I have been crazy busy lately. Partly professionally — my very good friend (and coworker) Ariel just gave birth to a very adorable little boy. Since she’s now on maternity leave, the office has been a bit overwhelmed lately and some days I feel like I’m struggling to stay afloat. She is also part of my sanity at work, so even though it’s only been a week, I have really been missing her.

But I feel just as frazzled in my personal life too, though (at first glance) it’s harder to understand why. I still have my nights off, and spend most of them by myself. Except for my once-a-week TV and dinner date with Oliver. And my usual Saturday cooking shenanigans with DB. And spending Sunday with my husband. And trying to cook, clean, lay in the sun, garden, work out, do laundry, and write this blog. Hm.

So I guess I needed a mental break — hence my rather sporadic writing schedule lately. The good thing, was on this break, I made muffins. Delicious lemon poppyseed muffins.

These (only slightly) sweet little suckers have been stuck in my mind since I saw them weeks ago on Small Talks (click on her blog for the recipe!). They looked so perfect and I hadn’t made muffins in so long — I was basically powerless to resist them.

The original recipe is from Cooks Illustrated, a favorite resource of mine, so it’s no wonder these turned out so lovely. I liked that they weren’t cloyingly sweet which helped make for a guilt-free breakfast the next morning.

Since I actually made these on the Fourth, I decided to be nice and make a bunch of mini muffins for my sure-to-be hungover co-workers. After I gave them a layer of icing, I decorated them with red sprinkles and blue raspberry Pop Rocks. I wanted them to be cute and festive, but was worried about the berry taste from the Pop Rocks. That worry was in vain though because I thought they turned out pretty tasty. And they were gone within minutes, so clearly the office staff agreed!