Ms. Cleaver Chronicles

I have a love/hate relationship with blueberries that falls directly on the low bush/high bush divide. I’ll admit it, before I moved to Maine I didn’t know there were different kinds, but boy is there a big difference. The low-bush or wild blueberry is a thing of beauty, small, tart and delicious. The high bush blueberry on the other hand, I feel is gritty, heavy, and lacking in flavor. In short  – I am not a fan.

I wish I could say the berries in the recipe came from wild blueberries we hand picked somewhere in a distant field (and if you know a good place to pick wild blueberries in Southern Maine, let me know – please!!), but they didn’t – but they are wild Maine blueberries, and those are tasty enough for me.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

(adapted from Whipped’s Cranberry Orange Muffins)

Makes 12-16 muffins

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• zest
 of one washed lemon
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice)
• 1  to 1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen wild blueberries

Preheat oven to 375°F.

If making buttermilk, mix milk and lemon juice and set aside until needed.

Grease  or line muffin cups. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl.

Whisk together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and buttermilk in a separate mixing bowl. With a wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.

Toss blueberries in a small amount of flour until coated and fold into batter. Fill each muffin cup about three-quarters full. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean (20-24 minutes). Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes and eat warm with butter.

Mr. Cleaver and I got back Tuesday afternoon from a few much-needed days in the woods at Stephen Phillip Memorial Preserve campground in Oquossoc, Maine. Though it was grey when we arrived, we lucked out on the weather and had a fantastic time hiking, canoeing, and sitting around the fire.

If you’re ever in the Oquossoc/Rangeley area, I’d highly recommend the camp, as well as a stop at the road-side vista point Height of Land, and the breakfast burrito at the BMC Diner in Rangeley.

It’s wonderful what some time lakeside does for the soul, isn’t it? I’ve included some of my favorite photos below, but if you’d like to see some more, the full set is available on Flickr.

I finished my newest sweater last week and while, realistically, it’s too warm to wear it yet, I am in love.

The pattern is Manu by Kate Davies, and based on this pattern, I will happy knit anything else she writes up. The sweater itself if relatively simple, but such thought has been put into the details and finishing (with one small exception – the pleats don’t mirror, and unlike many people on Ravelry, it didn’t bother me enough to change it). The i-cord edging is so very polished looking and the shaping fits like a dream. I also enjoy that I learned a number of new techniques on the project, including the i-cord bind off and the pleating.

I made a few modifications – namely I went down a needle size to account for my yarn (more later) and I skipped the pockets, since I felt they would look weird unless my hands were in them all the time.

As for the yarn? The yarn is Malabrigo Silky Merino in Sand and the product of at least a month of searching for the perfect shade of mustard yellow. I’m sure it will pill like crazy in the future, being a single ply and all, but it is so soft and lovely to the touch that I have never enjoyed knitting with a yarn more. Based on a number of reviews that mentioned the post-blocking growth of this yarn, and my own gauge swatch, I ended up knitting everything a needle size down, which ended up being perfect.

I’m not wishing summer away, but as soon as it gets cold this sweater will get some heavy rotation.

Then (June 19):

Then (July 5):

Now (August 4):

Then (July 5):

Then (July 28):

Now (August 11):

Then (August 11 – 5:30 pm):

Now (August 11 – 6:09pm):

Yesterday I joined my knitting friends over at Maggie’s for an afternoon of knowledge sharing and enabling each other’s crafting addictions.

Maggie taught Bristol & I crochet:

and I taught them embroidery:

Lynn taught Karen punchneedle technique:

Maria (who’s trying to finish 12 knitting stash projects before Rhinebeck!) provided the locally made gelato:

And Chase, Jackson, Hobbes* and Cocoa Bean* provided fur and company (*not pictured):

Yesterday Mr. Cleaver & I fufilled my yearning for homefries at the Miss Portland Diner, spent the afternoon at Crescent Beach State Park, and went to a friends for a barbecue for dinner (where the barbecue caught on fire, so we ended up broiling some steaks inside instead). All in all a perfect summer day.