Blueberries are Here and so are the Muffins

When I was out this morning, I thought I'd take a drive down the road to check out the blueberry situation, blueberries grow everywhere around here and the people that sell them out of their vehicles in parking lots are already set up.  I didn't go out with the intention to be picking berries, I had sandals on and no basket - once I see those blueberries, I can't help myself, I have to pick some!!!  I saw plenty and I had to pick!!   All I had was the car garbage can so that is what I used - I just wanted to pick enough today for a batch of muffins, turns out I have enough for two batches.  I told you I can't stop - and if it hadn't started to rain, I would have been out there longer.

I really thought I had blogged about this recipe before for these muffins but I can't seem to find it -  it is just the best!!  The original recipe came from All Recipes but I'll write it down for you right here so you don't have to waste time doing any more clicking, you can get right down to baking these delicious morsels!   These are fresh out of the oven!!

To Die for Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour

3/4 c. white sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/3 c. vegetable oil\

1 egg

1/3 c. milk

1 c. fresh blueberries

TOPPING

1/2 c. white sugar

1/3 c. flour

1/4 c. butter, cubed

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 - grease tins or use muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 c. flour, 3/4 c. sugar, salt and baking powder.  Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup.  Mix this with the flour mixture, fold in blueberries.  Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

Crumb Topping - Mix together 1/2 c. sugar, 1/3 c. flour, 1/4 c. butter and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.  Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

I ended up with 9 muffins and lots of crumb topping left over, so I'm keeping the leftover topping and will make another batch.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  SO GOOD!! 

Catching Up..

I haven't  written a blog post in a week - we were in Toronto last weekend and heading to Michigan this weekend, so I better get caught up.  I've been on a berry picking frenzy - I went picking blueberries again this week, that is 6 litres I've picked - they are just so plentiful this year - and they're so good!  Yesterday I picked raspberries, I have to say, that is my least favourite berry to pick - the lady put me in not a great row - it was hard work - I probably picked more than I needed to because I ended up being able to make two batches of jam.  Raspberry jam will be the one I'll be sharing this year..

I was bagging up my blueberries for the freezer and I took a notion to make blueberry muffins - I used a recipe on All Recipes - I've never tried it before but judging by the look and aroma of them - they're going to be good.

We went to Toronto last weekend - Carla was running the 20 k in the Beaches Jazz Tune Up Fun Run - but, that wasn't until Sunday - on Saturday, Carla and I took off for St. Jacobs, we toured the farmers market and then hit the antique markets - sadly, purchases were just about non existent.  We had a great day though, because all the men folk were off at the Canadian Open Golf Tournament!  

Have you ever seen a spoon bracelet?  I didn't have any purchases at this one particular shop - these bracelets were in a bowl at the cash, I bought one for myself and one for Carla, it's her birthday next week.  The tag on it read Grosevnor, 1921, I think it's so neat and it has a magnetic clasp which I like, it's a really unique bracelet!  Excuse the picture, it's not the best, but I just can't take another one!!

Do you ever feel that you go away and you don't take enough pictures, that happened this weekend, I took my good camera with me but it never moved from the trunk, I just took a few with my phone.  I plan to do better this weekend!

How's that for a giant zucchini?  I love fresh Ontario peaches!  We went to Freelton, that's where I purchased these next times.  We also split the sweetest box of vintage children's Christmas cards - but, we forgot to split them, so I'll share those when I get them.  She spotted them so I guess she'll be keeping the box.  

It's a Holt Howard Santa mug - made in Japan, copyright 1960 - too cute!!

Finally, I found myself a Gurley candle.  I bought one online last year after reading so much about them - this is the first one I've ever seen in a shop!!

This Eloise Wilkin book was my only purchase at one of the antique markets at St. Jacobs - as always, the illustrations are just so sweet!

This book is so nice - I picked it up at a Value Village - it appears that it was a library book - it's full of vintage pictures of old Hallmark cards, there's text too, it's going to be interesting to read.

I also found a few Vera's - two on my trip, and two yesterday - the yellow sheer one was only 25 cents - no scarf was more than $1.99.

Sunday was the big run - here's Carla at the half way point - 20 k in 1 hour, 47 minutes - that's nothing to sneeze at!!

I managed to SMASH the race - and that's the only SMASH page I've done this week, I sure wish I had taken more pictures.

I'm linking this post with Thursday Favorite Things and Vintage Thingie Thursday

Blueberry Cake, Blueberry Jam

This is what I did yesterday - picked blueberries.  When blueberry picking season rolls around, I can't wait to get out, I get obsessed about it and I can't stop picking - blueberries grow wild everywhere around here, you don't have to drive far, I started picking at 9:45 and left about 1:30 - the blueberries were everywhere and like always, I couldn't stop.  I picked a basket and a half, a basket holds 3 litres.  The blueberries are so plentiful that you will see people selling the baskets of berries all over the roads and in parking lots, there's good money in blueberries, I guess - I know they're not cheap to buy.  But, I am too cheap to buy them, I'll pick my own, thank you! It is hard on the back though and the terrain is sometimes not the best, but all in the name of the blueberry!! 

Blueberries are classed as superfoods - they're filled with nutrients to keep you healthy and feeling great.  Personally, I don't care for any other blueberries but these, the wild ones!

Last night I made a blueberry cake - it's Mom's old recipe, it's fast, it's easy and it's good.  Notice it's sitting on a Pyrex Delphite plate!

1 c. white sugar

1/2 c. margarine, it called for shortening, I substituted

3/4 c. milk

1/2 tsp. salt

2 c. flour

2 eggs

3 tsp. b. powder

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. blueberries

TOPPING

1/2 c. white sugar

1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 c. butter

Blend together margarine and sugar, then add the rest of the ingredients, stir until moistened, pour into 8x8 greased pan.  Sprinkle topping .  Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes or until tester comes clean.  

This morning I made a batch of blueberry jam, I just used the recipe in the Certo box.  I missed out on blueberry jam last year because it was so hot and the blueberries were not plentiful, I only was able to freeze one bag which we used throughout the year for pancakes.  

We had a bowl of blueberries last night for dessert, I had another bowl for breakfast.  I'll have to pick again as we're heading to Darcy's and he loves them too, so I have to give him some. 

There's still plenty more to ripen!

I'm linking my blueberry post up with Thursday Favorite Things and Weekend Potluck at The Country Cook

Just Some Flowers

It's too hot to do much of anything here, the most ambitious thing I did today was cut the grass first thing this morning and take these pictures.    It's lucky they look as good as they do - it's getting pretty dry here, my rain barrel will soon be empty...

Beside an old stump is this one blueberry plant - if the heat ever dies down, I'll be out picking blueberries, just not from this little plant!!

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers!

I'm linking up with Share Your Cup Thursday