There’s nothing like a buttery, flaky scone, warm from the oven, with just a bit more butter spread over it, melting peacefully into it. Because these add fresh blueberries, you won’t want to stop eating them.
I use the fresh blueberries because they hold up better when you are kneading them into the batter. If you don’t mind streaks of purple juice on your hands and all through the dough, then feel free to use frozen berries, but definitely don’t thaw them first.
The recipe is simple, even if you don’t have much experience baking. This makes basically a double batch, so you can freeze half and enjoy them again later.
3 1/2 cups flour
6 T. sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cups plus 2 T cold butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
In a bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a bowl, whisk eggs and the milk; add to dry ingredients until just moistened. Gather the dough together and turn onto a lightly floured surface, and gently knead in the blueberries. That just means fold the dough over on itself, then pressing down and out repeatedly until you have worked the blueberries in. For this recipe, I’m thinking that means somewhere between 10 and 20 folds.
Divide the dough in half. Pat each portion into an 8 inch circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut each circle into 8 wedges. Place them on greased baking sheets. Then brush the tops of the muffins with a little bit of milk to get a crusty top.
Bake them in a pre-heated 375 oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Serve warm with butter! This makes 16 scones, more than enough to enjoy and share with others for breakfast or brunch. I like them as an afternoon snack, too.
This is one of the two best coffeecakes I’ve ever had. I hope you will find that to be true as well.
Here’s the recipe, which I got from Theresa Millang’s cookbook The Joy of Blueberries, which my mother gave me years ago. I made a couple changes, including adding raspberries. I don’t know why this improves the cake, but it does, and I definitely recommend it. Also, I always use butter in baking and cooking. The flavor is better, and all things considered, it is actually better for you than margarine.
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2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 – 3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
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Topping
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. cinnamon
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Preheat the oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and then make a well in the middle and stir the liquid ingredients together in the middle of the bowl. Then mix it all together. Fold in the blueberries and raspberries. Pour the batter into a greased 8×8 or similar sized baking pan.
Mix all the topping ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter. Bake 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 9 large pieces and is so delicious served warm with coffee and some bacon!
It is early July and now is the time to pick blueberries at Huber’s, or if you’re lucky, your own back yard! Personally, I recommend Bryant’s Blueberries, but I know they are already done picking for this season. I have been enjoying the fruits of these labors and I wanted to share how we’ve been enjoying freshly picked blueberries at our house.
I eat them on cereal, in fruit salad, with plain yogurt, for lunch and by the handful straight out of the fridge.
Many people really like a good blueberry muffin, and I can’t argue with that. Crepes with blueberry filling are a delightful, unusual breakfast when topped with a bit of whipped cream and served with some bacon or sausage. Blueberry-raspberry coffee cake is another nice breakfast treat in blueberry season, although with muffins, coffee cake and pancakes, you can use frozen blueberries just fine instead.
But when it’s time for fresh blueberries, it’s time to enjoy them as much as possible in their natural state, and use them in recipes that call for fresh berries. Sometimes you will not get the same results with frozen berries, examples being in fresh blueberry filling for crepes or pies, and with blueberry scones.
I will share all the recipes for those in future posts.
Today, I want to talk about my very favorite way to enjoy fresh blueberries, one that my grandmother Helen shared with me.
We sat in the dining room of the simple three bedroom home she and my grandfather bought when my mother was a junior in high school. There in the solid heat of an Oklahoma summer night, with the sound of passing cars thumping on the pavement of Northwest 19th street and the ubiquitous buzzing of cicadas, we ate vanilla ice cream with blueberries on top. There is nothing more simple or more tasty, and for me, few things bring back better memories of my times with my grandmother than eating ice cream with blueberries every June and July.
Now you can make some good memories with berries from a U-pick place, and this homemade vanilla ice cream. The consistency of this is better than any commercial ice cream, because I don’t use half and half. If you prefer ice half and half, by all means, but I recommend just going for the cream.
Also, this ice cream is better than Häagen-Dazs. Why? Because that brand is plain, simple ingredients. It’s homemade, just not by you. You can do better than Häagen-Dazs in your own home, and it’s not complicated.
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 T. pure vanilla
7 cups heavy cream
Scald the milk in a large pan until bubbles form around the edges and the milk is lukewarm. You don’t want to make it bubble or boil. Stir in the salt and sugar until dissolved. Then add the vanilla and cream. Chill at least 30 minutes but preferably several hours. If you chill it longer, it should take less time to crank. When you’re ready, put it in your ice cream maker and freeze.
Heat one cup milk to lukewarm. Add the coconut oil. Let it sit while you mix the sugar, salt and 2 cups of the flour in a large glass bowl. Mix milk with the dry ingredients. Add 3 well beaten eggs and mix well. Add 2 1/2 more cups flour and mix well. Then knead in the remaining 1/2 cup flour, adding additional flour if needed, until smooth and satiny.
Let the dough rise until double in bulk in a warm spot, about 90 minutes. Punch down and divide into thirds. Roll each third out one direction so it is a long oval. Spread with 2 tsp. of the butter. Mix the sugar and cinnamon, and then sprinkle a couple teaspoons of that over the butter. Slice into slightly more than 1 inch strips length wise with a pizza cutter, and then roll each long strip up. Repeat with the other dough.
Place into a greased baking dish about an inch apart. Let rise again for 1 hour. Bake immediately in a 350 oven for 15 minutes. Let cool; then frost.
Frosting
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
5-6 T. milk
Mix the sugar, vanilla and milk together until spreadable, and spread the frosting on the rolls. If you want to reheat in the morning, I recommend the microwave instead of the oven. Cutting the dough into long strips makes delightfully pleasing giant rolls. If you want them smaller, don’t roll the dough into an oval; just roll it into a circle.
Homemade lemonade is one of my favorite things to drink in the summer. I tried pineapple flavor this morning for the first time and it is delicious.
Pineapple Lemonade
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
3 cups fresh or frozen pineapple, thawed
6 cups water
Mix the lemon juice and sugar together in a pitcher. Process the pineapple through a food processor in order to extract the juice and leave the pulp and fiber behind. Add the pineapple juice and stir, and top off with the water. Chill and serve.
I actually started with blackberry lemonade years ago when we had wild blackberries in the back yard. Since then I’ve tried blueberry lemonade and mixed berry lemonade with the berry mix from Aldi that includes blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries.
They’re all wonderful, but the pineapple may be the best yet.
I never knew before last week that you can make syrup out of buttermilk and sugar. I found a recipe for it when I was looking for buttermilk pancake recipes and then for ways to use up the rest of the half gallon of buttermilk that I had. I decided to try to syrup with the pancakes and I’m here to tell you, Aunt Jemima this is not. It is so good. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, buttery, rich and delicious.
It’s good on any breakfast bread, pancakes, waffles, French toast, etc.
Here’s the recipe.
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
Melt the butter and add the sugar and buttermilk, stirring together. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Then stir in the baking soda thoroughly. Serve warm over pancakes.
I’ve saved the extra in a jar at room temperature and reheated it; still delicious.
Looking for a new way to enjoy zucchini? If you like something Italian that does not involve any form of tomato, you will like this. I adapted a recipe that is in the cookbook Creme de Colorado that was published by the Junior League of Denver. Yes, good things can come from the Junior League.
Here’s what you do.
12 ounces cooked angel hair pasta
15 pieces of bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled (or as many pieces as you can fit in the pan!)
1/2 cup butter
4 cloves garlic
3 medium zucchini sliced thin
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups heavy cream
freshly ground black pepper to taste
Cook the pasta as directed. Don’t use a lot more than 12 ounces because your end result will be too dry. Melt the butter in a large pan. I use a Dutch oven for convenience, and saute the garlic and zucchini over medium heat until tender. Reduce heat to low. Add the pasta, Parmesan and heavy cream stirring gradually to get them as mixed as possible and warm. Sprinkle with pepper.
This is just wonderful! The original didn’t include zucchini and was a bit too rich, but the addition of zucchini helps create a better balance of all the flavors.
If I knew anything about wine, I could tell you whether to go for red or white, but personally, I like this with a salad and some blackberry lemonade.
Blackberry Lemonade
3 cups fresh blackberries, washed
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice
6 cups cold water
Put the berries through a food processor that can remove seeds, and discard that pulp. Pour liquid into a large pitcher and stir the sugar, lemon juice and water in gently. Serve over ice, and taste summer.
I made these fish tacos the other night and wanted to share.
4 medium tilapia fillets
2 T. olive oil
3 T. lime juice
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 T. fresh chopped cilantro
Mix the above ingredients except for the fish and then marinate the fish for several hours. Grill fish or cook as you like until done. Serve with the following toppings and a salsa that you like, on tortillas of your choice. We like corn tortillas fried in coconut oil.
Cilantro Slaw
@ 3 cups finely chopped cabbage
3 green onions, chopped
3 T. fresh cilantro finely chopped
1 or 2 T. lime juice
Mix all ingredients.
Lime Cream Sauce
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2-3 T. lime juice
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
dash garlic powder
Mix all ingredients.
If you want things more flavorful just add the fun stuff until you reach the level of seasoning you like. Serves four. Enjoy!
Here are a few helpful bits of information relating to homemaking that I have discovered.
Ginger Tea
You’ve heard that ginger is a great anti-nausea, and so it is. But if you want to deal with morning sickness, or any other cause of nausea, may I recommend fresh ginger tea. Buy a piece of ginger root at the grocery store. Grate about a teaspoon of it through a large-holed grater. Steep this with boiling water in any tea ball or strainer that you have. The longer you leave it, the stronger it gets. Then add a bit of honey. This knocks out nausea and is a lot more appealing, and fresh, than a stale dry ginger snap.
Cracked Skin
This happens to me every winter, or any time I have to wash my hands often. This winter I definitely learned to use rubber gloves when doing dishes, but you can’t really complete all life functions with rubber gloves on, so, eventually, I had one or two places next to my finger nails, on one side or the other, that were cracked and raw.
I hate this!
It doesn’t seem to matter how much water you drink or how much hand lotion you use to try to combat this, it will still happen.
I used to put a tiny dab of petroleum jelly on these spots at night, top with a bandage and this would at least prevent the wound getting any worse overnight. However, once the bandage came off in the morning, which it inevitably did because it got wet, then the spot was still there. There was no actual improvement. I just had to wait for it to heal.
This winter I tried coconut oil. What a difference! If you use a dab of virgin coconut toil and top with a bandage, not only does it protect the crack while you’re sleeping, in the morning, it is actually better. I had one spot heal basically overnight.
I have used coconut oil before for peeling skin on feet, and it is wonderful for curing that as well.
How to Get Foam off Broth
If you’ve ever made homemade meat broth, you know that most recipes will tell you to skim the foam that rises to the top of the pot.
What I’ve always wondered was how on earth should this be accomplished when you are getting burns from the steam that is rising up in clouds?
Maybe this solution is obvious, but it wasn’t to me. I’ve been making broth for several years now and most recipes tell you to bring the meat or bones to a boil with the water, then skim the foam. What I do instead is put a couple of chicken backs or a beef soup bone joint in my stock pot, and add filtered water to cover or about 4-5 inches deep. Then I put the pot on and turn it to high. While it is heating up, I get out a slotted spoon and a small glass dish to drop the foam into, as well as any herbs I want to put in the stock, sea salt and some fresh onion, celery or carrot. I always put in a bay leaf for either chicken or beef broth.
So now putter around the kitchen doing anything else you need to be doing, such as making lunches, etc., because you don’t want to leave the room. When you see that you are getting a few bubbles and just a tiny bit of foam, probably several minutes before it actually comes to a boil, (I love my glass lid for noticing this!), remove the lid. Over the next 60 seconds or so, you will start seeing more foam. Start scooping it out now with the slotted spoon. It will continue to form and you will skim it off. By the time the broth or stock actually comes to a boil, you will have most of the foam off, and you will have done it without burning your hand.
I have found that once the stock comes to a boil, if you turn it down, the foam breaks up into small chunks which slip through the holes in the spoon, making it a lot harder to get out. This above technique has made the process a lot easier and more comfortable.
Homemade Sour Cream
I had no idea how relatively simple this is. If you like sour cream but you want some without additives and stabilizers, you can make your own. I used one half of a commercial package of yogurt starter, and two cups of cream. You heat it up just like you would milk to make yogurt. I believe it is to 180 degrees. Stir occasionally to keep the temperature as even as possible. Then let it cool back down to lukewarm, pour a bit of the cream into a clean jar, add the starter, and stir it in. Then pour the small amount back into the larger amount in the pot, stirring well.
After that simply put your cream in a clean, sealed jar, and let it ferment. I let it sit 24 hours because I’m currently avoiding lactose, and that longer ferment time is supposed to get rid of lactose. If you don’t have a yogurt maker, you can put the jar in a small cooler with warm water. Change out the water every so often, to keep it pretty warm. After 24 hours, or maybe less if you like the consistency and aren’t trying to remove the lactose, put it in the fridge and chill.
Fooling with a cooler is a bit of a hassle, but not too bad. And, I have actually done better with using a cooler than with a commercial yogurt incubator–I think it was too hot.
As those of you who know me well know, I love to cook, and I love to eat. Over the years due to health problems experienced by various members of the family, I have learned a good bit about a variety of different diets. When your nose runs every time you sit down to a meal, you start to do some homework. In the course of this journey, I have learned to always read ingredient labels.
Well…in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably say that I haven’t learned to do this, because I don’t always read ingredient labels. For one thing, product ingredients can change. You think you’re on top of what is in something, and don’t bother checking, and then once you get it home you notice there is something in it that you should not eat. That’s usually what I run into.
Also, there are surprises, ingredients you don’t expect, usually because it makes no sense for them to be in the product you’re buying in the first place.
There are quite a few additives in most foods in the grocery store, and if you want to avoid them, you’re going to need to read labels and buy fresh foods, not prepared ones. Oh, and did I mention reading the labels?
Here are a few surprises we had lately.
We enjoyed pancake and muffin mix from family as a Christmas gift. It is organic and non-GMO. The pancakes were delicious for sure, but the pancakes included organic malt extract and natural flavoring. If the flavor of organic pancakes is so fantastic, why do they need flavor enhancers?
I was looking at baby shampoo, which of course you don’t eat, but your skin absorbs whatever you put on it, so thinking along these lines for a gentle safe soap for babies, I was thrilled to see that–no whoops, I mean confused to see that baby shampoo has, among about 15 other ingredients that I couldn’t identify, two kinds of yellow food coloring. Slather it on! I’m sure that will have health benefits for your baby.
You’ve heard that if you want to eat healthy, just buy your food from the areas around the outside edge of the grocery store, thus avoiding the processed, packaged foods that make up the majority of the center aisles. I think in general that is a good idea. But, even with fresh food, don’t stop reading those labels. You still have to look for additives. I recently discovered that conventional ground beef has natural flavoring in it.
Why does plain ol’ meat need natural flavoring? Honestly, what is wrong with its flavor alone that requires additional support? I asked the meat guy about this and he told me it’s been in there for years, basically industry standard, and if you want meat that does not have natural flavoring in it, you have to buy organic.
I have to say, that’s the dumbest, wrongest thing I have heard at the grocery store in a long time! Meat. That is all it is supposed to be. But, if your family, like mine, reacts to food additives and flavor enhancers, you are going to have to find an alternative to grocery store meat.
This in itself is wrong.
In a perfect world, you would not have to read every label and get the life story of the food you want to purchase. But here we are, in a culture where as long as it’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) it can be in your food. Why not add another stabilizer, another thickener, another flavor enhancer to this product? must be what the companies are thinking. What’s one more? the public already takes in hundreds of substances that are not actually food, but that are allowed in substances that used to be food. It must have started somewhere. Sometime, natural flavoring was the only additive in your food, and you only ate it once or twice a week. But just a little at a time, more and more preservatives and flavor enhancers and food colorings were added, and you ate more and more of the prepared and processed foods.
And here we are with a grocery store full of substances that I cannot honestly call food.
And people who don’t make a lot of money and can’t afford to buy organic meat are forced to take in all these substances that aren’t needed in the first place.
Joy in the Journey 