Lemon Blueberry Goodness

I have a terrible habit of collecting recipes from magazines or the Internet and then never actually making them.  Silly I know but I've probably got 100 recipes waiting to be tried out right now.  They just sound so good in the moment so I have keep them.  I can't tell you how many brownie recipes I have and usually I make brownies from a box.  Why do I need all those brownie recipes anyway?  I can't help myself though.

So yesterday I wanted to have some kind of bread for dinner and only had about 1/2 hour to make it.  I have several go to recipes like Danish scones, whole wheat muffins or baking powder biscuits I would normally use in such a situation but I decided to try out one of the unused recipes instead.  I picked up Lemon-Blueberry Muffins and decided to give it a shot.  Oh. My. Lemon-blueberry goodness!  Why did I wait so long to try this out?  They were so good.  Light, fluffy, and refreshing.  So I decided I'd share the recipe.  Unfortunately, I can't remember where I picked up the recipe to give credit where credit is due.  All I can say is someone was a genius.  I'm going to write the recipe out as it was originally written but then add what I did differently this time and would do differently next time.

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold margarine or butter
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup blueberries

Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl.  Cut in butter until you have fine crumbs.
Beat together next 5 ingredients and add to flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into muffin cups.

Topping:
2Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and put on muffin batter.  Bake 400* for 20 minutes. Serve warm.
Or recipe makes 1 loaf 9x5x3 pan. Bake at 350* for 1 hour.

I don't usually have fresh lemons on hand but I happened to have one so I used that instead of bottled lemon juice.  And I never like dried lemon rind so I typically omit that from a recipe but since I had fresh I used it for both the juice and the rind and I think it made a HUGE difference.  Probably still be good with bottled lemon but the fresh was divine.  I can't eat dairy products so I used a soy based margarine and soy milk.  I have started adding just a little imitation butter flavor to make the margarine taste better (the company changed their recipe to make it healthier and the result was margarine that tastes like plastic. :P But I don't have alternatives so the butter flavor helps.)

Next time I would add more blueberries. Maybe 1 1/2 or 2 cups.  I used fresh berries but frozen would work too. I would also make a bigger batch of the topping and cut in the margarine instead of melting it.  The melted margarine made it a paste and that was difficult to put on the batter so the result was a clump of topping in one area but not across the entire top of the muffin.  If you cut in the margarine you will be able to sprinkle the topping over the top. 

And the last change I would make is to double the recipe!  Twice the goodness to be eaten!
Happy baking! And happier eating!!



Update: I made another batch today.  A double batch!  Still just as yummy.  But I found that when I cut in the margarine for the topping it went a lot farther so I'm not entirely sure that you need to make more than the recipe when done that way.  I made extra this time and was putting on extra amounts to use it up.  And I've decided that the muffin itself is so good that it may not even need the topping at all.  I didn't try it that way though so don't quote me on that one.

My son started eating this batch and said he was going to eat the entire thing because he has no self control.  When I asked him to show some restraint he responded with, "Mom, when you give a moose a muffin..."  Ha ha.  Yay for children's literature!

Alzheimer's: Another funny from The Homestead

While at the Homestead today, Dad got a kick out of one resident who was headed back from the table to his room.  Another resident was on a rant, yelling and swearing at people.  The first resident stopped for a bit and listened and then when one of the staff came by he said, "If I ever get like that, just hit me in the head with a damn hammer." 

Vocal Point Awesomeness

I don't watch a lot of TV these days.  I don't know why but I don't. Probably because I don't get the Food Network and that is my favorite.  Anyway,  despite my not watching much TV I did follow The Sing Off this season.  I'd never even heard of the show before but BYU's Vocal Point was on the show and being loyal to my Alma mater  I started watching.  I enjoy a capella too so it works out quite well.  I was thrilled that Vocal Point made it as far as they did in the competition and only have a little bias when I say that they should have been on at least one more week.  But I suppose it was good to be done so they could get back to school full time. 

Picture from BYU Alumni Association

Anyway,  thanks to a Facebook Post from Vocal Point I started following this blog.  Totally Missing the Point is written by two sisters who became Vocal Point fans.  They analyze each performance in a non serious manner.  Reading the blog is a lot of fun as are the comments, some of which come from members of Vocal Point.  So I thought I'd share my adoration for Totally Missing The Point today.  If you are a Vocal Point fan too or just enjoy a capella music you should check out their blog.  I have been very amused.   Here is just a little sample of what their analysis sounds like:

" ...We are constantly amazed at how Tanner manages to blend into the choreography while doing all the crazy stuff he does.  We often exclaim, “Tanner, stop being so awesome!”  This may be the finest example of that from the Sing-off.  Way to nail it, dude.
Then we hit the home stretch, as we finally get to the song where the awful lady blouses fit the theme.  And you know what?  Still awful.  But McButters kills it anyway, because that’s what he does.  Tanner delivers one of his signature moves at 4:27, where he sort of drops it like it’s hot while snapping / whipping it / pumping up the jam.  Michael looks particularly cool moving into the group formation at 4:30.  And then we get one of those classic Vocal Point moments, where the choreography looks way cooler than it has any right to look.  If you were to describe a group of nine men hopping across the stage while alternating between being hunched over and leaning back and shaking their shoulders in the process, well… that would sound lame.  But in the performance, it looks legitimately cool.
We reach the end as Tanner once again drops it like it’s hot and Keith gets on his knees (Oh, you can kneel now but not in Every Little Step?  What’s the deal?).  The audience goes nuts and we get a Jake’s wife sighting. Overall, a strong performance.  We would’ve preferred a Michael Jackson medley, but that’s just because we saw how awesome “Beat It” was at ICCAs (Shout out to Papa Sterling for the nicely shot ICCA videos!).
There is one lingering question from this performance, though.  Why did Tanner’s lady blouse reappear during the “Boy Band Chic” portion of the fall Vocal Point concert?
Did he lose a bet?  Think the shirt was so awful he stole it to wear ironically?  Please, just don’t tell us that he legit likes it.  It would so taint his awesome.
UPDATE: Well, this is a relief.  We’ve found new photographic evidence that Tanner is not, in fact, wearing the loathsome lady blouse.  His awesomeness remains intact. We’ve never been so happy to see navy and gray horizontal stripes on a man before.  It’s not much of a look, but it beats a boat neck lady blouse."

So go on over to their blog.  They have clips and photos to entertain as they go along.  Start at the beginning to better understand their jokes and read through.  I think you'll be amused too.