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Today, my husband and I went to our local blueberry place and picked 20.25 pounds. I'm taking a break from stowing them away. Some are going into quart freezer bags (4 1/2 cups per bag), so that my husband can have them during the year for his morning oatmeal--and maybe I will also be able to use them for some baking projects. I'll be setting some aside for a fresh blueberry pie, and blueberry hot cross buns and blueberry muffins are also in the immediate future.
We plan to pick more berries in a couple of weeks.
I have not yet resolved what I will do for canned blueberry pie filling. I bought some limes, so I may try stirring in some lime juice (in addition to, not in place of the lemon juice) and see what that does to the flavor. Of course, it will be a while before I crack open those canned pie fillings for pies--and maybe for sweet rolls. Another alternative might be to add the lime juice after opening a jar of the filling before using it in a pie. Or can the terpenes in limes endure the high heat of canning?
After lunch on Wednesday, I made “All American Potato Salad,” a recipe from Cook’s Country (June 2006) that I got online (back when Cooks used to send us recipes in emails). It uses peeled Yukon Gold potatoes. I used 1-½ pounds waxy red ones from the farmers’ market and did not peel them. I had adapted the recipe a bit by slightly increasing the dressing. I use green onion, which my husband prefers, rather than chopped onion. It should have chopped celery, but I do not have any. The recipe calls for cutting up the potatoes and cooking them until tender. Then they are drained and put on a sheet pan where they are drizzled with a mixture of dill pickle juice and mustard. (I use Dijon, but the original uses yellow, which I rarely have in the house.) I let it cool for five minutes, then it is refrigerated for 30-40 min. The rest of the dressing ingredients are mixed with chopped dill pickle, onion, and celery, then the potatoes are added. It is refrigerated until well-chilled. I have a note that it is best overnight, but we will have it with dinner tonight.
To accompany the potato salad, my husband will cook boneless pork chops, and we will have more of the wonderful steamed green beans from our garden.
Navlys--The CI Maple roasted pork tenderloin recipe that I like to make does not use cornstarch, and it does bake in the same pan as the sauce. It makes a very light sauce. I've found that the recipe works best in my stainless steel rather than my Calphalon pan. I always use the dark maple syrup for this recipe.
We are out of bread, so Saturday afternoon is devoted to baking two loaves of my Buttermilk Barley-Whole Wheat Grape Nuts Bread. The recipe began as the one Dachshundlady posted as Grape Nuts Bread (which is on this site), but I’ve been substituting in some buttermilk and some whole wheat flour for a while now, and I have posted a Buttermilk Grape Nuts Bread that is my variation (both a single and a double loaf recipe). I’ve now started substituting in ¾ Cup barley flour as well, and we like, so I’m giving this version its own name. I also cut the salt to 2 tsp. after looking at the sodium content of Grape Nuts.
Last week, I bought zucchini at the farmers' market. I baked the KAF recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread on Friday afternoon. I know from having baked this recipe several times before that the 1/3 Cup of honey in the recipe is too strong for my taste, and I have looked for ways to reduce it. (I'm not crazy about honey and chocolate together.) Last time I used 2/3 Cup light brown sugar and 2 Tbs. honey, but I still felt the recipe needs work. This time, I wondered if perhaps the additional brown sugar in a chocolate recipe also gave an off-taste, so I used the original ½ Cup light brown sugar and added ¼ Cup granulated sugar. I reduced the honey to 2 Tbs. (I think it might be there to deter staling—something Cass always told us.) To make the recipe slightly healthier, I substituted 2/3 Cup white whole wheat flour for that much of the KAF flour, I added ¼ Cup powdered milk, and 1 Tbs. flax meal. I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips. (Hey, dark chocolate is healthy.) 🙂 I baked them for 30 minutes in the U.S.A. 8-well mini-loaf pan. They rose a bit over the rim, but it works well. We ate one of the little loaves for dessert, and we liked the taste and texture. I’ll freeze at least half the batch for “emergency” desserts.
