What Does Yours Look Like?

This is what dinner looks like around here, lately.

What are you eating when it's 100 degrees out?

Blueberry Syrup

I guess this is why you RINSE and SORT your berries before making syrup or jam...or anything else! Little beetle had been hiding out in my box of berries in the fridge for 24 hours!



I bought a new blender about a month ago because ours has a crack in it, but hadn't yet taken it out of the box.



It blended 7 cups of blueberries (no liquid) into puree in about 20 seconds! I'm convinced it's the most awesome blender ever.

Syrup was so simple! The cliff notes version:

Puree 6 1/2 to 7 cups of blueberries in a blender. Run it for a few minutes and you won't even need a strainer...there will be no solids left.

Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 7 cups of sugar.

Bring to a boil.

Skim the foam off the top and ladle into hot, sterilized jars.

Add hot lids and rings.

Detailed recipe HERE.

Blueberry Jam

There is an easy recipe for blueberry jam on the Pickyourown site. Funny that it looks so complicated with all of these pictures. Yes, it's 8 pages! I hung them with magnets so I wouldn't have to flip pages with sticky fingers while I worked. It's really much easier than it looks.



Here's the short-hand version.

Mash 8 cups of blueberries (I put them in my food processor on 'chop.').

Add 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup water and 1 box of pectin.

Cook on medium-high until you reach a hard boil (the kind you can't stir out).

Then add 7 cups of sugar and return to a hard boil for another minute.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, clean the tops of jars and affix hot lids and rings.

No need to process in a canner if they seal themselves and you hear the lids 'pop.' This happens because the jam is as hot as lava.That's it!

My batch made 9 half pint jars with a little leftover to eat right away.

Blueberry Ice Cream

My Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt - Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker is awesome! I sometimes forget that I have it and that it only takes 30 minutes to freeze ice cream.

We picked these blueberries Saturday morning and made ice cream Sunday afternoon.

The Cuisinart recipe calls for 1 cup whole milk and 2 cups heavy cream. I simplify by using 3 cups Half & Half.

Blueberry Ice Cream

2 cups blueberries, mashed (I put them in the food processor on 'chop')

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

3 cups Half & Half

1 tsp vanilla

Mash the blueberries and let them macerate in lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar for 2 hours. Then add the other 3/4 cup sugar, half & half and vanilla. Process in ice cream maker for 30 minutes. Transfer to a tupperware container and store in the freezer.

Fried Green Tomatoes?

Did you know that a green tomato is just a tomato picked before it's ripe? While searching online for a good recipe, I discovered that many people don't know this...they are trying to figure out which type of tomato it is and where they can buy them.

Luckily for me, I can find green tomatoes at the farmer's market, since I live in a totally shaded yard that does not allow me to have my own garden.

Yesterday at the farmer's market, I chose 3 red tomatoes and 2 green tomatoes - Red for caprese and green so I could try to make fried green tomatoes. You really can't live in the South and NOT try fried green tomatoes and fried okra at least once.

Dare I say that my recipe probably rivals Sipsey's?!

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

3 medium green tomatoes
1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

2 eggwhites

1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp course ground salt
1/4 tsp course ground pepper
1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil

1. Slice the tomatoes 1/4 to 1/2" thick (I preferred the thicker slices)

2. Dredge in flour
3. Dip into milk/egg white mixture
4. Dip into breadcrumb, cornmeal, salt and pepper mixture

5. Cook in 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil at medium heat until browned, turning once.

6. Drain on paper towels

7. Serve hot

I like mine dipped in fresh ranch dressing!

This is certainly not something I'll be adding to my regular menu (because it's fried), but it definitely was a delicious Southern treat!

Caprese Sandwiches

Self explanatory, no? I did drizzle a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt on them.

It tasted like a garden in my mouth! Everything homemade or homegrown except the mozzarella. Yum.

Farmer's Market

From May to October we have easy access to fresh, yummy, local grown produce. This is what I picked up LAST week at the farmer's market.



A quart of blueberries lasted exactly one week before the last one was eaten. We did enjoy them on angel food cake with cool whip, too!

We made pesto with the purple basil and a chinese chicken cabbage salad.

Onions were sliced and grilled. Brocolli steamed.

This week, I picked up the cutest little fingerling potatoes for $3 (enough for two meals), another gigantic bunch of sweet basil for $1 (enough to make focaccia several times and make a batch of pesto).

We're making sourdough focaccia caprese right now.

I LOVE summer foods!