Blueberry Muffins!

While at the market in my neighborhood the other day I saw lots of beautiful blueberries on sale, so I decided to make blueberry muffins!

I've finally figured out the best thing about being a "grown up" and making your own muffins... there's no one to yell at you for picking off the sugar topping! Yum :)

I copied the recipe below. It claims that it makes 8 muffins, but I'd go for 10-12 instead. I made 10, and they still ended up huge. Huge but DELICIOUS! Enjoy :)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Meringues

Today I decided to make meringues because, well, why not? I've always loved these sweet, crunchy, and relatively low-calorie treats but have never made them before. As it was my first attempt, I followed the recipe pretty much verbatim from here except I used superfine sugar instead of granulated. It was really, really simple and a lot of fun! What is really great about this recipe is that it required only four ingredients: Egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and sugar. So though I had to go to Giant this time to pick up some parchment paper, now that I have some, I can make this again at a moment's notice (though admittedly it does take 90 minutes to bake). 

I loved watching the egg white mixture turn into marshmallow fluff! 

I don't have a piping bag, so, as the recipe suggested, I just used a gallon sized ziplock which worked surprisingly well. 

They kind of look like marshmallow peeps. Lined up and ready to be baked!

The recipe made more than 100 meringues of various sizes. They tasted great! The texture was perfect. They are airy and brittle as you bite into them and then simply melt away in your mouth. Next time I might use a little less sugar though because they are a bit sweet, but overall, I think it was a success.

My head is buzzing from a MASSIVE sugar overload.

Just a Dash of Salt and Pepper

A few weeks ago, Esther, Tracy and I went to the Amazing art studio to paint ceramic figurines. I decided not to make yet another mug, so I made some salt and pepper shakers. 

At first glance they are pretty plain. . . 

Until . . . they turn around! Meet Mr. Salty McSalt and Miss Delilah Pepper.

 

Poor Salty looks guilty about something.... perhaps he regrets contributing to our high blood pressure?

Or maybe he's just blue because the spicy Miss Delilah Pepper has been ignoring him.

They've since made up.

YUM!

Poo Cookies

This week I decided to try to make the Vanilla Bean Melting Moments with Caramel Filling that my friend Dani made last week. The recipe calls for a piping bag to pipe the cookies onto the cookie sheet. This was my first time using a piping bag and while it was oddly satisfying to pipe the cookies, after making a couple I realized that this would not work.


Because it looked like poo. Not intentional!! So I quickly added a couple more drops of cookie dough and then it looked like this


Now the poo has ears! I crossed my fingers and sent these cookies into the oven.


BUT something was missing....


No more poo cookies, teddy cookies!

Fated To Pretend: MGMT Cover

The song that came on the radio that almost made me late to work today: A piano cover of MGMT's "Time to Pretend." It's covered by Jonzi, the singer of Sigur Ros. If I could have someone orchestrate my dreams, Sigur Ros' music would be my pick. [Especially Glosoli and Svefn-g-englar before bed]

Bus Stop Jungle!

I had a really happy surprise this morning! When I got to my bus stop, someone had decorated it with giant flowers for absolutely no discernible reason! Everyone stood out in the middle of the street taking pictures while we waited for the bus to arrive :)

It was the only stop decorated on the whole route. Yay for random acts of whimsy :)

Lemon Butter Cookies!

I made lemon butter cookies last week. It's quickly become one of my standby recipes because it only requires a few ingredients, most of which I probably already have lying around. Best of all, it makes 4 dozen little cookies, which is the perfect amount to share!

Lemon Button Cookies
adapted from Food and Wine
makes 4 dozen

INGREDIENTS
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
Zest of 1 lemon plus a few squeezes of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse the butter with 1/2 cup of the confectioners’ sugar until combined. Add the cornstarch, lemon zest and juice, vanilla and flour and process until a soft dough forms. Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into 4 equal pieces.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch rope. Cut each rope into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Transfer the balls to the baking sheet; they won’t spread much. Bake the cookies on the center rack of the oven for about 22 minutes, until the bottoms are golden but the tops are still pale.

Sift the remaining 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar into a bowl. Add 12 warm cookies to the bowl at a time and toss to coat. Transfer the cookies to a clean baking sheet. While the cookies are still warm, poke 4 shallow holes into each one with a toothpick or skewer to make a buttonhole pattern. Let the cookies cool completely before serving or storing.