On July 3rd, I got an early morning phone call informing me one of my best friends, Audrey passed away from a heart attack. I was devastated. Audrey and I texted all day everyday about everything from family issues to how annoying it is when a contestant on Chopped would say they don’t like an ingredient or think an ingredient is disgusting. It is irrelevant. Its the contestants’ job to make a delicious meal out of the ingredients in the basket period. I miss Audrey every dang day.
Audrey and I met through her blog, Lady Melady My Castle, My Food. I was looking for waffle recipes to adapt for my new waffle maker and she had loads of them on her site. I commented and she answered, back and forth, for awhile. Then Audrey said something that made me think she lived close by. Turns out she was only about 90 miles away. We very quickly agreed we had to meet.
Audrey drove 90 miles on a bitter cold February day to meet me at Starbuck’s. I was kind of nervous. I mean what on earth would we talk about one we exhausted the food and blogger talk? Turns out I didn’t need to worry about running out of food and blogger talk we did that for hours and hours, right up to the time she died. And right from the start, we had so much more in common then food and food blogging. We had similar tastes in books and movies. We both thought Jeffery Dean Morgan is one of the sexiest human beings on the planet, although I am the only one who got to meet him and get a hug. We just clicked from the very first moment we met.
Audrey was supported me in all things, from quitting my job of 13 years and starting over someplace else to buying more tea when I already had enough because it was fun and didn’t hurt anyone when I started drinking tea regularly and enjoying it. She was excited as I was to get a new tea package in the mail. Audrey’s first text of the day was always, “What’s in your cup today?”
One of many special things about our friendship, is when I got stuck on a where to go with a recipe adaption or had random things to cook I could always text her and bounce random ideas off her and she would add her ideas to the pot and between us we would come up with something for me to make. One of the last things we were working on was a recipe for mango muffins. I think Audrey would have been pleased with the final product I came up with.
Mango Spice Muffins
1 1/2 TBS canola oil
1 cup flour
2 TBS sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp Chinese 5 Spice powder
3 TBS lightly beaten egg
3/4 cup diced mango
1/2 tsp vaniilla
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 6 muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together the egg, milk and oil in another bowl. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and combine the ingredients swiftly, but gently, until the ingredients are just moistened.
Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling them about 2/3’s full and handling the batter as little as possible. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before taking them out of the tin.
A Cuppa And Conversation 