From scratch: Reflection about Grandma J's Blueberry Muffins

Getting in touch with Grandma J

So far the baking/cooking New Year's Resolutions are in full swing. I think the cold weather has really allowed me to spend some time in the kitchen and be creative; it has been great to make some food and treat myself to homemade goodness. I don't think Jay minds it at all either :)

It's also been great to be doing something connected to my grandmother, the grandmother I'd say I had the least opportunity to get close to, because she was the first to go of my four grandparents (so I was younger when it happened).

When I cook/bake, now I often catch myself talking to Grandma aloud and in my head. When I am adapting her recipes, it has been good for me to engage with her in this way. I think it has helped with my baking skills, to be honest. I also feel after the Date Cookie Disaster of 2010, my dedication to keeping at it no matter the outcome, has made my Grandma proud of me. I think that's why last night, despite my absentmindedness, the blueberry muffins that I made "came out" alright.



Making mistakes

This time everything was written down correctly and with detail (thank you Grandma!), however, I forgot to mix the baking soda, baking powder and salt with the flour, and I forgot to add the vanilla when I should have...what was I thinking? I wasn't really. I was thinking that it was going to be a miracle if they would rise evenly, but I added all the stuff at the very end in its liquidy state, and while they are kinda puny looking muffins, they still taste quite amazing for a first attempt with lots of mistakes!

Because of its somewhat success, I wanted to come on here and give thanks to my Grandma for watching over me and for her wonderful recipes :) I learned I will need to pay more attention when I am cooking, and I reflected on why I am here attempting to go through her recipes.

Finding the inspiration to go on

I'm not quite sure where the deep inspiration came from for me to be so into the process of cooking/baking, but I think a lot of it stems from my recent nutrition course in my program and my want to get away entirely from processed foods. However, I have really wanted to put myself into "the process" of making the food and feel more connected to my food choices.

I attended a Meditation class last Saturday and was reminded about the importance of putting time and effort into the things we care about--from meditation to relationships to other practices like cooking.

The teacher was saying, you can't just take a meditation class and learn the principles and think that you are an expert. Just like you can't take a cooking class and expect to be a chef the next day. You need to put time into the practice in order to become proficient in it. You must meditate daily, before you find yourself acquiring the amazing achievements science has found meditation brings. You need to cook everyday to become a great cook.

So it is this principle of giving time to what's important that I am trying to make space for in my life, and I'm excited to see what outcomes lie ahead if I continue to pursue my interests in this way.

Check-in Question
What is it that you would like to develop in your life? Are you putting time into it? Are you building on your experiences? Are you working at it everyday?

Try making a list of things that are important to you be it people, places, skills, etc. and reflect on what you are doing to make these things a priority. What's stopping you from it? How can you make small steps to overcome these blockages?

Thanks for your thoughts, but just give us the recipe...
Grandma J's blueberry muffins (my twist on it is in parenthesis)



1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margerine (1 stick unsalted butter)
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (1/2 cup milk with 1/2 cup whole fat yogurt)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (sea salt)
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cup blueberries
(cinnamon)

1. Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs over and beat well.
2. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
3. Put vanilla in the buttermilk (yogurt/milk).
4. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk (milk/yogurt/vanilla mixture).
5. Fold in the berries.
6. Put in lined muffin tins (or lightly oil your muffin pan) 2/3 full. (For me it made 15 muffins).
7. Sprinkle a little cinnamon over the top if it suites you (my addition).
8. Bake at 375 degrees in the oven for 30 minutes (I only needed to do 28 minutes).
9. Enjoy!

FDS- Fun Deficiency Syndrome

Today I came upon an article that talked about Fun Deficiency Syndrome (FDS). While the article is a stretch in some ways--simply linking Clinical Depression to a lack of fun in one's life, one can hardly argue with the point of the piece--as we get older we tend to have less fun, and as a result, our mood is affected.

I know that I can relate to this piece a little. I might do something I think is fun, but because I may be preoccupied with the stress and anxiety of the high-paced lifestyle I can lead, sometimes I miss out on the fun or even skip it because I have so many other things I want to do.

Well, last month I realized that I need more fun and joy in my life. After watching a video of me and my sisters in Korea playing a silly hand-clapping game, I could not stop laughing. It was so fun to see how much fun I was having. I know, how lame is that?

Regardless, this experience was another awakening. I realized that I need more hand clapping in my life. Well, no, not exactly. More so, I realized that I do not really have fun like that very often anymore and I need to before I become croctchety.

So you inadvertently heard another one of my NYR.

#1 Do AT LEAST one activity a month that is 100% fun- no strings attached, no worries, etc.

Just to be fun, here is a picture of a tarot card that showed up in a recent reading.



In my reading, the pyschic interpreted this card to mean that in order for me to achieve my goals, I need to make room for more pure fun and enjoyment in life. I found this reading interesting based on what I had already been thinking myself.

Here are some words typically associated with this card:

Optimism---Expansion---Being radiant---Positive feelings
Enlightenment---Vitality---Innocence---Non-criticism
Assurance---Energy---Personal power---Happiness
Splendor---Brilliance---Joy ---Enthusiasm

My how "time flies" and my latest baking endeavors

Happy belated New Year everybody!

Time flies, huh?

I really must say that this year I have felt life move so very quickly, it's almost amazing and depressing all at once. (Here I ask myself, did I take enough breaths in between the movement?) At the same time I do feel at home with where I am at post- 2010, even though I do not always know exactly where that might be at any given point in time :)

Brief 2010 recap: I got engaged to a fine man, I finished 3 semesters of 4 semesters of grad school, woot woot, I started my yogi schooling, I fell in love with plants all over again and the list goes on...I'll spare you the rest of the details.

What I came on here to say was that I have a list of 40 New Years Resolutions this year. I know, I am trying to cut back a bit here. Forty is a little excessive, no? I won't judge myself for it. I keep one of these lists going at all times anyway, not just for New Year's but it's always fun to "start fresh" and reconsider one's priorities. New Year's happens to be one of those holidays that gets people thinking about their lives, so I'm a fan.

Don't worry, I didn't come on here to tell you about all 40 things I wrote about, either, I just wanted to share one, mainly because I have pictures.

#19 Bake Grandma J's recipes, work on recipe book.

Picture of Grandma J's well-used recipe cards that I am working on...


To explain more about this project, my Grandma J was a woman dedicated to making the bestest baked goodies and she had quite a few recipes up her sleeve. Well, my family has had her recipe box sitting on a shelf, and I noticed it was getting dusty so I decided this year I wanted to pick a bunch of them and try on Grandma's shoes.

So far I have tried four of her recipes. I made her pecan pie successfully for my Dad's birthday three years ago and last year (Dec.) I decided to tackle my dad's favorite Christmas cookie recipe for Christmas.

This experience is now referred to as "The Date Christmas Cookie Disaster of 2010." Yes, I'm being dramatic, the cookies still tasted okay but let's just say that my dad's sister (who was often in charge of typing up Grandma J's recipes had forgotten to include an ingredient on her recipe card). Oops. I won't fully blame her because it was kinda funny looking back on it and I didn't have much guidance, I probably did a million things wrong, but I learned another lesson.

I learned that my grandma's vague descriptions leave me with a lot of questions. Sometimes I wish I could just call her up and ask her what she meant. Sometimes I regret not talking about these kinds of things with her when she was alive, but at the same time, I was 10 years younger and had no desire to be in the kitchen especially if it meant that I'd be doing the dishes.

Relative to this project I'm doing, this realization has required me to do my own research and brainstorming before commencing the baking/cooking. Now when attempting one of her recipes, I look online at similar recipes to make sure I'm on the right track with directions.

So far on the year I have made her banana bread- which was a hit, and tonight I just made her Mexican Wedding Cake--the cake, not the cookie.





While some of her ingredients are old school and not so healthy, I have tried to stick as closely to what she used because I want to keep with tradition, which brings me to another point.

Tradition is so important to me, and I think a lot of Americans have lost their family traditions and culture as time flies by and the days of early immigration fade from our nation's memories. Some of the last traditions to stay alive in our melting pot country happen to be recipes. This thinking brought me to the reason why I wanted to reconnect with Grandma J through her recipes.

Originally the plan was for me to record all of her recipes down into my recipe book. But after I thought about it, I decided it made more sense to try the recipe first. I wanted to try them out because I needed to decide for myself if it was a recipe I really want to pass onto my family. Instead of just mindlessly copying words, I felt by baking it and making my own tweaks, I could add my story to the line of tradition and ingredients, making me a part of it, too.

Here are the pictures of tonight's project. I have not frosted the cake yet, I think I'll wait until morning. If it tastes lovely I may post the recipe, otherwise I challenge you to dig up some family recipes of your own and add your flavor to it. Tweak it or leave it :) If your family doesn't bake or did not record the recipes, don't fret, if you want to change that part of your history, then maybe now would be a good time to start your own book.

The frosting--I didn't quite get all the powdered sugar mixed...let's just say some of the frosting ended up on the floor so the ratio was eyeballed.


The cake--after the mexican wedding, the frosting and cake will become one :) But for now, I'm off to bed.

Happy New Year!

Benjamin Franklin has stopped by my blog to send us all a little New Year's greeting that I love.

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better [person]"

Thanks Benj for the advice. I'll get on that stat.

New Year's Resolutions: Do you INTEND to make one? (or two, or three or maybe none at all...)

The Christmas season just blew by for my family and me, and just like the piles of snow have accumulated, a lot of forgotten chores, hobbies, dust, papers, and other crap have accumulated in my car, closet, house, and mind. As arbitrary as it may be, it seems like the "New Year" is arriving just as quickly as ever and just in time to save me/re-center me/prep me for all of the "stuff" it seems like I need to be/should be/want to be doing.

While it would be easy to curl up under a blanket right now and take a nap, I decided it will be just as good to take a minute to sit down with myself and mull over last year's abandoned New Year's Resolutions and think about what I really intend to incorporate or bring into my life as 2010 approaches.

Luckily I have a nice break from working at the school as well as a month break from my graduate program to begin to unpack all of this "stuff" I speak of. I feel lucky to have this extra time, but also recognize that more time might not necessarily make it any easier to accomplish what I choose to set out for. Many people argue that the excuse "not enough time" is not the true culprit behind failed New Year's Resolutions. Various studies estimate that of about 50% of determined New Year's Resolution Makers, that only 10% will realize their goal. What's with that? They say it is not the time, but the intention. And their talking true intention here. People always say, "Oh we should hang out" or whatever suggestion and while they might think they intend to, they really don't truly intend to follow through with it. It is the same with resolutions.

Well, as I have been noting from the book I was gifted for Christmas called, "The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year," (which I highly recommend) most goals we set for ourselves are too vague or too big for us all to absorb/understand at once. We become easily turned off by the difficulty of the goal as well as the fact that we do not create a plan for how we can get there. For instance, rather than saying, "Be better with finances" as a goal, one might be better off rephrasing the idea to "Save $50 from each paycheck and put aside" or "Eat out no more than 4 times a month." Stating the goal in a more action-based way, one can realize how they actually can begin making steps toward their goal or maybe how difficult it may be for them. Or another example would be, rather than saying, in my life time I want to write a book or a good short story, one should make the goal of spending 2 hours a week free-writing, or more depending on what may work for the individual. Test it out and see what works. We must be honest with ourselves and our intentions and realize if we really want to do something or not. If we think the doctors say we should floss each day, so we make that our resolution, for a minority of people that might be enough ammo to work, but for most people we must have our own personal need or desire to help us follow through.

So for me what all this intention, resolution talk means is a couple of things.

1) I must make myself workable, somewhat tangible goals--which means that I can visualize how they might work into my lifestyle.

For example, last year I said I wanted to "learn something new each month." Well this was a little difficult to do in terms of keeping it to a month and it almost seemed unnatural because sometimes I would learn like 5 things in a month and then another month I wouldn't learn anything (in terms of a trade). Also, the vagueness of this goal made it hard to define what "learning" was for me, was it just trades or important life lessons too? Based off of this idea, this year I am making the commitment to take one Community Education class each time they come out with new class schedule. I started to do that toward the end of this year, and it has really been working out for me. So far I have taken Water Aerobics, Belly-dancing, and I have in the books now to take an Oil Painting class with Mpls. commmunity ed come end of January! While I was never a painter (actually pretty poor) I am looking forward at giving it another go!

2) On that note, I must have fun with the resolution and not judge myself about not reaching my goals. So many times people give up on something because it didn't work once. Well if you truly do want it to work, I'd say eventually we might in fact get there with a little persistence.

This goes for flossing (persistence). I know its slightly because the docs say I should, but more so because I do have a history of bad teeth in the fam, and I do need to do it. The problem is I just get so tired before I go to bed. Lame excuse, right? No, I mean there is a reason it is a problem for many people and I am sure this is part of it for some people. Well this year I am changing it up a bit. My goal for this year (since all of my conscious life I have been trying to floss my teeth) I am going to start by flossing in the morning time. Granted it might not be the best, it will be better than no flossing at all. Double pat on the back if I can do it at night, but for now, I am just going to work on doing it in the morning time when I am awake and have time. So here, rather than giving up, I have decided to find an action that will be more likely to succeed/happen that can bring me closer to accomplishing this goal. And hey I might fail miserably, but that's okay because I am being honest with myself and giving it my best go.

Now, I could go on and on, obviously and plan to privately later. I had a two-page list of resoultions last year, so some dissecting/revamping needs to be done, but I will not bore you further with these things for now.

For now I will just send you my good luck with revisiting your old resolutions and creating new ones from the old, or even ditching them completely if you choose to. If you have any good ones, feel free to share, I love hearing what people are doing.

Until then, cheers to a happy and healthy 2010!

<3