Happy Ukrainian New Year!

Culture - some interesting things about the Ukrainian people
Just got reminded from our friend, Jean, that today is Ukrainian New Year's Day.... a time of gift giving...equivelant to our Christmas.Okay, I already did all that on Christmas, so we'll celebrate with blueberry muffins instead.I did a little purge of my fridge after I grocery shopped today.....Ugly after being away...All better now, after I removed about eight apples from my crisper. I peeled and sliced them and nuked them with a little water and sugar for applesauce or apple betty.I found the blueberries in the depths of the freezer. Not really my fruit of choice, but okay in muffins. I made Sonia's orange muffins and added blueberries... They are delicious.
Hmm I thought I had her recipe on my blog...It is easy,so I'll write it out for those of you yearning for a hot muffin.

Sonia's Orange Muffins.

Recipe is doubled already in order to make 24 muffins.
This recipe is easy to alter for your own ingredients on hand, such as lemon and poppy seeds ,instead of the orange, or you could add chocolate chips or cranberries,mango pieces,pineapple or apple chunks.
heat oven to 375*

1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup margarine
2 eggs

4 cups white flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. salt
grated orange peel of one orange
orange juice you can make it a little stronger if you are doing it from frozen juice. ZYou'll use as much as it takes to make the batter look like muffins...or a thicker cake.

Cream sugar and eggs and margarine together until well blended. In another bowl or large 8 cup measuring cup, mix the flour and baking powder and soda and salt and grated orange peel together. Then, add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, while beating. If it gets too thick,add orange juice to thin it a bit. Continue until all flour is added and enough orange juice is added to make it the consistancy of muffins ( around 3/4 cup? liquid )...on the thicker side if you are adding juicy fruit. Then fold in your chocolate chips or your blueberries or mango pieces or poppy seeds or apple chunks or whatever.

Spray your muffin tin with Pam and fill 2/3rds full with batter. Bake for 15 + minutes,turning the oven down to 350* near the end if you smell the bottoms scorching.I always start the muffins in a hot oven to get them rising quickly. Once they are up and firm, you can adjust the oven back to 350* for the last five minutes. I have a convection oven that cooks everything pretty hot and fast, so 15 minutes is plenty for muffins. Just poke a toothpick or knife into the muffin to see if they are cooked through.

Turn out of pans immediately and start eating them!Yummy! Thanks Sonia for sharing...