The Holy Grail of Blueberry Muffins

Many years ago I somehow got the idea to google "To die for blueberry muffins" and came across this amazing recipe entitled "To Die For Blueberry Muffins." Funny how that works. I didn't want to dick around with all of the crappy blueberry muffin recipes - oh no no no.... Straight to the "to die for" ones for me! And I mean for god's sake...with a name like that they must be good, right? Right.

Turns out  they are. They are absolutely the best bakery-style blueberry muffin. Lots of loft, just the right amount of sweet. Light and airy but not too much so. Crispy, crunchy top. Bad for you, but "low fat" by Dunkin' Donuts standards. A definite winner.

Here in the great northeast, we're rounding out the end of blueberry season. Blueberries started ripening a bit early this year and the delicious blueberry plants that grow wild all over this area are more or less done producing. At the lake house where we spend a lot of our summer weekends, the grounds are covered in low-bush blueberries, as well as a few high-bush blueberry bushes that grow outside the windows. To top that off, there's an island in the middle of the lake called Blueberry Island that is virtually covered in blueberry bushes.

In the photo to the right, Ein and I are kayaking out to see if there are any blueberries ready to be picked (last year - the island is just to the left of his head, in the distance). This  year I didn't get the chance to go up the weekend the blueberries were ready, but Aj brought home a big Solo cup full of them. We munched on some, but there was still about half a cup left. Combined with almost 2 pints of blueberries I picked up at the local farm stand, I was looking for something to do with these tasty treats. Maine and NH blueberries are wonderful - a lot of times the wild ones are MUCH smaller than the kind you buy in the grocery store. Their flesh is firm and tart yet sweet. They aren't mushy at all like the over-ripe blueberries that often have to travel so far to reach Southern and Western states. They're a real ground-to-mouth pleasure.

So of course I remembered this recipe, which I made without hesitation and was once again impressed by the loft, texture and taste of these great muffins. I didn't use the streusel topping, but if you do make sure to use brown sugar instead of white and don't load it on or the muffins won't rise all the way. Though I haven't tried it, other commenters claim that the recipe is great with just about any kind of fruit substituted...so give it a shot and use what you have on hand! Even though this isn't my recipe, it's certainly one worth sharing.

When you move to a new part of the country there are all kinds of things that get lost in translation. Like "blinker" versus "directional" or the New England classic "wicked". There's the difference between "chowda" and "chowder" and then....there is the New England version of "hot."  Not food hot, but weather hot. See, where I'm from in the dirty south, hot means over 98 degrees. Hot is when you open your car door and your hair singes. Hot is HOT. Here in New England, hot is somewhere between 80 and 95 degrees. Anything over that means you probably shouldn't leave your house.

Now...when I first moved to New England, I knew winters were going to be cold beyond anything I knew, but I wasn't prepared to have winter end and summer begin just to hear people bitching about how hot it was. Really? Two months ago you were sick of the miserable snow and now you're sick of the heat. To me, this was and still is mostly incomprehensible. The only reason winter in New England is tolerable is because of snow (which everyone else seems to hate). This past winter we almost had an entire winter season without snow, and I was not happy. But there's a silver lining in that we also had very few days where it hit the teens and negatives. So now it's summer, and I've got my little garden growing and the days average around 85 degrees, which, for July, seems a little obscene. Like... my home town is enjoying a solid 94 degrees while I sit in a house with only one window unit running to keep it cool.

All I can say is that if this is "hot", I love it. I love being able to walk around without feeling like I'm going to suffocate on the muggy, cotton candy heat of the southern summers. The nights cool down to the low 60s and the days mostly stay in the mid to high 80s. Every part of the country has its own perks, no doubt about it, but I am falling in love with the beautiful (and bountiful!) springs, mild summers, stunning falls and snowy winters of New England.

In fact, this time of the year brings a particularly great New England treat - wild blueberries. In the south, the wild blackberry brambles are absolutely delicious, and in New England the wild blueberries grow bountifully. We have a patch of what's called "low bush" blueberries in our back yard, and it gets bigger every year. The blueberries love the woodsy pine floor of our back yard and they make these tiny, cute little blueberries that are quite tasty and perfect for pancakes and muffins.

For the past two summers, I've made a blueberry tea with the blueberry leaves and about a half cup of blueberries. No matter where you are in the US, if you can get your hands on some blueberry plant leaves I'd recommend this light, antioxidant rich tea infusion. It's perfect for that summer day - whether it's 80 or 100 degrees.

Fresh Blueberry Tea Infusion

NOTE: You'll need to make this the day before you want to drink it.

• A few blueberry stems with leaves
• Half a cup of blueberries
• 2 tbsp local honey
• 1 sprig mint

1.  Boil 8 cups of water until at a rolling boil. Add blueberry leaves and remove from heat.
2. In a large pitcher, crush blueberries lightly with a fork.
3. Drizzle 2 tbsp honey over blueberries.
4. Add sprig of mint into pitcher.
5. After 5-10 minutes, pour the hot water with the blueberry leaves in it into the pitcher.
6. The mixture will look brown the first day, but by the second morning it will be a pleasant reddish blue. Strain (or use a pitcher with a tooth spout) and serve iced. Will stay good for 3-4 days.

A Summer Salmon Recipe

So I won't get into details about why I haven't been posting. Let's just say life's been busy and yadda yadda. Since I've last posted, things have happened (which is good because god what a boring life I would lead otherwise!) Things that have made my culinary adventures more exciting! Things called Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest. What is Pinterest, you ask? Well if you are female and under 50 it is a requirement for your life. It's a giant online pinboard filled with fashion, crafts, home design and yes - FOOD. Great recipes from all over the web and lots of little helpful hints about gardening, cleaning and cooking. So far, I've made many recipes I've found on pinterest and had pretty good success with most of them. Things like Carrot Cupcakes, Avocado Enchiladas, Slow Cooker Tikka Masala, Baked Crab Rangoon and so much more. Yes, Pinterest is the place to be!

Now after all that going on about pinterest, here is a recipe I DIDN'T find on Pinterest! This actually came from a manager of mine for our most recent newsletter at the bookstore. (Readers like to cook!) This recipe is DYNAMITE. Absolutely delicious. Made me come blog after 4 months kind of delicious. Second best salmon of my life delicious. Just delicious.

Grilled Salmon with Mango and Cherry Salsa

Salmon:

• 2 salmon fillets a quarter pound each (I used wild sockeye, skin on bones in)
• Salt
• Olive oil

Salsa:

• 1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded and diced cubed (quarter inch cubes)
• 1/2 cup cherries, seeded and cut into quarters
• 2 tbsp red bell pepper, finely diced
• 2 tbsp red onion, finely diced
• 1 tbsp jalapeno, finely diced
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar if you must)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Heavy sprinkle of cumin
• Light sprinkle of cayenne
• Salt to taste

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the mango salsa, mix and set aside. Let it sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes. Toss before topping salmon.
2. Coat salmon generously in olive oil and salt. Preheat grill to medium high heat (Charcoal - approx 6 inches below grate). Grill 5-7 minutes per side, or until done. 
3. If your salmon has skin, peel the skin off of the salmon before plating and covering in salsa. 

Now THAT is summer cookin'

Pork, Pork, Pork!

There was a time, once, when pork was not something I liked... at all. Needless to say, those days are gone. In fact, after I went through the menu for this week I realized 3 out of 4 dishes included pork. The thing is, pork comes in so many forms it's hard to keep track! Between prosciutto and pancetta and pork chops and loin.... The thing about pork, though, is that it can have a lot of different flavors and that makes it enjoyably versatile.

So far, the two recipes I've made out of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook are really good and will be made again. Our favorite of the two was definitely Fettuccine With Vegetables and Prosciutto. It had a very mild flavor and tasted very fresh. I have to wonder if these recipes made it into the newer edition of the cookbook. The great thing about this cookbook is that it tells you whether the meal is fast, low fat (and includes nutritional counts) and the instructions are quite concise and easy to follow. Plus there is an abundance of photos, which we all know quickly converts me to a cookbook.

Last night, we had Rosemary Porkchop Skillet which was surprisingly quick and easy, though I think that the pork was a bit over-done. (Most likely due to my ridiculous stovetop that knows only two settings -- hot as hell and off) Then later in the night I had some friends coming over for dessert and a chat. I didn't want to go buy a dessert so I figured I would make something I had all the ingredients for. I chose this Crockpot Chocolate Mud Cake recipe. It was a real winner - simple to make, and perfectly hot and delicious when it came time to eat. I served it up with vanilla bean ice cream and it was a big success. I did have to do some research on Dutch-processed Cocoa versus Unsweetened Cocoa and luckily I was able to substitute Unsweetened Cocoa for the Dutch-processed. I imagine it also helped the mellow sweetness that I used milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet. The cake was floating on a sea of melty chocolate sauce. This recipe will definitely be going into my favorite-recipes cookbook. If you decide to make this recipe - put a papertowel under the glass lid of your crock pot before you start cooking. It doesn't affect the cake at all but prevents the condensation from dripping onto your cake as you remove the lid or check to see if the cake is ready.


In other news, my garden is growing! Here is a photo of my first "harvest" (though I did already have my other head of lettuce). My green beans got too much rain and a lot of the nitrogen was flushed out of the soil, so I'm trying to nurse them back to health with some Miracle-gro. I think it's working, but it's hard to say. Luckily I took the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" approach this year and I also have a green bean plant in my in-ground garden as well as my container garden. That one is quite healthy but needs a trellis to grow on.


And take a look at my herbs! The basil plant is a new one, though I am please to say that the one I had written off as dead and decrepit has now made a full recovery and has been re-potted. It's quite persistent! (the one in the small pot on the side) Also growing in my garden this year are strawberries, bellpeppers, green onions, and roma and cherry tomatoes. We've also made a planter in the front yard filled with Impatients and Begonias, and dressed up the side of the driveway with some Day Lillies and ..some other perennial I don't remember the name of. And we've planted and mulched the flower beds and trimmed all the bushes. We're actively trying to intimidate our neighbors by our yard. It's awesome. The only bad thing is that the birch tree in our front yard consistently loses leaves almost as soon as it starts making them. We don't know what's up with this thing but it drives us crazy. It's like perpetual Fall here.


We're happy with our yard this year and so happy to have the "birch circle" as we call it, finished. It's been haunting us with its unfinished-ness since March.

Here's the recipe for Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto - it was quick, mild and delightful. It's fast and low fat.

Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto

• 8 Oz. dried fettuccine, broken in half
• 1 Pound fresh asparagus, bias-sliced into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 Roma tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
• 3 Oz (a little less than 1/4th a pound) of Prosciutto cut into thin strips
• 1/3 C. grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook fettuccine according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook and stir asparagus in hot oil for 4 minutes or until nearly tender. Sprinkle asparagus liberally with salt. Add tomatoes and prosciutto and cook about 2 minutes more or until heated through.
3. Add asparagus mixture to fettuccine and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
   

Trout: Stuffed and Baked with Broccoli

Grilled fish is one of those things that just says "Hey - It's summer time. Live it up." Trout especially reminds me of warm days cruising down the White River in Arkansas catching fish left and right in a canoe with my family. I was never really much for fishing. My dad tried to instill a love for fishing in me from an early age but it never quite caught on. Even now I can't sit still for long periods of time if I'm not DOING something - reading, surfing the internet, knitting...anything. No one ever suggested I bring a book to fishing, so naturally, I hated it and found it excruciatingly boring. I mean really... you expect to take a kid to a lake and have them sit there for hours while they wait for something to bite at the wiggly worm on the hook? Unlikely.

To this day I still don't enjoy fishing...most of the time. But trout fishing holds a special place in my heart. I like how the water is clear and quick and cold and rushing past your canoe carrying you along. I like how the fish bite all the time and you can catch more than you can eat. I like the sun and the family and always being on the move. Not to mention trout tastes quite good. Luckiy for the trout, I don't go fishing. Unluckily, they sell trout at the supermarket sometimes. I had trout on my shopping list when Aj did the grocery shopping, and since "trout" is both singular and plural he wasn't sure whether to get one...or two...or five? And he just got one. Which is obviously not enough for two people. Especially when it's as good as this trout was.


So today after I got back from the gym and planted my strawberries in my new topsy-turvy strawberry planter.... I decided to cook trout for lunch. Trout for One. Trout for Me. Yum! The whole thing came out QUITE delicious and I thought I would share the love with you fine folk.

So without further ado...

Baked Stuffed Trout with Broccoli for One

• 1 Trout
• 5-6 Green Onions/Scallions, chopped into small pieces
  
• 1/4 C. Italian breadcrumbs
• 1 Tsp. dried or fresh garlic (I used sliced dried)
• 1 Tbsp. butter
  
• 1 Head of broccoli, cut into florets
  
• Salt
• Olive oil

1. The trout should be gutted. Make sure you rinse off the whole thing in warm water, even if it was gutted at the supermarket. You want the trout to have a fresh, light taste.
2. Smear the inside of the trout with butter.
   
3. Combine the scallions, breadcrumbs, and garlic and mix well. Stuff liberally into the trout.
4. Put the trout into a bread loaf pan and surround with broccoli.
5. Sprinkle liberally with salt and drizzle lightly with olive oil
6. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Lightly cover with tin foil and bake at 375°F for 10-15 minutes. Fish is ready when it flakes and can be easily removed from the bone with a fork. If your fish is frozen at the start it might take longer to bake.