This is it? Really??

**Crickets chirping**

Hmm, nothin huh? I was certain trumpets would sound and a choir of angels would sing, or at the very least a confetti gun would go off and I'd be stuck combing bits of paper out of my hair for weeks. But nothin'. I guess this being my 100th Post means nothing to John Q. Public. This kinda snuck up on me anyway. In my head I had intended to have a giveaway and all, but with the Spring Fling happening last week I'm tapped out for right now (p.s. Andy, I still need your mailing address, love). Sis in law's wedding is quickly approaching and we're ripping out our master bathroom (last Gustav repair, yay!!). I'm finding it hard to do much of anything besides complain ~ which I'm super good at. If there were an Olympic medal for complaining, I would surely take the Gold, Silver AND Bronze. I fancy the bronze anyway.

Ok, back to reality. I do have a little recipe and idea for you lovely peeps. Back in the day, when The Dude was in Iraq, he would long for some of my baking goodness. There was the slight problem that mail was taking a month or more to reach him (this was in the early days of the war). On some military wives/mothers chat room someone mentioned baking cakes in wide-mouthed mason jars. Oh man, it was on like donkey-kong.

I baked everything from muffins, to cakes, to brownies, all sealed and contained in little glass jars. I even did a "birthday cake." I did his favorite kind of cake in the jar, then sent a can of frosting and some candles along. Voila! Ah, but how did I keep the jars from breaking? Well, The Dude simply wore a pair of socks for several days before throwing them away (no washing facilities at the time), so he went through a lot of socks. I simply wrapped the jars in lots of socks! Those flat rate boxes were a god-send because those suckers got heavy.

I decided to pull out the old mason jars and bake away. I made a blueberry coffee cake (I guess that's what I'd call it).

I used half pint jars this time, but you can use larger ones. I used pint sized when shipping them to The Dude.

The ingredients:

*It should be noted that I decided to add a crumb topping AFTER mixing up the batter, so there is no picture of those ingredients.

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

2tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 C sugar

1/4 C butter, softened

1 egg

1/2 C milk

3 C fresh or frozen blueberries
Before you do ANYTHING, you have to sterilize the jars and lids.

Now, they have fancy-shmancy machinery that can do that for you. I am neither fancy, nor shmancy, so I just boiled mine. Take your biggest pot and fill it with enough water to cover the jars. Boil the jars and lids for 10 minutes. Remove jars and dry on paper towels. *While your jars boil, you can whip up your batter.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Sift together your dry ingredients onto a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg, beat well. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk into sugar mixture. Fold in blueberries.

I've experimented with various forms of greasing the jars and I've found this method to work the best. Using a paper towel folded around your fingers, smear Crisco all over the inside. Be careful not to get ANY on the lip of the jar. If you do, just wipe it off with a paper towel.

Fill the jars about 2/3 of the way full.

At this point, I decided a little crumb topping was needed. I combined 1/3 C flour, 1/2 C brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Cut in 1/4 C butter. Sprinkle on top of your batter filled jars.

To catch any spill-overs, and it's just plain easier this way, put your jars in a pan and THEN into the oven.

I baked mine for about 25 minutes and they were done. Test them the same way you test any cake. Of course, you'll need a much LONGER toothpick. Since I couldn't get the giant at the top of my beanstalk to part with his, I just used a kabob skewer.

Carefully pull the lids and rings out of the water. Quickly dry them off with paper towels and set the lids on top of the jars. As they cool they will seal. You'll start to hear little "pops" as they seal. Once they're sealed and cooled, screw on the rings and you're finished.

This last picture was taken with my cell phone this morning. I brought one to work for breakfast. I just loosened around the edge with a butter knife and the cake slid right out.