Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Another foggy day on the island, at least as our morning started. It was trying to brighten up on the eastern horizon but we were not going to hold our breath! I am starting every morning by checking my phone for text messages to find out if we may have visitors arriving on the island and this morning a text was waiting for me from USCG. They were bringing a crew by boat mid-morning to trouble shoot the main light and stage more equipment for the fog horn upgrade.
I was so excited, guests with appetites! First thing I thought of was what could I bake them for a coffee break? Final decision – Cinnamon Roll Muffins. This recipe was a big success this winter in the mooring field in Vero Beach, FL where we spent the winter on our sailboat, Scout. I would wake up in the morning, bake a batch of muffins and dinghy to the surrounding boats to go along with their morning coffee. Brian complained he tried to fix the light and he didn’t get anything special, and I have the USCG coming out and they get homemade muffins. I set the coffee pot up, mugs out, hot muffins on the plate, I was ready to meet these guys.
They arrived as we walked down to the beach and the next thing we knew there were 4 guys in orange on the beach carrying a lot of equipment and their boat was tied up to a mooring. The crew out of South Portland spent the morning working on the main light, double checked the emergency lights and batteries, gave Brian some secret handshake information on ways to resolve the light problem in the future and yes, they ate my muffins. I even rowed the dinghy out to the 2 boat guys and gave them a thermos of coffee and some muffins. I love this job! Hopefully they will be back soon to finish up the fog horn repairs, it may take a few days to complete. I offered to feed the crew while they are here, already figuring out the volume of food you need to feed 4-6 young men. I may need to up the provisions over the next few Wednesdays to be ready for the invasion.
The rest of today has been completing a few blog posts, crossing off small tasks from the to-do list and drinking hot tea to keep the chill out.
Cinnamon Roll Muffins
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Don’t use muffin papers, the papers will not peel off the muffins (experience talking here).
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
Topping and Filling
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
3 tablespoons melted butter
Frosting
2 oz. cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
A dash of vanilla or maple syrup
Mix together the topping/filling ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the muffin dry ingredients together, combine the wet ingredients until well blended and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
Fold in ½ of the topping/filling into the muffin batter.
Spoon about ¼ cup of the batter into the pre-greased muffin tins. Top with remaining topping/filling, gently press down on topping to adhere it into the batter.
Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes, and gently remove muffins to cooling rack.
Combine the frosting ingredients. Spoon into a small baggie, twist closed and push frosting into a corner of the baggie, snip a small hole in the corner and pipe the frosting onto the muffins. Best if served warm or they can be microwaved for 10-20 seconds to reheat.
Guests today – 0
Guests total – 27
US Coast Guard – 6
East winds, calm-8 mph, overcast, 48 degrees outside and a toasty 65 inside
