The Best Blueberry Muffins Ever

I don't bake much. I think this is mostly because I hate cleaning up after (I tend to make a big old mess baking), I hate waiting for batch after batch (I always end up making bar cookies or just eating the cookie dough) and because my husband is better at it than I am. This recipe is awesome though because it's very fast and it only makes one batch of muffins so I don't have to sit there and bake batch after batch after batch. Yes, I realize I could cut any recipe down, but who wants to make only 12 cookies? Also, sometimes the amounts are hard to cut in half. What is half of 3/4 cup? 3/8? How would I measure that?

Makes 1 batch of 12 muffins, so adjust to meet your muffin needs.

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease or paper muffin pans. Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of the flour and set aside. Mix the remaining 1 3/4 cup flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg, milk, and butter, stirring only enough to dampen the flour; the batter should not be smooth. Add the blueberries and 1/4 cup flour last. Spoon into the muffin pans filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. 

What the *&#^ is That: Jerusalem Artichoke Edition

The Jerusalem Artichoke or Sunchoke

Every couple weeks, the produce co-op I use likes to surprise their participants by sending us home with something uncommon, unusual or exotic. That's how I ended up with these gnarly little tubers. No, they're not ginger root. They're Jerusalem Artichokes or Sunchokes, and they're kind of awesome.

According to Wikipedia:
The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called the sunroot, sunchoke, earth appletopinambour, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, and found from Eastern Canada and Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas.It is also cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.

Turns out, they're pretty tasty too. They're a bit crisper than a potato - almost like a very starchy apple - and have a nutty taste. But what to do with them? The first idea I got came from a post on the Bountiful Baskets facebook page. A poster suggested making a hash, so that's exactly what we did.

Root Vegetable Hash

1. Dice potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunchoke and onion. Drizzle the vegetables with oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes - until soft.
2. After roasting, pan fry the veggies until they're crisp. (I fried them in bacon drippings, but olive oil or butter would work great as well) In the last few minutes, wilt in some spinach leaves. 
3. Top with Parmesan cheese. I tried to make curls, but they didn't curl.

Brunch

 Later, Nathan took his bachelor-pad-days deep fryer down from the top of the fridge and made chips with the rest of the roots. They were so crispy and great with soup. He fried them for 3 minutes at 360 degrees.

 

This one is a piggie.