collaborations

Tonight, Adelaide and I made muffins.

For a long while now I've been waiting and waiting for my daughter Adelaide to be big enough to make with me. I've been collecting up bins and jars of craft supplies - scraps of fabric, papers, ribbon and string. I'm saving up a big jar of laundry lint to use as stuffing for animals and other stuffed things we will make someday. (is this gross or what? I can't decide as it feels like it should be. laundry lint. well, at least I know it's clean!)

Last week Adelaide started to make chalk drawings around the neighbourhood with me and this makes me very happy. Previously, she would just eat the chalk but now shes happy to carry several pieces along with her and every so often she stoops down and makes marks!

Addie's marks look kind of like underwater reeds or twigs so I like to collaborate with her. I will add fish to swim in her reeds, or flowers or leaves to her twigs. She seems to like collaborating with me. Here we are drawing an underwater scene this weekend beside our neighbour Susanna's patio. Susanna is lovely and seems A-OK with the public art projects happening just outside her door. She even took this picture and sent it to us. Thanks Susanna!

Recently I've also realised that Addie really likes "helping" me cook and bake. At 16 months she's still pretty little to really help that much, but I put her up in her little high chair and let her assist me. Tonight we made berry muffins and she loved it! I tell her what I am doing and let her watch me mix together all the ingredients and let her mix and pour a little bit, too. I let her lick the spoon and she was very good at snatching blueberries out of the batter, too. She was pretty proud of our accomplishment!

Here is our recipe for mixed berry muffins. I've been making these muffins for about 15 years now. It's a simple but good recipe, somewhat like berry cupcakes really. The tart berries go nicely with the slightly sweet muffin and they are a nice substitute to cake or when you want a dessert that isn't overwhelmingly sweet. I try to use as many organic ingredients as possible which makes them a little bit nicer, too. 

Fresh Berry Muffins

ingredients:

2 cups flour

2.5 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup soft butter (room temperature)

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs (room temperature)

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk (room temperature)

2-3 cups fresh or frozen berries - (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries)

directions:

- preheat oven to 375. f.

- beat butter until fluffy

- add sugar, mix well.

- stir in eggs and vanilla

- in another bowl, mix the dry ingredients

- add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, then stir in half of the milk

- stir in remainder of the dry ingredients and then the rest of the milk.

- plop a heaping spoonful of the batter into each of 12 paper-lined muffin tins.

- place berries all over each spoonful of batter, and then add one more heaping spoonful of batter on top. Then place berries all over the very top. (this stops the berries from staining the batter all purple which happens when you stir the berries into all of the batter in one go)

- bake at 375. f. for 30 minutes. Ease open the oven slowly when done, so that the cool air doesn't sink the muffins

- allow to cool slightly, but these muffins are best when warm. and don't forget to lick the spoon!