Got a freezer full of blueberries? How about some muffins? Make these, they truly are fabulous (maybe not quite to die for, but pretty darn good). I made them without the crumb topping and just sprinkled some demerara on top of each. Extra good on a lazy Saturday summer morning with Crowded House playing in the background.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins
Doctored from http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins/
Makes 8 supposedly; I made 6 hefty ones in the large tin; or double it and make 12 tall ones (regular tin)

Muffin Base
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 cup white + 1/2 cup whole wheat)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup fresh or frozen (do not thaw) blueberries

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Combine vegetable oil, egg and milk in the measuring cup. Add wet to dry until just combined; it will be thick. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture or with demerara sugar.

For crumb topping: Stir together sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. (Bigger muffins take about 25 minutes--but watch for browning)

My Dear Brother,

Good luck with this!

Xoxo,
Your Sis

My Dearest Book Fiend,

Well we can't deny it any longer: you're growing up. Not only are you now taller than me (which we always knew would happen, but...damnit!), you're dealing with oppression, starvation, manipulation, savage combat, and a pretty romantic love triangle.

Luckily it's all within context of a fictional future: the world of the Hunger Games.

I just finished reading the first in an exceptional trilogy by Suzanne Collins (also author of the fun Gregor the Overlander series). It is by all means a real page turner. After you get over the horrific idea that teens are forced into mortal combat for the sport of it, you just can't stop yourself from reading juuuuuuuust one more chapter at 2:30 in the morning.

And in the end, what can I say? I'm totally on Team Peeta.

What I'm enjoying most about this series so far is that it's got exceptionally strong characters, not weak, whiney, heavy breathing, dull twitty, vampire, werewolf characters like some other series that made me spitting mad. The Hunger Games has just enough "girly" to make your eyes flutter a bit, but enough grit (hello arrow through the jugular!) and determination to make you hitch up your boots and feel like you too could go skin some rabbits for dinner. I'm going to be sorely disappointed though if while reading this series I have to wade through 200 pages of a teenage marriage followed by a little too much detail of the honeymoon, resulting in the birth of a vampire/human child with a horrible name. Just sayin'.

To be honest though, it sort of snuck up on me how quickly you, Book Fiend, have moved on to reading about such heavy themes. I guess I keep wishing you were back in the lovely rosy-golden reading world of the 4th grade, where the most you can wonder is "what in the world did they do to those rats of NIMH?" and "what DID Lucy find there?"

Then I remembered that when I was in middle school, I was making my way through Shakespeare's comedies, trying to shake the image of Sir Gawain's head being split open by a broad sword in T.H. White's Once and Future King, was happily creeped out by Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, and began to sneak into my sister's room to read her hidden trashy romance novels.

Ah, the wonder years.

Anyway, now that I'm coming to terms with the fact that dystopia is your new BFF, I can see how it jives with your sudden interest in spaghetti straps and why you think it might be cool to paint your walls black. You're a pretty smart and determined young woman with great taste in reading matter and I look forward to getting more reading suggestions from you in the future.

So can we trade now so I can read the second book, please?

Your loving and similarly book-obsessed aunt,
Y

Dearest Kitchen Pantry,

Well, my attempts to keep you well-stocked have not been in vain. Today--a choreful but lazy day full of Doctor Who, new Crowded House, laundry and jam-making--you allowed me to create the best impromptu dinner I've ever had.

For starters we had manchego with rosemary croccantini paired with Working Girl White. Following that, we had seared scallops on herbed greens with green peas and pistachios (kudos to the Freezer for hanging onto all those things--who knew they'd go together so well?). For the main course we had a homemade eggplant mushroom tart/quiche with a rosemary pâte brisée crust (special thanks goes out to the new Food Processor, you are my new BFF! You've turned anytime into Pie Time!). And for dessert we ate our new honey raspberry jam over creme fraiche gelato, our second bowl of the day, and a great way to recover from the dryer and oven working overtime on a summer Saturday.

Thanks Pantry, we make such a great team!

Dearest Yola,

Congratulations on having your job extended another year! We know how worried and sleepless you've been lately, fretting about your employment status and whether you'd have to move away from your family, friends and beloved city. It's been a huge stressor, and that's why you've been tired and irritable and so obsessed with baking lately. The baking lets you concentrate on a simple recipe and come out with sugary goodness at the end of it. So yay on the job front! Another year to get lots of experience and endear yourself to your coworkers with your technological mastery and winning personality. Go you!

But just so's you don't go feeling all high and mighty about yourself, we're gonna go ahead and have your car towed on this lovely summer solstice and have you pay $145 to reclaim it. After all, you still have a job, and you can afford it.

xoxo,
The Universe

I escaped the naked bicyclists this weekend and headed east where the rain had stayed away and left me to pick my 12 pounds of strawberries in peace. It was rather blissful...that is until I stood up and felt how tired my back was. I probably could have kept going, but decided 12 pounds is enough for now. The squirrel in me is quite gleeful at present but knows that there's always room to stock up more for the long winter ahead.

At home, I made Lady Susan's honey strawberry freezer jam. It's gonna make toast so much more exciting!


Then I decided to try something I've been thinking about forever: vanilla pastry cream. The bakery up the street, Honore, makes these wonderful pear danishes with vanilla bean cream that makes me want to cry, they're so good. I think the last time I ate one was a month ago, but I keep thinking about that cream, flecked with those teeny tiny beans and with such a creamy texture.

So I broke out my new food processor to make Clotilde's mama's pâte sablée for tart crusts (crust recipe can be found here). I made one large tart to share for Father's Day and 6 tartlettes to hog for myself. Try tossing in a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon with the flour, it's quite heavenly.


I topped the crusts with this vanilla pastry cream. The cream is a lesson in patience as you wait for that milk to boil, but at least this recipe doesn't involve hot water baths or straining. It thickens pretty quickly, even on medium, so keep whisking and watch it closely. I think the best advice is giving it a whir with the immersion blender. It silkens it up even if it starts to get a little too thick. After I'd chilled it in the fridge overnight, I went to spoon it into the crust and it came out like jello. I whirred in some warm milk with the blender and it came out silky again. I'll have to try it again to see if I can get the consistency a little better. It was wonderfully tasty though, either way.

Throw on some berries, artistically if you're going to present it to family and friends--or like I did the moment the cream cooled, pile those berries on willy nilly and eat it standing at the kitchen counter while your eyes roll back into your head and you experience nirvana while strawberry juice dribbles down your chin.

Hello summer!

Dear World,

I am such a procrastinator. But you knew that already. Just don't tell the people that I just sent my resume to. I'm trying to make myself look good.

Wish me luck!
yola

It's been awhile since I've posted here. Busy in some ways, preparing for baby showers and imminent arrivals, but also just without much to say. It's mostly been same-old-same-old around here.

I have been thinking a lot about my food habits lately though. Especially a couple of weeks ago when I did not cook for myself for an entire week: I was feeling incredibly lazy and didn't want to clean out my rotting fridge, therefore the kitchen was off limits the entire week and I ended up spending a fortune eating out everyday (but yes, it was pretty yummy). Then the guilt descended and I cleaned and have been trying to strategize how to avoid having that happen again in the future.

The fact is, a lot of my food gets wasted. I buy produce, cook with about 3/4 of it, and eat only 3/4 of it, and the rest goes inedible. I'm not at all good about planning what I eat during the week, I tend to go with what seems tasty at the moment. I usually get home around 7 or 8 at night, so cooking dinner is not something I'm too keen to do, or I do a rush job and end up eating pasta and broccoli, which isn't bad, but isn't great either. But what with summer trying to make its way to the Seattle area, and all that producey goodness just waiting to be had at the farmer's market, I want to make better use of my food and look forward to doing it. Which means I have to start planning it during the weekends.

I have resolved to (A) buy most of my food at the farmer's market on Sundays. I have a fantastic farmer's market in my neighborhood every weekend year round, and I can afford to do so and I feel good supporting my neighbors and buying locally. I have also resolved to (B) plan at least 2 dishes a week, which usually translates to lunches and dinners for almost the entire week. (C) I will still allow myself to buy coffee in the morning, and lunch occasionally. I understand that I am lazy and weak and that changes cannot happen immediately overnight. (D) I will host friends for dinner more often! This I think is a brilliant plan because it forces me to cook, it forces me to clean my apartment, and it allows me time to hang out with friends: all very good things indeed.

Dinner this week: I just made a pot of emmer risotto with orange peppers, saffron, and spring onions, which went deliciously with my wild salmon and the ubiquitous broccoli. (No photo, as I scarfed this down immediately upon completion, I was so hungry). This should feed me for at least 3 more meals. Also on the menu this week: baby bok choy with peanut sauce and brown rice and maybe shrimp. And some leftover pancit that my parents made yesterday, yum.

I have a new niece! She was born on Friday morning, a bit ahead of schedule. She's pretty darn adorable. When she frowns she looks a lot like my sister did when she was a baby. It's going to be a fun summer, I think, playing with the new family member and making cute things for her. My brain is already packing a list of things I want to try to make....

Welcome Smalls!

Eeeeeeeek! Neil and company will be back this August! Eeeeeee! Who's
coming with me? http://www.frenz.com/crowdedhouse/

I'm home again, lounging on my couch in my pjs on a Saturday afternoon, listening to the rain come down, and munching on cantucci dunked in espresso. I've been home for a week and wake up each morning thankful for my warm cushy bed. See, hotel beds are for the most part not especially cushy, not if you can't afford a 4-star hotel. But that doesn't matter because you did not travel halfway around the world to spend it lounging in bed, now did you? A spartan hotel room encourages you to get out and see what you came to see. This for example:



This was the view from the terrace of Albergo Bernini in Siena. In fact you could see the Cathedral (shown above) as well as San Domenico, where St. Catherine's head is displayed on an altar (umm, kind of creepy actually), and St. Catherine's Sanctuary (aka her childhood home) was right below, next door. A lovely medieval Italian town laid out below. And even though the room was kind of meh with paper thin walls, and the water slowed to a tiny trickle during my shower in the shared bathroom across the hall, it was a charming kind of place, with kind people and great coffee.



I chose to spend the evening in Siena based on the recommendation of Mr. Rick Steves, my guide to all things European. Although in this case, at the beginning of April, it wasn't that interesting after all the crowds went back to Florence. I meandered the tiny streets, and I one point found myself alone with a stranger on a tiny lane that made me nervous, so I turned right around and marched back up the hill. That was the only point in 10 days of traveling alone that I felt remotely unsafe, and I trusted my feelings and pulled myself safely out of the situation. But that was probably the most exciting thing that happened in Siena. In the shoulder season, it's a sleepy little medieval town. I imagine in the summer, Il Campo is a vibrant and fun place to hang out and just relax:



So Siena was just so-so. The following morning I hit a few more museums, and packed myself onto a bus to Rome. It was a 3 hour ride, during which I slept, made friends with an Italian man who spoke no English, and watched the rolling hills of the Italian countryside. It was actually quite nice.

Back in Rome, I found my hotel (which was sort of a lame hotel, despite being recommended by RS--apparently I got an old room, which was on the 1st floor (American 2nd floor), but the hotel front desk was on the 4th floor, and I had to ride a rickety old elevator to get there. They had a really nice breakfast terrace, but unfortunately I left before breakfast time. I set out for one last passegiata, one last gelato (tartufo and chocolate/wine, deeeeeeelish!) and one last dinner (a Napolese restaurant with portions so huge I unknowingly ordered enough food for a family of four). It was quite nice, though I didn't get any souvenir shopping in, which I had planned to do, but didn't and now sort of regret. What I did get though was priceless: one last sunset on the Tiber and St. Peter's:

1 Comments on So-So Siena and Home Again, last added: 4/17/2010