I Love: Berries

While I'm loving fruit, I want to say a few words in praise of the humble berry. In whichever guise - Blackberry, Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, I love them all! Baked into muffins, in smoothies, made into pie, eaten out of hand they are so good! and the frozen ones work just as well as fresh for lots of things (except for maybe strawberries as they do tend to get watery when frozen and thawed) so they are good to go year round.

M prefers Raspberries, and when she was a baby in Scotland she'd eat them straight off the vine in H's Aunts' garden! So very cute.

R loves to go Blackberry picking in the late summer, well to be honest, I brave the thorns to pick and she scarfs them all. Blackberry juice dripping down her chin.

H likes Blueberries baked into muffins - like these. Here's another Blueberry Muffin recipe for you! Banana Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12

2/3 C Soymilk
1 t Apple Cider Vinegar
2 medium Bananas – well mashed
¼ C Oil
1 T Blackstrap Molasses
1 t Vanilla Essence
½ C WW Flour
½ C Plain Flour
1 C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 T Baking Powder
½ t Baking Soda
1 t Cinnamon
½ t Salt
2/3 C Sugar
2 T Wheat Germ
1 C fresh or frozen Blueberries

Preheat oven to 400F and prepare your muffin tins.
In a large bowl combine the soymilk and ACV. Allow to curdle.
Add to the soymilk mix the banana, oil, molasses and vanilla, mix well.
Sift in the remaining ingredients (except blueberries) and mix to just combine.
Fold in the blueberries.
Spoon mix into muffin tins and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until tests done.
Cool in tray 5 minutes before transferring to rack.

Strawberries in Scones are pretty good too!

Speaking of Strawberries the best ever ones I have ever eaten are Scottish Strawberries, grown outdoors. The season (as you can imagine) is so incredibly short, and the fruit is super expensive, but OMG, the fruit is so sweet you'd swear they'd been sugared first. I'd buy my 5 pound punnet (that's 5 pounds as in $10 not 5lb) and scoff the lot without sharing with anyone. So very good!