Blueberries: All's Fair In Love And War

Early June 2016

My Backyard    

Dear Jay, 

I know that no amount of sunflower seeds can take the place of a warm and juicy ripe blueberry bursting in your beak. On this we can agree. But while I respect your above-average avian intelligence, you are, for a few weeks out of every year, my adversary.

Sincerely yours,

Stephanie     

P.S. This is war.

Strawberry Mint Lemonade

Last time on As The Strawberry Turns we saw the husband make garden pallet-craft for his loving wife, even though he really really doesn't like pallet-crafting... we shared their hopes and dreams of a bounteous strawberry-filled summer... we saw 15 strawberry plants survive neglect and abuse at the hands of the sweet but forgetful couple... 

By the start of September however, the girl was afraid that something was amiss. There were still no flowers, and thus no fruit, happening on these 15 remaining plants. It was then that she began to suspect that these "mid-to-late season" strawberries that they planted (and her dream of berry-ful bounty) might have to wait until next summer for fruition.

The girl, not wanting to take any chances, went and did what any other girl might do in her position and she got herself to the nearest CostCo and bought a big bountiful bag of beautiful (but frozen) strawberries.

The End... (at least until next summer anyway).

Strawberry-Mint Lemonade

5 cups water
20 frozen strawberries (or fresh if you've got them)

2 sprigs of fresh peppermint
1/2 cup lemon juice
6 Tblsp honey

In a small pan, bring 3 cups of the water and the strawberries, to a boil. Remove from heat, add the mint, cover and let cool. Smash the strawberries in the pan, then strain through a sieve. Add the lemon juice, the honey, and the rest of the water. Mix well. Serve over ice.

Notes: A lemonade that's "just right" for me may be too tart (or too sweet) for you. These things can always be adjusted though. Experiment with different amounts, different herbs, different sweeteners... on a hot day you can't go wrong as long as it's poured over lots of ice.

Vertically Challenged: A Love Story

This is a story about a girl who loved strawberries. This girl grew strawberries in a pot on her patio one summer and having had such a lovely time of it, decided she wanted to grow eighty-seven times as many strawberry plants the following year. 

Well, as these types of stories go, the girl, who spent way too much time on Pinterest, had a very handsome and handy husband. This husband built the girl a strawberry planter like the one she had Pinned on her gardening ideas board, but better.*

He then bought her bags of strawberry rhizomes. It was late winter.

They waited, the hubby and the girl, until fairer weather in which to plant those dormant roots. But the busy-ness of their life interrupted their plans and possibly they also forgot where they put the bags of rhizomes for a while. 

Suddenly they realized that it was past planting time! They found themselves behind schedule! Because of their negligence, sadly, a few of the plant-lets didn't make it. But the rest of them (Praise be!), grew up and seemed very very happy...

Stay tuned for the exciting next installment of As The Strawberry Turns!

The Strawberries Of Our Lives?... 

All My Strawberries?...

General Strawberry?

Oh, now that's just plain silly.

*This is a completely subjective statement and in no way is intended to diminish the total awesomeness of the source idea. The "improvements" he made included adding wood scraps to the sides and bottom of the pallet and a scrap piece of plywood to the back of it. It's way stronger and more durable than the original design... but also much heavier too. If you go that route, you'll need to have a couple of strong and obliging guys around (never a bad idea anyway) when it's time to raise the planter into place. He also painted it dark brown because he's totally not into pallet-crafts, and all things considered, I didn't object. After all, it can't help but draw the eye when we're on the patio, and it might as well not look like something we found in an alley and nailed wood scraps onto... not at first glance anyhow!

Eating Like A Bird

Everyone used to tell me when I was a young'un that I "ate like a bird". I always thought they were referring to how little I ate. Now that we have a bird-feeder in the front yard and can see just how much birds actually consume… I'm wondering what everyone was thinking! Watching the way they plunder our bird feeder, I can only come to the conclusion that birds eat like pigs. Little itty bitty piggies... with feathers.

The "eating like a bird" reference perhaps then had to do with how I ate, not how much. As a child, I used to pick (peck?) at my food. Maybe that's where the similarity with bird-like table manners comes into play. I also ate really slowly. Birds are not exactly known for eating slowly though, come to think of it. Constantly, sometimes messily, noisily and amusingly... sure, but never slowly. So perhaps I never actually "ate like a bird" at all.

Of course, there's another way to eat like a bird, and that's to eat what birds eat. The other day I made some Millet Muffins, tossing a big handful of blueberries in the batter at the last minute. The first time I'd made these, my Hubby said, "Millet? Isn't that bird seed?". Well, it is... and it isn't. You'll want to buy your own millet from the baking/grains aisle (and not from the pet store), but it is essentially the same grain. When added to baked goods, millet brings a lovely bit of texture, pop, and crunch to the finished treat.

Love Is A Many Blendered Thing

I've been wanting to try making a green smoothie for a while, but never seem to have any extra greens sitting around. What I do have are a lot of herbs in my garden… they're green, do they count? I even have beet greens... although the variety we planted are ruby red, I think they'll do.

Wandering through my front and back yards, I clipped a bit of this, snipped off a bit of that until I had a big handful of "greens"...
 

Also intriguing me has been the idea of the whole-citrus vinaigrette. I just love the idea of pulverizing and consuming the whole fruit. Maybe I'm just excited about not having to slice, squeeze, zest, or otherwise fuss with it. It is simplicity and laziness together at their beautiful best. Why not try it in a smoothie?

I picked a small ripe lemon from our dwarf Meyer tree on the back patio and headed into the kitchen...

The smoothie I created is entirely experimental and admittedly, a little bizarre. I basically shopped from my garden and my freezer with a "let's see what happens" attitude. What happened was a surprising combination of flavors and a smoothie like no other. It's very lemon-forward due to the whole lemon of course, but also to all the lemon-scented herbs I used. Each one lemony, but in slightly different ways.

I've included the recipe here, not because I think anyone else would want to recreate it, so much as to show just how completely crazy you can get when making smoothies, and still end up with something really tasty....

Delish Dish: Baked Oatmeal

The truth... I made this fantastic baked oatmeal and photographed it a couple of months ago.  We're talking July people. It was summer and though we had an unseasonably cool one, the rest of the country was sizzling hot. So, I thought I'd put off posting about it until the seasons changed and things started to cool off.

The whole truth... right now, I don't feel like writing or cooking or photographing. At all. I could point to a dozen different factors that aligned to produce this current state of apathy but really, it just is what it is, and I've got to work my way through it. It's a good thing I had this oatmeal in my back pocket... so to speak.

Nothing but the truth... if I had the ingredients on hand, I would make this Baked Oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow. Or Sunday. Even feeling the way I do right now, I would rally just long enough to get this into the oven. It really is that good. Honest.

Strawberry Pots Forever

We grew strawberries this year for the first time and I am hooked. 100% loving it. Of all the new things we tried to grow this season, the strawberries are far and away my favorites. They are sweet like only perfectly ripe strawberries can be, and red, red, red all the way through. Not like those grocery store impostors with their  superficial, only-skin-deep, thinnest-of-thin red veneers. No sir, these are the real deal.

Garden Notes (for next summer): 

1. Six strawberry plants are NOT enough. Not even close. 
2. Strawberries will grow great in pots. 
3. Copper tape around the outside of the pots will keep snails and slugs from eating the berries. Pest-free and pesticide-free. That makes me happy.
4. They're called straw-berries because you're supposed to lay straw around the plants so the berries don't sit in the dirt and get muddy. That's important because otherwise you have to stop and wash the dirt off before you can eat them. Which means it will take longer to get them into your mouth. Get straw. Or use a special strawberry pot. Straw is probably cheaper.

With only six plants, there are just a few ripe berries every few days. Not enough of a yield to actually make anything with... just enough to grow 'em and eat 'em. Which is actually fine by me. Though more would, of course, be more than welcome.

Maybe I'll go pick some up instead at the farmer's market. You know, so I can make one of these sweet and scrumptious strawberry recipes... 

• Strawberry Upside-Down Cake with Cardamom from Joy The Baker
• Champagne With Strawberry Purée at Laurie Aron's Blog
• Strawberry Black Pepper Biscuits at A Cozy Kitchen
• Strawberry Honey Butter from Half-Baked

Blueberry Blues

or... can my cuter computer keep on keepin' on?

Let me explain a bit. I do still dig my groovy Blueberry iMac the most, but more and more my Fellow-Babies, it's getting to be like an LP in an MP3 world: you can still put a record on a turntable and listen to music, but it's usefulness is quaint and limited at best. 

The latest dust that I've been left behind in is when my e-mail client/program announced recently that it no longer supported the web browser I use. And now, I find that I am unable to send e-mails or reply to them. Never mind all of the other stuff that I haven't been able to do on it for years, sending e-mail is a bottom-line basic task... but now when I attempt it, my 'puter just sits there... cutely.

Coming up with creative "work-arounds" to get things done on the computer has been practically a way of life for me. No surprise with an 11 year old computer. She's a hell of a trouper though. Solid and dependable, intuitive... and darn cute to boot.

Must all good things come to an end? Can I keep squeezing usefulness out of the old Mac-asaurus? Will I find a way to send e-mails and thus be able post photos onto this blog again? These are the questions keeping me up at night. Well, that and watching old iMac TV ads on YouTube. And getting all weepy. 

In honor of that sweet little computer o' mine...here are a basket-full of blueberry treats to keep me going as I try to figure out how to keep her going...

• Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins from Joy The Baker
• Peach & Blueberry Sour Cream Cobbler from 3191 Miles Apart
• Tiny Blueberry Star Pies In Jars from Babble via Creature Comforts
• Blueberry Overload Coffee Cake and Blueberry Crisp Tart at Serious Eats
• Blueberry and Apricot Crumble at The Kitchn
• Lemon Blueberry Pancakes from The Pioneer Woman
• Mango Blueberry Quinoa Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing from Veggie Belly
• Blueberry-Maple-Pecan Conserve from Serious Eats
• Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon-Blueberry Buttercream from My Baking Addiction
• And finally, a wine with "aromas of blueberry, cinnamon, and baking chocolate, all of which are echoed in the palate" via Good Wine Under $20 ...sigh.

Sub Lime

Project: Use It Or Lose It (Lime Edition) finally came to an end early last week, and it was none too soon. There was one lime left and Thanksgiving was looming large on the horizon. It was time to gear up for holiday cooking. Still hovering over me was the all too recent memory of The Great Lime Marmalade Disaster of 2010*. One lime left... make it good.

I love the idea of blackberry and lime together, so I adapted a favorite cookie recipe from last year and delighted in the result (that means we ate a whole lot more of them than we probably should have). It might be a good idea to wait for a party before making these.

Blackberry-Peach Porridge

What happens when you take a few minutes to wash, slice, and freeze summer fruits at their peak (or close to it)? You get to put peaches in your winter porridge. And if you heat up your favorite berry preserve with a little bit of liquid* and stir it up... you get to drizzle it over the peach porridge and taste the warmth of the summer sun on a morning so cold, you could almost see your breath inside the house. So maybe I exaggerated a bit on the temperature, but it is the coldest morning we've had so far this season. You know it's really cold when the sun has been up for three hours... and the temperature is still dropping. Time for a nice big pot of tea... excuse me while I go put the kettle on.

*A tablespoon of liquid to a quarter cup of jam. Just enough to make it syrupy. Water will do, or try orange juice, lemon or lime juice. Feeling decadent? Use Cointreau, brandy or bourbon.

Strawberry Crostata Is So Last Season

For the last night of my sister's visit, Hubs grilled bratwurst and I made polenta topped with roasted vegetables. Sis opened up a bottle of local Syrah that went with the food like Cinderella and fragile footwear.

Dessert was to be a crostata, so earlier that day, while the frozen dough was thawing, we went to the store to pick out some fruit. We pondered over apples, pears, peaches, plums... and strawberries. Strawberries? In October? She wanted the strawberries. I knew they wouldn't be anywhere as good as they are in July, but then again, they would be baked in a hot oven and their flavors would concentrate. It had never occurred to me to make a crostata with strawberries, but why not? You can use virtually any fruit. My biggest fear was the amount of liquid they would let go of. I decided not to worry about any of that and just go for it. Even if it totally botched up, it would probably still taste good. It did.

The Prodigal Pastry and a Peach-Blueberry Crostata

I learned (or uh, re-learned) a valuable lesson this past weekend. Have a back-up. That's it... have a back-up. Turns out that I had no back-up for my #1 favorite simple dessert of all time: the Peach Crostata. I made it, like, 47 times last year.* So many times you'd think it would be committed to memory by now. But no, my brain doesn't work that way. That's why I have this blog. The original link to the recipe was here on the blog, right where I put it last summer. When I clicked on said link last weekend though, I was given the option of purchasing the article containing the recipe or subscribing to the newspaper for full access to all their archives. What? Deep breath. It's o.k., I wrote it down... somewhere. No time to search, so I quickly threw together the Peaches & Herbs Shortcake instead.

The shortcake was a fine substitute but I was still mighty vexed over the apparent loss of the crostata recipe and the next few days were spent tearing the house upside-down looking for it. At least there was some comfort in the thought that, should I not find it, I could buy it. Harumpf. I seriously considered purchasing the article, even though the thought of it riled me up like a wet cat. That's how much I liked that recipe.

Well, the lost became found. Sort of. I finally located my notes yesterday, scribbled into one of the six or seven partially filled notebooks that seem to float from room to room here like indecisive specters. It's not a good system but I'm working on it, I really am. New habits (at least the good ones) take time. Backing-up is a very good habit. Favorite recipe? Save it to a file, be it paper or digital, or better yet, both. Don't ever be caught without your favorite pastry recipe at your fingertips. Save yourself that particular panic and back it up... today.

Sourdough & Sour Cream: Another Waffle Weekend

Unless you live in some weird alternate universe, the phrase "Honey, do we have to have waffles for breakfast again?" has probably never been uttered.... ever. Certainly not at my house. There simply is no such thing as waffles too often. However... that being said, waffles are the ideal brunch for weekends, Saturday mornings especially. Like they were made for each other. They're easy to make, messy as well, and utterly delicious. Seriously now, how can you top that? Well, around these parts: butter, real maple syrup and fresh fruit (especially berries) is the preferred method. However, I am as always, open to trying other waffle toppings.

"This is going to be fun! We can stay up late swapping manly stories, and in the morning... I'm making waffles!" - Shrek (the movie)

It pays off to think about  Saturday morning breakfasts on Friday night. On occasion. In fact, you kind of have to if you want sourdough (or yeasted) waffles. There's no other way around it, but it's easy and worth it. Mix a couple of things in a bowl and go to bed. How hard is that? The great thing about sourdough waffles is it's the perfect thing for using up the old starter when it's time to feed it. I always hated the thought of wasting that cup of starter each time I fed it... now I don't have to, I just make waffles with it! Unlike sourdough bread, sourdough waffles actually call for "spent" or hungry starter. How cool is that?

Triple Berry Bars

The weather and the calendar are almost in sync. It stopped raining and the sun sort of came out for most of the weekend. Just in time for a big backyard BBQ yesterday. This dessert is the ideal thing to bring to any kind of potluck: it's easy to make, easy to transport, feeds a crowd, and... oh yeah, it's yummy. I do so love an unfussy scrumptious dessert...

Strawberries Sing Of Summer

I always have grand plans for making fabulous things with quantities of fresh plump juicy strawberries, but we usually just end up eating them over the sink. Well, that's what we do at first anyway. After the initial berry-binge, we want to put them in everything we make. Here are some ideas that look awfully good...

• Strawberry Vanilla Aqua Fresca from Serious Eats
• Strawberry & Balsamic Basil Soda from On The Lamb via Surfas in L.A.
• Strawberries In Brûléed Marshmallow Crème at Furey & The Feast
• Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes from the book Screen Doors & Sweet Tea via Serious Eats
• Thai Shredded Chicken and Strawberry Salad at myrecipes.com (and on page 108, Sunset Magazine, June 2010 issue

Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake with Blackberry Sauce

Page 509 and 573 of The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day, 1995

My Notes: I happened to have cake flour in my pantry (go figure), and needed a simple dessert for a pot-luck. There was an initial false-start, when (panicking over the time), I completely forgot the name of this cake and mixed regular sugar into the sifted flour. I guess that would technically be considered an illegal substitution and not a false-start. 

Once back on track, this cake went together really easily and turned out quite tasty. The blackberry sauce took a lot longer to cook than the recipe said, but it may have been in part due to the small pan I was using. I forgot that things will reduce/thicken a lot faster in a larger (wider) pan. Did not use the liqueur in the sauce. It also was such a strong flavored sauce that it completely overwhelmed the subtle flavor of the cake itself. 

I didn't split the cake horizontally and spread the whipped cream and berries inside, like the recipe suggested; no time for that. Instead, I doubled the whipped cream and served everything separately. Call it deconstructed if you want, and I'll just call it yummy. I had forgotten how much I love "from scratch" angel food cakes. Now, what to do with fourteen egg yolks...

Blackberry Lemon Redemption Cookies

First of all, these treats were named by my Hubs. I had wanted to call them Reincarnation Cookies or Resurrection Cookies, or even Recycled or Repurposed Cookies. Hmm... How 'bout Metamorphosis Cookies? His idea trumped them all for its sweetness, appropriateness, and positive once-bad-now-good swing.

You see these cookies are the final reward for my Blackberry Pâte de Fruit from last summer. I'd saved it, ate one or two sticky globs, but there wasn't much to be said for it. Except that it was a big fat fail. Disastrous, yet still edible. It was thick, gooey and crunchy (the sugar that it was rolled in had been absorbed but not dissolved), beyond jam but not quite candy. But still there was that incredibly intense blackberry flavor that I couldn't turn my back on. So there it sat in an airtight container in the fridge. In limbo.

Sourdough (Blueberry) Pancakes

Sourdough Pancakes with Blueberries, page 54, Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library: Breakfasts & Brunches, 1997

Notes: I didn't have any blueberries, and while the recipe does say that you can use bananas, mine are so ripe that they're good only for banana bread (actually they're great for that!). There was a small bag of strawberries in the freezer though, so I thawed them out and used them instead. The recipe says it makes 12 pancakes, I got 10. Close enough. They don't taste as sourdough-y as the other ones I've made recently, and they cooked up more like regular pancakes as well. These probably don't use as much starter. I can't see going to the extra trouble of making these when they are so much like "regular" pancakes. Will try them again though for confirmation.

Blackberry Syrup

I am over my love of real maple syrup. When we needed to take out a loan in order to buy some, I said, "That's it. We're breaking up." Who needs it anyway? (Shush! Me too, I'm just not admitting it.) I don't think I've ever heard of a year when the blackberry crop was set back by a bad winter. Certainly not in California. Heck, have you ever even tried to get rid of a blackberry vine growing in your yard? God love 'em, they just keep coming back, year after year, after year. You know that saying about lemons? Well, it applies here too: If life hands you a ton of free blackberries, maybe think about making syrup with them. Make a big batch of it for all the pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, yogurt and ice cream you'll have in the coming year. And while you're at it, blow "raspberries" at those maple-tapping syrup producers and their high-priced tree sap.*

• Blackberry Syrup (also Blueberry Syrup and lots of other good canning info to check out)

*Yeah, I know... when prices come down I'll probably be in front of you in line to buy it. But that doesn't diminish in any way the total summer-in-the-middle-of-winter goodness that is homemade blackberry syrup on a stack of hotcakes in January. In fact, while you're at it, throw a vanilla bean in with it.

Pâte de Fruit (Part Deux)

While I'm waiting for the Plum Pâte de Fruit (Pâte de Plum?) to cool, I figured that I might as well try making some with the left over blackberry slurry that's sitting in the fridge. It's certainly easier than making jam in this heat, and I'm not sure what else to do with it. I thought about blackberry syrup but the process is the same as for jam (too hot). Or I could make blackberry smoothies every day for three weeks. That would surely be too much of a good thing. One thing I know: I'm not going to waste it. I worked too hard for it! If it had been a nice cool foggy morning when we went a-pickin', I might feel differently. It wasn't. The sun was up early and by the time we got to the shrubs, it was already hot. We were sweaty, tired and stained purple by the time we were done, and my legs were sore for three days where I had leaned against the ladder for so long. Then there was the washing of the really ripe warm berries which was no small feat in itself. Have I mentioned how long it took to put all of it through the food mill? Crank, crank, crank, keep cranking, crank, crank, crank some more... (hint: it's not electric). No sir, I'm not wasting a drop of that blackberry juice.