Homemade kefir and berry smoothie

So, my kefir making is going well – yey!  I haven’t killed it off!  I was worried that I wasn’t going to do well with it as it requires a little bit of love each day, but I actually enjoy taking care of it.

You might have seen my first post when I received my kefir grains in the post, well since then I’ve been nurturing each evening and this is what it looks like…

Each evening when I come to open my jar of grains and milk it looks something like the above.  I think because the weather has been so warm it’s been splitting more than normal, but I just ignore its looks and get on with it.

You might imagine that raw milk that’s been sat in a jar on the counter top for 24 hours would smell pretty rank – but it doesn’t.  I’ve even had some raw milk out on the side for a few days to make it sour (great for making soda bread I’ve read) and I was convinced there would be that terrible ‘gone-off’ milk smell I’m sure we’re all familiar with – but no, barely a smell at all, just a hint of sourness.

Blueberry Muffins

I am on a big push to return to home baking.  It feels like I’ve let too many other things get in the way, and although I love most of the other things that ‘get in the way’ during my week, I feel deeply unhappy when eating and cooking goes awry.

So over the weekend, despite the many other things I had to do, I made some blueberry muffins for our lunches at work this week.  I returned to a website I used to use a lot for baking recipes – called Joy of Baking – for a blueberry muffin recipe. 

It was a batter that I was unfamiliar with, although I don’t make muffins very often (if at all).  But they were simple and quick to make.  I used frozen blueberries that I’d bought and popped in the freezer when they were on offer.

They look and taste pretty good and are super moist inside.  I’d like to try them with a sharper berry, perhaps a blackberry or raspberry, or wild winberries – the blueberries I had were from the supermarket, quite large and probably a bit too mild a flavour for a muffin. 

Mine are also a little more ‘golden’ than the beautifully taken photograph on their website, but oh well! 

Here’s the full Blueberry Muffin recipe.