So I did. Three days later, the Bishop waded through our boxes, enjoyed a piece of my son Daniel’s birthday cake, and called me to be the Relief Society president.
“How do you recommend I go about choosing councilors and a secretary? (In the Mormon Church, (more properly called by its name, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”) we have a lay ministry, so nobody gets paid anything for Church work.)
He gave me a list of names and said to call all these women and say that the Bishop recommended that I get to know them, since I’m brand new. All seven of them were strong, capable women with strong desires to serve the Lord.
My councelors were Carla and Tracy and my secretary was Kathleen. All three of them proved to be good friends, faithful in Church work and insightful of human nature.
The only way I could see to manage the task of setting up the huge visiting teaching network that must include every woman in the ward, (well over 100), was to visit them all. We divided into twos and got started. One woman on our list had been offended by someone in the Church and had asked not to be contacted. Carla said, “I’ll go see her. I’ll just take her some muffins.”
Carla had a delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe. (find it under “magic pumpkin muffins” in the archives of this blog) She took some to the woman, and the woman explained what had happened but invited Carla to visit her again. I soon realized that Carla would arm herself with muffins and go to anyone, despite how unwelcoming they seemed on the surface. We nicknamed Carla’s muffins, the “magic muffins.”
The wonder of it is that Carla’s attitude, “Who can shut the door on muffins?” is absolutely true. Muffins are just different enough to pique the recipients sense of friendship. They’re non-threatening and they’re not as cliche as cookies.
Recently, I had surgery to remove a broken bone from the ball of my foot. When Carla heard about it, she showed up with a nice dinner and a plate of muffins made from a different recipe. These are so healthful that they’d heal just about any hurt. I think the world needs this recipe, too. Arm yourself with the shield of faith and the sword of Muffins!
Carla’s Magic Healing Muffins: Preheat oven to 400
1/4 cup milled flax seed (I was out of flax seed, so substituted 1/2 cup navy bean flour I had ground in my wheat grinder. This upps the protein.)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(I added 1/2 cup of rolled oats, but the recipe didn’t call for it.)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples. (I left the skin on)(raisins would work too)
3 TBLS vegetable oil
1/2 cup of milk (I added a little extra because of the extra dry ingredients.)
1/2 cup chopped nuts. (I didn’t have this many, so they were skimpy)
Mix well. Batter will be thick. Fill muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake at 400 18-20 minutes. (Works fine to double this recipe) As it is, it makes a generous dozen.
My substitutions and additions worked fine, and everyone enjoyed them. (the originals were delicious, too) I served them with ham and bean soup and since I doubled the recipe, we’ll have them for breakfast, for a couple days, too. (Note: Navy bean flour makes any the raw batter taste funny. That goes away when baked) I estimate these have about 150 calories each. Flax seed has omega three fatty acids and are super high fiber. These muffins have a serving of whole grain, about half a serving of fruit, and with the beans and milk, they also have a nice shot of protein. Super nutrient dense! Enjoy!
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