Thursday, February 13, 2014

Kitchen Time: Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Welcome back to the Kitchen! I hope you are all in the mood to do some baking today!

Muffins are a great quick and easy breakfast on those mornings when you just don’t have much time.  You can grab one on your way out the door to work, school, errands, appointments, etc- and eat on the go!  After much debate in the family about a previous muffin recipe, I set off on a mission- to find a new, better, enhanced muffin style that everyone would agree on.  This was the winner, and I just had to share it with all of you!

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
(Courtesy of The Food Network, 2002, Barefoot Contessa Family Style)

Ingredients
12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
¼ cup milk
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

1.     Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2.     In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes
3.     With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time
4.     Add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk.
5.     In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
6.     With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed.
7.     Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.
8.     Scoop the batter into prepared paper-lined muffin pans, and baked for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.


So there you have it – all the ‘tools’ you need to make super delicious blueberry muffins!  These are a great beginner baking item, so if you are someone or know of someone who is new to baking, be sure to pass this recipe on to them for more enjoyment!

I hope you all have a blast experiencing the baking process!  Be sure to leave me comments below letting me know how the finished product comes out, and tweet me pictures of your muffins!

Until next time, Happy Reading!

Allison

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Update! What I’ve been doing, Favorites, and Things

Hey Everyone!
I hope you all are having a good day!  I feel as if it’s been months since I’ve sat down and written a blog post for you all.  And it’s definitely been a while.  I wanted to share with you what I’ve been up to, some of my current random favorite things that I didn’t cover in my latest videos (links to my channels are in the side bar- go check them out!!!), and just a few random tidbits.

Lately, I’ve really been focusing on my job search, hence the lack of posts.  I’ve been looking for immediate part-time work as well as full-time work and it’s been a major time commitment (as it should be), and has taken up the majority of my time.  We’ve also been doing some major cleaning out of the basement in my parents’ house, so that’s been a not-so-fun project, but nonetheless important. We’ve gone through so much, and donated so many things we don’t need or use anymore, and we still have a long way to go.  The amount of things people accumulate in just a short amount of time is crazy (we’ve only lived in this house a little over 10 years).  I’m not even going to get into it- it’ll just turn into a rant.    It has been therapeutic it an odd sort of way.  If you haven’t done any cleaning/sorting through old items in a while, I highly recommend doing it!

Some random favorites that I’ve been loving lately (this has no rhyme or reason to it at all):
·      One Direction “Story of My Life” (I also LOVE the cover done by Luke Conard and Joey Graceffa!!!)
·      One Republic
·      Katy Perry
·      The 1975
·      Meghan Rienks “A Day in My Life: Wake Up With Me” video
·      AllisonAnderson.com  (Allison or Amarixe’s new blog site!)
·      Tumblr.com (finally getting back into Tumblr again and I’m obsessed!)


What have YOU been loving lately?  Let me know in the comments below!  I’d love to hear from you guys!  What are you looking forward to in the upcoming month?

As always, please let me know if you have any requests for blog posts, video requests, etc.!  I’m always looking for suggestions!

Happy Reading,

Allison