My Two Muffin Tweaks This Summer

Yum, blueberry muffins for a summer morning. 

Our blueberry bushes are past the peak in berry production for the year. So I'm making the most of what we have left. I made blueberry pancakes the other morning. And on Tuesday, I made another batch of blueberry muffins. 

I've been fiddling around with my scratch muffin recipe this summer, trying to waste less as well as conserve our egg supply. For my last couple of batches of muffins I've left out the usual 1 egg called for. To compensate for the leavening the egg provided, I increased the ratio of baking powder (or my substitute -- baking soda plus vinegar) to flour. To do this, I cut the flour amount from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups but left the baking powder amount as originally called. The oil, sugar, salt, and milk remained the same as before. The first time I made muffins omitting the egg I was afraid the finished muffins would be too crumbly. As it turned out, they were just as muffin-y as I would expect. I'm now wondering what types of muffins actually need that egg. Perhaps muffins that are naturally more crumbly, like bran muffins. But for the rest, as long as I'm short on eggs, I'll be leaving the egg out of my muffins. The only drawback to this egg-less muffin technique is my new batch now makes 9 muffins, whereas the old batch made 12, due to reducing the flour by 1/2 cup. I could always do the math and figure a new recipe based on a greater amount of flour.  But that would be work. Some day, when I have nothing else to do and want a little math problem . . .

The other change I've made this summer is to skip the muffin papers. It has always annoyed me that so much of a muffin is lost due to sticking to the little paper cup. Simply greasing the muffin tin was never enough either. Instead of some of the muffin sticking to the paper, a thin layer of muffin crumbs stuck to the tin. After our conversation about greasing and flouring cake and loaf pans I decided to try greasing and flouring the muffin tin wells. This works amazingly well. Not only do the muffins not stick, but they come cleanly out of the tin, no crumbs left behind. Yes, it is work to grease and flour the tin. I can imagine there will be more times in the future where using the muffin liner papers will be the simpler choice. But for now, I'm really pleased to waste less of the muffin.

So those are the two tweaks I've made to my scratch muffins this summer, leaving the egg out and greasing and flouring the tins.

Getting More for My Money by Overwintering My Begonia Pot in the Garage

For the most part, begonias are tender perennials, meaning in an area that freezes in winter, there's a good chance they'll die off. If you live in a warmed climate, you can just leave them in the ground or pot outdoors for the winter and expect they will bloom again the next spring and summer. It does freeze where I live. It's recommended that gardeners in my area dig up their begonia bulbs/tubers and keep in a cool but frost-free spot for the winter. 

Last spring, I picked up this hanging basket (empty) from a free pile in my neighborhood. I went to the garden center at Fred Meyer with the hope of finding a begonia plant. They were selling pre-filled begonia baskets for $33 each. I bought a single plant for $3.50 and brought it home to pot in this basket. I enjoyed blooms July, August, and early September. At the end of the season, I decided I wanted to try to save the plant to put out again the next spring.

I didn't need to dig up the bulb, however. Since I planted mine in a pot, I decided to just bring the pot into the garage (where it never freezes, but stays cool). Just before the first frost I brought my begonia, pot and all, into the garage, set it on the concrete floor about 5 or 6 feet from the door to the house and the furnace and water heater, and gave it no thought all winter. I forgot to get it back out until late spring. I was half-expecting it to not come back to life. But I placed it in a spot where I'd remember to water what looked like a pot of dirt. Low and behold, a tiny shoot began to emerge from the soil, then another shoot, and another.

The plant has doubled in size. It looks like the bulb could potentially be divided into two plants. I'll leave them both in this pot together just as they are for at least one more season. Begonias like to be little crowded.

So the plant has now begun to bloom. I'll enjoy what it gives me the rest of this summer, then bring it into the garage again in early to mid October. I suspect many folks treat begonias like annuals and plan on replacing them the next year. I might have, too, if I hadn't read that these could overwinter in a garage or cellar and if I'd had to dig them out of the ground on some chilly autumn day. As it worked out, it was super simple for me to bring the whole pot into the garage to leave it until spring.