Fruit Stall

Summer in the Netherlands is synonymous with fruit stalls on the country roads.
Fresh strawberries, raspberries, cherries, melons and even wild peaches.

We stopped at one on a lazy Sunday afternoon somewhere near Maarssen. The kids played, we enjoyed our coffee and wished all afternoons could be like this.

Blueberry Muffins

Friends of ours were coming over for lunch and I decided to bake muffins for dessert.

Specifically blueberry muffins.

Now I know it does not really sound like dessert.

But that did not stop me.

Besides, I already had all the ingredients for blueberry muffins.

I found a Donna Hay recipe on this site.
The main reason I picked this recipe is because everything is measured in cups and grams. See, my scale died on me and I still had to go and buy a new battery so weighing ingredients was not really an option.

In retrospect I'm wondering if I shouldn't just have run to the shop for that battery before I started baking. My mixture was pretty dry... and that made me worry.

Luckily the muffins turned out beautifully.
Everyone agreed.
Definitely a recipe worth repeating.

Blueberry Muffins
Recipe by Donna Hay
(makes 12)

Ingredients
2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil
1 egg
½ cup (125ml) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g fresh or frozen blueberries
granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Place the oil, egg, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the blueberries and mix to combine.
4. Spoon mixture into a 12-hole ½-cup capacity (125ml) muffin tin lined with paper patty cases. Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack.

I suggest serving them with cream.

Freshly Squeezed Juice

I have this juicer which I bought many years ago.
The main reason for buying it was because it looked so pretty.
It is shaped like an orange.
Who can resist that!

Now that winter is on its way and the grocery shops are filled with citrus fruit there is no better time for a freshly squeezed glass of orange juice.

The juice gives me almost as much pleasure as using the juicer!

Cherries

I love summer in Europe.

I just love it.

Driving along long winding roads in the sunshine surrounded by canals and green fields we stumble upon a little farm stall where they sell beautiful cherries.

Happiness straight from nature.

Watermelon stars

Watermelon is one of my all time favourite fruits.

First of all, the colours are so enticing.

Deep pink and cool green... Makes me feel all summery and happy.

Then there is the taste.

The sweet refreshing watermelon taste.

I stumbled across the idea of making watermelon stars on Mowielicious and just couldn't resist.

It is so easy, just slice the watermelon and use a star shaped cookie cutter :-)

Happy Monday everybody!

Pretty Pineapple

Pineapples are delicious, don't you agree?
And they are so pretty too.
Somehow they make me think of hot summer days, good times and fruit salad.

I'm not sure if there is a technique to cutting up a pineapple... but here you can see my method.

Chopping up things gives me tremendous pleasure.
Nothing is too difficult to peel, slice and dice.
Especially if the end result is going to be as good as this particular pineapple was.
Pity it didn't last very long... time to go shopping again!