A Bit of a Cheat

I admit, I cheated just a bit. I bought this box of Duncan Hines wild blueberry muffin mix at the store the other day. I had used this before, and it is good. Some additives and gunk, but ok for a quick muffin fix--every once in a while.

Of course, I have to add my own goodies, though. I still had some dried blueberries from when I was in Michigan a couple of years back. (Yes, they keep for that long--they're dried for pete's sake!) I had told you about American Spoon's goods in a previous post. Lord knows when and what that was about. Just the best butters, jams and mostly fruit what nots. You can find some of their items at Williams Sonoma but can also order products offline. It's well worth it. Everything is scrumptious. Anyway, I added some dried blueberries to the mix. I soaked about 2.5 oz. in enough Grand Marnier (yum) to cover and then microwaved them for a minute in order for them to soak up the liquid. (Hey, I was having a craving...no time to wait for it to soak in!) After rinsing the canned ones that came with the mix, I poured the Grand Marnier/dried blueberry mixture over the canned ones into a mesh strainer (didn't want to lose a drop of that sweet orange nectar!).

After mixing the batter lightly and adding a few drops of lemon extract, I added the mixed blueberries and folded them in. My favorite part of a muffin is the top so I always have to add a crumbly topping. Again, I used the popover pan that always cooks so perfectly. It only made 6 (huge) muffins, but that's a good thing. They go more quickly!

One was a little troublemaker getting out of the pan, and he lost his head. This is the one the kid and I shared!

Of course, some "men" were here and as soon as they smelled the finished product, three were gone in a jiffy, as you can see from the main photo. (This was a different crew--not the usual 2 a.m. snack crowd.) The kid and I shared one and now there are two. One is calling my name right now. Yum! Wish I could share with you.