The nip of fall in the air always makes me want to bake. One reason is that the garden chores don’t feel nearly so urgent as in the spring and summer. It’s also easier to turn the oven on when the house isn’t above 80 degrees. But also, there is something about filling the house with the scent of baking bread, savory fruit muffins and chocolate that make me want to nestle in for the winter.
I’ve been droning on about chickens so much that I’ve been asked to join chicken blog directories. Who knew there were such things? Now, just to mix things up, I’ll throw in a recipe.
These are my favorite Very Simple Wild Blueberry Muffins. They take five minutes to toss together and less than 30 minutes to bake. So in about 35 minutes you can be sitting down with a glass of milk and a fresh blueberry muffin.
You could use fresh blueberries or frozen. If you use frozen, I recommend the Wyman’s brand of frozen wild blueberries. Wild blueberries are smaller than regular blueberries and the Wyman’s brand are the smallest I’ve seen.
Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light brown sugar, plus extra for topping
1/2 cup milk (I use skim since that’s all we keep in the house)
1 large egg (I use eggs from my own chickens, of course!)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups blueberries
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin tins with paper liner or non-stick spray.
Mix butter, sugar, milk and egg until well blended. Add baking powder, cinnamon and salt, again mixing well. Gently fold in flour and mix, just until combined. Very gently fold in blueberries.
Divide batter into muffin cups. I usually make about nine from this recipe, but you can get 12 out of it, if you want smaller muffins.
Top each muffin with about 1/4 teaspoon of additional brown sugar.
Bake 25 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.
Enjoy!
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Harry was hard at work today with his post-hold diggers. Pretty soon I’ll be able to share the results of all his work—the chicken run of the Palazzo di Pollo. Yes, that’s the name of their new chicken house, thanks to the brainstorming of my Plurking friends. Credit for the final name goes to Mr. McGregor’s Daughter Leslie at Growing a Garden in Davis.
My sister-in-law jumped in and even made us an official Palazzo di Pollo logo! I believe I may have to open my own Cafe Press store so I can sell t-shirts and other fun Palazzo di Pollo goods. What do you think? Don’t you need a Palazzo di Pollo apron? A Palazzo di Pollo ballcap?
Just to test the marketability of our chickens, we did a brief (VERY brief) photo shoot this afternoon to see how well they work as models. Maxine did fairly well. I, however, probably could use some work.
I only look a little tentative because we had to catch Maxine not once, but twice in order to get a photo without shadows. Let’s just say she was not amused.
And so, there we have it for today’s chicken story installment.
Next up: wild blueberry muffins (and not a word about chickens, I promise.)
By the way, you can follow me on Twitter at BumblebeeGarden. Chicken stories all day long!
Robin
..I will humor you with just a few.
Maxine, Maude and Myrtle make me laugh. Not only are their jerky motions and startled reactions at the smallest thing humorous, I particularly find their noises amusing. The sound they make most often sounds like a little old lady worrying “Ooooh, noooooooooo.” They go “Awwwwwwwwwhhhhhhh” and manage to sound so very worried the way they draw it out. All three will get into the act and it sounds like maybe they ran out of pudding at the old folks’ home cafeteria. “Awwwwwwwwwhhhhh.”
In the evenings, about an hour or two before sunset, I let the chickens out of their run for a little walkabout. They usually just wander along the edges or the woods or into the garden scratching and looking for bugs. As the sun sets, they wander back to their Eglu and put themselves to bed.
One evening I moved the Eglu a little too far and they became disoriented, going back to the front yard where the Eglu was first set up. I couldn’t seem to entice them back to where the Eglu was, so they started to roost in the River Birch by the house. I managed to snag Maude and walked slowly back to where the Eglu was located. Of course, she was going “Awwwwwhhhhhhh. Awwwwwwwwwhhhhhhh” the whole way. Everyone followed Maude back to the house and went to bed.
Did you know chickens love peaches? They don’t much care for bananas. And lettuce probably seems too much like grass. They also like cantaloupe.
“What about those chicks?” you ask.
Well, they are growing and growing. I can’t say they’re the most beautiful specimens. Minnie Ruth is, well, rather beaky. Olive (formerly Olivia) is looking just ratty. I have inspected for mites and bugs but don’t see any. I may treat them just to be on the safe side.
So there you have it…more chicken stories.
What’s going on with the garden? Well, lettuce and broccoli are planted. Spinach goes in soon in a coldframe. I have a lot of weeding to do as well as some tidy-up for the fall.
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