Feta and Thyme Muffins

In front of my apartment now, we have a walkway that gets covered with ferns during the summer.  In fact, I've had a friend describe it as, "that is some Jurassic Park ri-dic-ulousness!"  

I've always loved ferns.  My mom has a collection of ferns that whenever I see them, they make me feel like I'm home.  Whenever we moved in, I didn't realize that a fern jungle would grow beside our walkway every spring and stay bright until the winter snow came and drove them back down.  The spring has been truly started for me when they start to uncurl out of the ground and soak in the sun's rays.  Home.  (even if only for another week and a half.)

 

I saw these Feta and Thyme Muffins recently and just knew I had to make them.  They are delicious.  The thyme seems to permeate throughout the muffins.  The little pieces of feta add a sour bite that prevent these from being all herb.  I had it with a cup of Earl Grey morning tea (from a little Mediterranean tea shop in Andersonville) - with a splash of milk.  I'm normally not a hot tea fan; however, it went perfectly with muffins.  I actually drank the whole cup!  (A girl that I used to work with had a theory that I didn't like hot tea because I'm from Texas and it's too hot there to like hot tea.  Maybe - my mom doesn't like it either!)  They would be perfect to serve for an afternoon tea or Sunday brunch.

I was out of buttermilk and didn't want to go to the store, so I made my own replacement buttermilk.  Start with about a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Fill up the rest of the cup with milk.  Let it sit for five minutes and ta-da buttermilk (substitute)!

Whisk together the buttermilk, an egg and a quarter cup of olive oil.  

Create a well in the dry ingredients - two cups of flour, 3 tsp of baking powder and a half a tsp of salt.  (The real ingredient list is 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of baking soda.  I was out of baking soda so I substituted an additional tsp of baking powder.)  Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry.  (Mine over flowed shortly after this photo was taken.  Oops!)

Fold in the wet and dry ingredients.  Be sure not to over mix.

Combine together 3/4 cup feta with about a tbsp of fresh thyme.  

Fold this into the batter.

Use an ice cream scoop to spoon the batter into a prepared muffin tin.

They actually rose!  My muffins never rise!  

These really are a phenomenal breakfast muffin.  

Happy cooking.