A simple dessert

This is my half-assed attempt at Sunday night dessert. Sweet, tart, lovely blackberries were on sale at our local grocery store this week, and while I know I shouldn't indulge in off-season produce, I couldn't resist. Let's begin!

Ingredients:

Some sort of plain dessert (un-iced cake, some ice cream, anything you feel like. Vanilla or lemon flavors are a plus. I went for angel food.)

4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brandy
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
1 pint blackberries or other aggregate fruit-type berries. Raspberries or whatever. If you use a sweeter berry, you may want to cut back the sugar by half.

Give your berries a gentle rinse, place in a bowl, throw in the other ingredients, gently mix, and leave to macerate for an hour or two.


Come back and squish them up with a fork. If you don't care for the pulp or seeds, run the sauce through a sieve.
Spoon liberally onto your chosen dessert, and if it's cake, I recommend a little half-and-half for extra deliciousness.

Berry Tasty Muffins!

I love a good muffin for breakfast and my favorites are filled with berries! In the summer I use fresh berries but in the winter frozen will do. This time I made them with frozen strawberries and this I do not recommend! The strawberries never quite get dry enough so you end up with soggy muffins. Try using frozen raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries as they work much better! Just make sure they are fully defrosted and let them sit for a while to dry out as much as possible. The less water on them the better! The recipe I use for muffins comes from my McCall's cookbook from 1963. I highly recommend finding some of these old cookbooks at book sales as they have lots of useful information and they come from a time before pre-made everything. So what you find in here is simple ingredients and good recipes.

Perfect Muffins
2c all purpose flour
1/4 sugar
3tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1c milk
1/3c salad oil or melted shortening
1 egg (slightly beaten)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take your muffin pan and either grease the cups or place paper liners in them. You will get about a dozen muffins from this recipe.
Mix your flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

Add your well drained berries to your dry ingredients and mix together. In another bowl put your milk, oil, and egg and mix together well. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in your milk mixture.

Stir quickly with a fork until just mixed (your batter will be lumpy). Fill your muffin cups until just more the half full. Now bake for 20-25 minutes and you're done! These are great to take to breakfast with you or if you just want a quick snack.