blueberry morning

Well, we did it.  


We survived one night camping with a 9 month old.


Actually, I think he quite enjoyed it. Don't you think?

But sleeping in a tent with a baby who is used to sleeping in his own crib in his own room, and actually expecting to get a good amount of sleep is not entirely reasonable.  So I didn't expect to get much sleep, and I got even less than I expected.  

Shea used to sleep in our bed with us up until about the time he was 4 months old, so I thought that it might be kind of nostalgic and fun...but now he takes up so much space in the bed and and won't fall asleep unless absolutely nothing is touching him - he even seemed to know if I was looking at him.

However, he made up for it by sleeping through the entire night when we got home,  so all is forgiven.

And I felt so refreshed this morning, I made muffins for breakfast.

MMMMmmm. Don't those look good?  They were.  I enjoyed every bit of their savory and slightly sweet, blueberry goodness alongside a homemade latte, and my husband.

I tried out a new recipe with these, and I loved it so much, I thought I would pass it on.  See?  I'm not so mean as to show you a picture of mouthwatering pastries and then not give you a way to go and make them.  (Although, I suppose your diet might think I'm a bit mean at this point).

My mother gave me a copy of this book in the last year or so:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Simple-Recipes/dp/0028610105

Its a great book.  There are hundreds of recipes I haven't tried in it, but so far every recipe I have tried has been a success.   I love the way the recipes are structured, because the author goes from introducing the basic recipe and then adds several of his own variations to it.  This makes it very easy to add whatever I might have in the kitchen and still have it come out well without too much guesswork involved.

Here's this super-simple recipe (these literally only took 20 minutes to make and bake!) with my blueberry variation added.

yield: I like to use my 6 jumbo muffin tin to make these, but you could probably get 12 out of a regular muffin tin.

Ingredients:

Dry:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2. tsp. baking powder*

wet:

3 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil (I used oil)

1 egg

1 cup milk

Fruit:

1/2 c. blueberries

*I find very often that recipes for biscuits/muffins put call for too much baking powder for my taste.  I don't like to taste the baking powder in the final product, and they will rise just fine without overdoing it.  I automatically add less than the recipe calls for - orginaly, this one called for 3 tsp. 

Directions

• Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl; whisk to get everything mixed evenly.  
  I always get excited - yes, I know I'm strange - when a recipe calls to mix the sugar in with the flour, because it automatically works as a sort of sift for the flour for you when you whisk it).
• Mix wet ingredients in a small measuring cup or bowl.
• Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients in.
• With a spatula, fold wet and dry, without over-mixing.
• When flour is 'wet', add blueberries and give a few final folds of the spatula.
• Divide into muffin tin lined with baking sheets.
• Bake in a preheatred 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Insert a knife or toothpick to check the inside.  Leave in muffin tin for about a minute to cool, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Sit back with some coffee or tea and a loved one and enjoy!