farewell, vincent

you may be wondering why it would seem that i have named this muffin vincent. in reality, i didn’t, well, at least not until i began writing this post.

when i moved into this home two years ago i found a number of bizarre things, such as realizing that the entire inside of the house was once a brighter version of tiffany box blue. i am not kidding when i say the whole house– i found remnants of it where the paint chipped in the bedrooms, the hallway, the bathroom, the window sills, the stairway, and even the garage. one of the first things i did, before i even unpacked boxes, was to paint the walk-in closet any color except that blue…i settled on the rest of a can of tan paint and the rest of a can of light green paint that i had from my old place. had i known that the tan paint wouldn’t cover it all, i would have mixed the two colors together so that my closet wasnt two different colors… but honestly it is *still* better than the blue. now, back to that garage… the ceiling of the garage was painted with a wallpaper border, and the inside of the door was not only the greenish-blue color but had “vincent’s playground” painted on it, as well as a sailboat and a car. i am not sure if vincent was a child or a cat (there is a kitty door from the kitchen to the garage, one of the closets smelled of kitty litter, and there is cat hair in the vents), and frankly i am not sure which would be more perplexing. note: this photo doesnt capture the color well at all; you will just have to trust me.

in any case,  the garage door was not insulated at all, didn’t close all the way, and the automatic opener died, so it was time to get it all replaced. you may recall that a few weeks ago i cleaned out the garage, which is part of this project in addition to wanting to live clutter-free.  so, since i don’t know who or what vincent was, i will say farewell to the above muffin. and by farewell, i of course mean devouring it. i personally can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to a muffin, and once you make these, you won’t be able to either.

sure, i liked them, and they got great reviews from my family, friends, and co-workers, but one of my friends actually asked if i put crack in them. i take that as a big compliment, one of the best ones i have gotten in a while. if that doesn’t inspire you enough to get up and make these, maybe telling you the title of the recipe from AllRecipes will: “to die for blueberry muffins”, with an average rating of 4.7 from 3,978 reviewers, and it has been saved by over 62 thousand members…that doesn’t even include all the other websites (like mine) that people get the recipe from. this is good stuff, people. stop procrastinating and make them. NOW.

hopefully your grocery store has the same sale as mine did… 4 packs of blueberries for $5. expect more blueberry recipes coming from me for this reason, in addition to my general love for blueberries. i should mention that i did not make the recipe exactly as it was posted; i first veganized it, then added in lemon zest, washed the blueberries in lemon juice, threw in some vanilla, and cut back on the cinnamon since i was using so much lemon and didn’t want the flavors to compete.

Recipe, adapted from All Recipes:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg (i used egg replacer)
• 1/3 cup milk (i used soy milk)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• zest of one lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed (i used earth balance)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar mixed with lemon zest, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg, vanilla, and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.