So far 2008 is shaping up to be way better than 2007, but the end of last year did see something pretty great: Treat Street! Cooler than a bake sale, cheaper than a pastry shop, Treat Street is a traveling bakery that occasionally pops up around my neighborhood, bringing with it delicious treats with a sense of humor. Their most recent sale was in early December and featured holiday-themed goodies (cupcakes decorated like reindeer!), autumn/winter flavors (chocolate cake glittering with pomegranate seeds, pumpkin cookies) and other assorted yumminess.

I came home with a bagful: a coconut-chocolate bar, an eggnog cupcake, a pumpkin-chocolate cookie and nature's greatest hybrid...the duffin. A cross between a donut and a muffin, it's the cinnamon-sugar-sprinkled lovely in the foreground. You may notice there is a bite taken out of it. That's because on the walk back home, peeking into the paper bag, I couldn't resist its sparkly charms and took it out to take a giant chomp while waiting at a crosswalk. It was totally worth it. Is it a fried muffin? I do not know. But I'd love the duffin no matter what it turned out to be.