Intersection of the Ice Bucket Challenge and Ferguson

I accepted the ice bucket challenge to help raise money and awareness for ALS.  I dumped icy cold water over my head and wrote a check I probably wouldn't have written otherwise.   My 12 year old son challenged me.

 On the same day I was challenged, another boy just six year older than mine, was laid to rest from another disease that plagues our country, so I am writing a second check.  This one is for the National Urban League.

Many Americans thought we entered into a new era of racial harmony when we elected an African American President, but that is obviously not the case.  I would bet money that if Barak Obama had not become President and was just an ordinary black man, he would have trouble hailing a cab.  I bet if he decided to go buy his wife a present in an upscale department store, he would be followed around by security guards.  I bet if he was driving through a predominantly white neighborhood, he would be pulled over.  I have seen all of these things happen to black men.  I am sure there is a myriad of other injustices they face on a daily basis that I cannot even fathom.

I don't think the police officer who shot Michael Brown woke up that day and thought, "I am going to kill an African American kid today." But I do think he had a much more negative opinion of African American teens than he did of their white counterparts. I also wouldn't be surprised if Michael was disrespectful. Why should he be respectful when he was so seldom shown respect, just as Eric Garner, just as Trayvon Martin and countless others whose names we never hear? This institutional racism is a disease that beats people down and all too often kills it's victims.

There are no easy answers here.  If there were, the disease would have already been eradicated.  So, I am sending some money to an organization that  will use it to help find a cure.  Our country desperately needs one and we all need to join the fight. So talk to your kids about what happened in Ferguson.  Talk to them about the history of racism.  Talk to them about how racism still permeates our culture. Point out to them how TV, movies, and video games all too often portray minorities as criminals who should be feared. Let them know this is wrong.

Not all popcorn bowl memories are good ones.  Sometimes they are sad and hard to face up to, but hopefully these are the memories that help to foster change.

Day 7: Just Freeze Them!

I made it through my week of blueberries.  Today I get to go on vacation!  A whole week at the beach with no blueberries! Whatever will I do?  I am not going to say I will miss them.  But I will be bringing some jam and barbecue sauce to share with family and friends.

No time to bake today but I will share with you a trick my dear friend Carol taught me: How to freeze blueberries.

Clean and air dry 1 quart of blueberries. Spread berries in single layer on large cookie sheet.  Put cookie sheet in freezer for 30 minutes.

Loosen frozen berries with your fingers and pour into 1 quart resealable plastic bag.  Store in freezer.

I can tell you from experience when the leaves have fallen and the temperature drops to ungodly lows, you are going to pine for the day when those blueberry bushes are bent to the ground heavy with fruit again.

While you pine, you can bake your favorite blueberry treat with your frozen berries or better yet, enjoy a bowl sprinkled with sugar or a dollop of whipped cream.

Day 6: Curried Chicken and Blueberry Salad

The Popcorn Bowl memory my kids are going to take away from "A Week of Blueberries," is that Mom did not feed us all week.

I have been so busy mashing, baking, canning, and storing blueberries, not to mention trying to tend to gardens and greenhouses and getting the farmette ship shape for our friends who are coming tonight, that the boys have definitely gone ferrel. I find cheese stick wrappers and empty cracker sleeves all over the place.

Prince spent the night at a friend's yesterday, so I decided to take the opportunity to step away from the sweet side of blueberries and incorporate it into the main course.  Prince is a real meat and potatoes kind of kid, but his brothers are a little more adventurous when it comes to food; the perfect candidates to try a new recipe.

One of my favorite salads is curried chicken with green grapes.  I could eat pounds of it.  For my week of blueberries, I decided to change it up a bit and add blueberries instead of grapes.

  We used up all of our own chicken a couple of months ago so I had to settle for the broth injected Frankenbreasts from the grocery store.  They were so big that two boneless breasts were plenty for the four of us.

Recipe:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1C fresh blueberries
1/3C mayonaise
1T apple cider vinegar
2T curry powder (I like a lot of curry so you may want to start with less and add more if so desired)
salt and pepper to taste

Place each chicken breast in 6" aluminum foil square.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with sprig of tarragon.  Fold aluminum into a little packet. Add a splash of white wine or broth and close packet up tightly.  Place chicken packs in baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven.  Carefully open one of the packets.  Be careful.  The steam will be hot.  Cut half way through breast.  Meat should be white and juice clear.  If there is any pinkness, wrap packet back up and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

While chicken cools, combine mayo, curry powder, ACV, salt and pepper in large bowl. Whisk to combine.

Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Add chicken and blueberries to curried mayo and gently stir to cover chicken evenly.

Can be used for sandwiches or pile it onto a bed of lettuces for lovely summer dinner.

Day 5: Blueberry BBQ sauce

Must make blueberry jam.  Must make blueberry jam.  I feel a bit like the, "It's time to make the donuts" guy right about now.  Wake up. Make jam. Clean up. Go to bed. Repeat. God I could use a glass of blueberry wine.  Hmm, that might be an idea for next year.

I have plenty of plain blueberry jam in the closet, so now I get to be a little more creative.  I like infusing the jam with different herbs.  Rosemary is my personal favorite.  I was quite pleased with last year's onion jam and while the husband turned up his nose at my Umami jam (fish sauce, anchovies, lemongrass) I liked it.

Today I am inspired to make some Blueberry BBQ sauce to go with the lovely steak our neighbor gave us.  You may not be able to get a decent bagel or a nice piece of salmon up here, but top notch grass fed beef is plentiful.

Here is what you will need:

8C washed blueberries
1C sugar
1C molasses
1/2C apple cider vinegar
1 tin anchovy filets
1/4C capers
1/4C fish sauce
1/4C worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic
1T ancho chili powder
1T tumeric
1Dried chili for each jar (optional)
Food Processor or Blender
heavy bottomed saucepan
large pot for canning
4 clean 1pt canning jars and lids

Fill large pot with enough water to cover canning jars by 1-2 inches.  Let water come to a boil while you prepare the bbq sauce.

Add all ingredients except dried chili to food processor.  Pulse six or seven times.  Depending on the size of your processor, you may need to chop the berry mixture in two batches.

Transfer mixture to heavy bottomed saucepan  and bring to a boil.  At this point have a taste and adjust if needed.  I tend to be more comfortable with savory berry concoctions so I tweak as I go along.

Pour mixture into clean canning jars. Leave a little room at top. Add a dried chili if need a little more heat. Place lids on jars and screw on rings, but not too tight.

Gently place jars into the boiling water using jar lifting tool thingy. cover pot and boil for 20 minutes.

Remove jars from pot and let cool. You will start to hear popping sounds as the lids seal. When jars have cooled, press down on lid.  If there is any wiggle room, you will need to reprocess in the boiling water bath.

Brush some of this on your steak, ribs or chicken five to ten minutes before you are done grilling.

Enjoy!

Day 4: Blueberry Dump Cake

The husband is on his way home with Amish Eldin and his family.  They are coming to pick blueberries. The husband actually bartered a five gallon buckets of blueberries for some of Amish Eldin's firewood, so those berries are now currency as well as food.

I need a quick dessert that I can make before they get here.  Luckily, Prince did a report on the great state of New Jersey when he was in 5th grade and introduced me to the state dessert: Blueberry Dump Cake.

I don't really associate New Jersey with blueberries.  You'd think Maine would have claim to all things blueberry.

If cobbler is poor man's pie, than dump cake is poor man's cobbler.   It is really tasty though.  Prince even requested it for his birthday this year.

What you will need:

4C blueberries fresh or frozen
1/4C sugar ( I use a lot less sugar than the state sanctioned recipe)
1 box yellow cake mix
1T cinnamon
1 stick butter
1T corn starch (if using frozen berries)
13x9 pan

Pour blueberries into 13x9 pan. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top.

Pour cake mix over blueberries.

Cut butter into 16 pieces and lay on top of cake mix.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes

I was going to take the money shot of a nice scoopful of dump cake topped with ice cream, but by the time I got home from driving Amish Eldin's wife to the grocery store, it was all gone.

Day 3: Blueberry Jam

Holy Sh%*  please tell me that is not a 5 gallon bucket filled with blueberries.  It is.  I guess the blueberry fairy, aka, the husband has been putting his morning to good use.   Looks like I am not going to the lake today.

OK, so I need to stop pussy footing around with fancy desserts that use one or two cups of blueberries if I am going to make a serious dent in this bucket of berries.  That can only mean one thing: It's time to make jam.

Canning jam like canning anything else, is tedious and time consuming, but come February when you crack open a jar of jam or tomatoes, it will make you very happy.

What you will need:

Lots of blueberries
sugar

pectin
lemon
salt (optional but I like to add a dash)
canning jars and lids
canning tools (especially the jar lifting thing and the wide mouthed funnel)
large pot with cover
food processor or blender to chop up berries or you can use a masher

For 4 pints of blueberry jam:

8C blueberries
1 box pectin (I like to use the no sugar pectin because I use a 1/3 of the sugar that most recipes call for.)
2 ½C sugar
1/4t  lemon
1/4t  salt

Clean jars and lids.  Some people like to boil them, but the dishwasher works fine in my opinion.

Fill large pot with enough water to cover canning jars by 1-2 inches.  Bring to a boil while you prepare the jam.

Rinse blueberries and pick out stems.

Add blueberries, lemon juice, pectin, 1/2 C sugar, and salt to food processor.  Pulse three or four times.  Depending on the size of your processor, you may need to process the berries in two batches.

Transfer the mixture to a heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Keep stirring and do not leave unattended or pectin may cause clumping. Add 2 C sugar and stir constantly until it comes to a boil that cannot be stirred away.  Continue to boil while stirring for one minute.

Use a ladle and wide mouth funnel to fill the jars.  Leave a little space at the top or else you will have mess on your hands.

Place lids on jars and screw tops on, but not too tight

Gently lift each jar with your jar lifting tool and place in pot of boiling water. Process for 10 minutes.

Remove jars from pot and let cool. You will start to hear popping sounds as the lids seal. When jars have cooled, press down on lid.  If there is any wiggle room, you will need to reprocess.


Jam should keep for at least a year unless it is the bacon jam I made a couple years back and that would probably give you botulism.
Enjoy!

Day 2: Blueberry Ice Cream Pops

Continuing with my nostalgia for all things French,  today's recipe is an homage to the best ice cream I have ever tasted.*  Glacier Berthillion  on the Ile St Louis is a must for anyone visiting the City of Lights.   I made many a visit when I was working as an au pair right out of college.

Berthillion only uses natural ingredients and their ice cream starts with three of my favorite things: cream, egg yolks and sugar.  Flavors change depending on the season but I tend to be a chocolate repeater

Alas, I am not growing cocoa on the farmette so my ice cream once again involves eggs from my girls and blueberries from my.  Oops, that is a little bit crass, but you get the point.

What you will need:


For the berry syrup:

2C fresh blueberries
1/4C sugar
squeeze of lemon


For the ice cream:

3C half and half
1C heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
2t vanilla extract

Chop up berries in blender or food processor.  Add sugar and lemon juice and pulse.

Cook berry mixture over medium heat until it gently boils.  Keep stirring.  Skim off any foam that may have formed and strain mixture.  I used a pasta stainer because I wanted some of the blueberry bits to come through.

Add egg yolks and sugar to the blueberry syrup.  Whisk until combined

In the same pan you cooked your blueberries, because hey, we are all environmentally conscious here and who wants to dirty two pans? bring half and half, cream and vanilla to almost a boil.

Slowly add cream to blueberry egg yolk mixture.  I use a ladle and whisked mixture after each ladle full.

Return mixture to pan and cook over medium heat until custard starts to thicken (about 7 minutes). Stir constantly so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

Let custard cool to room temperature.  At this point you could break out your ice cream maker and make a proper ice cream, but my children are more inclined to eat something fruity if it comes in pop form.  It also cuts out a step which I am all for.

Pour custard into popsicle molds and freeze.

We enjoyed these with friends on a hot day.  Even the blueberry averse seemed to like them.


*Sadly, I have never been to Italy but I hear the gelato is bellissimo.

A Week of Blueberries

I tend to like to write about the animals on the farmette and not what occupies the vast majority of my time come July: THE GARDEN.

The garden is not cute or furry or funny.  It does not melt my heart with its big brown eyes.  It is just a bitch.   It is either too rainy and cool or too hot and dry or too much of a pain in my ass with the squash beetles and the cabbage worms and the Japanese beetles.  I have turned into Carl Spackler and the cabbage moth is my gopher.

The one thing I do have in abundance right now, besides eggs, are blueberries.  In celebration of this wondrous summer berry I have decided to post a blueberry recipe every day this week.  Please excuse the photos.  I don't like anyone in the kitchen with me while I am cooking with the exception of my favorite NPR personalities and it is hard to cook and take photos at the same time.  Plus, my kitchen is a mess when I cook and I definitely don't clean as I go.  I am still trying to master the Martha Stewart illusion.

Day 1: Blueberry Tart

When I was 19, I went to Paris to visit my sister who was living and working there at the time.  I highly recommend sending your teenager to another country for a month or so.  I quickly realized that while I thought I was a worldly sophisticated college student, I was actually a hick with a wicked Boston accent.

Still to this day, ten years later, remember the first meal I ate in my favorite city.  My main course was a grilled whole fish which the waiter deboned for me right at the table. YUM!  I am pretty sure the only fish I had eaten up until that point had been dipped in batter and deep fried, so this was quite an adventure for me.   Dessert was equally amazing:  A beautiful little custard tart topped with fresh raspberries.  Sitting at our outdoor table, my first bite of the sweet, creamy, fruity tart was made all the more sublime due to an infusion of the sights and smells of Paris.  There were lots of cute boys there too.

I am not sure if I can conjure the same magic from my own blueberry tart, but there is something magical about cooking food you grow and the farmette looks and smells pretty great this time of year.

This is the perfect farmette recipe  because in addition to the blueberries, it requires eggs.

This is what you will need:

Crust:
1C all purpose flour
1C almond flour
2T powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 egg
pinch of salt

Créme Pâtissiére:
1C granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
1C half and half
1C heavy cream
a squeeze of fresh lemon
1/2T vanilla extract or almond extract

Crust:
In electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat sugar and butter until combined.  Mix in egg.  Add flour and salt while mixer still running on low.

Turn dough out onto work surface and flatten into disk.  Press dough evenly into tart pan (no need to grease) and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.  Bake in 375 degree oven for  20 minutes or until slightly browned.

Créme Pâtissiére (adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking):

Beat egg yolks and sugar until mixture is pale yellow (about 2-3 minutes).

In heavy saucepan, heat half and half, cream, lemon and extract until almost boiling.  Ladle into yolk mixture and stir after each ladle full. 

Pour prepared Créme Pâtissiére into tart shell and bake in 325 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until center of tart is almost firm. (Remember to put cookie sheet or large pan under the tart pan because the liquid will ooze.  I made this mistake and had to open all the doors and windows to let out the smoke.)

Once tart is slightly cooled, top with fresh blueberries and dust with powdered sugar.

Since I had a little left over créme, I decided to make a blueberry custard pie as well.  This time I used a saltine cracker crust I had heard about on...you guessed it, NPR.  It tasted just as good as the tart crust, but not quite as elegantly French.  Here is the recipe for that crust:

Pulse 1 and 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers in food processor with a stick of butter and 2T sugar.  Press into pie pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Add créme Pâtissiére and bake just as you would the tart.

Enjoy!