Visit our Bread Recipes page for more fantastic homemade breads!isit our Bread Recipes page for more fantastic homemade breads! For years upon years upon years, drawing close to a decade and a half, I've been making 6-Week Bran Muffins. They're really more of a Bran-ish muffin really... Why Bran-ish? Because it doesn't fit in the normal bran muffin box. They're lighter both in color and texture than the average bran muffin, gently sweet and über-easy. Oh- and you can store the batter in your refrigerator for 6 weeks. More on that in a moment... 6-Week Bran Muffins are simpler and more convenient than just about any other muffin View Post
Blueberry Syrup for Pancakes and Homemade Soda | Make Ahead Mondays
I just turned almost-forty. I believe I’ll refer to my entire year that way, because this is my last year before that big four-oh. I think the almost-forty was probably harder than the actual-forty will be to face. The decade birthdays seem like a celebration, where the ones that immediately precede somehow seem like a clanking bell. Or is it just me? As an almost-forty gift, my family gave me something that makes me happier than just about anything else I can imagine. The boys and I had planned to go to the opening day of our local blueberry patch to attempt to put a sizable dent in our annual one-hundred-pounds-of-blueberries goal. My View Post
Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes
I have the privilege of being able to make the cake for the upcoming wedding of my brother and his wonderful fiancée this summer. Besides being excited to be such a big part of their day, I'm thrilled that I'll be occupied in making sure the cake is just-so and therefore will hopefully not be sitting at the table sobbing from joy over the nuptials and having a massive aging crisis over the fact that my baby brother is now wed. Ahem. I have to say that I am a seriously fierce big sister. I'm hyper protective of my little brother and more than just a little bossy. (I'm looking more charming by the moment, aren't I?) I remember one time View Post
Blueberry Frozen Yogurt
The following is a partial re-print of my column that appeared in today's Record-Eagle. ~~~ ~~~ The Evil Genius oftentimes has been asked, frequently in my presence, how he avoids weighing 500 pounds eating my cooking. His response has been to grab his belly, moan a little bit, and say "I could easily!" He slid a little into uncomfortable weight territory over the winter and thus has declared himself to be on a health kick. He's been riding his bike, playing more sports with the boys, watching his food intake and (gasp!) skipping dessert most nights. All well and good, but the dessert thing I've found distressing. I am a baker. I am View Post
Blueberry Butter Tarts with Mascarpone Ice Cream
We have a winner! And I have my power back! Yes. I was without power for nearly two days. With two stinky dogs, sixteen stinky chicks, five stinky chickens, five stinky kids and two marginally less stinky adults, our power came back none too soon. No power translated to no pump for the well, no lights, and *gasp* no computer. We made due by enjoying each other's company, eeking out our water, making hot dogs on the grill, reading lots of books and playing lots of board games. Not bad, not bad... But I was eager to come back here and announce the winner of the Raspberry Cake Bar Gift Basket that was so kindly offered by our friends at View Post
Blueberry Cobbler
I meant to post this a while ago, but life got in the way. I'm getting ready to repeat this particular dessert in a couple of days with some frozen berries, and remembered that I had never gotten around to sharing this with you all. So here 'tis! A few weeks ago, Jim picked what appeared to be the last of the berries in the patches near us at camp. He ended up with a good couple of cups of black raspberries and a handful of wild blueberries. (Aren't they purty?) We ate a few of them as is, but the rest went into a very simple berry cobbler, taken from Jane Brody's Good Food Book, which I purchased several View Post
Val’s Berry Cinnamon Rolls
Visit our Bread Recipes page for more fantastic homemade breads! We have had an exceptional summer for wild berries up here. The upper peninsula has had several years of drought in a row, affecting both wild and domestic berry growth. But this past year brought lots of snow with plenty of rain following. Bumper crops of wild berries all around us, near our home and in several places at the camp where we work. Wild blueberries were especially abundant, and for wild berries, they were unusually large: Earlier in the season we were able to harvest a good supply of red raspberries and now, at the end of the summer, we've been able to View Post
Cornmeal Blueberry Muffin Souffle
Well, remember those blueberry cornmeal muffins from my earlier post last week? The last time I made those, I made a LOT. More than our guests could decently eat in the time they were with us, and more than we could handle all on our lonesome. My freezer would not allow any more foodstuffs to be stored, most of the nooks and crannies being filled in with quart-sized bags of blueberries and black raspberries that my husband so nicely picked for our later enjoyment. And they were beginning to get a little dry--even a few seconds in the microwave did not perk them up very much. But my inner frugalista could not bear the thought of introducing View Post
Slow-cooker Vanilla Bean Tapioca
In today's Record-Eagle column, I ran a recipe for Slow-Cooker Vanilla Bean Tapioca Pudding. (I'll link to the full column when I'm back from vacation, but in the meantime the recipe is posted below.) Slow-Cooker Vanilla Bean Tapioca This pudding takes the perennial favorite tapioca pudding and dresses it up. Served warm, it’ll heat you up from the inside out on chilly fall days. Using a real vanilla bean gives the pudding a sumptuous velvet-like texture and flavor. If you don’t have access to vanilla beans, I weep for you, but you can still make a delicious version of the recipe by substituting for the beans with 2 teaspoons of View Post
Blue, Blue, Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins
In an earlier post this summer, I raved about The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon (that name always makes me smile) and the two versions of cornbread salad we had tried out, both receiving enthusiastic reviews. Well, since then, it’s been hard for me to NOT bake and cook without cornmeal. Cornmeal breads, muffins, pancakes, etc. And my latest favorite muffin is her recipe for Blue, Blue Blueberry Muffins. All the blue is the result of using blue cornmeal and serving the muffins with a Blueberry-Cream Cheese-Honey Butter. Okay, have I your attention now? Are you hooked? Shall I start reeling you in??? These are View Post