Avocado, Goat Cheese and Tomato Muffins

My sweet tooth is shrinking.

I can feel it.

I've made two batches of brownies in the past six weeks and could barely get through one piece...in total.

I've migrated away from muffins, fruit and/or honey-sweetened granola. I don't really want a sweet in the evening.

That said, I still want to bake--I turn out the occasional cake, but I'd rather try my hand at BBA.

The other week, when I made my Curried Roasted Squash Soup, I wanted something to go with it. I didn't want a slice of multigrain bread, nor did I want crackers.

I played with my Guacamole Muffin recipe and came up with this. It's quick, and easy and a tasty combination of moist, savoury and a bit of sweet (from the tomatoes). And yes...it's a lovely breakfast.

Avocado, Goat Cheese and Tomato Muffins
Yield 12

Ingredients
245g (435ml/1.75c) all purpose flour
2dspn (20ml/4tsp) baking powder
1dspn (10ml/2tsp) sugar
0.5tsp (2.5ml) dried oregano
0.25tsp (1.25ml) garlic powder
0.25tsp (1.25ml) onion powder
0.25tsp (1.25ml) salt
0.25ml (1.25ml) black pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
165ml (0.66c) milk
45ml (3Tbsp) olive oil
110g (250ml/1c) roasted tomatoes
100g (3.5oz) soft goat cheese, broken into half-teaspoon-sized pieces
1 avocado's flesh, chopped

Method
Preheat oven to 190C (375F) and line a 12-bun muffin tin with papers.

Sift together all the dry ingredients, including herbs, spices and sugar. Set aside.

Beat together the egg, milk and oil. Add in the in the tomatoes, cheese and avocado, but do not stir.

Lightly fold in the egg mixture into the dry, without breaking up the avocado and cheese. The batter should just barely come together. It will look lumpy and there may be dry spots.

Divide the batter between the 12 papers--you will probably be filling each bun to the top.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until done. An inserted skewer will come out with a few crumbs and the tops will be golden and firm.

Notes:
- If you don't have roasted tomatoes, you can use the same volume (one cup) of chopped sundried tomatoes.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Mango-ginger muffins with cashew-coconut streusel

We've all heard of drunk dialing and drunk texting...but sleep dialing?

The other night My Dear Little Cardamummy gave me a call. Nothing truly out of the usual...except she's currently back in India and our usual routine is to chat on Sunday mornings, unless something's wrong.

No, nothing was wrong.

She told me of the trip to the Ashram, how uncle was doing, visiting the book store, how My Big Strong Cardapoppy parked under a tree and the car was covered in copious amounts of bird poo.

I couldn't get a word in edgewise. I didn't expect to, so I just listend.

From her voice I could tell she wasn't quite awake, but awake enough to dial me. It was about 7am her time, so she probably rolled out of bed and reached for the phone.

At the end of her 15 minute one-woman show she asked me how things were. I wished her a happy Mother's Day. She thanked me and launched into a shorter soliloquy about mangoes.

"There are so many mangoes in our trees. They are falling everywhere."

"And falling on your head?"

"And making me grow short."

So there you have it. Mum's ever-shrinking stature is now being blamed on over-ripe fruit hurtling towards the ground, with only her own self cushioning their fall.

Needless to say I'm not spending Mother's day with My Dear Little Cardamummy, but I am thinking of her. Those ripe mangoes, squelching with sweet juices--along with the flavours that compliment them so well-inspired this week's breakfast baking.

These mango-ginger muffins topped with cashew coconut streusel are easy to pull together. You don't need fresh mangoes for these and can use frozen or tinned fruit (in fact, unless you live in an area where they grow, you may be better off to buy frozen or tinned). Serve them warm with a bit of butter and a hot cup of tea.

Mango-ginger muffins with cashew-coconut streusel

Yield 12 muffins

Ingredients

for the streusel topping

50g (125ml/0.5c) chopped cashews

25g (60ml/0.25g) shredded coconut

50g (60ml/0.25c) brown sugar

35g (60ml/0.25c) all purpose flour

2Tbsp (30ml) soft butter

for the muffins

210g (375ml/1.5c) all purpose flour

1tsp (5ml) baking powder

1tsp (5ml) bicarbonate of soda

0.75tsp (3ml)ground ginger

0.25tsp(1ml) salt

100g (125ml/0.5c) sugar

55g (0.25c) butter

3Tbsp (45ml) flavourless oil

60ml (0.25c) yoghurt

1 egg, beaten

225g (250ml/1c) diced mango

Method

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Line a 12-bowl muffin tin with papers.

Make the streusel by rubbing the butter into the rest of the streusel ingredients. Set aside.

For the muffins, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and salt. Set aside

Mix together the sugar, butter, oil, egg and yoghurt. Mix into the dry ingredients until about half combined--there will be clumps of flour and clumps of wet. You just want to get the mixing process started. Fold in the chopped mango until everything is just mixed. Do not aim for a smooth cake batter.

Divide into the papered bowls. Top with streusel mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and an inserted skewer escapes with a few crumbs clinging to it.

Notes:

• You can use fresh, frozen or tinned mangoes. If you are using tinned, use a 398ml tin, drained of syrup.
• If you don't have raw cashews, but have roasted ones, simply rinse the salt off those and use them instead.
• You can substitute almonds or pistachios for cashews

cheers!
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!

Banana muffins with nut streusel topping

Here in Canada, New Year's Day pretty much marks the end of what's essentially a month-long modern Bacchanalian feast with meats and wines and cakes and whiskys and shortbreads and brandies and trifles and punches and loaves and cheeses and chocolates. Lots of food, lots of frivolity and lots of leftovers.

Chances are on 1 January (and 2 January and 3 January), fridges and pantries are still filled with leftover feasts and edible presents...I do my best to get through it but some foods end up teetering close to their best-by dates.

So I looked about my fridge and counters to see what needs to be used up and what I can do with them. This year it was bananas and eggnog. Not wanting banana pudding, or a bread and butter pudding, these muffins are what came out of my oven. It was a happy accident and an experiment of "what happens when I mix all of these things together."

If you don't have any eggnog, just substitute milk or yoghurt instead (and add an extra tablespoon of sugar to the mix).

These muffins aren't cakes in waiting. They are hearty and toothsome and not overly sweet like some shop-bought monstrosities. For those who are thinking of changing their diet to something a bit more "healthy," well...it uses whole wheat flour to help your ease yourself into your newfound dietary asceticism.

Truth be told, I find little eggnoggy taste remains in the finished muffin, but a friend tells me there is a feint aroma. Personally, I think it's the nutmeg, but who am I to argue?

Banana Muffins with Nut Streusel Topping
Yield 12

Ingredients
For the streusel topping
25g (2Tbsp) soft butter
35g (0.25c) all purpose flour
50g (0.25c) brown sugar
25g (0.25c) chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds or other nuts
0.5tsp ground nutmeg

For the muffins
175g (1.25c) all purpose flour
75g (0.5c) whole wheat flour
1dspn (2tsp) baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.25tsp cinnamon
0.5tsp ground nutmeg
0.5tsp salt
225g (1c) mashed bananas (approx 2 large)
130g (0.66c) sugar
180ml (0.75c) eggnog
1 egg, lightly beaten
1tsp vanilla
1tsp rum or brandy or their extracts (optional)
30ml (2Tbsp) flavourless oil
45ml (3Tbsp) melted butter

Method
For the streusel topping:
Mash together all streusel ingredients into a crumbly mixture. Set aside.

For the muffins:
Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a 12-bun muffin pan with papers.

Seive together flours, baking powder, bicarb, spices and salt. Set aside.

Mix together the bananas and sugar until the sugar melts into the fruit. Stir in eggnog, egg, flavourings, oil and butter until well mixed.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.

Divide into the prepared muffin bowls (the batter will nearly fill each bowl) and top with the steusel mixture. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing muffins to a cooling rack.


cheers!
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!

Lemon-Cherry Muffins

Sunday morning baking is a not-so-secret pleasure of mine. Apart from lazily leafing through books and magaines for an inspriational recipe, there's a sense of calm that comes from weighing out flour, grating zest and whisking eggs with milk.

This is the time when I play with ingredients and flavours, tweak an old favourite and dare I say it...gild the lily. Sometimes things work, sometimes things don't. And sometimes things are so elusively close to where I want them to be, they become an obession of sorts.

Lemon-cherry muffins are my latest obsession. The recipes I've tried have been too cakey, too sweet, too lemony. Normally I can easily doctor or tweak something an get *exactly* what I want.

Operative word is "normally."

This quest is far from normal...I've been *this* close a few times but each subsequent attempt, although good, leaves me thinking "next time I'll just try this" or "next time I need to decrease this or increase that."

I'll revisit and tweak some more. When they are at that seemingly elusive happy point, I'll let you know, but for now here they are.

Far from perfect, they are perfectly serviceable. They may not proffer poofy domes that other recipes do but then again they aren't meant to be miniature cakes like the glaze-dipped offerings at chain coffee shops. They are sweet, but not overly so; they are moist, but not overly so. Since I'm looking for something that's closer to an old-fashioned muffin, with a heartier texture with warm nooks and crannies where lashings of butter melt into at breakfast or at afternoon tea.

Lemon-Cherry Muffins
Yield 18

150g (1.5c) sugar
grated zest and juice of one lemon
220ml (1c less 2Tbsp) buttermilk
60g (4Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened

2dspn (1.5Tbsp) flavourless oil
2 eggs
280g (2c) ap flour
1dspn (2tsp) baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1pinch salt
200g (1 heaping c) cherries with their stones removed

Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Paper the muffin-tin bowls.

Rub the lemon zest into the sugar and set aside. Mix the buttermilk and lemon juice in a measuring jug and let sit. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt together.

Beat sugar, butter, buttermilk mixture, oil and eggs.

Quickly incorporate the dry ingredients, leaving some pockets of flour. Fold in the cherries until it all just comes together--you aren't looking for a smooth batter.

Fill prepared muffin tins and bake for 20-30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out cleanish.


cheers!
jasmine



I'm a quill for hire!

Online dating and why I think I'd rather eat carrot oatmeal muffins

Yes...I took a little break. No, Zippy the laptop is fine. I just needed a few days to re-centre myself and just relax. Well...what I thought would be four or five days turned out to be more like a week and bit. Oops.

As you know from my recent maple syrup post I've re-entered the dating world. My venue of choice: one of those online dating sites.

Good gravy.

I'm sure there are pages and pages written about how people market themselves on these things Yes: I choose to think of it as marketing one's self--much like applying for a job, we're applying to spend time with one another. Is that a cold and detatched way of looking at things? I don't know.

It's all about creating a good first impression. We use words and/or pictures to set ourselves apart from the others looking for...well...something. We don't have the luxury of vocal intonation or facial expressions for clues. We only have what's on screen.

This makes me wonder what goes on in some people's heads. For the moment, let's forget about the fact that at least 40 per cent of the guys out there post profiles or send messages that read as if they were written by drunken monkeys with access to a typewriter. Really--I can send you some of these messages if you want. I'm not even talking about superficial troglodytes who should count themselves as lucky that anyone would want to spend more than five seconds of time on them.

No, I'm talking about the guy who decided without any encouragement from me to Instant Message me...and send his photo to me.

Now...for those of you who haven't been through the Hades that is online dating IM: it's annoying. I can't be on for more than 10 minutes before the Joey Tribbiani-wannabes (complete with the "How you doin'" (sans " ' ") opening line start flashing messages at me. Please. I wrote a profile. If you bothered to read it, you'd know that I don't respond to blind IMs.

Normally the photo thing isn't too bad. Often it's a grainy, toothy image of a guy--sometimes posed, sometimes not. No worries.

But imagine if you will...an image of a sunglasses-wearing middle-aged man, clad in Spandex cycling gear, sprawled on his office desk, posed like Becks in his Calvin Klein underwear ad, giving the photographer a Fonzi-like thumbs-up signal.

Ew.

Really.

Ew.

If I were bereft of morals, I'd post the picture for you to see.

What on Earth made him think this is a great PR shot? What makes him think that I (or any woman in her right mind) would want to talk to...that? What makes him think that I may not be a future client to his firm, and will be sitting across that desk from him to discuss a contract?

Ew.


I just hope they Lysol sprayed that desk. I could just imagine the skin rash that would appear after resting your forearm on it.

To make matters worse: he's contacted me more than once this week...each time, sending me that photo.

Is he trying to blind me...or make me want to scoop out my eyeballs with grapefruit spoons?

Ew.

Now granted...not all men on the system are like this. There are some very lovely men there. Heck, I've met (either in RL or online) The Swordsman ((get your mind out of the gutter) he's the one who asked for a break), The Beethoven Fan (we've developed a wonderful penpal friendship...even though he lives about 10km from me, we've still not met after all these months), The Guy Who Likes Properly-Made Caesar Salads, The Diver and more recently The Watercolourist-Engineer.

But after too many nights trying to dodge all the Spandex-boys out there, it's just nice to retreat into my kitchen and do some baking. These carrot-oatmeal muffins are hearty, not too sweet and incredibly moist and are a delicious breakfast.

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins
yield: 12

200g ap flour
110 oats
1Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
250 ml milk
80 ml maple syrup
60ml canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
75g chopped walnuts
60g raisins, soaked for about 10 minutes in boiling water
140g grated carrots (approximately one densely packed cup

Preheat oven to 190C/375F and line a 12-bowl muffin tin with papers.

Stir together flour, oats, baking powder, ginger, and salt.

Mix well the maple syrup, egg, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in the grated carrots, nuts and raisins.

Divide batter into muffin bowls and bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean.


cheers!
jasmine

What I'm reading: The Children's Book by A.S Byatt

I'm a pen for hire

Banana Oat Muffins

I'm trying to decide if my recent migration towards heartier muffins--ones imbued with whole grains and other nubbly bits, from sorry excuses for eating cake for breakfast, signals something significant or is just my body's natural attempt at rebalancing itself from sugarfest that marks each and every December.

Don't get me wrong, I think into every life more than a little cake for breakfast must fall. Same with cheeziepoofs for supper: sometimes all you need for a full meal is something you'd normally reserve for a once in a while treat. Perhaps it's my embodiment of the great Julia Child's belief of everything in moderation, including moderation.

My problem with oatmealy muffins is their inextricable association with old people and "regularity." The same sort of regularity that comes from prunes and castor oil. (Okay. I do love prunes...but not for that reason. I think they are just like candy.) Then there's the McHealthiness associated with nutrionism and the bandwagon jumpers who drone on and on about whole grain this and oaty that.

These muffins were born from a burden of a couple of mushy bananas and utter boredom with my usual banana bread (which does get turned into muffins from time to time). Yes, I could jazz things up by switching the fruit, adding nuts or introducing chocolate, but no. I wanted something different, something with a bit more oomphy-heartiness to it. Hearty--but not leaden--they are. Oomphy...not so much. But that's okay.



Banana Oat Muffins
Yield 6 ginomous muffins or 12 regular ones

130g ap flour
65g whole wheat flour
0.5t cinnamon
1 dspn baking powder
0.5t bicarbonate of soda
0.25t salt
90g sugar
2 mashed bananas (roughly 250ml)
60ml vegetable oil
1t vanilla extract
80ml buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
50g rolled oats

Preheat oven to 170C/350F. Line or grease a 6-bun muffin tray with papers. You're looking at the ginormous muffin-sized tray, not the sane muffin-sized ones. If you want sane-sized ones, grab and grease or paper as 12-bun muffin tray.

Stir together flours, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon.

Combine bananas, salt, sugar, oil, vanilla, buttermilk and eggs.

Stir the dry mixture into the wet until just combined, then fold in the oats.

Dollop into the prepared muffin trays. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

cheers!
jasmine

Cranapple Muffins

One of the many things I've been accused of is never leaving well enough alone. I analyse, overanalyse and poke holes in things and ideas until the point of my own often-fleeting satisfaction.

It annoys some people.

In certain instances it's to make sure I've made the right decision. I read prospectuses, I look at the alternatives, I weigh pros and cons. I like to think I rarely take recommendations blindly from sales people: I've found their advice is very rarely given with an altruistic bent, and more often planted by sales quotas. Admittedly, there's a little rush I get when I put on the doe-eyed "I don't quite understand this" bunny voice and innocently ask the question they don't want to answer...

In other instances I want to see how I can do the same thing but easier, faster, cheaper or (when it comes to food) tastier. Nothing wrong with that. At least not to me.

When it comes to cooking and baking I like to play....which results in NTSM (never twice (the) same meal). When I sort out a base recipe I take off from there. Sometimes I change one ingredient, sometimes I change a whole bunch. Gosh, it frustrated The Fussy Eater.

"Why can't you just make a normal (insert whatever dish I happened to serve). I liked it the last time. Why do you always have to change things?"

Of course, what he never realised was "the last time" wasn't the straight recipe. My response was usually "What, don't you like it?"

He usually grudgingly admitted that he did.

Case closed.

Mind you, there are recipes that just beg to be played with, if only for the number of times it's prepared. Muffins are a prime example. I make a dozen every couple of weeks and sometimes I revert to the original flavours, I often change things to what's on hand, what's in season or to satisfy a craving.

Now that we're in that post-Thanksgiving-pre-Christmas period, right now I'm craving cranberries and tart apples...hence cranapple muffins. These quick breads aren't like the cake-like offerings found in coffee shops and mass-market cafeterias--the crumb, while not exactly tender, has enough body to make them perfect for breakfast or late-aftenoon pick me up. I prefer to soak the cranberries for a little while before adding them to the batter--not only do the plump nicely, but it also rids them of their imposed, insipid sweetness.

Cranapple Muffins

Makes 12 "normal sized" muffins

60g butter, melted
200g ap flour
1 dspn baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
120g sugar
a good pinch of salt
200ml plain or vanilla yoghurt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
75g dried cranberries, rehydrated in boiling water for about 10 or 15 minutes
1 tart apple, peeled and chopped (Granny Smith, Greening or any other varietal you happen to have on hand).

Line a 12-bun muffin tray with papers and preheat the oven to 190C/375F.

Seive together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, sugar and salt.

Mix together the yoghurt, butter, egg and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients. Quickly bring together the mixture--this will only take a few stirs with a spoon: lumps are okay as you aren't looking for cake batter. Fold in the apples and cranberries. Divide between the muffin bowls and bake until an inserted cake tester comes out cleanly...about 25 minutes, depending upon your oven's temperment.

cheers!
jasmine

White chocolate banana muffins

It used to be that I'd make banana bread once every four or six weeks-- usually when I found myself with fruit far too overripened even for me (the joke with my parents is that I won't touch bananas until all traces of green have been taken over by black spots and they won't eat bananas with any trace of spotted goodness).

Then all of a sudden I stopped. It's not that I stopped making banana bread--I just stopped buying bananas. I don't know why or exactly when, but I've not had a banana in the house for what seem like ages and ages.

Just as suddenly the bananas reappeared. The first bunch was courtesy of my parents--more spotted than green. I made muffins and they were good. Since then there seems to have been at least one banana in the house.

This week I just couldn't get through them all and they morphed into a gooey-and-slimy-on-the-inside and pitch-like-on-the-outside existence. It would almost be sad if they weren't finding themselves to a better fate. Well..okay, not better...just tasty.

My standard banana bread recipe is from Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. I've tried others and as good as they are, this one is the one I always come back to. Sometimes I add dried fruit or frozen berries, sometimes nuts, sometimes a combination. This time I decided to reach for my jar of white chocolate chippies.

I'm not a fan of white chocolate--I find it too sweet and even the smallest amount seems to leave me glugging water. I keep it in the house in case I need to make an emergency special cheesecake or I want a visual contrast in some midnight-like chocolatey cookies. But this time the chippies just called out to me from the cupboard (it's amazing how they do that).

The end result was sweeter than I'd prefer--a combination of the bananas, chips and brown sugar--so next time I'd probably lessen the amount of sugar. Friends who've tried them really like them. They're easy and relatively quick and are good with a nice hot cup of tea.

White Chocolate Banana Muffins
adapted from Nigella Lawson's Banana Bread in How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Yield 15 muffins

175g plain flour
1 dspn baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
125g butter, melted
150g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
300g mashed overripe bananas
100g white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F; paper the bowls of a cupcake tin.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and bananas with sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture, then the chips. Pour into lined tins and bake for 20-30 minutes or until done.


cheers!
jasmine

The last of my summer strawberries

Not that strawberry season is over but the ginormous-to-me basket of berries I bought at the market last week is no more. It will be a few weeks until I get out there again, so I'm afraid the berries will be gone by my next visit. Yes, I suppose I could get some at the bigscarymegamart, but they only seem to have imported berries...

I wasn't terribly inventive with my prized July possessions--you saw the cake and the sauce. Mostly they were eaten fresh, plain or dipped in yoghurt. or mixed with yoghurt and granola.

But the last few hundred grams are a different story.

One of my favourite flavour combinations has always been strawberry-banana. Love it in ice cream and frozen yoghurt; when teamed up with orange, it's a preferred juice blend.

Well, apart from not having any oranges, I wasn't in the mood to make my own juice and my freezer still doesn't have enough room for my ice cream maker's freezer insert, so those concoctions were well out of the question.

So, what's a girl to do with a few hundred grams of hastenlingly overripe strawberries and a banana that needs to go to a better place?

Let's just say it was time to hope, pray, light a candle, spread a little incense and hop on one foot for luck. Yup...Beelzebub would be called into service: I decided to bake muffins...and I didn't feel like making them in my parents' unairconditioned kitchen.

Well...something must have worked because Beelzebub behaved himself. You read correctly. He didn't ruin my muffins.

None of his usual games. No "No, I don't feel like turning on" nor any hint of "I'm teasing you, making you believe that I'm actually 350F when in fact I'll start at 200F and end at 450F." He didn't even try the old "Oh, you are sooooooo fetching in that apron, I'd love to get together with you and give the central air a reason to turn on" as a ruse to turn my offerings to charcoal.

Did I tame the beast? Have I won him over with my womanly wiles? Did I beat Lucifer at his own game? Have I been lulled into a false sense of security believing I actually have a stove that I can trust? Will Charlie Daniels immortalise my feat in a fiddle-sawin', fruit-chawin', baked-goods jawin' tune?

All I know is that I didn't have to toss any of them out. They all had a muffinny texture and a crunchy-sweet-sticky top. I'm not questionning it.

Strawberry Banana Muffins
Yield 18

For the muffins
110g butter, melted
150g brown sugar
2 beaten eggs
mashed bananas with enough vanilla yoghurt to fill a 250ml measure
250g chopped strawberries
300g plain flour
25g whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp vanilla salt

For the streuselly topping
10g butter, melted
75g brown sugar
40g roalled oats
15g pinhead oats
nine large strawberries, hulled and halved (optional)

Preheat oven to a moderate heat (180C/350F) and line 18 buns of two 12-bun muffin tins with papers.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, bicarb and salt; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together the streuselly topping and set that aside as well.

Mix together the egg, melted butter and vanilla and banana-yoghurt mixture. Stir into the flour mixture. Do not overmix: what you want is the batter to barely hang together (lumpy is good). Lightly fold in the chopped berries.

Portion into the muffin papers and spoon about a teaspoon's worth of the topping over the wet batter. Top with the half-berry.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes away cleanish.

cheers!
jasmine

Edna's favourite blueberry muffins

Honouring a loved one who has died is something, I think, that spans beliefs, borders and eras. The way we pay tribute may differ, but at the basis of it all, funerary rites and other types of memorials are performed as much for the living as they are for the dead.

In our family, when a relative dies, we have observances that are directly tied to religious and cultural rituals that are hundreds, possibly thousands of years old. There are physical rules we abide by--such as those set by my great-great (something) grandfather as to how we are to be buried. There are spiritual observances--such as 40 nights of chants and prayers, led by family or Church elders. And then, there are the dietary restrictions we have--strict vegetarian diet for 40 days.

If I remember correctly, if the deceased had no brothers, then the sisters host a vegetarian feast after 30 or 35 days where all family members, friends and others who can attend, do. If there are brothers, then there is an omnivorous banquet on the 40th death day. These feasts take place after Church ceremonies and can attract hundreds, if not more than 1000 people (I attended a feast for my uncle when I was last in India and there were about 400 people there, to which my mum said that that was only 1/4 of the family).

Today is the 40th death day of our dear Edna.

About three weeks after her passing, a public memorial was held at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. About 500 people attended. There were literary lights such as Wayson Choy, there were culinary notables such as Rose Murray, there were also a number of politicians, but what made it wonderful, was there were so many people who were just plain, normal people who were friends, acquaintances or fans.

Dear Friend introduced me to one of Edna's close friends:

"Oh! You're Jasmine!"
"Ummm...yes."
"Edna told me all about you!"
"She did?"
"Oh yes. She told me all about your visits and that wonderful Indian food you brought and what you do (and then proceded to give me details from my Edna visits, and the treats I brought her)."
I was speechless.
She continued,"You know dear, it was a very new friendship, but for Edna it was a very deep friendship."

I thought I was going to cry. Here I was thinking that this woman who touched me so deeply really didn't know me from the next fan who dropped in...I couldn't have been more mistaken.

The day was filled with little moments like that. Mr. Choy and I had a lovely chat about Edna and I told him that she really did like him a lot, filling him in on details of conversations. Even after her death, Edna Staeber continued her magical way of making each one of us feel special.

After the speeches and video clips we spilled into the reception, its tables laidened with sandwiches and sweets. Bowls of punch were off to the side as were carafes of coffee and tea. But everywhere--and I do mean everywhere- were wicker baskets filled with blueberry muffins. The Laurier catering team was given Edna's favourite muffin recipe (she was known for feeding muffins to visitors) and they made hundreds of them. The recipe was also given to each of us, along with a copy of her favourite poem.

I truly believe that death only comes when one has been forgotten permanently. The body may be dust, but memories are what keep us living. I think, through her many, many friends, and countless fans and owners of her books, Edna will be with us for a very long time.

So, in my own little space, here is one more way I hope to keep this wonderful person with us. I hope you try the recipe--it is effortless and forgiving...and somewhat addictive.

In her own words "I've eaten a lot of blueberry muffins in my day, but none as good as my sister Norma's."

Edna's Favourite Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
50g soft butter (1/4 c)
125g sugar (3/4 c)
1 egg, well beaten
160g pastry flour (1-1/2c)
1/2 tsp salt
1 dspn baking powder (2 tsp)

125ml milk (0.5c)
150g blueberries (fresh or frozen) (1 c)

• Preheat oven to 375F/190C and line or butter 12 medium muffin cups/9 large muffin cups.
• Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
• Cream together butter and sugar. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold in blueberries.
• Fill the tins (at least 2/3 full). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until done.

cheers!
jasmine

tags:Edna Staebler Muffins

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Edit: Since posting this, I've found out the attendence guesstimate at the Laurier event was 500. I've amended the post...