Martha Stewart's Blueberry Muffins....Level: Unintimidating

If you've never baked from a Martha recipe, this is an easy one to try.  She hasn't recommended that you forge your own muffin tins out of metal (though my father-in-law could totally make me some...birthday present!) or mill your own flour for this recipe.  I bet you have all the ingredients on hand.  I did. 
Take your stick of butter out about 10 minutes before you start prepping for this recipe.  You want to be able to leave an indent in the butter, but not have it be too soft or melty.  In the warm temps like we have now (or if you have a second floor kitchen, as I do) you may need to watch it, as it will likely be softer sooner.

1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries (I used a pint...I didn't bother to measure and I don't know if it's equal, but I was happy with blueberry/muffin ratio)
1 cup sugar (plus a tablespoon extra for sprinkling over the tops of the unbaked muffins)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease a 12 cup muffin tin (MS says to grease and flour, so whatever you feel down with doing is fine.  I was in spray-mode this morning.)
Whisk the flour, powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Put the berries in a mesh strainer over the flour and sprinkle some flour mix over the blueberries and shake to coat.  Set it all aside.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes.  I used my KitchenAid.  Go with what you got.  KitchenArm or KitchenHandMixer is fine, too.)  Add eggs, one at a time.  Splash in vanilla.  At the lowest speed, add in the flour and mix until just combined.  Do the same with the milk.  Fold in the blueberries with a spatula.  Divide batter among the muffin tin, sprinkle the tops with a little sugar and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Rotate the pan halfway through the cooking time.  (Good MS tip!)
Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then knife those bad boys out and serve to your happy husband waiting in the other room with hot coffee and butter or cream cheese (or one of each, cause that's how he's feeling today!)

It cures everything but a Monday morning...

Let My Supper Go

'Round about Wednesday I get sick to death of making dinner.  Hows about you?  You get out of work late, traffic is trafficky, you live way out in the willywacks, et cetera, et cetera.  Pizza and chinese food always sound better than having to think of what to do with a pound of hamburger (or hamburg, if you live out in these parts.)

Then you remember that the man of Shannon's dreams (presumably) has given you a bottle of his homemade maple syrup.  And while you yourself cannot identify a maple tree, you can identify a Canadian, and Mrs. Butterworth, and you know that pancakes will become dinner tonight, if only to try Moses' maple syrup.

(Can you tell yet that I'm writing this post on a post-syrup syrup high?  Cause I totally AM!)

What is doubly awesome is that the recipe I'm going to share is not for Moses' homemade maple syrup, cause I'm pretty sure you just tap a few maples and boil that crap down, and that's pretty easy.  But so is this recipe.  It's PW's recipe for Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes.

I know.  Brake squeal.  Sour cream?  But guys, it's good.  They're light, and sorta like a moist/creamy type deal.  Andrew commented on how moist they were (the more I write moist, the more I hate the word), and it wasn't until he had eaten every last bite (asparagus-free, mind you) that I told him there was 7 Tablespoons of flour in the entire recipe, and it was primarily sour cream.

So pretend it's low-carb as you're suffocating them to death with Hannaford brand butter flavored maple syrup product, or some of Moses' syrup, if you know him well enough, bub.

PW's original recipe is here, or on page 76 of her first cookbook.

Here we go:

1 cup Sour Cream
7 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 whole Large Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Butter, For Frying And Serving (baby steps!  I only ate mine with 10 gallons of syrup!)
Warm Syrup, For Serving (Ain't nobody got time for that!  Is this phrased overused?  I was just starting to get into it...)

Put your sour cream into a medium sized bowl.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until barely combined.  Whisk up the eggs and vanilla in a separate lil bowl and add to the sour cream mix, and stir until just combined.  Be gentle.  Heat up a skillet (I used my cast-iron) to medium low heat, add butter, and fry up pancakes in 1/4 c servings.  Flip after 2 minutes or so, when they look set and they're starting to give you bubbles at the surface.  Cook for another couple minutes.  Repeat with remaining batter.

That was the entire recipe (minus one still in the pan)

Serve with whatever you eat on your pancakes.  I had intended to make blueberry pancakes, but was at Motivation Level Zero to stop at a real grocery store (I hit the Tradewinds in the village for sour cream.  Alas, no blueberries there.)  I was tempted to put in some sausage crumbles I had at the house.  When I mentioned this after the fact to Andrew, he gave the half shrug of, "yeah, I'd eat that."  Yeah, and ya'd eat asparagus, too, ya numbah.

Husband portion.  Minus two.  I also got the one in the pan.  Score!

I Like Big Puffs and I Cannot Lie

Breakfast during the week at our house is usually some toast or a bagel thin (that's my pre-workout breakfast...to be followed by a second breakfast at work.)  Weekend breakfasts aren't usually any more involved...maybe eggs...or maybe I pout and Andrew takes me to breakfast.
But I was feeling cookery this morning, and I whipped up the PW's French Breakfast Puffs.
Ermergerd.
They are a delicious, butter dipped, cinnamon sugar coated cross between muffin and doughnut.  They're about a difficult to make as chocolate chip cookies, meaning, anyone can do this.  It gets a little messy at the end, when they get their butter and cinnamon sugar bath, but it's totally worth it.
PW's original recipe can be found here or on page 66 of her first cookbook.  Her recipe is below, with my remarks in italics.

Here we go!

3 cups Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg (I went heavy-handed with the nutmeg, cause I like 'em spicy...so maybe 3/4 tsp??)
1 cup Sugar
2/3 cups Shortening
2 whole Eggs
1 cup Milk
1-1/2 cup Sugar
3 teaspoons Cinnamon
2 sticks Butter (the panicked look on Andrew's face when I told him the recipe called for 2 sticks of butter...you should have seen it!  I was able to use about a stick, plus two or so tablespoons.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups. (I sprayed em down with non-stick spray.)
In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. (I used my Kitchen Aid...just like making cookies, I tell ya!)
Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden. (Mine took closer to 30 minutes...just watch em.)

Naked Puffs

In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

I didn't eat three, I swear!  I just thought to take the picture while my hands were clean, melting more butter...

 Serve warm.  Entice your mother to come down for puffs, instead of driving all the way into town to the Bagel Shop. 

The humanity!

You can freeze any remaining puffs.  Then your husband won't have any food guilt.