blue artichoke

With a freezer full of frozen summer fruit, mostly blueberries and plums, I have little room for other things, like the homemade chicken stock I made earlier this week or the big batch of marinara sauce I'm planning to make soon. I'd like to have some blueberries available to me in the dead of winter, but I can certainly start using up some now. So, yesterday I made blueberry muffins for our breakfast this morning. These muffins are hardy. They're blueberry, which is breakfast-y, but also cornmeal, which is dinner-y. Versatile. And filling. I ate one muffin and a muffin top and couldn't eat a bit more. These would be a good breakfast before going sledding; with that in mind, I froze the leftover muffins for such a wintery day.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

I had a really difficult time sifting the dry ingredients because they kept clogging my sifter. I ended up just sifting once, then continuing on with the recipe. Next time, I think I'll try whirling all the dry ingredients briefly in a food processor; it will be worth cleaning the food processor to not have to use the sifter.

1 ½ c. sifted unbleached flour
1 ¼ c. stone-ground cornmeal, fine grade, preferably not degerminated
½ c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
½ t. each cinnamon and salt
1-¼ c. milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. veggie oil
1 c. blueberries
Cinnamon sugar

Lien a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 400.

Sift dry together 2x, ending in a large bowl.

Mix milk, eggs and oil.

Pour liquid into dry. Mix just to blend. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among cups; this will fill them to the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake in the top third of the oven for 20 minutes, or until they are lightly browned on top and dry inside.

Serve warm or at room temp.

Makes 12.

NB: Muffins can be baked ahead of time, frozen and thawed in the microwave for a quick, convenient breakfast.

Superfoods: 300 Recipes for Foods that Heal Body and Mind, by Dolores Riccio

Yesterday afternoon, GC and I went to the Missouri football game. It was perfect football weather, cool and sunny. I wore a short sleeve shirt, even though the thermometer read temperatures in the 50s. Shortly after halftime, the sun went behind the stadium wall, casting a shadow on our section and dropping the temperature by about 10 degrees. I was freezing. I went to the team store looking for a long-sleeve shirt or sweatshirt, but couldn't find anything I liked that wasn't outrageously expensive. All I can say is thank goodness it was towel day. Between the two of us, GC and I had four free team towels, which I wrapped around my arms, making quite a fashion statement. Those towels, though, kept me warm enough to see the game through to the end, 42-28 Missouri. Rah!