Experimentation

I'm experimenting.  Yesterday I was over at my sisters to pick up fallen walnuts.  She had to go out and burn the trash, so I decided to help  babysit the flames.  I looked over to my left and there was a whole elder bush dripping with berries.  I'm not going to lie.  I'm about elderberried out, but since I missed out on the plums I was feeling a bit guilty and couldn't help but marvel over the fact that this bush was dripping with berries so late in the season.  Most of the time, the birds have them eaten before they are even good and ripe, so it was a surprise and I was curious to see how they were after a frost.  Anyway, I picked them. I spent sporadic moments of my day pulling all the little berries off and by the time I was all done, I had a gallon freezer bag 3/4 of the way full.  I could just put them in the freezer for pie, but got to thinking--there is only ever recipes for jelly or juice.  No breads or muffins.  No pancakes or waffles...no cakes.  Why?

So, here I am.  My first experiment is muffins.  Since I don't want a huge kitchen mess, I just used some baking mix and followed the recipe on the box for blueberry muffins, only I substituted 1/4 cup of the milk with lemon juice.  Elders don't really have much of a flavor on their own, so lemon juice really seems to help enhance what there is.  I assumed a lemon muffin with elders would taste good.  We will see...they are cooking now.

It's my baby boy's birthday today.  My little Noosie.  My sweetest boy butt is 13.  I just can't believe its been that long.  I mean, I always remember my mom saying that, but I thought it was just something you said.  Nope, I really remember the day he was born like it was yesterday and I honestly do not know where the time went.  I don't feel old enough to have a 13 year old.  I still feel like my life is just starting myself...he went to youth group with his sister and when they come home we will have cake and ice cream.  He really wanted a game that he and his sister could play together (he is seriously THAT unselfish and thoughtful) and so we got them the Leggo Pirates Of The Caribbean game.  It looked cute on the preview download thing on the PS3.  They liked the game Fancy Pants too, but the store didn't have it.  I'm going to check out Amazon for Christmas.

Happy Birthday Noosie.  I love you.