A day late and a few kernels short

I'm behind, as usual.  I actually managed to make this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe on Sunday.  Jill of My Next Life picked the Corniest Corn Muffins for us to make this week.  I took pictures that I was happy with.  And then Monday rolled around, and I had to work.  Work has been nuts.  It was all I could do to come home and get kids showered, fed and put to bed before I collapsed myself.  Tuesday was worse, since I got home late.  But thankfully today was better.  I managed to escape from work a few hours early.  (I'll more than make up for it when I work on Saturday.)  I was able to go get a massage.  I knew I was tense, but I didn't realize just how knotted up my neck and back were.  Make that, still are.  I really need to go back once my sore muscles recover from today.  The trick is going to be finding the time.  I also got to pick up the girls early, got all the other stuff done early, and actually got them to bed early.  Amazing.  That allowed me to have a fairly relaxing evening.  I even found the motivation to write this post and make pizza dough for tomorrow's dinner.  Obviously I need to put my children to bed early more often. =)  (Easier said than done, most days...)  So what sort of things do you all do to alleviate stress?  Especially when you don't have much time to do anything that isn't absolutely necessary?

The recipe says that these are the "corniest."  Mine are not, since there was no way that I was going to put whole corn kernels in my muffins.  I tried that once before when making cornbread, and determined once and for all that I prefer my corn muffins with just cornmeal.  Aside from leaving out the whole corn, I didn't mess with the recipe very much.  I used canola oil rather that corn oil, since that's what I have on hand.  I didn't add the optional nutmeg, though I may do that next time, since I do like it.  I substituted creme fraiche for half of the buttermilk--I have a bunch that I've been trying to use up.  My favorite corn muffin recipe uses sour cream and milk, so I figured it was worth trying a combination of creme fraiche and buttermilk in these.  I used my #16 disher (which holds 2 ounces, or 1/4 cup) to portion the batter and ended up with 9 muffins.  (I assume my yield was low because I didn't add the corn.)  I baked them for 15 minutes at 400ºF.

The verdict?  As Brianna likes to say, these were okay, but not my favorite.  I think the use of creme fraiche was good.  But I think that I didn't bake the muffins long enough--they needed just a few more minutes.  The muffins seemed baked, but a bit gummy in the middle.  I should really give the recipe another try, especially since I've read lots of rave reviews.  But even if the muffins turn out better, I'm not sure they'll take over the top spot as my favorite corn muffin.  (I really need to blog about those one of these days.)

If you'd like to give these a try for yourself, either with or without corn kernels, you can find the recipe on Jill's blog.  And to see what everyone else did this week, check out the Links.