the cliff-hanger resolve

Hmmm...well, not really sure reading the items: limes, chicken, baking powder, zucchini, and bay leaf would piqued my interest enough to return to furlough food, and I'm the one who should be at least mildy amused by my own blog, right? Now if I had suggested "limes IN chicken" or "zucchini bombs" perhaps I would have returned. Hmm...Nope, still not sure.

But it looks like I'm here, and you're here so it must be something that brought you back. Perhaps you are one of the few who have asked for images and recipes of some items I've cooked recently. Perhaps you're just bored at work and looking to pass the time. I have a sneaking suspicion you are one in the same.

The title of my last post was "and I finally *made* muffins"; naturally there is a double meaning to that statement. The obvious: I did make muffins (three batches, in fact). The no so obvious: I am making the most of it (refer to post number one for what 'making the most of it' actually means). Explanation....

The Muffins:
It starts with a rather amusing beginner-cook story. This story is now logged nicely in my mom's book of Silly Cindy Young Cooking Adventures, tucked right next to the chapter she can read to you about the time I brought home 12 loaves of french bread to make one 9x13 pan of bread pudding for Thanksgiving. We had bread in the freezer for, well, YEARS really. And now I've got blueberries...lots of them.

I took on the Cooks Illustrated recipe for blueberry muffins (May/June issue). With a lemon zest sugar topping and a blueberry jam swirled into the muffins, it sounded like a winner. The blueberry jam thing is actually what got me...in more ways than one. (1) The blueberry jam and promise of good blueberry taste hooked me; (2) The preparation for said blueberry jam did a little "gotcha" on my brain and cooking confidence at the grocery store.

ONE: I don't actually like blueberry muffins very much, never have. I see them as the Emperors New Clothes of Food, really. I try one now and again and think to myself, "Do these taste like this to everyone? It this just muffin innards, with blue spurty things devoid of any taste? Where is the rich taste I think of when I think "blueberry"? Why is everyone eating these when clearly there is no taste?!?" Blueberries just near my Grandma's house in Stonington were rich, sweet and there was a little zing in those suckers; I ate them by the handful when I was a kid. So this recipe got me: it was a test to see if I could make a blueberry muffin taste like blueberry, as the author claimed it would.

TWO: I forgot my list of things to get at the grocery store so had to rely on my not-so-trusty-short-term-memory. I remembered the recipe called for "2 ____ of blueberries, picked over". Well that blank is pretty crucial, now isn't it? 2 tablespoons? 2 lbs? 2 cups? 2 what? I went to the frozen fruit area, and found some blueberries from Door County (just a stone's throw from the UP). I still couldn't remember what the 2 _____ was. I thought, "Well, you are going to be making a jam, so maybe it IS two pounds?? It needs to reduce and perhaps this recipe makes a double batch?? Two pounds sounds like an awful lot, but you better get more than have to come back, Cindy." So naturally if I'm looking for pounds, the item is sold in 12 OUNCE bags. I did my math...32 oz so I needed to get three bags....Wow, that's a lot (red flag! red flag! red flag!). What sort of recipe would seriously make you get three bags of frozen blueberries? I assured myself that well of course it will call for a lot of blueberries it is a top notch recipe. I grabbed three bags, the rest of the groceries and headed home to read what the devil filled in the blank. It was....2....(yes, I'm sure you figured it out when I gave you the 2___ options above)...CUPS. Of course, CUPS. The idea of making a jam, having never done so before, shattered my cooking confidence and scattered my clarity all over the floor of the grocery store. What else would explain coming home with two POUNDS of frozen blueberries? At least that is how I explained it to Todd who helped unpack the groceries and revealed bag after bag after bag of blueberries (holy crap, did you buy them out?). Gotcha, says blueberry jam. I will be making muffins for quite some time given the bags taking room in the freezer.

So that is a long prologue into muffin making....I did in fact make the blueberry muffins (jam and then some). The buttermilk batter and sweet, yet tangy, little blueberries made the perfect muffin. I did the lemon zest and sugar for a topping in the first batch, the second batch I tried the strudel topping. Lemon zest sugar is WAY better than the strudel (little heavy and flavorless). While it still wasn't like eating blueberries by the handful, there was a good dose of blueberry flavor throughout the entire muffin. After baking (and eating two warm ones), we put them in a container and I swear they were better the second day. I'm not sure it is legal to post the recipe but here goes:

Topping:
1/3 cup sugar, 3 teaspons lemon zest (it calls for 1.5 but I doubled it)

Muffin Ingredients:
2 CUPS blueberries (fresh or frozen, depending on the season), picked over (duh)
1 1/8 cups sugar (plus 1 teaspoon for jam)
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Making the gotcha jam:
Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to a simmer, mashing berries and stirring often. Reduce to about 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Let cool.

Batter (or "crumb" as those in the muffin biz call it):
Oven to 425, grease 12-muffin tin
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl. Whisk 1 1/8 cups sugar and egg together in medium bowl until combined; slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined; whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Fold in egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened (batter will be lumpy...do not over mix!). Using ice cream scoop (this is crucial), and fill muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using a chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion (note: figure-eight will likely not work and will make you feel inept if you try in your itty bitty muffin cups of your tin...just swirl in what ever fashion you can). Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins. Bake until just golden and just firm (17-19 minutes), rotate muffin tin 1/2 way through baking time. Cool for 5 minutes in tin, transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.



The muffins pictured here actually have a strudel topping, but don't do it, stick with the lemon.

And lastly, Making the Most of It:
I have left the ranks of coen+partners as a full time employee. The reasons are many, but largely personal. I love all the people, and see a fantastically talented group. Hopefully the entire lot will be at the Michigan wedding, but it was time for me to try something that suits me. It will be filled with design, to be sure, but as my dad has always said, "It is good to be your own boss." I've decided to heed that advice and am working on aligning personal and professional health (with a slight slant to the personal for the time being), being my own boss as it were. I am scared, overwhelmed and busy these days...but am just beginning to realize the possibilities in this great, big, humorous, enjoyable thing called LIFE.

I promise to resolve the limes in chicken and zucchini bombs in the next post. I needed to revel in a little muffin-ness for today and frankly I imagine you've lost your attention span by this point...if you're still here.