Blueberry Muffins

I'm sooooo behind on any craft posting.  I'm trying to get caught up...on life.  Hopefully I'll get a few projects I've done around here posted soon!  Here's a start. :)

My kids told me they wanted blueberries in their lunch last week.  Everyday their lunches came home with blueberries untouched!  So, I stopped putting them in and decided I'd bake something with blueberries instead.  I did a quick search on my Big Oven app (love it) and found this yummy recipe for blueberry muffins.  It was a little more involved than I was expecting but everyone enjoyed them!

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh blueberries (picked over and rinsed), divided

1 1/8 cups sugar plus 1 teaspoon

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz) Unbleached all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

2 large EGGS

1/4 cup unsalted butter - melted and slightly cooled

1/4 cup Vegetable oil

1 cup Buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

4 teaspoons turbinado sugar

Preparation:

Place oven rack in upper-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray standard twelve-cup muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray: set aside. 

In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine one cup of the blueberries and one teaspoon sugar and bring to a simmer. Use a spoon to smash berries and stir frequently while cooking until berries have broken down, mixture has thickened and reduces to about 1/3 to 1/4 cup. Remove pan from heat; set aside and let cool to room temperature. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Sprinkle a scant tablespoon of flour mixture over remaining cup of blueberries and toss to coat; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining sugar and eggs until mixture is pale yellow, thick and fluffy. While whisking, slowly pour in melted butter and oil and mix well. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until completely incorporated. Using a spatula, gently fold egg mixture and remaining cup of (flour coated) blueberries into flour mixture until just incorporated. (Batter should be lumpy with some small sprays of dry flour still visible; DO NOT overmix.) 

Using a portioning scoop or large spoon, distribute batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should fill cups and mound slightly). Place at least a teaspoon of cooled berry mixture in center of each batter-filled cup, and gently push it below surface. Use a bamboo skewer or large toothpick to gently swirl berry mixture into batter to spread concentrated berry flavor throughout muffin. Sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over batter. 

Place in oven and increase temperature to 425 degrees F. Bake muffins until tops are golden and just firm (or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean), about 17 to 19 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time for even baking. Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, cool 5 minutes longer, and serve warm. Muffins will keep for 2 to 3 days in an airtight container.

The cooked blueberries on top

then swirled

Baked and ready to eat with bacon, of course!

Enjoy!

Kool-Aid Play dough

I remember when I was a child my mom made homemade play dough for my brother and I to play with.  I have no idea what recipe she used but it was a lot of fun to play with.  I don't know a child that doesn't enjoy playing with play dough!

February was my month to bring play dough to my daughter's pre-school class.  I'll be honest, I've never made homemade play dough before.  We've always had the store bought kind so I've never gotten around to making it.  Last week I had a note on her bag with a recipe.  We went to the store and picked out a few flavors of Kool-Aid (which my kids have never had before!).  My daughter wanted to make hot pink and she chose red for her brother.  We also picked up light pink but haven't made that one.  It was a lot of fun to make!  However, my daughter was slightly disappointed when when "hot pink" looked exactly like her brother's red.  Oh, well.  Live and learn.

Recipe for Kool-Aid Play dough

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 packages Kool-Aid
2 cups boiling water
3 tsp oil

Mix Dry ingredients
Add oil and boiling water

Play!

**I didn't read closely and did not notice it said 1 cup of salt.  I barely had enough salt to make two batches.

This play dough smells good, too. :)

Let's make Whoopie!

We all know that Valentine's Day is coming up so why not turn something round into a heart?!?  With a little extra time and effort you can make heart shaped whoopie cookies.  They turned out really cute and the kids love them!

Here's what I did (recipe at bottom of post):

After the dough sat in the fridge overnight (because we ran out of the time the night prior) I used powered sugar to "flour" my rolling pin.  I took a little out at a time and flattened it on the parchment paper then used a heart shaped cookie cutter.  After I laid them all out on the sheet I dusted them with powered sugar.

After they baked and cooled I used a pastry bag to put the filling on one inside of the cookie.  Make sure you have a lot so it goes to the edges when the two cookies are closed.

 Press the cookies together but not all the way.  You want to leave some space between the two.

Lightly press the edges into sprinkles or your choice of decoration.

Indulge! 

 To go along with the heart theme we had heart shaped French Toast for dinner.  I only do this on nights my husband is out of town.  The kids love it!

Whoopie Cookies

Cookies:
1 3/4 flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used natural b/c I had it on hand)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1 /2 sticks) butter, room temp
1 egg

Filling:
1 cup plu 2 TBL powdered sugar
3/4 (1 1 /2 sticks) cup butter, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
sprinkles or your choice of decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350 (do not preheat until after your dough has chilled and you are ready to actually bake!).   Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa and salt together.
3. In a standing mixer bowl beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add egg and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients into butter mixture and beat until blended.  Refrigerate the dough for an hour or longer.
5. Using dough, scoop 1 tablespoon of dough out and roll into smooth balls.  Place the balls onto the parchment paper at least 2 inches apart.
6. Using the bottom of a flat glass, flatten each ball of dough into a 2-inch round circle.
7. Bake until they do not look wet, or for about 11 minutes.
8. Cool on tray for 5 minutes then cool completely on rack.
9. For filling: place the butter in a standing mixer bowl and beat until smooth.  Add powder sugar and beat until blended well.
10. To assemble: Spread 2 heaping teaspoons of filling evenly over flat side of 1 cookie to edges.  Top with another cookie.
11. Roll cookies in sprinkles or other decoration.

This recipe is adapted from the www.kidscookingco.com.  We made these over Christmas there with peppermint filling and rolled in crushed peppermint.

Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie, especially during the winter.  It's a perfect week for chicken pot pie here since it snowed and all!  Another reason why I love chicken pot pie - my kids will actually eat vegetables.  This is a yummy recipe that is pretty simple.  You can doctor it up any way you'd like to your family's preferences.

Here's the original recipe given to me:
1 5oz can & 1 10 oz can of Hormel Breast of chicken - I always cook two breasts in the oven...none of that canned stuff in my house!
1 TBL butter
1 can cream of mushroom (98% fat free)
1 can cream of chicken (98% fat free)
1/2 cup milk
1 can green beans, drained
1 can carrots, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 cup frozen shredded potatoes (hash browns)
1 box Pillsbury All Ready Pie Crust
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Stir everything together in a pot and heat for 20-25 min. on med. heat.  Stir occasionally.  Spray pan (round or 11X7) with cooking spray.  Put one pie crust on the bottom.  Pour mixture onto crust.  Put remaining crust on top of mixture.  Poke with fork.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

My favorite extra ingredient:

I've added rosemary before and tried all kinds of different spices but this is the one I like the best.

Last night I tried to be fancy and lattice the top.  I found that I'm not fast enough with my lattice skills.  The dough was getting too hot on the mixture before I could get all the pieces lined up.

Enjoy!