Breakfast Recipe: Blueberry Muffins with a hint of lemon

Tomorrow morning I’m meeting up with my team from school. We were supposed to go for a boat ride but the river is too high so we are going to just sit on her deck (our friend Mary who lives on the river here) and relax together. No children. Just us. The deck and the muffins I’m bringing.

I knew as soon as I decided to bring a morning treat where to look; The Cottage (from La Jolla’s favorite beachside bungalow)-many times I google or Pinterest a recipe but every once in awhile I know what to get from my own shelves. Tried and true excellent recipes. If you love brunch and fresh food this book is a must.

Blueberry Muffins {pg 14}

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 stick butter, softened
3 eggs, {farm fresh}
1 cup sour cream
3 1/2 cups flour, {unbleached}
1 T. baking powder
2 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and line one 12-cup or two 6-cup muffin tins. In a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Mix in the sour cream until blended. In a small bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Stir the flour mixture into the batter until just blended. {At this point I squeezed in a little fresh lemon juice} Add the blueberries and stir gently. Pour the batter into muffin cups to the top. Bake for 25 minutes. {I added grated lemon peel to the top half way through the baking process}

Makes 12 muffins

Enjoy your day tomorrow. I’ll be on a deck, watching the river flow, with friends and muffins.

Gratitude

We are back from the crazy music festival. Almost all of the music was amazing. We took a lot of pictures with our Nikon (which of course are not uploaded yet) I created the above video from just the few pictures I had on my iPhone.

We had a great time with the friends we went with and we now have other friends who are interested. We met some cool people while there (Lindsey and Joel stood out as true kind folk) and we ate some interesting festival food. We had camping neighbors that were parents of the harmonica player for Horseshoes and Handgrenades. Another camping neighbor and I exchanged books; she gave me Wild by Cheryl Strayed and I gave her Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. I also ran into an old friend that I’ve not seen for like 20 years. Strange things happen when you listen to the music.

Camping was good. I do not have a sore back. Positive. It stormed pretty crazily Friday afternoon but we all survived. One car did get crushed by a tree though. Coming home we found a small bakery (donuts and great bread) and a cute diner in Wabash that fed us real meals on real plates with a real bathroom.

Getting back inside my lovely house I was happy to have indoor plumbing once again, a kitchen to cook in, and I bathed for the first time in four days! Yes, that felt great. Whispering Pines Campground DID have a shower house but it was ice cold water as two of my camping mates experienced. I opted to be happy with the dirty hippie brigade instead of cold water spraying over me. My hot bath last night brought joy and order back to my world. That and creating a feast for my two children who took care of each other while we were camping. As we sat and ate together, just the 3 of us, I felt so grateful for my children who I love to the moon and back. They, in return, were over the moon for the meal I made them.

Groovy Girl is on Pinterest and she’d asked me if over the summer we could make it a goal to make some of the meals on her “yum” board so I made one last night. Only 28 more “Yum” recipes to go!

From The Recipe Critic-Crispy Parmesan Chicken with lemon pasta. It says boldly on her page that this recipe takes only 30 minutes to prepare which must mean if you have all ingredients completely ready to go. It took me an hour to prepare which is no big deal especially because I made my own breadcrumbs. My kids laughed about that-but of course I could not use something so pre-packaged! They know me so well.

Favorite new music from Blue Ox:

The Wood Brothers
Sierra Hull
The Pistol Whippin’ Party Penguins
The Last Revel (we already loved this band)
Blitzen Trapper
Sam Bush
Railroad Earth
GinStrings – This group played right as the storm ended inside the merch lodge and it was beautiful.

It was also devastating to wake up on Sunday morning and hear about the tragedy in Orlando. I can only hope (and beg the people who govern us) to change our gun laws.

Blue Ox

Thinking back Blue Ox cues me to our time as a family visiting Paul Bunyon Park in Northern Minnesota. Gorgeous and fun. I do remember a childhood video ( I grew up with a photographer father) of me losing my pristine white sandal in the muddy Babe, the Blue Ox area. I cried.

That’s what the whole video is about, me sad about losing my shoe in the mud, knowing there might be hell to pay. There are also highlights of Babe and Paul speaking to us. Super cool technology for the day-the badass 70’s.

Fast forward in crazy time warp speed I’m now at the Blue Ox Music festival, camping, and listening to amazing bands. Leftover Salmon 💜, the Big Wu, the Last Revel, Sam Bush, Shovels and Rope, The Del McCoury Band, and Bela and the Flecktones. That’s just the bands that I personally recognize or have heard. Wow! F-(/)/&:& yes.

Dynamic music, beautiful WI scenery, great Bell’s beer. Come on over. Sit a spell- my husband and Paulie will be happy to play a bit with you.

It's June, It's June! {jumping up and down}

Summer has started. School has ended. Teachers and students need to rejuvenate. That said we are all still working. Students, hopefully, are still reading something (books, cereal boxes, road signs, etc.) and teachers are truly resting but in the back of their minds they are planning. Next year always looms ahead like a beacon. What can I do differently? How can I implement that into my classroom next year?

We all do it. Well I don’t know that for sure; I just know that I think that way and I’ve heard tell from other teacher friends that they plan that way as well. As a librarian I have the whole upkeep of the library to take care of and summer is a major cleanser for me. I’m working on inventory and have just started nonfiction. I finished fiction chapter books yesterday. They are all in the right order now, inventoried and reorganized. I’m taking out old copies, weeding, as I move through the shelves. It’s thrilling stuff.

I’ve also started working out with someone named Jillian Michaels who has kind of a fast mouth and likes to push it. Working out is something that gets pushed to the back burner during school and my mission is to get some strength back and to combat all the lounge treats I ate of the year.

I have lots of other plans for the summer and the first thing up on my travel agenda is coming up this week. We are heading to the Blue Ox festival in Eau Claire, WI with some friends. Camping, music, festival food, fun cocktails, sun dresses, and possibly some rain…all sounds like the perfect way to begin summer.

I’ve been lucky to have a few moments to spend in my parachute hammock reading. I’m in the middle of three great books; The Doctor’s Wife by Elizabeth Brundage, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, and The Marvels by Brian Selznick.
What are you reading?

Happy June!

So much delicious food…Weekly recipes

We are getting oh, so close to the end of the school year. It’s a busy time. We’ve been here, there, and everywhere so I’ve got a smattering of recipes from a few different places.

{Natasha’s Kitchen}

I went to an end-of-the-year school party hosted by one of our teacher’s beautiful houses. She had a gorgeous backyard with a big open space where we could all gather. A small stream trickled through a maze of rocks giving the backyard a great zen sound. Groovy Girl would have loved the large trampoline set up in the corner of the spacious green space. Inside her sliding glass patio doors we had tables of food to choose from with every kind of dip and desserts galore. I generally only eat meat at my own house and a few select restaurants (Go local!) so it makes it kind of easy to bypass certain meat-laden dishes and focus on veggies and desserts (my downfall).

One of the salads, created by a kindergarten teacher, was amazing. It’s a perfect summer salad made with cucumbers, red onion, tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, and a squeeze of lemon. The flavor combination was incredible. I looked it up the next day and am sharing it here with you. I have not made it yet but plan to for an upcoming huge group picnic.

Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad

I also made these brownies for two events; my 6th grade book club party AND a party for a retiring teacher-librarian. They were SO good and easy. So good you wouldn’t think they were so easy. I made them before school and frosted them at school. I’ll keep this recipe handy for the next bake sale, picnic party, or kid-event. They are in no way organic or healthy but my intended eaters were 6th graders and I wanted something they would love for our last party together.

Hershey’s Best Brownies

We were out of town for an overnight in Rochester, MN for the Med-City Marathon and we ate at two incredible places. Right downtown we tried Victoria’s and it was a wonderful experience. I had a martini with blue cheese olives and the walleye with vegetables and rice. The flavors were perfect all mixed together and the vegetables were slightly crisp-just how I like them. It was such a big portion I had to share a lot with my husband after he finished his veggie pasta.

On our way home today we stopped at the Four Daughters Winery and Vineyard right outside of Stewartville. Wow. Can’t believe I’ve driven past this place for years. It was a lovely day, cloudy with still a good amount of sunshine peeking through and we chose to sit outside on the patio for that reason. We each ordered a flight of their wine, a good deal at $5 for 5 wines. My husband ordered white and I the red. After looking over the menu we decided to order lunch as well. He had the pork pancakes with eggs and I had the guacamole served with chips. It was all delicious. I scraped the bowl and ate all the chips. His plate was even cleaner than mine. The wines were good and overall we prefered three of his whites over any of the reds.

Now I’ve got to fit in some extra yoga tomorrow after all this delicious food. Tomorrow we head to a family party and I’m bringing the best margaritas!

Time passing…

Groovy Girl was confirmed yesterday. It was a beautiful service with lots of emotional moments. Six confirmands-all girls-have had a year of classes filled with interesting discussion. A few girls-including G.G. were able to take a trip to Nicaragua to deliver shoe boxes filled with school supplies to children. They’ve had overnights, a ski trip and a June mission trip to W. Va still to come. Most of the girls have grown up together in the church.

It is still difficult for me to wrap my brain around the fact that my baby is 13, confirmed, will soon take driver’s ed, and will be in 9th grade. Crazy. Seriously. She was a miracle baby, born early, but oh, so healthy and rambunctious. Effervescent as her youth director described her.

To celebrate her and her best pal, Katy, I hosted a brunch for family friends including our minister and his wife. Impressively ALL my dishes turned out amazing. This does not usually happen for me. I have best intentions but things fail, fall, or just don’t work. This all worked and they were new recipes so if I can do it; you too could make these brunch happy recipes. Groovy Girl loves breakfast food so brunch was the perfect choice even though it was 1:30 in the afternoon.

{laughing spatula}

I picked two dishes and two side dishes. This Mexican Breakfast casserole from Laughing Spatula was a perfect main dish and we had toppings galore with sour cream, cilantro, diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, hot peppers, and homemade salsa. I followed this recipe closely except I added a layer of frozen spinach (almost thawed) to the bottom of the pan. Groovy Girl always orders omelets with spinach so I figured this was a good twist.

I knew I wanted my second dish to be sweet and I browsed through many recipes on line and in my own cookbook cupboard. Many with apples seemed too Fall-ish and G.G. is not the biggest fruit lover. Watermelon is her favorite and that does not pair well in any baked dish that I know of. She does love bread though and I happened to find just what I was looking for in “Not Your Mother’s Casseroles” by Faith Durand. I’ve used many recipes from this book but never made this particular one. I really wanted my daughter to swoon with joy with my brunch choices and this one did it.

Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Bake

9 x 13 pan
Bake time: 50 minutes

One 12 – to 16 – loaf good quality white bread (Italian or French) with crusts removed, cut in half lengthwise and then into thin slices. {I skipped all this, left the crust on my fat French bread and sliced it into medium slices. I wanted it to be hearty}

For the custard:

5 large {farm fresh} eggs
2 1/4 cups milk
2 T. sugar
1 {big} tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

For the cinnamon cheese filling:

8 ozs cream cheese, softened
2 T. unsalted butter, softened
1 large {farm fresh} egg
1 T. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

More cinnamon for sprinkling.

Preheat the oven to 325*. Lightly grease the baking dish with butter or spray.

Layer half the bread in the baking dish, overlapping and wedging them in tightly so they are in an almost solid layer.

To make the custard, whisk the eggs until fully beaten, then whisk in the milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Pour half of this custard over the bread in the baking dish, letting it settle in and soak the bread thoroughly. Set aside the rest of the custard.

To make the cream cheese filling, in the bowl of a standing mixer or with a handheld, beat the softened cream cheese with the butter, egg, cinnamon, and sugar. Beat until very soft and whipped. Spread over the first layer in the baking dish. Layer the rest of the bread on top {making a sandwich} and then pour the rest of the custard on top. (At this point the casserole can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. {Think Christmas morning}

Sprinkle with extra cinnamon. Bake, uncovered, for about 50 minutes, or until it is firmly set. Cool for 15 minutes, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, and serve.

I skipped the powdered sugar-it didn’t need that extra sweetness. I did generously douse it with cinnamon though. Also a few years ago I downsized my kitchen and I only have one 13 X 9 -in pan so I made this breakfast bake in my slow cooker. Perfect! It worked so well I would do it this way again. I made the cream cheese filling on Saturday night (after I’d made the Mexican egg dish and it was resting in the refrigerator” and then I layered the bread, custard, and filling into the slow cooker and let it soak for about an hour. We turned it on low before we left for church and it was piping hot when I returned two hours later.

We also had a strawberry spring greens salad and grits slow cooked with gouda right before guests were to arrive and strawberries mixed with a sprinkle of sugar just like my grandmother served in the springtime when she said the berries were still a little tart. My son loves them just that way. My friend brought a dish or squared watermelon and we had glasses of mimosas to clink. It was lovely and I have not one photograph of the table. Happy guests though and a happy ~~girl~~ / young lady. Peace be with you.

Enjoy.

The brilliant David Rhodes

David Rhodes (2013)

Sometimes you read the written word and you just get a lovely chill up your spine, a chill of delight. For last month’s book club we read David Rhodes for the second time and I was again overwhelmed with his ability to create sentences, paragraphs, and chapters into such beauty. After reading two of his books I’m now counting myself to be somewhat of an expert. I have a just a few quotes here to share to entice you to read him as well.

“Nate was rubbing the back of his neck when his Breakfast Pie arrived in a deep blue ceramic dish. Curling blades of steam rose from cracks in the top. He poked his fork in, pried open a piece of crust and released and eruption of scalding air. …Freeing a small piece from the dish, he held it in midair, watched steam curl around the fork, and slid it between his teeth. Anticipating the heat, he didn’t close his lower jaw until this tongue informed him of an acceptable temperature. The taste moved into the corners of his mouth and his feature-detectors identified separate flavors; the crust, as he suspected was mostly seasoned bread crumbs and mild white cheddar; the mashed potato base held vegetable and ham, the binding savor owing most of its character to marjoram and thyme.” (7)

Beneath the dock, lazy liquid slapped against oak posts, and water bugs skittered madly in and out of rolling shadows. The hoarse croaking of a bullfrog sounded like an ancient door pried open, thick ribbons of iridescent green slime grew underwater, and the smell of moist heat, earth, and damp wood rose into the air. These sensations dove to the bottom of Kevin’s mind, where they were set to work in the mines of his young imagination.” (24)

“The giant silver maple at the top of the hill had a trunk nearly as wide as a garage door. He looked up into it and saw massive limbs flowing, outward and upward, supporting an array of branches and stems and a plantation of leaves that quivered audibly in the breeze. The undersides of the leaves, lighter in color, glittered when the leaves moved.

It was twenty degrees cooler here in the shade, and Nate immediately felt his body relaxing. He sat down and leaned against the trunk, then looked out across the ocean of cornrows below. On and on the green plants grew, pulling nutrients from the ground and turning them into corn.

The darkness that had afflicted him earlier evaporated.” (81)

“The morning, however, had an altogether different story to tell. After washing in cold water, dressing, making coffee, and carrying a steaming cup of it outside to drink, his surroundings unfolded before him a a way Blake had never experienced before. The preying vacancy of the night before had been replaced by the silent marvel of dew and plant life shaking off sleep, regrowing the world. A new sun rose in the east, and the beads of moisture hanging from the spokes of his motorcycle burned like blue diamonds. A chorus of wild fledglings sang about the significance of eating weed seeds, having feathers, and flying wherever they wanted. The air felt alive, and he participated in its vitality with every breath.” (233)

Rhodes has an affection for the wild, a connection to nature and good food. His descriptions simply amaze me and his characters are interestingly flawed.

We read his book Driftless last year as well and this continues many of the same characters and plunges them into another story. If you are in need of a good book look no further than Driftless and Jewelweed.

Beautiful Days…

Focus on the positive

#21daychallenge

Remember in March when I posted about the amazing meditation retreat I went to in Minneapolis. Yes. Read about it here if you missed it. Sadly I didn’t follow through. Oh I’ve meditated sitting in my chair or walking around the library waiting for a class and that is all good. My goal though is to make meditation a daily practice; one where I literally getting down on the mat, bolster, pillow, floor, blanket, whatever and make it a ritual.

I’m not good with follow through sometimes. The only ritual I maintained as my kids were growing up was reading to them at bedtime. That I did without fail. I began other rituals like prayers, blessings, and poems at dinner time. That didn’t last. We do have meals together-that is a good simple ritual we’ve maintained. So reading and meals are my two rituals. Makes complete sense as books and food are priorities for me.

I got up on Saturday and did it, just rolled up my favorite blanket, lit a peace candle, and plopped myself down facing the wall.

I focused on all manner of positive words, thoughts, and phrases. My eyes closed I just let the thoughts flow freely. I thought about my family, peace, love, harmony, gratitude, forgiveness, my dog, the earth, ice cream, sushi. It was far from perfect but it was a good start. The peaceful feeling stayed with me all day long. I loved it. It’s the honeymoon phase. The important and hard part is to keep it going.

Join me in my 21-day challenge if you’d like to make meditation or any good ritual as part of your daily routine. What change would you like to make?

Namaste.

Where is Spring?

{Source}

It’s been cold, rainy, super windy here. For awhile. I need some sunshine and heat. I want to get out and walk outside around a big pond while the birds are chirping. I want to poke my fingers into dirt and plant a few seeds.

Every morning I wear my winter coat still to work. Today I actually didn’t need it when I walked out the door after school. Halleluja. But then I had things I had to get done and I’m left just gazing outside. I can hear a bird chirping loudly every few minutes. His chatter seems to say “Where is Spring?”

Now that I’m done with my inside meetings and appointments I’m headed outside for a quick run around the block, some stretches in the cemetary park across the street, and maybe, just maybe I’ll have some time to get some seeds started in my starter pots. For now I leave you with this springtime poem.

Spring

By William Shakespeare

When daisies pied and violets blue

And lady-smocks all silver-white

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo: Oh word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

And merry larks are plowmen’s clocks,

When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,

And maidens bleach their summer smocks,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo: Oh word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

It’s Shakespeare…

Does he mean married men are mocked because it is Spring?

I don’t know. I like the rhythm of the poem though. Enjoy!

Weekly Recipes 13

{source}

My husband celebrated his birthday last week and somewhere before that day I had read a blog post about really doing it up for your kids’ birthdays. Balloons across their doorway, balloons in the cabinets, singing, cupcakes for breakfast. It was a fun read and inspired to go the extra mile in celebrating his big day.

First a little background on my guy. He’s the artistic director at our local community theatre. He is a talented and creative guy. He is also crazy busy. He is in the middle of directing Cabaret; a big and serious show. His birthday fell during tech week. You do not take a day off during tech week. He had rehearsal at 6:30 so we scheduled around it and had dinner plans with the kids for 4:45 approximately.

Because we weren’t celebrating at home I had kinda thought I wouldn’t make any dessert for him until I read the blog post. After I called a local store to ask about a cake. Usually I make everything from scratch but my cake idea was for cast and crew and I thought a big sheet cake was in order. Until I checked the price. Wwhhhaaaat! Highway robbery for a stupid cake that has fake plastic-tasting frosting.

I made my own. And he loved it. And the cast and crew demolished it. He’s not a fake frosting kinda guy anyway. He isn’t even a chocolate cake kinda guy. I made this Oatmeal-Raisin Snack Cake for him and it’s a keeper. I didn’t even get a bite but he came home raving and rolling his eyes back about how wonderful the frosting was-this is a man who does not love sweet. My heart sang. From one of my favorite food bloggers…Brown-Eyed Baker. Click her link or the recipe title above for the recipe. The recipe was very easy but you do have to wade past all the new ads on her site.

We did have a lovely dinner together. We laughed. The kids had excellent gifts for him. I had a big bouquet of balloons for him. And tickets to the Blue Ox Music Festival. He did make it to rehearsal.