Thyroid, Car Maintenance, Murder in NC.

We hadn’t seen our doctor herself in a while, she has several doctors working in her clinic and its difficult to get hold of her. Today I found a good reason to ensure we see her and only her, they discovered my thyroid readings were low but one of the other doctors had missed it or not bothered to tell me, not sure I would have been told if I hadn’t mentioned my huge changes in food tastes lately and a lack of the products of my thyroid glands can contribute to this apparently. Please cross your fingers for me that this medication will bring my tastes back to me, I don’t even really enjoy wine any more and steak, lamb and pork do NOT appeal. Still like chocolate though, that’s one saving grace. I just hope I like turkey as I am cooking a turkey breast this weekend for Canadian Thanksgiving.

Incredible story on Pinterest about Margaret Dunning, a 102-year-old Michigan woman has been making headlines after her energetic appearance at a classic car show in Canton, Ohio. Dunning attended the show with her baby: a 1930 Packard 740 Roadster that she purchased in 1949 and restored to mint condition... They say she has saved one hell of a lot of money by doing all the work herself. Incredible she is still doing such work at her age. That car must be worth a penny or two these days as well.

Now a story closer to home, well not our home nowadays but when we lived in North Carolina. A neighbour of our friends, Goldie Hall, was recently murdered by what is described as blunt force trauma. They have arrested her great niece, Rhonda Hagan and charged her with the murder as well as setting the house on fire although apparently she didn’t leave the body in the house when she set it on fire. The authorities say it was a question of money which Hagan had borrowed in large quantities from her great aunt. We, in fact, met the victim's sister many years ago and she knitted something personal as a joke for Matt's 60th birthday, so it really makes it local for us.

I love muffins, I love blueberry muffins, so even with my changed tastes, these look good to me.

Blueberry–Sour Cream Muffins

Source: Food and Wine

Yield: Makes 1 dozen muffins

Some little rituals, like baking on Sunday for the week, provide cookbook author Eugenia Bone a kind of stress-free reprieve, and at the same time let her stock up on fuel for the family, like these muffins.


RECIPE INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
1 cup sour cream (rounded )
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 cup frozen blueberries (rounded )

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon. Rub with your fingers to form coarse crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Butter a 12-cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the 1 1/2 cups of flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the egg at medium speed until frothy. Add the sugar and melted butter and beat until pale yellow, 1 minute. Beat in the sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest until blended. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until almost blended. In a bowl, toss the blueberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour. Using a rubber spatula, fold the blueberries into the batter.
Fill the muffin cups three-fourths full of batter and sprinkle with the topping. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a rack.

Have a great day