Blackberry Muffin Recipe

When we first got married I had a lot free time, but ever since Aria came into our lives, I'm not able to be as attentive to Lulu and have decreased the number of romantic gestures I make. So this weekend I brought him breakfast in bed. 

I made little blackberry muffins and baked them in heart-shaped molds. Lulu greatly appreciated them but he made one remark I found amusing. He thought the blackberries made it look like the hearts were "bleeding". He teased me and said "Is there a hidden message here?"

Blackberry Creme Brulee

Crèmes brulées are my mother-in-law's pêcher mignon, which literally translates to "cute fault" in French (which means guilty pleasure). I keep telling her that these custard desserts can be flavored with anything and she keeps challenging me. She brought home a whole case of blackberries from our local market and asked if I could make her favorite dessert cups with them.

So after flavoring crème brulée with lemon, cherry, butterscotch, matcha green tea and masala chai, I was able to prove to her that I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.  It has occurred to me though that maybe her "challenge" is just an excuse to get me to make more crèmes brulées. As long as I can come up with more flavors, I'll keep playing along. After that, she'll have to come up with a better reason!

Mulberry Jam Recipe

Mulberries look similar to blackberries, but they taste totally different. They are a combination of sweet, tart and peppery flavors.  They are native to India, Pakistan and Iran.  I believe the leaves are used to cultivate silkworms.

Lulu's dad, who is from India, loves mulberries.  I think they remind him of his childhood.  We always catch him red-handed when he sneaks out to the garden to pick mulberries. Mulberries are very difficult to pick without their leaking a little bit of juice. His white shirt and hands get stained with the juice of the berries and he comes back to the house with a grin on his face.

The darker they are, the better they taste. Daddy gathered a bunch of the fruit but the girls ate a lot of them and left me about a quart. No ripe mulberries were left on the tree. But what was left was more than enough to make some jam for breakfast. I made the jam so that we could enjoy mulberries during the fall and winter, but I have a feeling they won't make it that far!