Well, good on the United Kingdom for protecting all wild birds, even ones that are a nuisance. Taking a parking space! The nerve! Claire

Ahhh, glad you like it. I have the electrician here today, he is roughing in as he calls it, for the new electrical box, setting the masthead for the power line which comes in from the street. Our old power supply line barely clears the corner of the sun porch roof, which is against code. This time it will be much higher, with a fairly tall masthead. All the (four) old electrical panels inside the house will disappear into one 40 slot breaker box mounted outdoors on the side of the house. Eventually, when we do some work on the driveway, we'll put the service underground from the power pole at the street. We have no need for a wired phone line, although we do have a wired cable service and wifi for internet. The stucco guy is almost done except he'll be back after the electrician does his work to touch up, and to repair the stucco on the fireplace chimney. The flashing on that and the cap is in the hands of our roofer....who is not here today, since we are awaiting the arrival of the new shingles. DH wanted the high quality UHD architectural shingles, so for those we wait for 25 squares to be delivered by truck from GAF somewhere. We have a GAF factory here in Mobile, but it makes another type of roofing....when I was a kid, it had huge bales of old comic books to process for roofing (Ruberoid was the factory name then), and my brother and his friends would jump their fence and pilfer for comic books. We always had plenty to read! :) Also, I made contact with the A/C people, the ones I've done business with for a long long time and I trust them, so they will give the contractor their estimate to do the new ductwork for this job. As quickly as they responded I have a feeling the job is not too small to interest them. They did the whole shebang for my MoccasinLanding house in 1990, including total ductwork and heatpump. and the electrical work for 200 amp service. I know they do good work. Well, my best friend is coming to get the old cabinet handles and knobs, she can use them in her rental house. I will also ask her if she wants the old back door, which is glass with blinds in the middle. It was sized to fit the small doorframe of the old backporch which had been enclosed, and we need 36 inch doors now.

I like Glenda's Refrigerator Bran Muffins. You mix a huge amount of batter and it keeps in the refrigerator for 6 weeks. You can bake just one or two, and have fresh muffins every day. I also like the Malt-O-Meal muffin recipe that is printed on the box of cereal. And lastly we all enjoy the Peabody Inn Vanilla Muffins recipe that I found in an article that said people drive from far and wide for these muffins. I will look up the recipe and edit it into this message. Here's a recipe I found online some time ago. I could not resist seeing what a muffin that is called a Dirt Bomb tasted like. Since I still have them in my computer, here is the recipe: Dirt Bombs Yields: 12 muffins* 3 cups all purpose flour, minus 3 tablespoons 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 cup whole milk ** Topping *** 3/4 cups unsalted butter, melted 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon Preheat oven to 400º F. Place the rack in the center position. Generously grease a 12-cup standard muffin pan. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cardamon into a mixing bowl. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down half way through. Mix in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk in two additions, mixing gently by hand to incorporate all the flour. The batter will be on the stiff side, but airy. Don’t over mix or beat the batter as this will make the muffins tough. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, without smoothing the tops. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. As soon as the muffins are cool enough to handle, turn them out onto a wire rack. Add the melted butter to a bowl. In another bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon. Dip the muffins (top, sides and bottom) in the butter, using a pastry brush -if necessary- to cover areas not buttered by dipping. Immediately roll the muffins in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Serve warm or at room temperature. *I've made this twice, and both times, this recipe has yielded 16 muffins instead of 12. **I substituted whole buttermilk for whole milk because I always have it on hand and prefer it for baking. *** The amounts listed for the sugar and cinnamon are not quite enough to coat all the muffins, so I recommend you double it. _______ Malt-O-Meal Magic Muffins 1 1/4 c flour 3/4 c Malt-O-Meal 1/2 c sugar 3/4 c milk 1/4 c vegetable oil 1 egg 1 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt Heat oven to 400 degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and stir together till all are moistened. Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. 1 doz. _____ Peabody Inn Vanilla Muffins 2 c flour 1 c sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 2 Tbsp melted butter, cooled 1 c milk 1 egg 1 1/2 tsp vanilla Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins well. 1) Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into large bowl. 2) Add melted butter to milk and egg. Beat to mix well. Add vanilla 3) Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour milk mixture in all at once. Stir with fork only until moistened. Do not over mix or beat. 4) Quickly spoon batter into muffin cups filling each slightly more than half full. 5) Bake 15 minutes for mini muffin pans; 18-20 minutes for full size muffins. Remove immediately from pans and serve hot. 12 regular muffins or 30 minis. These muffins have a lovely hint of a crunchy exterior when you bite into them the first day. That crunchiness disappears if you have left overs for another day.

I also have some Calphalon pans like the one linked by Tish, and they are very nice pans, heavy and well made. My favorite muffin pans, though, are Wilton Elite, because I like the handles on the end, they are much easier for me to hold when removing the hot pan from the oven or turning/adjusting a pan when it's hot. They've held up well and are cheaper than the Calphalon. I have 6 cup pans, 8 cup pans, one very old 9 cup pan, 4 or 5 of the 12 cup pans, mini muffin pans, cast iron muffin pans shaped like kittens and cars and fish, muffin top/whoopie pie pans and regular popover pans. Yeah, I've got a lot of pans, from the merging of Elery's kitchen and mine, LOL, and my on-line auction habit of buying pans for a dollar or two. I usually use paper liners with cupcakes but not with muffins, for reasons that I haven't even thought about until now, habit mostly, I think. I did have some silicon muffin pans and they were OK, but not my favorite and I got rid of them. The silicon bundt pan? That was the invention of the devil, I'm convinced, horrible thing! Annie