All Good Things Carry Forward

Today marks eight-months since my mother passed away and my own life changed.
And wouldn't you know it, today is the day all of the blooms on her orchid dropped off the plant.

This orchid has been in bloom since about two weeks before she passed away! Isn't that phenomenal?
I used to grow orchids and I still have a few, but I've never had one remain in bloom that long.

So, I'm taking that as a sign -- one I haven't quite figured out all the way, yet. But here's what I've got, so far.
How lucky am I to have had this orchid fill my home with its beauty for more than eight-months?
How lucky and blessed am I to have had my mother in my life for nearly 60-years, caring and looking out for me?
How lucky am I to have had the honor and privilege to care for my mother and have her live with us for more than 10-years?
And how lucky am I to have learned so many things from my mother?

Some might say, "All good things must come to an end."
But to that I say, "All good things carry forward."

Mom taught me how to bake, so today, rather than wallow in my sorrow, I'm celebrating the gift passed from my mother to me, and I'm baking blueberry cupcakes.

I'd love for you to make them, too, because the recipe is an example of how my mother taught me that it's okay to just be me - color outside the lines, so to speak.

Blueberry Cupcakes

After going blueberry picking with my son and daughter-in-law, I had blueberries coming out of my ears -- more than five-pounds. So I quickly froze most of them and started looking for recipes. I found one, but decided it was way too much work with way too many ingredients, so I Sydney-ized it and came up with this:

What you'll need:

1/3 cup of heavy cream
vanilla cake mix
1/2-cup vanilla vodka
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 Vanilla bean
1 cup of blueberries

Set oven for 350-degrees. Prepare cupcake tins with papers.

1. Pour the heavy cream into a medium bowl and mix on medium speed for about a minute, then increase the speed to high until soft peaks form. Set aside.
2. Pour cake mix, vodka, water and vegetable oil into large bowl and mix on medium speed for about a minute.
3. Add eggs, mix well for about two minutes, scraping down bowl.
4. Slice the vanilla bean length-wise and scrape the inside of the bean out into the bowl. and Mix well.
5. Gently fold in the whipped cream.
6. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Using an ice cream scooper, scoop into muffin tins (making sure you have blueberries in each scoop) and bake for about 18-minutes or until golden on top.

Cool completely.

I frosted mine with cream cheese frosting:
8-ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
2 sticks of sweetened unsalted butter at room temperature
Mix well, then slowly add one box of 10-X powdered sugar (one-pound of confectioner's sugar).
Then add one-teaspoon of vanilla flavoring.

I piped the frosting on to  my cupcakes and added a blueberry as a garnish.

These cupcakes are so moist and delicious, but they wouldn't have been created were it not for my mother teaching me to be me and experiment in the kitchen.

All set for the Memorial Day picnic with our friends.

Thanks, Mom!