(everything) wheat germ muffins

A blast from the past: my mom's wheat germ muffin recipe! I'm pretty sure she proudly sent me this to me as a newlywed in 1978. It always tickled her to find new recipes, and she tiptoed into what we called "health food cooking" back in the 70's. I don't think she took to my lentil burger recipe - oh Dad would have gagged - but we learned to make the famous granola together, and then there was this.

When it arrived in the mail, I laughed. Why on earth would I need to make 6 dozen muffins? Or why would I store the batter in the fridge "for up to a month"? But I was 23. What did I know? Four kids and 33 years later, it makes perfect sense. I whipped these up over the weekend and baked the whole bowl of batter, adding all sorts of goodies and voila! My freezer is stocked with muffins for visitors, kids, holidays. (With all the sugar, I suppose it can hardly be called 'healthy' ...)

I was sure mom had put apricots in these muffins, but it isn't included in the recipe. So I threw in raisins, craisins, pecans, and chopped apple. Fantastic! If you're up for a big batch of muffins, here you go. (Though it only made about 4 dozen for me.)

Combine in a large mixing bowl:
4 and 1/2 cups flour (I mixed white and whole wheat)
2 - 1/4 cups wheat germ
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt (or omit)
5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
In a smaller bowl combine:
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk
1 cup oil
Blend into dry ingredients. If it seems too thick, add some water. Then add c/raisins, nuts, apple as you please.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 400 for 15-20 min.
Batter can be stored in fridge for up to 4 weeks.

I'm discovering something curious about recipes and cooking. When I copy recipes, I leave out probably half the directions. I don't need to be told to "grease or paper line" the muffin cups. It's pretty much second nature to me. But then I'm not 23 any longer.

Maybe what's best about this recipe is the card itself. Mom was a typist: letters, recipes, whatever. When she ran out of room at the bottom of the card, she pulled it from the typewriter and wrote "HINT: 2 cups of this batter makes about 12 muffins" by hand. It's sweet to have that after all these years, tucked in my recipe box. (Or jammed on top; that's another post.)

Transfer recipes to computer? Not for me; I'll keep Mom's hand-written cards.