A Day for Firsts

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday, but it doesn't feel as if I have much to show for it. We mopped the floor in the morning, and I mopped myself out the door so that I could hoe the garden. While I was out, I was thrilled to find enough ripe blueberries that it made sense to pick some. Up until now, they've been ripening one at a time. Now, they are ripening in clusters, giving me hope I can actually do something with them. Just look at these babies:

So, I picked the first of the blueberries. Probably I have about a cup here. It isn’t enough to do any baking with them. Most of my recipes require 2 cups or more. There are plenty more on the bushes, and I’ll be checking them every day for a while. Eventually I’ll have enough for some muffins. Or bread. Or cake. The mind reels with possibilities.

And then I tried this recipe for Granola Cups for the first time. And this gave me an idea for using the blueberries. So, I’m a little disappointed with how these turned out. I’ve linked to the recipe, and I’ll tell you my thoughts. First of all, it says it makes 8 servings. And since it’s cooked in a muffin pan, my thinking is that I should have filled eight of the muffin cups. But I had enough for more than nine. I’d only sprayed nine of them, and so I stopped when I’d filled them. They looked like this when they came out of the oven.

It’s hard to see in the image above, but I used a small ladle to press the centers down, making a bowl shape for them. The recipe suggests refrigerating them for 20 minutes after taking them from a 350 degree oven. That just seemed weird to me. Who puts something that hot into their refrigerator? 

So, I allowed mine to cool on a rack. When they were completely cool, I tried removing them with a plastic knife. All but a few broke into pieces. I ended up removing them to a custard cup to hold them together. (It also held the bowl shape intact.) Possibly if I’d refrigerated them for a bit after they cooled off, they might have held together better. I’d like to try them again sometime and see if it helps.

This morning we made breakfast from them. Here’s where the blueberries come in. The recipe would have us drizzle them with honey, add a dollop of Greek yogurt, and some sliced strawberries. We used the blueberries in place of the strawberries. Also, I wanted something a little more flavorful than plain Greek yogurt, and so we used vanilla yogurt. Here’s how they looked before we ate them. Even if they didn’t come out looking like cute little bowls, they are pretty tasty.

So, I’d like to try this again now that I have some other ideas about how to make them work. Cooling them and then refrigerating them before removing them from the pan could be all they need.

In other firsts, I turned the first corner on Ruth's Legacy. I was nearing the second corner when I stopped.

It should be short work to turn the second corner today. If I’m feeling energetic, I’ll try to get around the third corner too.

And then I made the first row of blocks for the Butterfly Garden quilt. So far so good.

Okay, and that was the end of my sewing day. 

Mike has spent the last couple of days changing our cell phone service provider from Verizon to T-Mobile. We’ve had Verizon for a long time (AT&T for a long time before that). Verizon kept increasing the price, and so we decided to make the change. Part of the deal with T-Mobile meant new phones for us, and so we spent the rest of the afternoon “porting” our old phone numbers to the new phones. It ended up being quite a hassle, as those sorts of things are apt to be. It’s all set up now, though, and things seem to be working as they should. I suppose we’ll find glitchy things here and there, but the new phone is operational, and the old one is dead. It must be my week for new electronic gadgetry. 

Now here’s the thing: I’m a person accustomed to change. When you grow up a military brat, you learn early on that the only constant in your life is change. So change is good. I’m one who likes it. But when it comes to electronic gadgetry and computers, I absolutely hate change. It’s as bad as when they rearrange the grocery store. Just tell me the rules, and then don’t change them, and we can avoid bloodshed. I’m just sayin’…the new phone better not give me any trouble, or we’re gonna lock horns.

Mike is heading out today for his first vision exam since his cataract surgery. He’s pleased as punch with his new eyeballs. Colors are noticeably brighter, and his vision is much improved. He’ll be fitted for some sort of reading glasses at today’s exam. As for me, I have a couple of housekeeping chores on the agenda, and I want to water the flower pots. Of course, I’ll be checking on the blueberries. 

When I get back to my sewing, I’ll continue on with the quilt binding. And then I’ll start making the third row of blocks for the Jawbreakers quilt.

As you might know, I’ve made this quilt before in reds, pinks, and purples. It was so much fun making it that I decided to do another one in greens, blues, and aquas. I have my messy scrap bins pulled and I’ll start doing the cutting today.

This is another project that requires a lot of cutting, and so I’m not sure if I’ll get very far sewing the blocks together. Once the cutting is done they go together pretty quickly.

So, off I go. Fingers crossed about the blueberries. I’m really in the mood for something baked with blueberries. What kinds of fruits are ripening where you live?