The Way To A Man's Heart...

Ryan does most of the cooking in our home, but baking is still my domain. I don't make time to bake as often as I once used to. When we were first married, Ryan worked lots of nights and weekends, so I was often home alone. That meant quite a bit of time cranking out muffins, pies, cookies... I really love baking, so I'm not sure how we've parted ways. But recently, I've made efforts to reconnect, to spoil Ryan a bit, and to use my heart-shaped muffin pan.

First, the morning we left for our babymoon, I made these gorgeous Orange Cranberry Muffins. I used the recipe for Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins from this wonderful cookbook, but substituted orange zest for lemon and chopped fresh cranberries for blueberries. They turned out great.

See, heart-shaped.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I whipped up these beautiful muffins and brought a couple down to Ryan at work when I met him for lunch. They are the Chocolate Ricotta Muffins from the same cookbook as above.

When the muffins were cool, I wrapped them in bright bits of tissue, which I nestled into a plain brown lunch bag.

Ok, not stellar pictures, but a fun and very tasty surprise inside an unassuming package. After lunch, Ryan took me around the office to show off the baby belly and I gave him the bag him just as I left for home. These are probably Ryan's favorite muffins. I used to love them, too, but totally went off chocolate a couple of years ago. That said, I still think these are pretty yummy, which is really saying something! And does the heart-shape make the muffins taste better? Well... it certainly makes them more fun!