Blueberry Muffins

I was thinking about what else I could put on my blog besides the woes of being a teacher and graduate student, and I decided that I can put up the recipes and stuff that I use to bake and cook. I love baking and cooking, so I will share the love.

The only person who doesn't devour these muffins is my husband, so I'm going to assume they are good enough to share.

Preheat oven to 375.



2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all of those into one bowl. For a different flavor add a teaspoon of cinnamon.



2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl from the flour, mix the two eggs slightly. Add the sugar and mix really really well.


Add the milk and the oil and then finally the vanilla. You do not need to use an electric mixer for this. Just use a wire whisk.


Add the flour mixture and mix until creamy. With a rubber spatula, stir in a carton of blueberries (I usually use a 6oz or 8oz carton).


Spoon the mixture into muffin cups. With a regular spoon, sprinkle sugar on top of the wet batter (this creates the cracked effect on the top of the muffins).


Bake for 18 - 22 minutes. This recipe makes 12 muffins.



Let cool at least a little bit. Those blueberries are hot enough to burn your tongue and your fingers when they first come out of the oven.

If you don't have blueberries, you can add chocolate chips. I also like raspberries. And I have discovered that you can make any kind of fruit muffin with this basic recipe. I've also added 1 TBSP of cinnamon and added raisins for Cinnamon Raisin muffins. Nuts also work really well in this recipe. When I make strawberry muffins, I put sliced almonds on the top instead of the sugar.

I hope you enjoy!!

Serenity Now

The last two semesters I have listened to my fellow WRTG 2010 teachers complain about their students. The complaints are various ranging from those that just don't do their work to those that are defiant about their grades. I never really understood.

I've been lucky.

I've taught three WRTG 2010 classes and I haven't experienced any of the problems that plagues other classes.

So, it's time for my share, I guess.

One student. It's amazing how just one student can affect my attitude, affect the classroom dynamic and affect the way I teach. And I hate it.

Part of me wants to scream and the other part wants me to demand a withdrawal.

The other part of me is pissed off. I hate it when people mess with my control.

I will not be intimidated, and I will grade that student the same way I grade the rest of them.

And I have to remember, that while there is one who disagrees with me and with the class, there are sixteen more that need this class to learn, and they are improving with the skills I am teaching them.

Last Year's Blog Posts

So, in my revitalize the undead post, I said I had another blog about graduate school. Some of you might be interested in it, so I am going to put the links to those blog entries here. I thought about just copying and pasting the entries over here, but then I decided that was too much work.




I’m Going to Have to Come Up With Catchy Titles For These Things

The Only Thing that Stays the Same is Everything Changes ~ Tracy Lawrence

It’s Either Going to be Awesome, or the worst Monday in the History of All Mondays

The First Day of Teaching: What I Learned

New Words, Boring Books, Great Students: My First Week of Graduate School in Six Words

Graduate School has Zapped my Creativity, so Boring Titles Are Going to be the Norm

Wow ... so I managed to write six blog entries in a semester that had sixteen weeks, and then I didn't even write any at all last semester. The title of that last one pretty much says it all.

Votimation (lack of Motivation)

It's 8:42 on a Monday morning, and the class I am teaching this summer starts at 9:30. I haven't been so tempted to just randomly cancel class in a long time.

But that is just me being a weak, can't-hack-it, panty-waste.

The lesson today is on enthymemes (here's the wiki page for those who were about to go to google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthymeme ). It's a complicated subject and rough to teach and rough for the students to understand. It's not my favorite lesson to teach at all.

But it must be taught. It's one of those annoying things in school that ends up being useful later on in your academic career.

But I want to be lazy today.

If it wasn't such a shortened school semester, and if I wasn't already planning on missing a Monday later on in the semester, I would totally cancel class today.

*channels Bambi's dad* You must get up. You must get up.

Yeah, even when there's no fire.

Wooden Blocks?

Yes, wooden blocks.

My explanation:

Sometimes as a writer, you feel like all you manage to do is order letters to create words. C-A-T

And then sometimes this happens: T-I-E-W

Mommy, look! I spelled a word!

Artistic license, right?

♥

Revitalizing the Undead ...

... if you revitalize the undead, does that mean you kill them again?

I am using this blog again because my loving sister decided that she wanted to leave me comments on my blog entries about graduate school.

My first blog about graduate school failed for two reasons.

1. Graduate school sucks the life out of you to the point where even writing twenty words that aren't academic or for some assignment is tiring.

2. Not having comments kinda made it all blah. It's amazing how important the interaction with readers is.

So I will try again.

♥