Carolina Strawberry Muffins!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." in the strawberry world, anyway. It's that time of year again where everyone buys 4 or 5 gallons of fresh, ripe strawberries and not enough recipes to use them in. Soon enough, everyone will be up to their eyeballs in frozen strawberries, jams, tarts, muffins, and SO much more. So, what do you do when your strawberries are past their prime? Use them any way you can. I think this recipe is a good recipe for muffins to take for breakfast, as they aren't too sweet, but still lend the sweet strawberry flavor that we all know and love. 


Carolina Strawberry Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins

1½ c. strawberries, chopped
½ c. granulated sugar, divided
¼ c. butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1¾ c. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
⅛ c. skim milk

In a small bowl, combine the half of the sugar with the strawberries and set aside for one hour. This will give the strawberries time to macerate and create syrupy goodness!

After one hour, separate the liquid from the strawberries and reserve for later use. 

Preheat oven to 425F and line a muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium bowl, cream together the softened butter and remaining sugar until light, fluffy, and well combined. 

Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined.

 Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.

 Add half of the flour mixture, combine well. Next, add the strawberry juice and combine. Add the remainder of the flour, combine well, then add the milk. The mixture should be a bit thick, but still easy to stir. 

Fold in the strawberries gently.

 Spoon into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Allow to cool in the muffin tin on a wire rack. 

Coffee Cubes!

     I'm sure during the winter, most of you enjoy drinking coffee or hot chocolate or something similar. It's something tasty that warms you up inside! The winter months are gone and the cold temperatures are slowly disappearing. It's almost time for spring weather and then the scorching months of summer-at least where I live. Anyways, I love to drink iced coffee year-round, but especially during warmer weather. I like to make my own iced coffee, but don't do it as often as I'd like because I don't like watering it down with ice cubes. I started brewing the coffee before bed and letting it cool down in the refrigerator overnight and then adding ice in the morning, but then I didn't get the fresh-brewed taste that I like. I then started brewing my coffee EXTRA strong to see if that would counter all the ice I had been adding...nope.
     Here's where today's blog post comes in: coffee cubes! Simply make a cup of coffee to your liking, let it cool just a bit, then pour the coffee into an ice cube tray and place it in the freezer. Let it harden and then you can either remove them and put them in a resealable bag or leave them in the tray for later use. I end up using about 10-12 for my coffee (I love extremely cold drinks) and it won't water the coffee down! It's always going to melt back to the coffee you love!