Over the years I have experimented with and refined my method for berry muffins. This is the recipe I use almost exclusively, and I find it is adaptable to most summer berries you will come across. I find that using active yoghourt (AKA yoghurt, yogurt, or yogourt - either homemade or a good store bought variety) is the key to the fluffiness, moistness and balance of flavors (the sourness offsetting the sweetness of the fruit). Using the fake yogurt, that is the yogurt with gelatin or other artificial thickeners, will not work anywhere near as well, in my opinion.
This recipe yields about 2 ½ to 3 dozen, depending on how full you fill the tins. You could stretch it out a bit if you wanted them a bit smaller, which is nice for a bite sized snack.
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BLUEBERRY YOGHOURT MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 ¾ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ stick shortening (butter or margarine)
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 ¾ cups active yogurt
- 2 cups berries
- Cinnamon sugar
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
- Grease 3 dozen muffin tins (or use those new fangled muffin holders, although I prefer baking in bare tins as this makes for better flavored muffins and easier eating).
- Mix the flour, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix the shortening, sugar and salt, then mix in the eggs.
- Add the yoghurt to the shortening mix. Stir well.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir only until moist (to avoid stiffness).
- Lightly flour the berries if wet or juicy (sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of flour and toss gently - this keeps them from clumping, especially with fragile raspberries).
- Gently fold berries into the batter. Be sure to fold rather than stir to avoid totally crushing the berries.
- Fill muffin tins about half way to ¾ way full. Vary this for different sized muffins. The baking time will not vary greatly.
- Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool in tins for a while. Gently loosen each muffin with a dull blade and continue cooling on a rack.
- Voila.
I almost always forget to sprinkle them with the cinnamon (just as I always spell cinnamon wrong – cinnemon is what my fingers want to do and I never can get it right the first time – and even my corrections are wrong as I search for the correct combination of double N’s and vowels). My children have to remind me now. I have told them I will forget and they always wait to see if I do. I still do.
It has been raining, pouring, or something in between for the last ten days and promises to do so for another week (despite today’s sunny blue morning – we had a very nice cold front move through at dinnertime last night). I know this has something to do with the good berry harvest this year, but I suspect it is a bit more complicated than that. We have had a good combination of temperature, sun and rain since the blossoms appeared, and these have all contributed in one way or another.
A week ago we were out and found some nice blueberries, but most were not ripe yet. Yesterday, despite the rain, we went out into the woods again to a great spot we know, and I was flabbergasted. The berries were better than I have seen in at least 5 years.
The berry season around here is fairly continuous, and goes something like this: Wild Strawberries for a few weeks in June; Red Raspberries in early July, with the Black Raspberries a week or so behind; Blueberries, depending on the elevation, from mid June to August; finally, Blackberries appear in mid August and last until after the first frost – I have picked them into late September. This year the only disappointment so far has been the rather sparse strawberry crop. There is one spot in our woods, a mossy little glade, that offers the best wild strawberries year after year. I so not know why this one spot is so different, as it seems no different than all the other spots sporting thousands or strawberry plants. Whatever the reason, though, this is the spot that will have hundreds of berries at a time when we are lucky to find 5 or ten together anywhere else.
So we have two gallons of blueberries, and the raspberries are still coming in by the pint if we bother to pick them. So what to do withthem all other than eat them by the handful? I will post some of my perennial favorite recipes soon: the best pie, pancakes, muffins and cakes, along with anything else that I remember.
And the Blackberries are teasing us, not yet ripe but green and plump with anticipation.
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Tags: blueberries, blueberry
For the past couple of years I have used Blogger for all of my blogging and online websites. About 18 months ago I began migrating to fully hosted domains, starting with my bookstore, Zephyrus Books.
When I started my newer website, Old Book Art, I needed to find a hosting company that allowed for lots of disc space for many large image files, lots of bandwidth, etc. I ended up using Dream Host (www.DreamHost.com - these links have me listed as the referral source) which, along with many other reliable hosting companies, offers huge amounts of both. They are always running good deals (I got my first year of hosting plus a domain name registered for about $10 - a discount of $100 or so). I’ll pay full rate starting in my second year, but the rates are still very good, $5-10 per month if you sign up for a few years in advance.
So, with the space available, and the ability to host unlimited domain names, all that remained was to build new blogs. I already owned the domain names, which I had been redirecting to blogger. So, I am finally getting around to doing it.
Blogger is great, and I found it easy to use. I like having a real domain name, though, not a domain.blooger address. Using a better program like WordPress also allows for a better look and more flexibility. I would design my own blog if I had the skill, but I never will.
Dreamhost offers what it calls One Click Installs, which is exactly what it sounds like. There are even different levels of this. For example, WordPress (which I am using here) is available in simple or advanced mode. Both are equally easy to use, but advanced mod allows for a bit more flexibility once the program is installed. I am using advnaced mode, as the Theme I am using here (Cutline, by Chris Pearson) is not one of the many offered in simple mode. You can not add themes in simple mode, but they offer plenty of great varieties. Simple Mode will also be updated for you when new WordPress versions are released. I believe you need to do your own updating for the advanced option.
The other blog I moved there also used a theme not available in simple mode (xMark, by Lisa Sabin-Wilson). I have used the simple (Easy) version of WordPress for other sites, though, along with the other Easy installations the offer for ZenPhoto, phpBB, and MediaWiki.
I chose Cutline mainly because of the 3 column layout and the ability to rotate image through the header. Otherwise, a lot of WordPress themes are available and very easy to use.
Tags: applications, blogs, platforms, themes
Originally Posted April 2007
Today was one of those mornings we could sleep in. Which, as anyone with children knows, means past 6:30. Which, as we also know, means that because we can, we won’t be able to.
Our son, who is slowly learning not to wake us up just because he is awake, could be heard shuffling around in his room. Well and good, we can work on the “do things a little more quietly please” later. At least he is not standing beside our bed begging us to get up and turn on the light for him.
So, he pads heavily down the stairs. He comes back up. His little brother wakes up and goes back downstairs with him.
All hell breaks loose. “Dad! Dad! Dad! I smell something burning in the kitchen.” They come running upstairs, shrieking. “There’s a smell of burning rubber or something in the kitchen. Is the oven on fire?”
How do I know if the oven is on fire? I ‘m supposed to be sleeping. But I dutifully rush downstairs in my drawers to solve the mystery with my usual parental calm. Then I smell the burning rubber smell. Not quite as wholly debilitating as a tire burning on my kitchen, but definitely off, and certainly not a normal wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee kind of aroma one would which to associate with a vacation morning. Unless you are following a Ford Pickup down a steep mountain hill on a vacation morning. A Ford Pickup that is dragging a huge vacation home, the driver of which has never heard of low gear and who is pressing the brake all the way down the mountain.
Speaking of coffee, I get some. Luckily it is not the coffee pot element burning out, and the timed coffee maker has finished its cycle so I can pour a cup while I try to figure out this smell. By this time the whole family is standing there, all of us sagely remarking how this smell is definitely not a good thing. We give a sniff test to all the appliances, and even to the new, odd, rubber-esque toy my younger son got for his birthday yesterday. Nope, nothing smells strange. Other than the air in the room.
Then, over the sink, one of my new CFL’s goes, in approximately this order, “flicker, flicker, sputter, flicker, sputter, sputter, POP!”
(A CFL is, for those of you who are not trying to save the world via your home energy choices, a “Compact Flourescent Lamp.” For those of you who are trying to save the world and also know how to spell, a CFL is a “Compact Fluorescent Lamp.”)
“Hmm…Let’s turn off that light switch” I say to nobody in particular, and to the situation in general. There’s no smoke, the circuit is off. I can go upstairs and drink my coffee, while I boot up the computer to see whatsup.
Whatsup is that these CFL’s have some “product performance issues” which are not, um, fully discussed on the packaging. Not only do they “fail” more frequently than to be expected, they do not always have the full life that is indicated on the package. But, most concerning, the method of failure often involves nasty smells, inappropriate heating, smoke, melting plastic, and other tings that make me wonder whether I am really saving the planet.
The bulb I was using had its ballast overheat, and the lower end starting to discolor and smell. I think the pop was the internal fuse giving out, which is a safety feature to prevent, oh, house fires and other actionable consequences.
Advisory aims to allay fluorescent bulb fears
Shedding light on compact fluorescents
Now, anything in the world that is in anyway debatable will get a healthy share of nut-jobs ranting on about the evils of this or the benefits of that, so when surfing the web to find information you need to be cautious. These sites, however, brought home for me a few concerns that on the surface at least seem valid. The usual line is that every CFL can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant, or something like that. How many burn out prematurely, though? How much more energy does it take to make each bulb? (They are heavier and have many more, and more complicated, parts.)
I am still going to use them. The light is not bad, I like my lower electric bills, and I really do think they are a good thing. But I certainly have taken pause, and I need to find out more information on any true safety issues that these present.
Original Post May 2007
This morning I saw a turkey, presumably a female, possibly looking for a place to brood. I hope she chooses well, for last year she didn’t (if it is the same one, that is). Please, please find a better spot.
This is not just because turkeys are neat to have around, although they definitely are. Birds of New York by Elon Howard Eaton (1910)
Just the other day my boys, 5 and 7, re-discovered the nest she had last year. Unfortunately, last year’s brooding spot was altogether too close to the house (only about 100 yards or so, and actually fewer than 75 feet from our garden). Thus, she was (unintentionally) scared off the nest more than a few times by us or our dog. We tried not to, but there was really nothing we could do, skittish as she was. At first, when we didn’t know she was there (and afterwards, even) we were lucky not to break an arm as we leapt back in fear as the huge, frightened and angry mother-not-to-be burst forth from her cluster of high grass and grape vines.
So, the boys re-discovered the nest. 14 eggs, still there from last year. Well, what would you do with an egg if you were 7 years old? That’s right (They know not to disturb incubating eggs, and were aware that these were abandoned and dead).
Actually, the 7 year old stopped when I saw his intentions from where I was working 100 yards away in the front yard, from where I screamed for him to stop. I had to scream two or three times, but he stopped. Ideas are harder to stop though. The 5 year old, who had not thought of it on his own, carried to fruition his big brother’s idea. I screamed again. He wouldn’t stop.
I could hear the explosion from where I stood. Not a cracking noise. Not a breaking noise. An explosion. An explosion of the pent up gasses and putrid contents of a 12 month old abandoned and rotting turkey egg.
To his credit, the 5 year old only puked a little bit. His mother and brother gagged and stumbled from the scene. I swear I could smell it from where I stood. Something splattered on his hands and clothes. Something from inside the egg. Now, when they tell the story they refer to it as when he got liquid baby turkey all over him. If that sounds disgusting that’s because it is.
The moral? Go break any abandoned eggs in the autumn. I assumed a fox, coyote or something would find and dispose of them, but I was sadly, sadly mistaken.
Original Posting March 2007
We have in the field below our house a nice flat glacial erratic, just the right size for a family of four to gather with blankets and sleeping bags on starry nights.
How is it he keeps the night, God?
Alone, in universal space.
Is his the loneliness of time?
And being. Night defines his place.
- excerpt from Ursa Major, in In the Bear’s House
Tags: Books, poetry, stargazing, stars
Originally Posted October 2007.
Well, I’ve had some requests for the originals of the Wallace pictures. I cannot post the originals as they are all 10 MB or so, but I started a new website, OldBookArt.com (go to http://www.oldbookart.com/Wallace_Adirondacks/index.html)where you can download these and other old images for free. For the most part they are 1 MB or less in the large version, and I have posted medium and small versions as well.
I will expand what I have posted there as I get the time. The first ten or so Wallace pictures should be up within a day or so of this posting.
Originally Posted July 2007
Ever since I started scanning pictures such as the Lean-to shelter from Wallace’s 1875 Guide to the Adirondacks (posted earlier this year), I have started loading them to websites so they can be reproduced as framed prints, postcards, note cards and the like. I have a dozen or so such as the above scanned form Wallace so far, and will start working on other public domain, 19th century works soon. I have edited out some of the worst of the tears and stains. Soon, I think I will put together some images on calendars and maybe even some composites on old maps. They are great drawings of local scenes from Saratoga to Ausable Chasm and Wilmington’s High Falls Gorge to Mount Marcy, John Brown’s Grave, Placid Lake, and Sawteeth Mountan.
