Coffee Cake Muffins

It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life. ~ JRR Tolkien

Hello everyone! Our little Island is still dealing with the aftermath of Dorian and there is debris and fallen trees everywhere. Everyone is working hard to get things back to normal. However, as of this week, power has been restored to the whole Island which is good news!

We live a simple life here. We are an island that opens our doors to tourists and other visitors and in the summertime, there is an influx of folks coming to soak up the sun and the festivities that PEI offers. It is a little paradise really and we love our lives here. When there is a disaster such as we suffered a week ago, we all pull together and support one another.

Having said all of that, I pray we don't have another storm like Dorian for many, many years!

Today I'm sharing my Coffee Cake Muffins recipe as some of you asked me to share it. This recipe comes from the "Company's Coming" cookbook which I have had for years.

Coffee Cake Muffins
1-1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Put flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.

Beat butter, sugar and egg together well. Mix in milk and vanilla. Pour into well. Stir to moisten. Spoon part of the batter into greased muffin tins 1/3 full. Sprinkle spice mix over top. Spoon rest of batter over the top filling 2/3 full. Bake in 400 degree F oven for 20 to 25 minutes. I usually bake them for about twenty-one minutes. You will have to use your own discretion depending on your oven. Yield: 12 muffins.

Spice Mix
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 TBSP flour
1 tsp cinnamon
In a small bowl combine all ingredients. Stir together well. Sprinkle it over batter as directed above.

I should have taken a muffin and cut it in half so you could see the streusel inside but Hubby left not a one for me to show you. So, you will have to take my word for it. These are very good and are a lovely accompaniment to your tea or coffee. A simple little treat to enjoy even in the lunch box. Enjoy!

Have a lovely week, dear friends, and thank you for stopping by.

Life is like a camera...
Focus on what's important
Capture the good times
Develop from the negatives
And if things don't work out,
Take another shot. ~ author unknown


Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

We Survived. Now Let's Have Tea!

Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder 

Hello dear ones! Well, we survived Dorian but it was a bit hair raising to say the least! They say it was the worst storm we've had here since Hurricane Juan in 2003. As a post-tropical storm, Dorian's strong winds and heavy rain covered a larger area. The result was much heavier rain and more wide-spread destructive winds on PEI compared to Juan in 2003.

Three of a dozen dear little gold finches at the feeder two days before the storm arrived. I had to snap the picture from inside the house and zoom in between the spindles on the deck. I am using my son's zoom in lens for this picture otherwise, it wouldn't have turned out well.

My yellow begonia before the storm. It also survived because we put it in a safer place before the storm hit.

We fared very well compared to Nova Scotia and especially those poor folks down in the Bahamas. All around us, people lost their power but we didn't. Nor did our basement flood which we were afraid of. Nor did we lose our beautiful maple tree out in the front yard or the trees in our back yard.  But some folks up the street lost some trees. There is destruction all over the Island so I know Someone above was looking out for us!

Cavendish, which is part of our National Park, lost 80% of their trees and there is tree damage at the sight of where LM Montgomery grew up. The storm is over but cleanup will take weeks all over our beautiful Island.

There is not one blade of grass, there is no colour in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. ~ John Calvin

At 1:15 am on Sunday morning, the wind banging the back of the house where our bedroom is and the lights flickering off and on woke me up. I couldn't get back to sleep after that so I laid there and prayed for protection on our home and our neighbourhood. No one in our neighbourhood lost their power but the neighbourhood on the next highway over did. Our son lost his power for a while so we had them over for coffee and muffins the next morning. 

Some are still without power here on the Island and many damaged properties could take up to a year before they are attended to! 

I believe with all my heart that God protected us because of all the prayers that went up. Thank you to all of you who prayed for us! I was so worried about our basement flooding and our trees coming down but nothing like that happened on our property and I am so thankful!

We have a meteorologist in the family who updated me all through the storm so I knew exactly what was going on before, during, and after Dorian moved on. 

Saturday morning, before Dorian arrived, I had baked some muffins for my hubby just in case we were without power for a few days. Sunday morning we shared them with my son whose birthday was that day and he was without power. They were thankful for hot coffee and muffins that morning!

The muffins actually went over so well that I baked more today. I had not made these muffins before and they are coffee cake muffins with the streusel inside of them. Yum!

A few months ago, I found a new teacup that goes with my Johnson Brothers Devon Cottage china. I said I would share it with you and here it is. 

The cup matches the teapot and the saucer matches the dessert plate which makes it a very pretty set.

The teacup by the teapot is Royal Homes of Britain made by Enoch Wedgwood.

The cup is not a fancy one but it is comfortable to hold and I love that the cup and saucer differ in their pattern.

I am not on the hunt for teacups any longer as I will have to down size in a few years so I'm trying to be smart about collecting. However, I didn't have the matching teacup and saucer to Devon Cottage so how could I resist? I do have a couple of matching coffee mugs though.

That's my update and my share for this week. Thank you for your visit and I pray all is well where you are. Have a lovely rest of the week and weekend!

PS~ I have had a few requests for the muffin recipe so I will share that soon. Thank you everyone!

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

Please Pray for Us This Weekend!

Dear blogger friends,

I have an urgent prayer request. 
Hurricane Dorian is racing up the coast of the US and is heading in our direction this weekend. Hurricane force winds, 75 to 100+ mm of rain causing flooding, and power outages are expected with this storm. 

The birds have been very busy the past few days at the feeders. However, there hasn't been a bird in sight today so that is a clear sign that something is up.

Prince Edward Island, where I live, as well as Carolyn of Aiken House and Gardens blog, and the Atlantic provinces have not had this magnitude of storm in many years. Please pray for our safety and the protection of our homes and properties. I also just heard from Thelma of Thel's Kitchen in the Gaspe, Quebec, and they are also in the path of this storm. So please pray for them as well.

Please continue to pray for those in the Bahamas. Their devastation is heartbreaking! We have young people here who go to our church and UPEI who have not been able to touch base with family members in the Bahamas. So sad!

Hopefully, I will be back soon with a new post.

Thank you so much for caring and for praying. The Lord bless you all!

This lovely Hibiscus plant was gifted to me in memory of my mother last month when she passed.

"Lord, give me an open heart to find You everywhere, to glimpse the heaven enfolded in a bud, and to experience eternity in the smallest act of love." ~ Mother Teresa 

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi