blueberry muffins for Sunday...

I have made these blueberry muffins for years. They are WB's favorite and our kids like them too. I don't like blueberries. I love to photograph them but for some reason, I haven't liked them since I was a kid. When they came out of the oven, I wanted to take a photo. I took several but none of them were really what I wanted. I needed to wait for different light. This afternoon, the light was right. I wanted a bite out the muffin for the photo so I took one. Then something strange happened. As my kids used to say, "My taste buds have changed."

It looks like WB may have to share.


Blueberry Muffins

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries (or a few more)

In medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then milk, and vanilla; beat until nearly smooth. In small bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to milk mixture; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy). Toss berries with 1 tablespoon of flour; fold into batter. Spoon into 12 greased muffin cups. Bake in preheated 425° oven for 25 minutes or until evenly golden brown. I usually take them out at 23 minutes.

we love soup...

I have a habit of tearing recipes out of magazines and putting them in a desk drawer to “try later”. They languish at the bottom of the drawer, never to be seen again. I finally needed to clean out my desk. I was determined to continue my purging of the unnecessary (goal for 2010, but obviously does not include important things like books, music, camera equipment and dishes). Many recipes were thrown out. I am so glad this wasn’t one of them. WB loves this soup. I love this soup. I must share. We make a lot of homemade soups but neither of us has tried tomato before. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because there is beef and barley, Manhattan clam chowder, albondigas, posole, tortilla soup – well, the list could go on and on. The weather turns cool and we are ready for soup. Actually WB could eat soup every single day, even during the heat of the summer. I first made this soup two weeks ago and the third batch is cooking right now. It is easy. It is cheap. It is fast. But most importantly, it really is good.
(I don’t know which magazine to attribute it to and for that, I apologize. It may be Cooking Light.)

Creamy Tomato Balsamic Soup

1 cup beef broth, divided
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
5 garlic cloves
2 (28 ounce) cans whole tomatoes, drained
cooking spray
3/4 cup half and half
cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 500°.
Combine 1/2 cup broth, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce in a small bowl.
Place onion, garlic and tomatoes in a 13x9 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray.
Pour broth mixture over tomato mixture.
Bake at 500° for 50 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned (don’t worry if there are some dark spots – the flavor is still wonderful).
Place tomato mixture in a blender (I used a food processor).
Add remaining 1/2 cup broth and half and half and process until smooth.
Strain mixture through a sieve into a bowl; discard solids (I didn't do this).
Garnish with cracked black pepper, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings





















First time, I added some homemade croutons. So good with a quesadilla on the side.

I make great guacamole...

Really, I do. And it's easy.

For some reason, I went through the first forty years of my life hating avocados. I picked them out of salads. I scraped them off burros. I never wanted to see them in soup. I never, ever, ever ate guacamole. The few times an avocado even made it into our home was because WB decided he wanted some guac of which, of course, I didn't take a bite. Thank goodness, I am all over that. WB came up with this recipe but somehow I am almost always the guacamole maker. That's okay because he cooks the most wonderful Mexican food to go with it.

Guacamole is not supposed to be a spicy dish. Its purpose is to balance out the spiciness of the main dish. If you feel the need to spice it up, go right ahead.

This is the way we like it:

2 ripe avocados (so important that they are ripe but not yucky - Costco almost always has great looking avocados for a good price)
juice of one lime (fresh really makes a difference here so use it)
2 tablespoons Trader Joe's salsa verde (the perfect amount of spice)
10 cherry tomatoes (cut up, add more or less or leave out if you like but they make the guac so pretty and add some flavor - whole tomatoes are fine too but the cherries have a better flavor)
kosher salt, to taste

Mush up the avocados. I like to keep mine rather chunky but if you like a smooth guacamole, go for it. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Not too hard, was it?

If you have leftovers (this won't happen often), store in a lidded refrigerator container with a piece of plastic wrap that is pressed into the guac. The fresh lime and the plastic wrap will keep it looking good for another day. It will always be best right after you make it.

P.S. Guacamole on a turkey sandwich is bliss.