Visiting Wake Forest with the cousins over spring break. Pardon the fuzzy quality of the pic of Alex from the back–but I just loved her walking with her cousin like that–and since I was walking too, well, not the best picture ever.
We had a fantastic time in North Carolina. Aside from the freezing rain and the fact that the kids and I all got strep throat! But that was before we got to Winston Salem, so I can genuinely and un-ironically say that we had a fantastic time visiting my brother’s adorable family.  (Am I the only one who wants to zerbert the baby’s belly every time I look at the photo in the top right?)

OK so more about these muffins. And this photo, by the way, is just for fun. Since Skamp photo-bombed it. I believe he was resenting the fact that the kids had gone outside to play without him, and since I take my pictures right beside the large sliding glass door that looks out into the backyard…

I found the basic recipe in Yvonne Ruperti’s One Bowl Baking: Simple, From Scratch Recipes for Delicious Desserts. This is the first recipe I have made from this book (it just came out this past winter), but guys I have practically every other recipe bookmarked. Honestly, because I have a stand mixer (and enjoy using it) I cannot really report on whether the recipes can truly be made in one bowl with very little fuss (and especially because I started with a muffin recipe–what muffin recipe is not no fuss?). But, for example, I am so excited to make her Sour Cherry Clafouti (I prefer sour cherries) that I really don’t care if it takes me one bowl or two. The White Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake is also at the top of my list. And the Double Chocolate Espresso Cashew Cookies. You get the idea!

My main change to this recipe was to use “local” (ok just picked from Michigan since they do not grow here) blueberries frozen last summer instead of strawberries. We still do not have local strawberries, and when I made these muffins we still did not have domestic organic strawberries (that at least has finally changed thank goodness). So blueberries made sense to me. Plus I tend to prefer their stronger, more assertive presence in baked goods, as much as I love strawberries, which can get a little lost and watery in baked goods (although Ruperti says using local, freshly picked strawberries will help with this).