Cranberry Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
• 1/2 cup shortening
  
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped cranberries*

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
   
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, salt and orange peel in a large bowl.
3. Cut in shortening with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
4. Stir in orange juice, eggs, and vanilla just until moistened.
5. Fold in cranberries.
   
6. Fill 18 paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
8. Turn out and serve.

*I don’t chop the berries, but then I use the smaller wild ones.

Self-Indulgence

I finally got all the yard and garden work done for the year, so I’ve given my permission for snow. We’ve had flurries for a minute or two a couple of times this past week, but mostly it’s still all been rain, rain, rain and gloom, gloom, gloom. I’m looking forward to the snow, since I’ve come to believe that the only thing that will make the rain stop is the snow falling.

And I’ve been sick with a cold. So have several other people in the family. We look worse than we feel and we feel pretty rotten, but then it’s hard to look like much with a kleenex dangling from each nostril.

On top of the rain and the gloom and the dangling kleenexes, three of us have been experiencing a fall funk. Not me. I had my yearly low in May and June this year, but still, it’s hard to remain cheerful when everyone around you is dissatisfied with life. Things are looking up, though, and two of the three have taken positive steps toward better things, like new schools and new jobs.

When I first set my blog up on Squarespace, I imported part of the Blogger blog, but was unable to import all of it. I’d like to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over here, and since I’m not really up to more difficult tasks, I may tackle part of that project today and tomorrow, so if you see things in your feed reader that you think you’ve read before, you are probably right.

One more thing: Anyone up for a game of email Scrabble? If you are, send me an email and I’ll set one up. 

Death, being the wages of sin,

why are not the righteous delivered from death, seeing all their sins are forgiven in Christ?

The righteous shall be delivered from death itself at the last day, and even in death are delivered from the sting and curse of it;[1] so that, although they die, yet it is out of God’s love,[2] to free them perfectly from sin and misery,[3] and to make them capable of further communion with Christ in glory, which they then enter upon.[4]

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