Huckleberry Muffins

 We took a nice drive out Lostine Canyon the other night.

  Along with seeing gorgeous scenery and a herd of elk, we took a stroll down a path that led us to a huckleberry patch. What a great find! So we picked enough to come home and make some yummy treats such as huckleberry pancakes and muffins.

Here's my recipe for Huckleberry muffins. Enjoy!


1 2/3 cup white flour
1/3 cup whole wheat
1/4 cup each whole oats and flaxseed meal
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cup almond milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
3 tablespoons butter, yes the real thing, melted
2 tablespoons oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl whisk together all dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients, including the egg. Slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry, trying not to over stir. The rule of thumb I learned in Home Ec, oh yes, that was ages ago, was about 11 to 15 good swipes around the bowl. It doesn't matter if you have a bit of flour here and there not stirred in, unless there's a lot. The idea is to not over beat the batter so your muffins come out nice and soft.
Grease or line your muffin tin with papers. I use a regular ice cream scoop to divide the batter. Yield is about 12 muffins. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden on top.

Enjoy!

Fresh Tomato Zucchini Salad

Okay, with new air card connected I'm ready to rock and roll again! Finally we have a connection that doesn't seem like dial up! Lucky me, we had some zucchini, well a lot of zucchini, so I took some with me to Oregon last week. My next door neighbor brought over a bag of tomatoes and assured me that's all he will be growing after his run in with the local gendarmes, and then a sweet lady down the road gave me a tour of her house and garden after I inquired about their fence, and she shared a giant white onion with me, yay!
I was invited to a sweet friend's house for dinner that night. She was serving a lamb roast and baked yams, oh my! I offered to bring the salad, so I chunked up a whole zucchini after slicing the seeds out. I added some chopped onion, about 3/4 of a cup, and two whole tomatoes chopped. I drizzled it all with a dressing made of 1/3 c. vinegar, 2 T. water, 2 T. italian seasoning, 2 t. seasoning salt and 12 T. each of olive and canola oil. Add coarse ground pepper to taste. It was a nice light salad that complimented the roast and yams perfectly! Marvel and Bob loved the salad so much they ate all of it! We did have one other guest so this served 4 very generously. I think I would like to try purple onion the next time for a nice color contrast.
Here's a break down of the recipe.

Fresh Tomato Zucchini Salad
1 large zucchini, seeded and cubed
two large tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup white or purple onion, chopped

Dressing
1/3 cup vinegar
2 T. water
2 T. italian seasoning
2 t. seasoning salt
2 T. each extra virgin olive and canola oil
coarse ground pepper to taste
Whisk all ingredients together and pour over salad. Stir gently to coat