturday afternoon in the yard picking currents for the Greater Raspberry Current Jelly Good, I was excited and relieved.

Since I wasn't going to be back for a few more weeks, my parents cooked the berries down , pressed them and froze the juice. The actually jelly process was like the passing of the family torch. Prior to this, I had only been on the eating end of things but this time, I was the one hunched over the stove in 80 degree weather - an alchemist of sorts- surveilling the rumbling red fruit under the watchful eye of my mother.

Perfect timing! A muffin craving just in time for Elena's from Experiments Muffin Monday!

Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book makes reading about breakfast feel like eating breakfast. Everything is soft, warm and inviting. Probably one of my favorite recipes is her Last Word in Nutmeg Muffins. The simplicity of the recipe makes it one of those things that you don't necessarily have to get up early to make. For the longest time we just made them straight up. The soft creamy nutmeg crumble left nothing else to be desired.

But then we started thinking like little scientists and our desire to one up got the better of us. What else could we add? My mom and I went through a whole gammet of ideas: apricots, rolled oats, dried cherries, figs, etc... In the end we decided not to mix anything in the batter for fear of weighing it down. The winning combination was coarsely grated coconut on top and turbinado sugar for the sides.

The sugar dusted sides resulted in two delicious surprises. First, the sugar on the tops of the muffins crystallized and was the perfect additional crunch to the toasted coconut. The sugar coated muffin bottoms almost caramelized to form a sticky sweetness. They tasted like doughnuts, little joey bag o doughnuts as we called them, but even better.

Nothing can get you out of bed faster on a cool rainy morning than fresh English muffins. We've had unusually wet weather these past couple of weeks after an equally unusual heatwave. The autumn like chill in the air has brought back a hankering for all things warm and baked.

These oat muffins, sea salt butter and homemade almond butter are the perfect mix to accompany a bowl of Irish oats.