Enjoying the Summer.....

 Every week we buy fresh berries at our supermarket.  We have especially enjoyed the blueberries and raspberries this summer.  I found myself this Sunday morning with time to myself, so I cranked up the music and started to bake!!  I decided to use some fresh blueberries to make muffins.

I have tried this recipe before and it works perfectly.  These are very tender muffins and not too heavy or too sweet.  The blueberry is definitely the highlight in these muffins.  Once the ingredients are collected I set out to prep the pan.

 You can use papers, but the muffins come out so pretty and so perfect that it makes a nice presentation without them.  I use a pastry brush coated with margarine and I brush each of the cups until they are fully coated. 

 Then each cup gets about a teaspoon of flour to coat them.  About 5 minutes of greasing and flouring and this pan is ready to go.  It is worth the effort.

 Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

 Coating the blueberries with a little flour keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the batter.

Cream the butter and sugar and all the wet ingredients.  When the wet ingredients are mixed the flour mixture gets added.  Mix for just a few minutes.  If you over blend the muffins can get tough.

 Remove the batter from the mixer and add the blueberries.  Mix into batter using a spatula.

Drop heaping tablespoons into each cup.  Then top each blueberry muffin with a sprinkling of sugar. It makes a nice crunchy top.  Bake in the oven at 375 for 30 minutes rotating the pan half way.

 While in the oven, clean up the mess!  I have never been a neat baker.

This muffin recipe came from this Martha Stewart cookbook.  I have tried several recipes from this book and some work well and some don't.  This recipe is definitely one of the good ones.

 If you would like to try to make these yourself, here is the recipe. 

 Here they are.  Hot and fresh from the oven.

After a few minutes of cooling, the recipe tells you to lift the muffins and lay them sideways to continue cooling.  It keeps the bottoms from getting too done.  We enjoyed these for dessert last night.  We had them in a bowl with vanilla ice cream.  YUM!!!!  Go ahead.  Make your own.

This summer has been so incredibly hot in GA, that it has brought with it daily rain showers and thunderstorms.  So with the rain it has brought lots of mushrooms.  These toad stools were an orangey red.

 Shelby picked them and put them next to her little fairy house she has outside.  Good idea.

My hydrangea bush in the backyard has grown over my head this year and it has been blooming since April.  Here are some of her pretty pink flowers.

I hope you are enjoying the summer.  We are busy getting ready for my little one's 7th birthday, back to school shopping and lots of swimming in the pool.  It has been VERY nice to be home for awhile.