Method:
? Preheat the oven to 375°F.
? Prepare your muffin pan by greasing the muffin cups or inserting liners.
? Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl until combined.
? In a large bowl, whisk eggs, then add sugar. Whisk the mixture until pale yellow in color, then add melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract.
? Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients while stirring with a wooden spoon.
? Stir gently with a wooden spoon until just a little flour shows.
? Gently fold in apples and cranberries.
? Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. I use a standard ice cream scoop to get the muffin cups filled just right and evenly.
? Bake muffins for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
? Serve with butter while warm for a heavenly treat with hints of fall.
? You can store these in an airtight container for 3-4 days, but they don’t last that long around my house.
Comfort
Starring Georgie and Claire FromThe Orc’s Christmas Romance
Ilook fat at this angle.
Well, I am fat.
I tilt my chin, and the double chin is right there as I look at my reflection in the mirror. How can I have lost ten pounds and gained a chin? That is criminal.
I turn from the bedroom mirror and stop, frozen by the door across the hall from the expansion we’ve built. Under us is my bakery. Above, three more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a den. It’s going to be the playroom, and those bedrooms—the one across from ours is going to be the nursery.
“Baby?”
I gasp in, and it hurts so much suddenly that I can’t breathe. My husband is calling me baby, like he does half the time, and I can only think about a little bundle that I want to hold in my arms, one we haven’t managed to make yet—and maybe we never will.
If we do... It’ll never know my side of the family. Mom is gone. Dad won’t speak to me. Disowned me. My brother thinks I’m a nutcase, and that means his wife and kids are off limits, too.
“Claire? I was going to see if — Honey!”
Georgie barrels at me. A huge green orc in a tank top that pulls taut over his abs and shows off his bulging biceps, and long,thundering legs in butt-hugging jeans... The sight would terrify any man. Women would just drool.
“I’m okay.”
“You donotsound okay. You sound miserable.” Georgie wraps his arms around me and lifts me up, peering into my face. “What’s wrong, sweetest sugar, sharpest blade?”
Ooh, that man. He can work words around like nobody’s business—and only for me. The rest of the world knows him for his grunts and scowls.
But he’ll make the best dad. His dad is the best. His mom. His sister. Her husband.
I burst into tears. “I bring nothing to the equation except a double chin!” I wail.
To his credit, Georgie doesn’t drop me for bursting into tears right in his face. “What? This little extra nibble spot? It’s so soft. And delicious.” He bites down softly on my neck, moving up my tear-stained cheeks, nuzzling me, and leaving little kisses.
“But I bring nothing!”
