Goodmorning! Blueberry Muffins

Ah yes, one of my favorite breakfast treats. Served to you from me!

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with paper liners.
• Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix together.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, butter, lemon zest, and eggs.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mix with a fork just until blended!
• Fold the blueberries into the batter. Don’t over mix! With a standard (2 1/4-inch) ice-cream scoop or large spoon, scoop the batter into the prepared cups, filling them almost full.
• Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.

MY FAVORITE ADD ON!

When making muffins, right before putting them into the oven:

• Mix together granulated & brown sugar.
• Put a small spoonful on top of each muffin.
• Once out of the oven, you’ll have a perfect layer of sugar on top of the fluffy blueberry muffins!

My Holiday Trip Home

It’s December 23rd, cold in Florida, however not so chilly in the Southwest. I had an eight hour travel day heading home for the holidays. TOTALLY worth it though if you ask me. I surprised my two youngest sisters for they were thinking I wasn’t going to be home for Christmas.

I’d have to say, being in the military you miss a lot of things back home, but I had never thought I’d miss my mom’s cooking so much before… and she’s no Chef Ramsey either. But it’s not my boyfriend or the cooking that I had missed the most (Jack is gonna read this and be like alright where’s this headed…) IT WAS MY DOGGIE! I missed my ‘lil boy so dang much. I can guarantee, you ask anyone in the military, no matter what branch, their dog will be what they miss the most.

So here’s a little shout out to all my brothers and sisters who miss their pets. I’m with you there.

Moving on; so after I arrived Saturday, the very next day was Christmas Eve. Our family does the typical Christmas Eve church service thing and soon after, I had decided I wanted to bake something! Like come on, it had been six months since I had baked, I was very excited for this event. But like all good things… well, they never turn out perfect. Turns out because of my long flight the day before I just CRASHED on the couch! For hours! Nobody woke me up! Rude… I slept through the baking of the Christmas cookies… it was detrimental to my holiday spirit if you ask me. It’s a holiday tradition!

Christmas day was a blast. Typical spoiled kids thinking Santa spends his whole year making gifts for them. Poor Santa. That man works harder than all of us Americans combined! (Eh that’s not saying much.)

I’ve got to say, finding things to do in Arizona during the holidays was extremely difficult. It’s beautiful out there but like, what is a family of six supposed to do with beauty? “Ah yes, let us all collectively stand outside and look at a cactus until Ashley’s leave is over.” My mom was extremely creative throughout my trip. We did a thing called Zoo Lights down in Phoenix. I highly recommend it if you’re ever in the area and are bored of looking at a cactus.

I had taken a total of 12 leave days, which is a lot for someone so new to the military. My friends all took a general 5 days of leave. Suckers. I had a blast being home! I ate the worst food and slept a whole ton. I was very spoiled. (Yes, sleeping is a virtue and blessing around here). I couldn’t be more satisfied with the trip and loved every minute of it. Even when my dog peed on me.