Vegan Blueberry Muffins (during a mandatory evacuation: crochet a mandala, knit a sweater)

I began baking like a fiend this week. Remarkably, everything I've cooked/baked or attempted to do in lieu of checking myself into some place for a "respite" has turned out to be exactly what I needed to function just one minute longer, one hour longer, then an afternoon and finally an evening longer. Because that's how I'm operating here: in moments--with really good food. I stumbled across this recipe for blueberry muffins in a mad search for a morning treat for the workers in the yard and DH and me (because who doesn't love blueberry muffins?). I have dozens of amazing blueberry muffin recipes throughout my collection. But the need to seek and find just the right recipe was urgent and a nice Google distraction. Trusty King Arthur Flour was the answer to my prayers. I landed on the Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffin recipe. If you've got five minutes, cupcake liners and blueberries (frozen are fine), I highly recommend you give these a shot. Mine were made with a flax egg and vegan butter--that's all the substitution needed to re-create the recipe. I know I'll be making these again, possibly adding lemon zest next time, and subbing some whole wheat flour in the mix as well--making a gluten free version would work well, too. It's quite a forgiving recipe: so simple, plain and lovely. If you'd like a taller muffin, you can always up the baking powder by a 1/8-1/4 teaspoon. My kitchen once again became my sanctuary. 

Vegan Blueberry Muffins 

*Adapted from Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffin Recipe by King Arthur 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 t. baking power

1/4 t. salt (I adjusted down the amt. with salted vegan butter)

1/2 cup vegan butter

1 cup sugar

4 t. ground flax seed with 4 T. water and 2 t. EVOO (flax egg subbing for 2 eggs)

1 t. vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond milk

2 cups frozen blueberries 

*a little sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins before baking

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare muffin tin lined with cupcake wrappers, spray wrappers with nonstick spray. Measure out flour, salt and baking soda in bowl and sift together. Set aside. In medium bowl, mix butter for about two minutes. Add sugar, mixing until light and fluffy--about a minute longer. Add vanilla and flax egg, then mix a bit more. Then add flour and milk alternately mixing lightly after each addition--just until the dry flour is mixed in. Then fold in the blueberries. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full with batter, then sprinkle about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes. *I found baking for a little longer yielded a nice golden brown top. I used a toothpick to test if batter was baked through.  

So why all this baking urgency, kitchen therapy? Well, last week this happened: continued treatment for winter poison ivy outbreak, major demolition of yard, my sister scheduled for surgery in a week...oh and there was the mandatory evacuation of our home IMMEDIATELY owing to our gas line being hit during yard excavation--(not owing to our crew, rather something to do with "marking" of line). With barely enough time to spare to grab my purse, phone and two Great Pyrenees--knocking on neighbor's doors to warn them of potential doom--again with TWO seventy pound white Thunder Wolves on my wrists--it's a miracle I've made it to Sunday. ALL this while DH went about calmly managing the entire surreal afternoon as the fire department, gas, water and line inspectors arrived. (Wonder how I held up? Picture exactly what I've described here, sprinkle in screaming, crying, blaming and more crying. Okay, so I'm not exactly Mother Teresa during a crisis.) It's all I could do to keep my heart from simply stopping in my chest. Alas, the crisis was averted, things repaired and life returned to somewhat normal conditions.

Above--as the demolition began. Below, the calm after the "evacuate" storm: Dr. Thyme checking on the progress with the workers. I was inside at this point--rocking back in forth in a chair chanting some illegible crap about "There's no place like home...there's no place like home."

So yes, there be baking happening. All through this, I'm trying to remain calm. Lending positive affirmations to my sister who is about to face a really tough trial (as if she hasn't faced enough already). 

It's been one thing after another. 

Luckily I have friends (dear, dear friends) who've received texts with probably too-long-while-also-trying-not-to-be-overly-dramatic explanations of all that's transpired. Then there's been two- and three-hour phone conversations with these women and my sister as well. Truthfully, everyone I know has A LOT happening, but I don't know what I'd do without them. I guess we've hit the age in life where the proverbial sh*t hits the fan fairly regularly. But honestly, enough already. "Pass the muffins, please!"

Helping along the way are my needlework projects--working with my hands while my mind tries to make order out of chaos. 

Projects I've found incredibly blissful.

The Sunny Spread blanket. Using my stash yarn for this. It's a mandala with a square finish. Such a calm one-mandala-at-a-time escape. I'll need to make about 25 of these to create a nice throw. 

Oh boy do I have a long way to go, but my Great Love Cardigan will be SO lovely when it's finished. I can't wait. I've been working on this while listening to an audiobook: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. 

This is the Adirondack Wrap crochet project. It's very relaxing to work on. Three triangles sewn together for final assembly. I just love it in my Mandala yarn. 

Vegan Sour Cherry Pie with Flaky All-Butter Crust (Knitted Cuteness: Snowmen, Gnomes and Stars. Is This Supposed to Happen with A Broken Ankle?)

Consider baking a pie for someone for Christmas. I did. Except I decided I needed my pie earlier and I baked this pie for myself on Thanksgiving. I ate most of it myself, too. I had never tried an all-butter (vegan butter) pie crust before. But my taste buds were not disappointed. The recipe could not have been easier--once you make your dough (time to throw together: about five minutes), chill the dough (a half hour), drain the cherries, reserving some juice, then add a little of this and a pinch of that (another five minutes), then roll the dough and place in pie plate and add the cherries (about five more minutes), and bake (forty-five minutes)--you'll be greeted with an amazingly delicious cherry pie extravaganza. 

Smoky Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad with Fresh Basil (Plus: It-Took-Me-Two-Nights Crocheted Farmers Market Bag)

If I get to a point where the dish rack has to be relocated to accommodate tomatoes on the kitchen counter, then this happens. I guess I could have made salsa, but that's usually what I want to do come September when the prospect of losing my plants to an early frost (and visions of us starving during a cold winter) sets in. 

Does the world need another pasta salad recipe? I think yes! I have a trick to making a dizzying good pasta salad, I always add a squeeze or two of Dijon mustard and tomato paste to the mix. I love Dijon mustard. Any interpretation of "pasta salad" works--to me, it's all in the dressing. And based upon your own particular preference, adding more acid to the salad or more oil is completely fine. Just taste as you make.

Vegan Apple Hand Pies with Brown Butter (The Best Snowiest Sunday Ever and Granny Square Hat-Makin')

Being snow bound is the best. Baking when you're snow bound is even better. Not to be trite, but here's the skinny on the day's events: cozy warm fireplace, the dogs, me crocheting a granny square hat, husband reading, a pot of veggie soup on the stove simmering all day, a fresh-baked loaf of ciabatta bread to accompany said soup: yesterday had to be one of the bestest Sundays ever. Then I whipped up these hand pies for dessert, and I'm not ashamed to say, my Yankee-self cherished every snowy moment of it all. More snow please! And how about like two weeks of summer, then fall. 

Vegan Blueberry Jam Surprise Breakfast Muffins: The Chia Seed Experiment (And. . . Seeing Stripes, Finishing Stripes)

Sometimes when I bake muffins for breakfast, I actually want to have them for dessert . . . and then for breakfast, too. This muffin in particular taunted me. I've had a love affair with blueberries for as long as I can remember. I make blueberry jam whenever they're in season. I smother my pancakes with blueberries, put blueberries in smoothies, use frozen blueberries on my oatmeal in the morning. If there's a scientific link between the consumption of blueberries and one keeping their "wits" about them into old age, I'd be a perfect study participant for such work. Just check back with me in about twenty years. Maybe fifteen. Okay ten.

O Vegan Christmas Cookies, O Crocheted Christmas Ornaments!

My cookie jar(s) are full right now. So the eating of said cookies must occur before more baking is to take place. I think the only thing that gets me through December is the food group "sugar", yarn, yarn and more yarn and the fact that Idol returns in January. I am serious. And this heatwave we are having is nice. But snow. Please. 

From left to right pictured above: Speculoos, Nigella Lawson's Christmas Chocolate Cookie (recipe here) and finally, from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas Cookies cookbook, Three Nut Finger cookies. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Vegan Coconut Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookie Or Beige Food Stuff from My Kitchen (Caution: sourdough starting AND crochet wrapping included!)

I've been in a rut lately. This is our third batch of these coconut shortbread cookies. I'm finding it difficult to "move on". They're the perfect beige food. (I have this overly obsessive nature--thus the "three batches" thing.) It all started with a cookie craving. I had to have a cookie with a long shelf life, and one that would step in as a late night dessert. These cookies aren't fussy. They have a light crumb--and I find the added coconut with macadamia nuts to be as close to heaven as you can get if chocolate isn't happening for you. (Rare. I know.) 

Rustic Peach Apple Galette (Roll It. Pile It. Fold It. Bake It.)

The hands-on time for this dessert is under fifteen minutes. The result is unabashedly sublime. To gild the lily, a scoop of vanilla bean coconut ice cream served in a bowl with a slab of the galette, and all will be right with the world. I've noticed the supermarket slowly receiving "not-quite-seasonal-for-Missouri" produce. Last week there were the bing cherries and Georgia peaches. The cherries really tempted me. I cannot resist them once the full line of cherries arrive. But even I have standards. It's far too early for a decent cherry. But the peaches. . . they were in perfect condition. They had that peachy aroma. Plus they were displayed in individually slotted spaces in cardboard boxes. As if the shipping box was specifically designed just for the semi-long trip they had getting to Missouri from Georgia. I came home with two pounds. My impulse control was low, what can I say. 

Vegan Lemon Almond Tea Cake with Lemon Glaze (And Snowflakes on The Side for Some Much Needed Crochet-for-Me Time)

I had to take a break from cookie baking. Plus, it felt like I was being unfair to the cake. In keeping with the "only happy things" posting theme for December, I am sharing this amazingly delicious lemony slice of heaven with you. If you are stuck for a gift idea for special foodies in your life, might I strongly suggest you give this recipe a try. Seriously. I'm on my "almost" third piece this morning already. The addition of ground almonds to the batter took this bread to a new level in my opinion. There is this sweet, crunchy-almond-y, lemon-y pizazz you get when you bite into this. The browning of the crust occurred after I baked mine in an old metal loaf pan once belonging to my mother. Mmm. I will promptly be hitting the treadmill this afternoon.

I have a trip coming up here shortly. I'm heading back "home". Indiana. I have not been home in sixteen years. My last visit was for my mom's funeral. (I wouldn't really call that a visit as much as a mandatory march.) She wasn't from here either.

Vegan Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting (Crochet Hooks And Sanity Control)

I don't know about you, but the whole chocolate candy thing has sort of taken over my life. I'm even having visions of Payday candy bars in the middle of the day. . . then Snickers, then Three Muskateer. It's maddening! So, to keep the chocolate wolves at bay, I'd decided I needed to take immediate action to assuage the cravings. Enter cake. The un-chocolate kind. *But that doesn't mean I won't be heading out to Target this afternoon for a candy grab!

One More Week (Stay Calm: Knit One, Double Crochet, Too)

Well. He's still with us. And that is all that really matters right now. There we were last week, all three of us: Dr. Thyme, me and our vet, blanket spread on the all-too-familiar floor. Me hunched over him, holding his head in my lap. She says, I want to check him out one more time. I'm biting my tongue and nodding. She walks over to him, bent over to be on his level. He gets up. She follows him over to the other side of the room, then this happens: He growls at her. We all go silent. She said, Alright. I need to examine him a little more closely. She escorted our boy down the hall. A few minutes later, in she walks with him in tow. His tail is wagging. We all compose ourselves again. Dr. Thyme and I look at each other. She said, I'll tell you one thing, he's a fighter and that whole growling at me thing. . . I'm pretty sure he's not ready to go anywhere just yet.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Buckle (Weekend Full of "Framily", Cookbooks, Sewing, Meeting Sophie, Etc.)

I am a pushover when it comes to anything remotely in the "coffee cake, crumb cake, buckle, tea cake" category. Just say cinnamon crumbles and I fall in love instantly. If you've got a few minutes to bake today, make this "raspberry chocolate chip buckle/cobbler", now! This recipe didn't start out as a raspberry chocolate chip kind--I really wanted a blueberry buckle. With no blueberries in the house, I settled for raspberries--then the chocolate chips make an appearance, too. To me, this version is possibly better than the blueberry version. The jury is out on that and I'll let you know when I make the other. I'd say this cake is in the same camp as the coffee cake--but would be pulling double duty in this house as I wanted something with just a hint of chocolate, some fruit (for sure) and that oh-so-delightful cinnamon crumb topping. (My favorite part, personally.) With the summer winding down, it makes perfect sense to dive into the last vestiges of ripe fruit in the seemingly little time we have left. Hard to believe our summer fling will be over soon--not soon enough for me, thank you very much. This treat will take you through the week, and even steps in nicely as dessert duty if you warm it slightly and top it off with some vegan vanilla ice cream. My buckle adaptation is from one of the best cookbooks ever published: The King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I turned their Blueberry Buckle into this winner, making the following changes--vegan unsalted margerine sticks, Ener-G Egg Replacer for eggs, a bit of nutmeg in the crumble--plus I added a bit of almond extract in the batter, too. I used frozen raspberries--two cups, and 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips--folding in at the end of the mixing of the batter because to "overmix" this sort of cake treat would be bad karma.  

Right after we dug in. This is truly a sublime any-time-of-year treat.