My Grandmother’s Famous Blueberry Muffins

I have several women that I have looked up to over the course of the years. I knew there were certain characteristics that I wanted to emulate when I was a mom, an aunt/”faunt” (fake aunt),  or grandmother.

Last summer, we lost my Grandmother when she was well into her 90s. While she had lived a very long and full life, we still missed her all the same. She was, to me, one of the original superwomen. She had 3 children, worked full time as a teacher, always had a perfectly clean house, made a home-cooked well-balanced meal every night, and could pull together the most amazing holiday dinners for our large family. As she had Alzheimer’s, I hate to say that it felt like we lost her a couple years prior. She still had that amazing grandmother ability to make us feel special though. Every time I visited her when I was pregnant, she would become happy all over again as if I was telling her for the first time. She made my husband feel like a million bucks on our visits, because she would tell me how lucky I was to snag a guy with such “sparkling blue eyes”, and then raise her eyebrows and wink.

I desperately wanted to post this recipe as my first post on the blog, because I wanted a special tribute to her – a woman who taught me that I could have it all. But…I forgot to buy blueberries. So goes my life, as I am sure you have learned!

When I was younger, we visited a place that our family called “the country”. Our extended family shared a modest home, and it was the kind of place where you could go outside and “get lost” for hours, we could catch a fish, and have it for dinner that night, we could find salamanders, frogs and lightning bugs and keep them as a “pet” (often in a man-made outdoor home, which they quickly escaped from).

One of my favorite things to do was to eat the blueberries that my grandfather picked from the fields, and then help my grandmother pull together blueberry muffins with what was left. Today, we don’t make it up to the amazing spot as much, but I do still try to go blueberry picking with my son, and make these blueberry muffins. In the offseason, I will use some of the blueberries that we stockpiled.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoy passing it along…and please excuse the really long intro for a simple muffin recipe. I felt anything less would not do my Grandmother justice.

Blueberry Muffins

Number of Servings: 12

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup melted shortening

1 egg, beaten

1 cup blueberries

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and gradually add remaining ingredients. 

Beat mixture for 2 minutes. Add blueberries and put into cupcake papers. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let the muffins cool, eat at least one, and freeze the rest in a freezer bag. You can defrost these in about 1 minute in the microwave. 

They are perfect for play-dates, a breakfast treat, a snack, etc. 

 

Enjoy! 

(and here are the muffins. You can so tell I am not a “food blogger” by the picture!)