Saturday, January 23, 2010

Trophy Wife Blueberry Muffins

This is my favorite mug. Mike bought it for me on our trip to Seaside, Florida, to celebrate our first anniversary. I actually bought the button pin version back in April of 2007 on my legendary bacheleorette trip to Memphis, Tennessee, so Mike knew I liked the symbol. Trophy wife. You know what? Yeah. It fits.


We are each other's trophies, and we both have it made in the shade: he has somebody to feed him and take care of the house and everything that goes with it, and I have somebody to keep me in the state to which I have become accustomed.

It's kind of a Gift of the Magi thing really. Before we married, I asked Mike what he was most looking forward to about marriage. Having been a bachelor for 14 years with only the company of a (very mean) cat, he responded, "Having a reason to come home." So I am happy to make it a point to be home for him every night with supper and his lunch for the next day waiting.

But enough mushy stuff. Sorry if I made any of y'all out there gag.

These blueberry muffins are fan-freakin'-tastic. And yes, I know I'm completely and utterly stuck on Foster's Market. The ingredients are all wonderfully basic and usually found in my pantry. And her methods are solid and time-tested to produce really great baked goods. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of this cookbook, as there are entire chapters devoted to entrees and such, but they are much more fancy for the likes of me.

In other weekend news, Mike is currently out in the yard creating a border for the flower beds out of bricks from Mom's fallen wall before it rains. Since I spent the morning at a fabulous yoga workout and lunch with Asher and the gang, I'm going to shower my trophy self to get ready for supper with Dad and Carrie Ann tonight. Am doing a damn fine job of un-doing all the good work I accomplished at yoga this morning. Then tomorrow Ying and I are shopping for my bridesmaid dress for her upcoming nuptials.

We are also considering where we want to go to celebrate our third anniversary. I brought it up this morning over the blueberry muffins. Mike suggested we "find a haunted bed and breakfast in Louisiana and camp out a while." After watching The Skeleton Key, I'm not so sure about that. It's his turn to pick, and I know how he loves the beach, so I was thinking about going back to Destin, where he asked me to marry him in the first place. Or we could save up some vacation time and head down to Belize, where he has always wanted to go scuba diving. Any thoughts or suggestions would be very much appreciated!



And trophy dog is snoozing on the couch next to me.

These blueberry muffins are the only ones that we've made every day since Foster's opened over a decade ago. That's over four thousand days of blueberry muffins! Our customers demand them; they're delicious plain or with butter. Adding finely chopped blueberries to the batter–in addition to whole berries–is the key to these moist, flavorful muffins. They freeze well, so make an extra batch for hurried mornings.
Makes 1 dozen muffins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons for higher-rising muffins.)
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
¾ cup milk (I use buttermilk for fluffier muffins.)
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries (see Note)


1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Line 12 large muffin cups with paper liners and spray the top part of the pan lightly with vegetable oil spray.

3. Combine or sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

4. Whisk together the butter, eggs, milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a separate bowl until well combined.

5. Place 1 cup of the blueberries in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse several times until coarsely chopped. Stir the chopped berries into the egg mixture.

6. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until the dry ingredients are moist and blended. Do not overmix. Fold in the remaining whole blueberries.

7. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan with a large ice cream scoop (⅓-cup scoop). The batter will come to the top of the paper liner or pan.

8. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

9. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and serve immediately.

Belize photo courtesy of the National Geographic.

1 comments:

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