Wordless Wednesday from me, not June

Blueberry Muffins Anyone?

Do you like blueberry muffins? If you do, you're in for a treat. I am sharing with you this great blueberry muffins recipe. I have tried several recipes before and this is the one that I am keeping and I have been using this recipe over and over.

I first saw this recipe on Cook's Country on TV. The muffins look so delicious that I just had to try it myself. Here are a few notes from Cook's Country about making delicious blueberry muffins:

• To prevent a streaky batter, leave the blueberries in the freezer until the last possible moment.
• Wyman's brand frozen wild blueberries are their first choice.
  

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

For the Streusel

• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon(tsp) ground cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 7 tablespoons(tbsp) unsalted butter, melted

For the Muffins

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus extra for preparing muffin tins
• 2 cups AP flour, plus extra for preparing muffin tin
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Instructions:

1. For the streusel: Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in bowl. Drizzel with melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms large chunks with some pea-sized pieces throughout.

2. For the muffins: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 F degrees. Grease and flour muffin tins(12 small or 6 jumbo. Instead of greasing, you can also use cupcake liners, easier that way). Whisk egg in medium bowl for about 30 seconds until pale and combined. Add vanilla, sugar and zest and whisk vigorously until think, 30sec. Slowly whisk in melted butter; add buttermilk and whisk until combined.

3. Reserve 1 tbsp flour. Whisk remaining flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Fold in egg mixture until nearly combined. Toss blueberries with reserved flour and fold into batter until just combined.

4. Divide batter in muffin tin and top with streusel. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out with few dry crumbs attached, about 20-25mins. (I normally make the jumbo sized muffins, those take about 30-35mins) Cool muffins in tin for 10min then remove to wire rack.

Some Vacation Photos

We didn't do a whole lot when we were in Florida. That's the best thing about vacation, you can do as many things as you want to, or not do anything at all. We went to Fort Myers and stayed at this Hampton Inn & Suites in Estero. Estero is about 15 miles away from Fort Myers Beach and most of the tourist attractions, which is quite nice because you are away from all the hussle & bussle of a crowded beach attractions but yet not too far away and of course it's cheaper too.

One of the things that I wanted to do was to visit Lovers Key State Park. So after tending to some "business"(more on that later) at a nearby town, we headed towards Fort Myers Beach. Someone we know told us about this restaurant off-the-beaten-path towards Forst Myers Beach that offers all-you-can-eat seafood, so of course we have to go check it out. Sure enough, it's not much of a place, which most tourists don't even know of. The front of the building is a seafood store but the back is a tiny restaurant. Talk about fresh seafood! I am still drooling as I type this post. LOL! I took a picture of the pelicans resting atop of one of the shrimp boats behind the restaurant.

After filling our stomachs with delicious and ridiculously fresh shrimp and fish, we headed to Lovers Key State Park to burn off some calories. We stopped at Black Island(which is part of Lovers Key State Park and it's free. Lovers Key itself is not free, you have to pay a fee to get in) and walked the beach.

The next day we visited The Bass Pro Shop. OMG, that place is HUGE! I took a picture of hubby checking out one of the big fish tanks. This one is full of different kinds of Bass. I wish we have a Bass Pro Shop here in NY but we don't, not even a Cabelas.

Golden Friday on Thursday

Oh furfriends and hooman-friends, we SURVIVED last week while mom and dad were gone. We missed them so so so so much! We kept wondering if we had done something wrong for them to leave us. Boy were we so relieved when we saw them came back!!!

So, what do you do when your pawrents came home from their vacation?

1) Grab a towel and start whinning..

2) With the towel in your mouth, give them your sad eyes. This will make them feel guilty that they left you.

3) You sniff their jackets to see where they have been.

4) Then you sniff their luggages.

5) Samantha's turn to sniff the luggages.

6) Then you jumped up on the bed and lay next to the big luggage.

7) Check to see if the luggage is big enough for you to fit in. Perhaps next time you will try to fit in there so that they will take you along.

8) When they take their clothes out of the luggage, be sure to sniff them. You can tell a lot by sniffing.

9) June: I know who they have been with.

10) Samantha: I think I know where they have been.

11) If you are not sure, sniff closer.

Note from mom: I know some of you have adopted one or more dogs in your lifetime before. Does anyone have any experience with dealing with abused dogs before? We adopted June and we think(from the way she acts around other people and sometimes us) that she must have been abused before. She is very afraid when around other people. It's tough for us to travel without the dogs because she doens't take it well when we are not around. My stepson told me that she just hid in the bedroom or bathroom almost the whole time, only came out when she needed to go outside. She wouldn't really eat, luckly I bought some canned food for her, so she ate some. When we got home, I could tell that she was mad at us or something because she came out, let us pet her for a few seconds and right back into the bedroom/bathroom she went. We do not dare to board her, for fear that it may traumatise her. Any idea how we can help her cope?

Note 2 from mom: Do you think your pets will get so stressed out that they get sick(like humans will sometimes get coldsores when they are stressed out)? I noticed a sore on June's lip(Friday evening when we got home) and took her to the vet on Tuesday. She has an infection and a slight fever. She is now on antibiotics.

Southern and Swedish Hospitalities

We are back from vacation! We are glad that we took time off but we are also glad that we are back. We missed the girls terribly and we know that they missed us just as much(or if not more!). We had a great time in Florida but more on that later. This post is really about our trip back from Florida.

You see, we flew down to FL(note to self: do not ever fly again! I got so sick even after taking 3 motion sickness pills!!!) but we drove back to NY. So I suggested to hubby that we should stop in SC to see my blog friend Lena from Sleeping Dog Bakery. We are so glad we did!

What a lovely couple Lena and Sean are! They offered us their home to stay the night even though we really "didn't know" each other all that well other than from our blogs. We were a little nervous and so were Lena and Sean. It turned out to be a great get-together! We chatted, we laughed, we visited her garden, we petted and played with Kane the very handsome GSD, we ate homemade pizza... She made us make our own food! Actually we were glad to help in the kitchen. It was definitely great place, great food, great people and great times!

Thank you again Lena and Sean for your wonderful Southern & Swedish hospitalities! Ya'll will have to come visit us sometimes. The girls would love to play with Kane. Please check out Lena's blog for some more photos from our get-together.

As for the ride home, I "waved" at some of you as we passed through almost all of the eastern states(FL-GA-SC-NC-VA-WV-MD-PA-NY). I would have love to stop by and visit but we really had to be home to see the dogs(June doesn't do well with other people, even family).

Way Back Wednesday

While I am away, please enjoy a picture of my family from "way back when".

Can you guess which one is me?

Golden Friday

These pictures were taken last month but we didn't get around to posting them until now.

Sweet Potato chews and bully sticks from Best Bully Sticks

Nommy sweet potatoes. We love these!

Mom had since made some but they are just not the same

Bully Sticks!

June: Nom nom nom...

Samantha: Mmmm...smells yummers!

pee essss: Mom and dad will be away on a short vacay next week. They are going to Florida. They told us that they are not taking us. Say WHAT? They said that we'll have to stay home.

Our human step-brofur will stay with us while mom and dad are away.

peee essss 2: Mom didn't bake a cake fur dad fur his bifday. She bought one and she prepared steak and shrimp fur dinner. They were T-bone steaks, so after dinner they gave us their T-bones. Yummers!

Mom would like to know if it's bad to give those bones to us doggies. Will those bones hurt our tummy?