It's been really cold here in New Jersey this week, so I'm making not just one, but two food posts, and because that will help me stall even longer getting today's order out. (I obsess that everything be perfect before I send it so it's hard to actually say "Okay, finished.") (By the way, thank you so much Stephanie in Georgia for ordering the first smock I've sold online! You made my day! I didn't think they would sell until I had a photo of a child wearing one.)

I made these muffins from a recipe in Tate's Bakeshop Cookbook by Kathleen King. They are the first homemade muffins that can match the boxed "bakery style" (sugar and preservative heavy) mix by Duncan Hines that I foolishly let my children eat when they were young and impressionable and which unfortunately set a standard homemade couldn't compete with--until now. The following directions are a slight adaption/improvement of her recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 and 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup salted butter, melted

1 and 1/4 cups milk

2 large eggs

2 cups frozen blueberries (I use Wyman's of Maine - amazing)

Earlier in the day when you begin to crave muffins, put the measured milk, eggs, and butter out on the counter to warm.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter and let it cool a bit. Put muffin papers in 12 super large or 20 regular muffin cups. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Mix together the milk and butter and add it to the dry ingredients. Blend slightly. Add the butter and blend until just mixed. Pour in the frozen blueberries and stir quickly because it will all freeze up. Don't worry this is okay - surprisingly. Quickly scoop the batter into the muffin pans. Don't tell me you didn't use the papers - the cleanup is a real pain otherwise.

After about ten minutes rotate your pans so they brown evenly. Once they are brown--believe me, a crispy crust is better--in about another 15 minutes remove from the oven. (Total baking time 25 to 30 minutes.) Leave muffins in the pan, on a rack a couple minutes, then remove. Eat immediately with butter for pure bliss.

Zack suggested I make these with chocolate chips one time and they were even better--no surprise there, right?

I've gazed longingly at enough food photos in Gourmet magazine, how hard can it be to photograph a muffin? Hard, I found out, if you want to get a glamour shot. I looked at Martha Stewart's baking book (which I bought a little bit guiltily because it seemed so mainstream but it's actually great). The book has gorgeous food photos and shows that food looks best in its natural environment. (That does NOT mean your mouth! Not good photos, come on!). At first I thought they didn't have a blueberry muffin photo and I was all giddy because that proved it was hard, but then on the page after the recipe I saw a blueberry muffin, posed sadly on it's side with a bunch of other muffins. Not a glorious shot. It was even on a dish towel--not it's natural environment! I was pretty happy with my final shot of muffins en masse on a rack. See, natural environment, if only temporarily.