Gingerbread Day: You’re Never Over

To celebrate the life of our beloved cat, Gingerbread, whom we lost last year, we have dedicated his birthday—July 3rd—to him and all things gingerbread. Long-time readers might remember the first annual Gingerbread Day last year which featured homemade Gingerbread Ice Cream.

Today, not as warm and sunny as this time yesteryear, so it was a good day to bake. Being blueberries are in season, and they are the blue component that also syncs up with this patriotic weekend, Blueberry Gingerbread Muffins seemed to be the perfect celebratory sweet to bake.

Blueberry Gingerbread Muffins from AllRecipes.com

We followed the recipe exactly except for two modifications:

1-) We used organic palm shortening instead of vegetable oil

and

2-) We used milk with a teaspoon of vinegar instead of buttermilk

Ours didn’t come out as dark as the original recipe’s picture, but they taste wonderful!! They remind me of pumpkin bread, only with blueberry in them. SO GOOD! These would also be good with zucchini, apples, pears, or bananas. Yum!

We miss and love you every day, Gingerbread.

Question: Do you have any favorite gingerbread-flavored foods or recipes? Feel free to share with us in comments.

I’m feeling sooo much better today! We had a yard sale yesterday and we did ok. Not nearly as good as Memorial Day weekend, but not too shabby, I guess. We were supposed to have it today and tomorrow, but it was raining all day today (plus lightning/thunder storms), so we had to cancel it. I think all of the fresh air I got from sitting in our garage all day yesterday helped. But the night before? I didn’t sleep a wink! Not even a minute. I was coughing and coughing and coughing—relentlessly! It was so miserable. Thankfully, my congestion is almost completely gone and my dry, scratchy throat is much, MUCH better. This is definitely the worst sinus attack I have had in a long time. I mentioned in my last post what was helping and what was giving me the most sinus relief with my home remedies and natural treatments, and I really do think everything I did helped me to get better faster, especially the Neti Pot!! This little plastic nose teapot is so amazing; My sinuses and nasal passages were so clear directly after I used it, it was the only relief I could get. Breathing: It’s a great feeling. Of course, it [the congestion] kept coming back all of last week, but now it’s coming back less and less and I can actually breathe through my nose again. Yay! I’m going to use the Neti Pot twice a day for the rest of my life. I think it might help prevent or reduce or at least mitigate the symptoms future infections.

We were having a get-together at my Aunt Gina’s house tomorrow, but more rain is in the forecast, so we rescheduled our Fourth of July party for next Saturday. Rainy BBQs and soggy grass is not fun. But it’s never too late to celebrate America!

What are you up to this holiday weekend?

Tagged as: blueberries, blueberry gingerbread muffins, Gingerbread, Gingerbread Day, holidays, muffins, Neti Pot, recipes, sinuses