Sunday Morning Muffins with Yvonne

Blueberries are my fave. And now that we know they are chock full o'antioxidants?--well, just all the more excuse to eat moremoremore. But the traditional blueberry muffin has always held a cherished place in my tummy since I was a wee lass--plus, my boys like 'em too. So, after years (literally) of adapting and modifying muffin recipes, I think I have finally created one that not only tastes delish, but also satisifes my need to have more healthy grains and fiber in the muffin without creating a dry, lifeless thing merely labled a "muffin." And here is my recipe for public consumption...

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons of pure, unadulterated unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar (you can reduce this to 1/3 C if you want a less sweet muffin
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yougurt (you can use vanilla yogurt--and full fat is the best really, but you can use reduced fat--or even sour cream or reduced fat sour cream--just something thick and creamy and dairy-ish)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• zest and juice of half of a lemon (if you really like lemony muffins, use the whole lemon--my boy is not so into anything too overtly citrus-y flavored, so I only use half--but I used to make these with a whole lemon and they are reallly fresh tasting with more lemon--you can also omit the lemon altogether if you don't like lemon--we're flexible around here)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup regular boring old white flour
• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen are fine--no need to defrost them, you can add them frozen to the batter)

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. You can either grease your muffin pan with additional butter, or toss some muffin papers in there (I usually try to avoid the additional waste of muffin papers and just lightly grease my non-stick muffin pan). Using a wooden spoon or mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, milk, vanilla, yogurt and lemon and mix thoses in too. Then in another bowl, mix together the baking soda, baking powder, salt, oatmeal, and both varieties of flour. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently, tenderly combine them until the dry ingredients are just barely moist--the batter will likely still be lumpy and you just need to accept it that way and release your feelings that you MUST make the batter all smooth. The less you mix this batter, the lighter and softer your muffins will be. Beat them too much and you will get heavy, dense, depressed muffins. And again, you will need to ever so gently fold in those blueberries with just a couple stirs of your spoon--no aggression here either. Fill your muffin cups equally (should make 12 muffins), then slip these babies in the oven for anywhere from 20-30 minutes, or until they are all golden and happy and seem to be begging you eat them NOW. But you should let them rest for about 5 minutes before you attempt to pop them out of the muffin pan or they might get overly sensitive on your ass and crumble at your feet.Naturally, they are best eaten warm from the oven slathered with a little butter, but they are also good the next day--and I often freeze half of them so I can quickly thaw them for consumption on another Sunday when I am feeling more lazy...
And about Yvonne. Have you met her? Well, let me introduce you to her. This is Yvonne. Isn't she lovely and RAD? I yearn to be as cool as she is. Check out the scooter print dress and the clever boots made from recycled leather (and the mail-style tote slung across her body above).
And the cool skull cap/head scarf made from vintage linens.
She was made by Shannon Jefferson, creative genius behind Project Grab Bag. And apparently, I am not the only one who is crazy about her dolls since she has only sold about 800 items in her Etsy shop. Shannon makes all of her dolls using recycled and vintage materials--which rocks my reclaimed world.
And these dolls are on the bigger side--like about 20 inches or so long--something a kid could really wrap their arms around and adore. I actually acquired Yvonne through a trade with Shannon--one cashmere pug + one baby on a stick = Yvonne showing up on my doorstep. I love her. Even my husband commented on how "cool" she is. I know. Thanks, Shannon.