Three days ago, my boyfriend Z packed up his bags to travel to Baltimore to attend and present at an emergency health conference. It’s only been three days and I miss him already! God, how tragically pathetic. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love him to pieces and we’ve been apart before, but it’s only been three days. Honestly get a grip, Linda. He’ll be home soon.

Not only do I miss him terribly, I’m also rather paranoid. I keep thinking that he’s going to meet a beautiful girl, fall in love with her and leave me… haha, just kidding. I know he’d never do that. I’m just being silly. I even joked warned him before he left, “you better not leave me for some stunning American named Tiffany, marry her and stay in the US!” (If not Tiffany, then she’d probably be called either Cherry, Hope or Faith in stereotypical American fashion, haha).

In my worst nightmares, the ‘other woman’ would have gorgeously shiny wavy brown hair, absolute killer legs at six feet tall and sparkly yet seductive green eyes, with pearly whites and perky boobs like Jessica Simpson. Oh, she’d have sexy curves like Eva Mendes, lips like Jessica Alba and is as sweet and bubbly as Kate Hudson too. Big, big sigh… Although I’m joking, I pray to God he doesn’t meet someone like her!

He’ll be home in a week’s time (yeah I know, he’s only gone for nine days, I told you I was pathetic). So, until he comes home and showers me with love, kisses and hopefully a few awesome gifts, at least I have my muffins and other baked goodies to comfort me…

These following recipe for these muffins are pretty much close to heaven. Not too sweet, fluffy soft on the inside and crunchy on the top. The sweetness of the blueberries are a perfect complement to the tart raspberries. These muffins would be great in a school lunch-box or just as a snack with a glass of milk or cup of tea.

Raspberry Blueberry Muffins

I remember I got this recipe from an old Australian cookery magazine. Can’t exactly recall which one, but I’ve made these muffins so many times now the quantities are permanently etched in my mind!

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

¾ cup (160g) brown sugar

200g raspberries

200g blueberries

zest from one lemon

1 cup (250ml) buttermilk

1 large egg

¼ cup (60ml) vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

icing sugar, to dust (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease with butter/oil.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, berries and lemon zest. In a small bowl, or jug, lightly combine the buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently mix until just combined. When making muffins, I mix until 90% of the flour disappears.
4. Divide the batter into the prepared tin and bake for around 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown and springy to touch. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Farmer’s Markets are gaining immense popularity here in Victoria. Markets pop up every week, usually on a Saturday, and I’ve always wanted to visit one, but I’ve never had the chance to, as in the past 3 years, I’ve always worked on the weekend (as a poor student pulling shifts at Max Brenner and as a pastry apprentice), but now that I’m working Monday to Friday (which I love), my Saturdays are free to do as I please.

I was going to visit the Bundoora Farmer’s Market last week, but had to pick my parents up from the airport at 8am (not fun!) so all week, I was looking forward to visiting the Collingwood Farmer’s Market today, especially since the weather was absolutely magnificent (sunny, 20°C, blue skies and not a cloud in sight). It was the perfect day to go, but I couldn’t :(

Why didn’t I go? Well, last night while driving home from the train station, I noticed this strange ‘pffft pffft’ noise coming from my car. I knew it wasn’t my anything under the bonnet, and intrigued, I pulled over and had a look. At this point, it was 7 in the evening and already pitch black. As soon as I got out of my car, my heart sank. Yep, a flat tyre.

I was tired. I was sleepy. I was absolutely starving and all I desperately wanted was to go home, eat and head straight to bed. I had a spare tyre in the boot and I do know how to change a tyre (unlike many young females in my generation), but I just couldn’t be bothered. I was only one minute away from home and I thought “Bugger it, let’s drive this baby home” (my ‘baby’ is a red 1994 Ford Laser in case you’re wondering). I drove her home, traveling at 40km/hr all the way, pissing off every single driver behind me, copped a few dirty looks (sorry!) and finally got home in one piece. Don’t you just hate it when things go wrong when you least expect it?

So, anyway, this morning…

Excited to be going to the market, I quickly replaced the flat tyre with my spare one, but then realised the spare tyre was an old one which already had a hole in it from an incident last year. How bloody pissed off was I? Answer: very. Dad has nagged me constantly and begged me to buy a new spare tyre, but as usual, I’d just shrug it off and reply with a “yeah, yeah, yeah”. (I regret that now Dad, sorry!)

So after all that, I took my car to the tyre dealer and bought 4 new tyres (I needed them anyway). Two and a half hours and $280 later, it was too late to go to the market as it finished at 1pm. The Collingwood Farmer’s Market will have to wait until next month! :(

At least these muffins cheered me up! :)

Raspberry Lemon Muffins

(adapted from a recipe by Susan Elizabeth Fallon found on Epicurious)

Lemon sugar

¼ cup caster sugar

Zest of 2 lemons

Muffins

1 cup caster sugar

125g unsalted butter, softened

2 cups plain flour, sifted

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.5 cups of raspberries (fresh or frozen – I used frozen because they aren’t in season as yet)

10g unsalted butter (to brush on top of the muffins to make the lemon sugar stick)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with papers.
2. For the lemon sugar, combine the caster sugar and lemon zest together in small bowl and mix well.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
4. Cream the remaining caster sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.
5. Add the buttermilk, vanilla extract and half of the lemon sugar and mix well (it will look rather nasty and lumpy, but don’t be scared – keep going!)
6. Fold in the flour mixture (don’t worry if there are lumps). Gently fold in the raspberries.
7. Divide the batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown and tested with a skewer.
8. In the last minute of baking, quickly melt the spare butter and have the lemon sugar ready.
9. As soon as the muffins are removed from the oven, using a pastry brush, moisten the tops of the muffins with a little melted butter and liberally sprinkle the lemon sugar on top.
10. Cool on a wire rack.