Spiced Blueberry Muffins

These muffins are beautiful; eat them while they're warm, and they'll melt in your mouth. This recipe is adapted from the one that won Brittany Ayers her first blue ribbon when she was just eight years old. Fresh berries are best for these muffins, but you can also use frozen.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen wild blueberries
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) block fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°.

Lightly spoon 2 cups of flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour and next 6 ingredients (through cloves) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

Place blueberries in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over blueberries; toss to coat.

Place butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed 1 minute or until blended. Add milk, eggs, and vanilla to butter mixture; beat to combine. Add butter mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Gently fold in blueberry mixture. Spoon batter into 14 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar evenly over batter. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pans 5 minutes on a wire rack. Remove muffins from pans; place on a wire rack.

Yield

14 servings (serving size: 1 muffin)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 192(26% from fat); FAT 5.5g (sat 3.1g,mono 1.6g,poly 0.4g); IRON 1.1mg; CHOLESTEROL 46mg; CALCIUM 124mg; CARBOHYDRATE 29.9g; SODIUM 327mg; PROTEIN 5.5g; FIBER 1g

Orange Julius

1 small (8oz) can orange juice concentrate
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 trays ice cubes

Put in a blender and blend until ice is chopped up finely and the mixture is thick and slushy.

Yummy Baked Beans

2 (28 oz) cans of Bush's Baked Beans - drain some liquid
1 med Onion
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
BBQ sauce to taste
1 (15 oz) can crushed pineapple (well drained)

Mix all together and bake for 1 hour. (Or put in Crock pot for a few hours.)

Optional: add 1/3 can fried onions and sprinkle rest of can on top.

Blueberry Jello with Cream Cheese Topping

1 large package strawberry jello

2 cups boiling water

***Dissolve jello in water.

Add:

15 oz. can blueberries, undrained (not pie filling)

20 oz. can crushed pineapple (undrained)

***Chill in fridge until set

Topping:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. powdered sugar

Spread over set Jello and Top with chopped walnuts (optional).

Thank my mother-in-law for this great recipe!

Freeze Ahead Tuna Sandwiches

All the goodness of tuna, minus the food borne illnesses

Tip: You can also form and make these sandwiches to eat immediately!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons whipped salad dressing (Miracle Whip)
1 (6 ounce) can chunk tuna, drained
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter, softened
8 slices whole wheat bread

PREPARATION:

In medium bowl, combine cream cheese and whipped salad dressing and beat until smooth. Stir in tuna, onions, carrot, and lemon juice and blend well to combine.
Spread softened butter thinly on each slice of bread and spread tuna filling to make sandwiches.
Wrap in freezer wrap and place in gallon freezer bag. Label sandwiches and freeze.
To thaw, let thaw overnight in refrigerator, or add to brown bag lunches in the morning and let thaw until lunchtime. Make sure sandwiches are eaten within 2 hours of being completely thawed.

PS--I served these to Ethan's 3 year old parenting class and both parents and kids raved. Hope you enjoy!

Play dough

Ingredients

2 cups water (add food coloring now)
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 Tbls oil
1 tsp cream of tartar

Directions:

Cook in non-stick fry pan over medium heat until mixture forms a ball – stir constantly. When the dough is done, take it off the heat. Let it cool a few minutes. If you want to add a scent, put about ½ tsp. Into dough at this point. Knead the dough until the scent is absorbed and the play dough has a shiny surface. Once the play dough is completely cooled, put it in an airtight container (gallon Ziploc is great), and store in a cool place. It will keep several weeks.

Kent Family Recipe

Cream Cheese Apple Dip

Ingredients:

• One 8oz pkg softened cream cheese (Or Neufchatel)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of either Heath bar or Skor crumbled up

Directions:

Cream together all but candy bar. Then fold in candy bar crumbles.

This recipe was served by Kelly Rex at a New Years party.

No-Knead Bread

The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work
To get hyped up about this recipe, click on this link.
Published: November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1¼ teaspoons salt, Cornmeal, or wheat bran as needed.
  

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.