THEY probablydon't sell it atBuy Buy Baby, and it doesn't appear on a lot of expecting moms' registries, but I think a key piece of equipment for anyone preparing to feed little ones is the mini-muffin pan.

I first bought one of these when my daughter was 10 months old, and I was looking for a way to avoid buying the pre-packaged baby rice rusks sold in stores. If you have ever fed one of these "Mum-Mum" products to a young child, you know how good they are for making glue.

Somehow, the combination of their ingredients reacts with baby drool to create a sticky, messy, hard-to-clean-up-substance that coats your baby's clothes, cheeks, car seat and whatever else gets in its way.

So I made mini-muffins, working in some iron-fortified baby cereal to try to keep nutrients in my little girl during a period where feeding time more closely resembled using a blender with the lid removed.

Mini-muffins are exactly the right size for baby hands, and they're easy to pack for outings. Really, they're probably a more appropriate serving size for all of us than what is often sold commercially.

Have you seen what has happened to muffins lately? There are muffins being sold in coffee shops that could probably feed four people! But I digress As my daughter has grown, my use of the mini-muffin pan has grown with her.

The other night, I was rolling out dough for a quiche. She's fascinated with dough of all kinds and was eyeing the big pie pan, so I told her I'd make her two special "pies" of her own.

I tucked a few dough scraps into the muffin tin, threw in some leftover rice and vegetables and poured over some of the egg mixture from the grown-up quiche.

It was the first time I'd ever seen her eat eggs voluntarily.

This weekend's snow wasn't quite sturdy enough for snowmen, so instead, we made "snowball snacks" by molding Rice Krispie treats in the mini-muffin cups (And that's about as crafty as things get in my house.).