Blueberry Crumble....To Share

It all started about 8 years ago with a seemingly unassuming jar of pesto. Not a ziploc bag of pesto. Or a tiny little 1/2 pint jar of pesto. But one of those generously sized Ball jars with the wire hook flip lid filled right up to the brim with homemade pesto and topped off with a thin layer of olive oil. She handed it to me without any pomp and circumstance and non-chalantly said to me, "I was making some pesto and thought you might like some." I was so moved by my neighbor's generosity, especially considering that we barely knew each other having recently moved in, that I found myself speechless. A rarity for me. I still have that jar.

Some people have the gift of giving. They just know how to choose the right thing or the perfect moment to bestow a "special something" upon another person. I, on the other hand, was not blessed with that "gift." The holidays are always fraught with anxiety for me. I never know what to get people. How much to spend. I over-think what they would like. (Remember that Batik shorts outfit I gave you one year, sister?) I do have family members, friends, neighbors who are natural "gift givers" so I can see how it's done. And I know how it feels to be the recipient of their generosity but.....while I want to be a "pesto-giver" myself, I never can seem to stop talking myself out of all the reasons why someone wouldn't like what I have to give.

To my absolute thrill over the years, my sweet neighbor did not stop with the pesto. "You have to try this chocolate cake." "A chocolate truffle." "We brought you back some halibut from Alaska." "Thought you might like a 'homemade' vanilla latte." "I brought over these smoked Kokane for you to try along with this rosemary cheddar." Even her kind daughter started bringing "gifts" over....cookies, fancifully decorated cupcakes. And each time, I was as genuinely grateful as the first time and simply enjoyed basking in the glow of "gift receivers" delight. That is...until my daughter happened to non-chalantly toss out the comment, "Mom, we never give them anything."....and broke the spell.

I have to admit that after she said that declarative statement to me, I pondered long and hard on it. First, I considered the basic truth that I'm not much of a baker. To say, "Here's a few strips of our flank steak leftover from dinner." just doesn't have the same ring as, "I brought you a slice of my cranberry chocolate tart with homemade caramel sauce drizzled on top." But, secondly, if I'm completely honest I believe the over-thinking always seems to win out. "They wouldn't want this. Why would they want this? I don't want to bother them. I'm sure I'll be bothering them. They probably don't even like this kind of food. Maybe they have food allergies. I could've made these better. As a matter-of-fact, these aren't even that good." And on and on I go until I hear myself say to myself, "Gads...enough already. No one wants to hear it especially me."

The other day I happened to pop by my dear neighbor's house for a quick chat and as I turned to go she said to me, "Oh, I almost forgot..." and disappeared around the corner. A second later she was back, "We brought you a bag of blueberries from Hood River." Walking home, cradling my bag of berries, I remembered a blueberry recipe that I had recently flagged and I knew what I was going to do.

Later, I watched as my daughter headed out the front door with the still warm blueberry crumble. I heard myself say to myself, "Oh, I wish the crumble had more oats. Next time I'm putting more oats in the crumble. Wait a minute....crumble....didn't they say a few years ago they didn't like crumble." But as my daughter passed by the kitchen window, I heard my wiser, kinder-self say, "Enough. Why must you always be so hard on yourself? Let it be what it will be."

That afternoon, my neighbor's daughter was over "hanging out" as teenagers often do and she said to me, "Oh, Carrie, I had some of your blueberry dish. It was really good. My Mom only let me have a little bit though. She's making cinnamon gelato right now and she said we're going to have that with the crumble tonight for dessert." My single solitary thought after she said all of this was simply, "Where's my share of the cinnamon gelato?" Still waiting...


Blueberry Crumble
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated 2010

Our Oregon blueberries are amazing right now. If you can get your hands on some, you simply must bring them home by the "flat-full" and either just pop them in your mouth, sprinkle them over yogurt and granola or freeze them later for smoothies or as a topper over vanilla ice cream (the latter being my sweetie's favorite way to consume blueberries.) Or...make this scrumptious blueberry crumble.

Ingredients:
1/2 c granulated sugar
4 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt (divided)
5 c fresh blueberries
2/3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/3 c old-fashioned oats
1/3 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces and chilled

Directions:
With your rack on the lower-middle position, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Mix your granulated sugar, cornstarch and 1/8 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add your blueberries and gently toss them to coat evenly with the mixture. Pour out into an 8-inch square baking dish and set aside.

Put your flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and remaining salt in the bowl of a food processor and process until dime sized clumps form. Now, I never really reached the "dime sized" clumps status and ended up using my fingers to clump the crumble into dime-sized clumps. Speaking of fingers, you can also make the crumble without a food processor and instead, use a pastry blender or two knives. Make sure to pinch together all of the powdery parts and then, sprinkle crumble evenly over the berries.

Pop your dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the filling is bubbling around the edges and the topping is golden brown. Cool on wire rack for at least 30 minutes. My personal preference was eating this at room temperature with a scoop of vanilla ice cream....for breakfast. Enjoy.

Yield: 6 servings.....




All original text and photographs copyright: Carrie Minns 2009-2010

Berries, Baguettes and La Pomme Live

I don't know about you but I have found that one of the beauties of summer is the lack of a schedule. No early morning alarms. No dinner on the table at exactly 6:30 pm every evening. No driving around town with clenched teeth trying to get small person #1 here and small person #2 there...on time for some activity or another.

However....this lack of schedule tends to result...in my case...in a lack of anything at all getting done. Random piles start to multiply around the house. Envelopes edged in pink or yellow start showing up in the mailbox. ("Oh yeah...the bills.") Good manners head right out the door as I fail to RSVP to anything. I practically stop reading my email. It's as if summer hits, and my mind just goes on vacation for two months. Just last night I was playing Scrabble with my daughter who reminded me at 9:30 pm at night that I had recited earlier in the day, "I promise, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye..." that I would play Scrabble with her before the clock struck midnight. "Sighing" I saddled up to the table to play the 9-tile version and my mind went blank. There on my rack was A, E, O, U and B, R, S, L and N and the best word I could come up with was BURL which my daughter highly questioned as even being a word. (Looking at those letters right now, I'm still having a hard time coming up with anything else. Please feel free to leave any suggestions for me down below in case I'm coerced into future games of late night  Scrabble while my mind is on strike. She'll never know...besides her mind is young and fresh. Mine is filled with cobwebs. It needs a little help.)

So, I guess where I'm going with all of this, is to share with you that somehow, in between unpacking from one summer excursion and trying to get ready for a second summer excursion, I did manage to get myself down to AM Northwest last Wednesday....on-time...for a live segment highlighting my "French Toast for Lazy Summer Days." I have no idea how I pulled it together but I did and it didn't turn out too bad. I even laughed....I also almost burnt the French Toast on live TV but ah well....you can't have everything.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do have to share with you that while I was down at the KATU studios, my dear sister and all the boys (hers and mine) were curled up on the couch watching my spot unfurl live. (The teenager was still sleeping.) At the point in the segment where I comment on how much my children like "the buffet", my 10-year old turns to my sister and says with a deadpan face, "Actually, I don't really like the buffet. I just want someone to serve me up and bring me my plate." I hope you will all back me up when I tell his future wife, "I tried."


If you do not see a video screen above this line, click HERE to be taken directly to the AM Northwest site.

My next trip down to AM Northwest will be 9 am on August 18th. Deep summer by then. Who knows what kind of shape my mind will be in by then.


All original text and photographs copyright: Carrie Minns 2009-2010

The Loveliest of Summer Days...Rain and All

Why Thursday was the loveliest of summer days....even without the sun.....

1. Not a single alarm clock was set in this house.

2. The "baby"...um, I mean the 5-year old...slept in until 8am.  I wanted to weep tears of joy.

3. The middle child arose at 10:00 am. The eldest at 11:00 am.

4. I found a use for the 2-day old baguette that had been bugging me as it sat on the counter, barely eaten.

5. We ate a sinfully delicious breakfast of french toast with fresh berries on top at 1pm. In our jammies.

6. I had the privilege to once again bask in the creative genius that is Pixar Animation Studios. And, when Andy drove off leaving Woody and his toys behind, I quietly cried but no one knew except my dear friend, Mara, who was sitting right next to me quietly crying as well. Our youngest ones on our laps. Our older ones in the row in front of us. The whole "growing up and leaving home" theme of Toy Story 3 hitting a little bit close to home for us.

7. I didn't have to cook dinner. I did, however, find myself hollering to get one of my chickens out from under the table, to another one to quit putting lemons in her brother's mouth and the whole thing culminated with the "baby" tossing a lime slice at his brother while standing across the table from him. Was the dinner in a restaurant worth it? Sure it was. No dishes. Good friends. We'll work on the manners later.

8. It rained so...I didn't have to water. Who am I to ask for sun every day? After all, I do live in Portland.

9. I put the "baby" to bed by reading him Chapter 1 of the very first Harry Potter book.

10. My sweetie arrived home safely after traveling around the country all week and made me laugh with stories about small cookies.

French Toast for Lazy Summer Days

When I was growing up this was one of the dishes in my regular repretoire. I loved it and made it often. I have always found that when I order french toast in a restaurant or follow someone else's recipe it usually ends up being too rich for me. My 10-year old and I have the same "rich food radar" and are very particular about how "saucey" or "syrupy" or "sugary" a dish ends up being. So, here's my rendition of the beloved french toast recipe which was given a big thumbs up by the 10-year old as well as the rest of my brood. I usually just eye-ball the ingredients so I've attempted here to put quantities on them but please feel free to adjust the spices to your liking.

Ingredients:
A day (or two) old baguette, sliced on the bias, about 12 slices
4 eggs
1/2 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

2 tbsp canola oil, at least

Toppings:
fresh berries
powdered sugar
pure maple syrup

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk together your eggs, milk and vanilla until well blended. Then, whisk in the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.

Put a heavy-bottomed skillet on the stove to warm up. I use my cast iron skillet for this. While it's warming, put 3-4 slices of bread in your mix so they can start to soak up the egg mixture. Turn them over after a minute or so.

With your heat on medium, add your canola oil to your skillet and once it is heated put your first pieces of soaked bread onto your skillet. They should sizzle a bit. Cook until they develop a nice golden brown color on one side and then, flip to the other side. Adjust your heat if necessary. I find that it takes about 2 minutes per side.

While your first batch is cooking, whisk your egg mixture once again and then, add your next 3-4 slices. Continue with the cooking and soaking until all of your slices are done. You may need to add more canola oil to your skillet as you go along. The hot oil helps give the toast a nice "searing" so to speak.

With your toppings and your plates laid out, call the troops to come on into the kitchen and enjoy your creation. Happy Summer!

Yield: 12 slices, more or less

All original text and photographs copyright: Carrie Minns 2009-2010