Its Blueberry Season!

So time seems to just fly here when its summer. Its already blueberry season, can you believe it?! Our downtown market is currently stocked with blueberries! So, we bought a basket full of blueberries, ate a whole bunch, and I made some glorious muffins with the rest. This muffin has it all: fruit, bran, flax, and a whole lotta taste! You can eat these almost guilt-free, it contains no significant amounts of saturated fats, if any, because it does not contain any butter. Just watch out for the calories, because it does contain sugar.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup *bran/flax mix
• 1 & 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil or grape seed oil
• 2/3 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of blueberries
  

*Bran/Flax mixture: What I did was grind whole flax (about 3 tblsp - I just eye-balled it) in a clean, dry, coffee grinder. I emptied it into a bowl. Then I added some All-Bran to the grinder (I just filled close to the top), and grinded it into a powder. It should take seconds to grind flax and bran. You can eye-ball the amount you have to 1 cup, or you can fill a measuring up with mixture to the 1-cup mark. Also, you can use just bran, or just flax, or you can substitute that 1 cup of fibre-omega goodness for flour (naughty, naughty!).

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners. Combine flour, bran/flax mix, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add vegetable oil, eggs, and milk. Mix ingredients well. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups to the very top with batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven until done. Makes a dozen muffins.

We keep our muffins in the fridge to maintain its freshness.

Enjoy with juice or coffee.

Finally, a Cake!

I will own you!
Thats what I was saying while I fought with my fondant on Saturday. I decided not to buy it pre-made, as I heard that it stinks of chemicals when you open it. Anyway, the cake I made for my parents' 30th anniversary (hooray for them!!) got lots of praises (hooray for me)! One of our guests even gave me props for making it without having air conditioning!

Anyway, here's the link for the fondant recipe I used: http://www.recipezaar.com/255227 .

I didn't use shortening, I used butter. And I certainly didn't need half a cup of grease, I only used half a tablespoon! Also, I tried this recipe in half-batches, so I wouldn't stroke of frustration. I heard of fondant recipies not working out, so I wasn't about to make a whole batch for nothing. Finally, I used my dough hook to start out, and then I kneaded. So much less messy. For my last batch, I tried kneading from start to finish..ugh, what a freaking mess! It still worked though. I ended up with 4 balls of fondant in a ziplock in the fridge. I made them over about 3 days.

Here's a link for the cake recipe I used:
http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8918 .

Although what I had in my head was fancier version what I actually made - with fondant bows and numbers! - I am still so happy with these results, it was delish, and that my parents loved it!