I never was really a fan of blueberries until a few years ago. Perhaps because I never really had fresh blueberries off the bush. We had fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries and I loved them. Blueberries I could do without. Then, we moved to Louisiana and they actually have pick your own blueberries places here. The first time we went, I had no idea what to expect. I was so excited to find how easy they were to pick – no bending over like with strawberries. And they tasted so good right off of the bushes. I was hooked. So now, every June, the kids and I make at least a couple of trips and pick until the kids fuss too much about the sweat dripping off of them. The other day, that amounted to 45 minutes of picking which gave us about 3/4 of a bucket and cost a whopping $5.40. That might have bought a pint of them at the store. Boxman went with us on Saturday morning. It had rained some so it was cloudy and a little cooler. We ended up with a couple of buckets worth for $13. Did I mention how much I love blueberries now that I’ve had the fresh stuff?
So, we have been eating lots of blueberries. We have made and devoured 3 batches of muffins and had them in pancakes for fathers’ day. Yummy. We’ll eat some more fresh and I’ll make at least a couple of more batches of muffins. I’m known for my blueberry muffins around here. I always get at least one call or e-mail in June from someone who has lost the recipe. I went to the dentist for a cleaning once and the hygienist informed me that she had my blueberry muffin recipe. I didn’t even know this woman outside of the dentist office! Because I want everyone to enjoy blueberries as much as I do, I’m going to share the recipe here. And if you don’t have some fresh berries available, feel free to use some frozen ones – they are almost as good. If you are on a diet, perhaps you should just eat the plain blueberries and forgo the muffins because things that taste this good are not good for you.
Blueberry Cake Muffins
- 1 3/4 c. blueberries
- 3 c. flour
- 2 c. sugar
- 1 T. baking powder
- 1 stick butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 c. milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla (I prefer Mexican vanilla, but use whatever you have)
- 2 T. melted butter
Put flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl and mix well. With your fingers, squeeze butter into flour until it crumbles into pea-sized crumbs. Put 1 cup crumbs aside. To remaining mixture, add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gently stir in blueberries. Fill paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Drizzle melted butter over reserved crumbs and toss with a fork. Sprinkle crumbs on muffin tops. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350. Makes 2 dozen muffins.
Filed under: tae kwon do
I don’t go looking for jobs, they just find me. Unfortunately, none of the jobs that have found me have paid much. This one included.
We went to taekwondo last night and the owner/senior master called me over to talk. He asked me if I wanted the good news or the bad news first. I chose the bad news of course. The bad news was that you can make a lot of money in that business. He’s Korean and doesn’t always make a lot of sense, so I had no idea what he was talking about. He then told me the good news was that he had fired the program director that had only been there for 2 months. Of course that was leading up to him asking me if I would like to do it. I won’t have to pay for our classes anymore, I won’t have to pay for my testing (but still pay for the kids’ testing), and I will get a commission based on every student that signs up. Oh, and any karate gear I can get at his cost. In return, I will have to answer phone calls, set up appointments, show up for the white belt classes since that’s when new people sign up, make id cards, enter their information into the computer, and set up billing. He will provide me with a cell phone and a laptop. Besides actually showing up at the white belt classes to sign up the new people, I can do the rest of the work at home at my convenience.
It’s the summer and I don’t have much else going on so I said yes. However, I did warn him that if it was too time consuming and interfered with our lives too much when school started, that I might not be able to continue doing it. I figure that gives me time to get it down to a system and see how much work it really is while giving me that easy out come fall, if I need it.
Filed under: family
I’ve been following the flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I am shocked to see the pictures of the city. I was born there, I have family that lives in CR and nearby towns, and my parents, brother, and sil all happen to be visiting there right now for my cousins graduation and Eagle Scout Court of Honor. I can’t quite decide if I’m happier to be here rather than there right now. The last time I was in Iowa was last year for my cousin’s wedding. They had a huge ice storm while we were there. Perhaps it’s better that we stayed home this time. After reading up on the flooding, I was compelled to call my parents yesterday just to check up on everyone. Fortunately, the relatives I have in CR are either on high ground or the north side of town where they will hopefully be able to stay dry. I was mostly worried about my grandma who lives in a nursing home, but she is okay.
I saw the pictures of Quaker Oats and the railroad bridge. It brought back many memories of going with my grandpa in Big Red, as we called his truck, to take some grains to Quaker. We would usually chew our Big Red gum on the ride into town. Now, we will have higher cereal prices to look forward to as repairs are made to the building and railroad bridge. Never mind the fact that there are many flooded fields which won’t be producing as much this year.
I also had to check out the island that is home to the city hall, court and jail. Wow. It looks like some buildings sticking up out of the water.
I think the people of Iowa should be proud of themselves for how well they are handling the flood. I only keep reading about how many people are helping and working hard to try to protect their city. I hope the waters recede soon and the city can start to recover.
Filed under: Uncategorized
We have a birdfeeder right outside the kitchen nook which offers us a great view of the birds. It generally brings us joy looking at the birds out the window. Last night as we were eating dinner, I looked out the window and let out a shriek. There, sitting on our birdfeeder was a rat! I hate rats.
As much as I hate them, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the little thing. I guess the safety of having a brick wall and glass windows between the two of us made me feel safe.
Apparently, scooping up the seeds that were on the bottom of the feeder weren’t enough for the rat. He decided to start eating out of it like the birds do.
By this time, I was really wishing we could get out the bb gun and take care of it. Eh, maybe the 22 would be better….
