The Blueberry Muffin Quest

I am sitting here feeling a little spacey this Saturday afternoon. Maybe because I just woke up from a nap. I have every good intention of hauling my sewing machine down to the kitchen where it's cooler once I finish this blog entry and maybe get a few dishes done (I have looking at a dirty kitchen) and get some quilting done. Really. I've gotten a little sucked into touring project pages on Ravelry. Am I the only one who looks at other's finished pages and wishes I could be those people? I'm pretty sure my pages don't cause this wistfulness. I have to remind myself that even though their knits are beautiful and they finish things like sweaters and lace shawls they probably don't want to get off the couch somedays and fight with their husbands and have dirty bathrooms just like me.

So, on with my post. I've been meaning to share some pics of the blueberry muffins I made yesterday morning. I am very weird about having my Saturday mornings just so. I need to not wake up to an alarm and I need to have some coffee and I need to be able to sit in the chair and knit until lunch time. At least once a week. It calms my introvert spirit. But I haven't gotten to do it for a few weeks and it looks like I won't be able to for a few weeks. I had to work this morning. Staring at Excel spreadsheets trying to figure out where in the hell $49.76 went and why the damn spreadsheets won't equal each other and having just a few days left until the fiscal year is over and I need to figure it out while juggling hosting multiple trainings and end of year paperwork and the usual meetings and life stress does not calm this introvert spirit. Nor do the jets flying overhead for the Annual Quad Cities Air Show. So I took yesterday morning off and baked muffins. While it wasn't sitting in a chair knitting, the process did calm me a bit.

I have been on a search for the perfect blueberry muffin for some time now. Our local chain of grocery stores makes a perfect blueberry muffin in their bakery. If you are anything like my husband you are probably think "Why don't you just buy blueberry muffins from the store, April?". But since you are reading this blog maybe you feel my pain of wanting to replicate store bought perfection.

So I was venturing in the store actually going for coffee the other morning and saw the said perfect muffins. I was reminded of my quest to make them. Then there I was in the produce section and these little blue beauties were speaking to me that maybe they could play a role in my conquering of the blueberry muffin.

I had very high hopes for the blueberry muffin recipe in The Grand Central Baking Book. You may have caught on by now to the fact I have a bit of a "thing" for this book. But, I mean, it's brought me happiness in the form of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with an amazing butter crust and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies made even more blissful with dried cranberries and golden raisins. So why not believe that this book may be the Holy Grail of baked goods and lead me to blissful fullfillment in the form of THE blueberry muffins??? As Piper Davis went on about the buttermilk and the need to mix this recipe by hand to maintain a delicate cakelike texture I felt a flutter of excitement that I may have just found my blueberry muffin destiny (yes, I realize I may have attachement issues to baked goods. Ripe for analysis, yes, yes.). But they weren't it. I know, it is like a tragic story of possible love and destiny only to be dashed. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad. Just not THE MUFFINS.

I have action shots none the less.