A Taste of Friendship

by guest blogger Sofie Ryan.

I’ve been cooking since I was a kid. I started because my mother didn’t like to cook. She was the baby of the family and she never learned. “I was spoiled,” she’d say with a bit of a smile.

When my mother and father got married the only thing Mom could do was make a cup of tea. She couldn’t even make toast because she was baffled by the two-sided, hand-me down toaster that had come from my aunt. In one of those wonderful twists life sometimes takes, Mom’s closest friend was an excellent cook who could make dinner for two dozen people and whose cookie jar was never empty. She’d send her kids and me out to pull rhubarb in the late spring and up to the blueberry fields in the summer with the promise of rhubarb crisp or blueberry grunt.

Like my mother, Sarah Grayson in The Whole Cat and Caboodle can’t cook. And like my mother she’s managed to surround herself with women who can, like Rose Jackson. Just like my mother’s best friend, Rose loves to feed people and one of the things she likes to make is blueberry muffins.


Rose’s Blueberry Muffins

3 cups all-purpose four
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ cup soft butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 ½ cups of blueberries, washed and drained
Juice of one lemon
Grated rind of half a lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin tins or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Save a tablespoon of the floor to coat the blueberries. In a smaller bowl beat the eggs with a whisk and add the milk, lemon rind and lemon juice. Stir the liquids into the dry ingredients just until mixed. Sprinkle the saved tablespoon of flour over the blueberries and stir gently. Carefully fold the coated blueberries into the batter.
Divide the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown on top. Makes 12 large muffins.

Notes:

• You can use frozen blueberries. Don’t thaw them first.
• I’ve also used buttermilk instead of evaporated milk for a slightly tangier muffin.
• Coating the berries with a little flour helps keep the batter from turning blue.

Enjoy with a cup of tea and a good book!

Sofie Kelly and Sofie Ryan are pseudonyms of young adult writer and mixed-media artist, Darlene Ryan. Sofie/Darlene lives on the east coast with her husband and daughter. In her spare time she practices Wu style tai chi and likes to prowl around thrift stores. And she admits to having a small crush on Matt Lauer.  






Berkley Prime Crime has generously offered a copy of The Whole Cat and Caboodle to one of my readers.  To enter, please share your favorite food in the comment area below.  Please don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win.