Blueberry Muffins: back to basics

Blueberry season is short but sweet.  Today when we passed a “you-pick” farm, I knew we’d have to stop.

Over the years, I’ve baked my fair share of muffins, but the recipe I always go back to is the one my Mom used.

There are rules to muffin making. First, dust the berries with flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom. Second, don’t over mix. Fold the batter till the ingredients are “just” incorporated.  My Mom would have been proud with this batch, they were perfect!  Light, fluffy and bursting with fresh berries. They don’t get better than this!

The back story….

My mom had two cookbooks, the Joy of Cooking and Betty Crocker. These were her food bibles and the recipes were started from scratch.

Over the years, both books became food stained from heavy use, especially the Betty Crocker cookbook. The pages were falling out and it had its own aroma. I’d like to say I copied some of her favorite recipes before tossing it out, but I doubt it. Mom was not pleased. She was of the generation where that was considered wasteful and I was of the generation where I thought this smelly book was utterly disgusting.

Unfortunately for me, the newer editions did not have the original recipes. Replacing this book turned out not to be easy. This was long before you could Google.  A few years later, I was at a swap meet in California and found an unused copy of the 1950’s cookbook.

I assumed that this find would put me back in Mom’s good favor. Not so much. Just like my Raggedy Ann doll that was “over loved and smelly”, after Mom washed it, she said I didn’t love it quite the same. This book was met with the same fate. Not sure if it was because Mom had moved on to other books or because she knew all the recipes by heart, but this book ended up sitting on the shelf.

Mom passed nearly three months ago. When I made the blueberry muffins, it reminded me of family dinners and long ago summers. I’m realizing now that recipes are just memories in food form. Now all I have to do is close my eyes and we are together again.