Blueberry Muffins

If you haven't figured it out by now, I love blueberries. I use them a great deal in baking. That's especially true this time of year. Sadly, the crop is about to come to its end. But I've got lots in the freezer thanks to my very generous aunt!

I really prefer muffins I make at home from scratch. Some folks like those mixes (my mother is one of those) but they just don't taste the same to me. There's nothing like homemade that says special. You can serve these for breakfast (that would be me), a snack (that would also be me) or dessert (that would be my mother). They're pretty much welcome any time of the day.

Blueberry Muffins

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar

Lightly beat the egg with a fork. Add the milk and cooking oil, beating lightly with the fork. Set it aside.

Stir together the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the pan. Pour the egg mixture in. Stir only until moistened. The batter will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix.

Add the 2 tablespoons sugar to the blueberries. Stir. Fold the blueberry mixture into the batter. Again, only stir enough to thoroughly mix.

Put those little paper baking cups into the muffin pan. You can grease the pan and forgo the little cups. It's just that the little cups make the muffins easier to get out of the pan and make it easier to clean said pan. Also, they just look pretty.

This muffin mixture makes 12 to 18 muffins, depending on how much batter you put in each little cup. I tend to go for smaller muffins. Just spoon the mixture into the cups.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Because I use less batter per paper cup, it only takes my muffins 20 minutes to bake. They'll be lightly brown on top whem they're done.

Don't expect leftovers with these. It's difficult to eat only one, especially when they're just-from-the-oven warm.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay. Let's get a count of how many people love Chocolate Chip Cookies. Those who love them raise your hand. Now, those don't can raise your hand. That's what I thought. Everyone loves Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I've tried numerous recipes over the years. These include those on the chocolate chip packages and in special chocolate cookbooks. You probably have a few of those cookbooks devoted to everything chocolate.

Still, the best recipe ever in this one I'm about to share. Shhh...don't tell anyone.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 12-oz. package semisweet chocolate chips

Let the margarine or butter stand until room temperature. I use Blue Bonnet margarine. I also take the foil paper off, put it in a bowl and heat it in the microwave to soften it up. It takes less time that way.

Mix the margarine, shortening, brown sugar and granulated sugar together with your mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour, baking soda and salt together. Remember to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off with the back side of a knife. Never scoop it into the measuring cup.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamy mixture. Blend well.

Stir the chocolate chips into that mixture.

Use a teaspoon to drop small amounts of the mixture on to an ungreased cookie sheet. Obviously, the amount you drop will determine the size of your cookies.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly brown on the bottom. The cookies won't be too brown on the top. Of course, you could cook them a little longer if you want. That makes a harder cookie. I like my chocolate chip cookies soft.

Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and place them on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy. Then hide the rest. Cookie monsters are everywhere.

Fried Okra

Fried okra is a staple around our house this time of year. Whenever any other crop fails, the okra seems to keep on going. One year the plants were taller than me (literally!) when they're usually only about two to three feet high. It made all summer and into the fall. We figured the first frost would be the end of the okra. Nope. We finally threatened my father to not bring any more okra in. We ate okra two meals a day for way too many months. Of course, our taste buds were primed and ready the next year when the okra crop started coming in.

I know some folks boil okra. Some use it in soups. In my world, which is Deep South, it is fried. You were surprised, right? You'll find it easy to do.

Fried Okra

okra
salt
all-purpose flour
cooking oil

Wash the okra. Cut off the ends. Then chop the okra pods into 1/4 inch-thick pieces.

Lightly salt the okra. Mix with just enough flour to coat the okra.

Heat a small amount of grease in a skillet. Of course, we use a cast iron skillet but I suppose any skillet will do. Use a medium to medium-high heat.

Place okra in the skillet, stir, then cover. Stir often. Cooking time varies depending on how much okra you have. Okra should be light brown and green, not burnt! If you're not sure what done okra looks like, just spoon out a little, let it cool and taste it. Then you'll know.

Place a paper towel on a platter. When the okra is done, spoon it onto the paper towel. That helps soak up some of the grease. The remainder of the grease goes into your mouth and directly onto your thighs. Just kidding!

See. That wasn't so hard. I guess it means you're now a Southern cook!

Cinnamon Bread

Once upon a time I cooked a lot. The kitchen belonged to me. I didn't have to share. I didn't need to work around anyone else's schedule. When I felt like cooking, I cooked.

One thing I loved to do was bake bread. I've spent many afternoons waiting for my dough to rise and pounding out my attitude on a poor piece of dough. But sometimes I did things the easy way. Cinnamon Bread is one of those easy recipes. You don't have to wait for dough to rise. It doesn't take hour upon hour to taste the finished results. It does, however, make your house smell wonderful. Cinnamon always does that.

Cinnamon Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice added
1/3 cup corn oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

Combine all ingredients with an electric mixer. I always combine my dry ingredients and stir together before adding to everything else. When measuring the flour, be sure to lightly spoon it into a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. So many people don't realize this and they use the scoop method. ie. They use the measuring cup to scoop the flour from it's container. That packs the flour in and causes you to use too much. Then the bread or cake or whatever is too dry and you can't figure out why. Now you know.

Beat all the ingredients together until fully mixed. You can substitute one cup of buttermilk for the milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice if you'd like. I just never have buttermilk in the house so I'm accustomed to using the substitute.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Streusel

2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons margarine or butter, melted

Stir all ingredients together. Pour over batter top. Take a small knife and gently swirl the streusel into the batter.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes, remembering that oven temperatures vary. In my oven it takes about 50 minutes. You'll know it's done when a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the bread from the pan as soon as you take it from the oven. Let it cool before slicing. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. I always reheat leftovers in the microwave because I like it just a little warm.

This bread is wonderful to freeze. I simply wrap it in plastic wrap and then put tin foil on top of that. Thaw in the refrigerator.

Baked Beans

It's almost the Fourth of July. Time for barbecues and lots of outdoor fun. That's what the ads say anyway. I'm fairly certain those folks don't live in the Deep South with temperatures near or exceeding 100 every day and lots and lots of humidity. Air conditioning is a wonderful thing.

Still, I couldn't wait to share this Baked Bean recipe with you. My mother uses it to dress up a can of beans. Better make extra!

Baked Beans

1 can baked beans
3 tablespoons brown sugar
onion, finely chopped
sweet pickles, finely chopped
3 tablespoons syrup

Mix all ingredients together. Don't forget this is the South so we all cook according to our individual tastes. Mother really likes onions so she adds a little more than I do. Suit your own taste. Sweet pickles around here are homemade but you can buy them already chopped and in a jar at the supermarket. The syrup is just basic pancake syrup. Nothing fancy.

Place in a rectangle pyrex dish (or something similar) and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Serve.

Eggplant Casserole

My Dad's sister was probably the most wonderful cook ever. She could cook virtually anything. A trip to her house was like an awesome adventure. I could eat and eat and eat and never have enough because it all tasted so good. Okay. Maybe not the turnips. I don't like turnips. But everything else was fabulous.

She was raised on a farm with my Dad and two way younger brothers. She could churn her own buttter -- and did -- and make biscuits and cakes and can vegetables and ... Well, you understand. Sadly, she died many years ago from cancer. I still miss her Cornbread Dressing every year at Thanksgiving.

This recipe is one I got from her. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Eggplant Casserole

1 large eggplant
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
grated cheddar cheese
saltine crackers

Wash and peel the eggplant. Cut it into chunks and boil in salty water for about 15 minutes. It will be tender.

Drain the water out and mash the eggplant with a fork or other kitchen tool until it's the consistency of batter.

Stir in egg and milk. Place in an oven-safe container. I usually use a pyrex dish. Sprinkle the cheese and crumble saltines on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

If you're trying to feed a larger crowd, this recipe is easy to enlarge. Just add an extra egg for each eggplant. You don't need to increase the milk by that much. Just stir a little extra in the "batter."

My aunt always sprinkled grated onion on top with the cheese and crackers. I prefer not to do it that way. I guess it's a personal preference type of thing. Much of Southern Cooking is that way.

Sweet Corn

I received a frantic call from my cousin's wife yesterday. I laugh as I write that. She gets upset with me for referring to her as "my cousin's wife." It's a correct description but it doesn't begin to tell others about our relationship. She is my friend who happens to be related to me. God has truly blessed me in that way.

As she called, she was looking at some corn with no idea how to freeze it. For those of you who have never frozen or canned vegetables, you can't just stick something in the freezer and expect to eat it over the winter. It's a little more involved than that.

The first issue is that she didn't know if it was sweet corn or field corn. Sweet corn is wonderful eaten right off the cob. Field corn really needs to be removed from the cob and creamed. She informed me that it didn't really matter. She prefers corn-on-the-cob and that's what she wanted to freeze.

After a quick consultation with my mother (who knows most things about such things), these are the directions.

Freezing Sweet Corn

Remove the husk from the corn and clean it thoroughly. Leave no little hairs to stick in your teeth! I prefer smaller ears of corn so I cut them in half. Either way works.

Place the corn in water. We use big, white enamel pans that my mother has had forever. Normal people probably use large pots. Bring the water to a boil for 5-7 minutes. This is called blanching. I don't even know if I've spelled that right. I do know that pretty much all vegetables that are headed for the freezer must be blanched before said trip.

Remove the corn from the stove and pour out the boiling water. Carefully. Remember that steam burns just as badly as direct hot water. Place the corn in a bowl of ice water until it cools.

Put corn in plastic bags made especially for the freezer. We generally put five per bag. I'm not sure why except that somewhere over the years my mother determined that five ears of corn per bag was the perfect serving size.

When you're really to eat the corn, remove it from the freezer and put it in a boiler or pan. Add water and a little salt. Bring it to a boil. Cook until tender. Serve.