Rules and Muffins

Even though Porter's seventh birthday is still several months away, he still wants to talk about his birthday party pretty much all the time.  This will be his first year hosting a sleep-over.  I'm really happy about this coming of age event as it cuts down the number of guests and hassles by quite a bit.  So tonight during the discussion, I asked him who he wanted to invite.  He named all of the usual suspects.  And then also a girl. 

Now.  I first want to say that I'm very pleased that Porter has come around to girls.  He went through a sort of anti-girl phase during the last couple of years where anything even remotely pink was met with a tantrum.  He wouldn't admit to being friends with girls or even wanting to be around them.  Girls were gross and stupid.  This year, he actually admitted that girls are kind of sort of pretty nice.  We even had a couple over for a play date along with another boy.  One in his class taught him the secret to swinging really high, and he sung her praises for weeks.  It's been nice.

So I'm glad he would want to have boys and girls over on his birthday.  But there definitely seems to be an unspoken rule that girls and boys don't spend the night together, even at this age.  Porter has been to a number of sleep-overs, and they've always been boys only.  I'd feel weird having a girl here with a bunch of Porter's farting, burping, Star Wars, Lego head friends.  And I'm sure it wouldn't be okay with her parents either.

I told Porter that only boys could spend the night.  He asked my why.  I told him it was just a rule, that girls and boys didn't have sleep-overs together.  He asked me who made that rule.  And I told him I didn't know, but that's how it was.  Not a very good answer, but really the best I had given his limited knowledge.  I suppose he'll get it soon enough.  But when did my boy get old enough that I have to keep girls away from him?  It's all happening very fast.

And speaking of girls.

 
Also, now that fall is here in force, I'm feeling more of an urge to bake.  I made these Apple Strudel Muffins last week, and they were fantastic.  My kids, although they love apples, will not eat baked goods that have chunks of fruit in them.  It must be a texture thing.  The apples in these are shredded, and basically disappear during baking.  The taste is still there though, perfect for this chilly weather.  We polished off the entire batch in one afternoon with some small help from my next door neighbor and a couple of Porter's friends.  Yum.

Apple Strudel Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 apples, peeled and grated

for topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease a muffin tin.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl.

Beat together softened butter, sugars and eggs until smooth in a large bowl.  Mix in vanilla.  Stir in apples.  Add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined.  The batter will be thick.  Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.

In a small bowl, mix the topping ingredients.  Sprinkle over the mixture in the muffin tin.  The topping will spread, so just add it to the middle of the muffins.

Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  These are great while still warm though, so don't let them cool too long!  Enjoy.