PB&J Smoothie

The title is a bit of a monomer as there is no actually jelly in this smoothie, it's just what this particular smoothie combo tastes like. I've put peanut butter in my smoothies before, but found a new product this weekend that makes it even easier - powdered peanut butter. Who knew?

I'm sure others have seen this before, but I hadn't. It caught my eye on the top shelf of the PB selection and I just had to give it a try. I wasn't even thinking of it for smoothies at the time, but when I got home, a light bulb went off, and I had to give it a go.

It was perfect! The flavor is amazing and the easy of use can't be beat. I'm going to try it in baking, too. Ooh! And in oatmeal. So many possibilities!

A note about blending: I splurged on a Vitamix blender for myself last Christmas and absolutely love it. I bought it directly from the company website as they offer reconditioned models and were running a sale on shipping. I got mine for $299 which is still a lot of money, but considerably less than new. Keep an eye out on the site for sales, and be open to getting a reconditioned one. It's an incredible blender.

PB&J Smoothie

Please note that I don't measure anything when I make a smoothie. Dump and go is my motto - or something like that. It's a "little of this, little of that" method and generally whatever looks or sounds good at the time. I always have frozen fruit available. I don't like to use ice in my smoothies, so frozen fruit is the way to go. 

All measurements approximate. Add water as needed if it's too thick.

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

2 tsp Powdered Peanut Butter

1/2 frozen banana

3/4 cup/handful frozen strawberries

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional if you're not into cinnamon, but it tastes really good and is good for you!)

1/4 cup water (additional as needed, especially with a less powerful blender)

Optional

-Scoop protein powder

-sweetener, to taste

-big handful of spinach - you won't taste it, but it will add a ton of nutrition. Be warned-the color of your smoothie will look terrible. Purple + green = not pleasant 

Add all ingredients to blender, liquids first (although I add water last, so...)

Start on low speed, but quickly crank to high, and blend about 30 seconds (with powerful blender) or as long as it takes to get it smooth. 

Pour and enjoy! The combination of fruit and peanut butter makes you feel like a kid again, just like a PB&J sammich. Mmmmm... 

Bourbon Date Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls

Inspired by the über-talented Barb over at Creative Culinary, I just *had* to make these rolls. You see, she tweeted about the bourbon date cinnamon rolls she was making and I couldn't get them out of my head. I knew I had the ingredients on hand, so when I got home, I immediately set to making them.

I'm not going to include a proper recipe in this post because I was seriously winging it, but I'll let you know what I did so you can give it a go. What I would suggest is going over to Barb's blog and check out her recipe. I'm sure it is phenomenal as everything I've made of hers — and there have been MANY – are keepers.



I used Peter Reinhart's cinnamon roll recipe for the dough, with the exception of the egg. Oops. I completely spaced it when mixing the dough, hence the reason for a properly assembled mise en place!

I roughly chopped some dates and put them in a bowl, poured some bourbon over the top and let them soak while the dough was rising. When it was time to assemble the rolls, I ran the dates and bourbon through my food processor to create a lovely and fragrant paste. I added about 1/4 cup of sugar (could have used more, but the sugary icing made up for the lack) and 2 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon. Mixed that all together and spread it over the flattened dough. I then sprinkled about a cup and a half of fresh blueberries over that, rolled it up and cut them into rolls.

I decided to go with a simple powdered sugar and milk icing but added a half teaspoon of vanilla extract, seeds from one vanilla bean, and half a teaspoon of caramel extract. (I LOVE this stuff, and you might remember that I've used in around here before in these cookies, oh and these, too, among other things.)

I used at least a cup and a half (probably more like two) of powdered sugar, then just added enough milk to make it the correct consistency, and drizzled it over the tops of the rolls, being rather generous with my "dripping." Nothing wrong with that!



The verdict: gooey, sweet, fresh rolls begging for a cup of coffee or a tall glass of milk.

Remember, you can get the recipe for Barb Kieble's amazing Date, Walnut and Bourbon Cinnamon Rolls (with cream cheese frosting - OH MY!) over at Creative Culinary.

Blueberry Crumble Pie

So you might have seen where Dwight and I picked pound after pound of blueberries and thought to yourself, "What the heck is she going to do with all of those berries?" Aside from shoving handful after delicious handful directly into my pie hole... I made pie. Twice. And then I shoved slice after delicious slice of pie into my pie hole. Mmmm...



Up until last year, I'd never had blueberry pie. The thought of it made me want to vomit. Quite literally. See, when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I got sick on a day when I'd had pancakes with blueberry syrup that morning. I don't recall if I liked them when they went down, but they were NOT good coming back up. *Urp*



Since then, I'd been completely horrified by anything containing liquid-y blueberries or even eating fresh berries. I could eat blueberry muffins, or scones — something like that — but never, ever anything like pie, or even a blueberry-filled breakfast/granola bar or cookie. If the blueberries were not evenly distributed in individual form throughout a baked good, forget it. I was totally grossed out.



When Dwight insisted on making blueberry pie last year after our massive haul, I was sure that pie was going to be all his. But then he made me taste it. "Just TRY it. One bite." Fine. Oh my goodness. Much to my surprise, I thought it was amazing. And I didn't throw up. HOORAY! I became a blueberry pie convert and looked forward to making some with this year's berries.



The company I work for printed a cookbook for a local non-profit organization with recipes submitted by regular home cooks. Pretty much your typical church or school-type of community cookbook. I got to design the project, so I was able to see all of the recipes. A few caught my eye, but the one I just had to make was called "Blueberry Pudding Pie." Odd name, but it sounded good. This is a slight variation on that pie. What I love about this (aside from the fact that it's amazingly good) is that you don't use traditional pie crust. I'm a pie-crust-a-phobe. Many people are afraid of yeast (I have no such qualms) but ask me to make a pie crust and I'll break into a sweat. Which is why I buy these:

Yes, yes I do.

But this pie uses an oat-based loose crust that gets pressed into the bottom and sprinkled over the top. Let's check it out!






Blueberry Crumble Pie
(a.k.a Blueberry Pudding Pie, but I like my name better)

Ingredients
Crust:
3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks), slightly softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce:
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup water

3-4 cups (or more) blueberries (*see notes)
1 tbsp lemon juice
zest of one lemon (or 1/2 tsp dried lemon peel**)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sauce:
Whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Make sure all of the cornstarch is completely in blended into the sugar. It'll avoid the problem of having clumpy cornstarch. Whisk in cinnamon, then whisk in water. Heat over medium heat stirring constantly until the sauce boils and thickens. Remove from heat and let cool while preparing the crust.

Crust:
Combine all crust ingredients in large mixing bowl using a pastry blender or process in food processor. I used a food process, but mine is small, so I did half at a time.

Grease 9" pie plate. Put 2 cups of mixture in bottom of dish. Press evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the dish.

Fill prepared dish with blueberries.
*NOTE: If you plan on packing the top crust like I did, you can get away with more berries. If you plan on having a loose top, i.e. just crumble, not pack it in place, only use enough berries to fill plate to the top edge, no higher. The sauce will bubble out ALL over the edges. Trust me.

Drizzle lemon juice and zest over top of berries. **If you don't have fresh zest you can use Penzey's dried lemon peel like I did. But fresh is best.

Pour sauce over top of berries, evenly coating them, scraping pan to get all of the saucy goodness.

Put remaining crust mixture on top of coated berries. You can press it down like you see in the photos above or keep loose.

Line baking sheet with foil, place pie dish on lined pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until filling is bubbling steadily. If the top is getting browned too quickly, cover loosely with foil.

Cool pie completely on wire rack before serving. Store covered in the refrigerator.



ENJOY!

Blueberry Picking 2011

As of today, Dwight and I have picked blueberries three times this season. The Blueberry Ranch opened Friday, July 8, a full week later than last year due to a cool, wet spring. We went first thing the following morning to beat both the heat and the crowds. My parents came with us.



First picking is always a treat. The first variety up for picking is Duke. Unlike some of the other varieties we've picked, these tend to ripen in full clumps, so you just grab handful after handful of berries.



The same wet, cool spring that delayed picking also produced bigger, sweeter berries. We could tell the difference immediately. Picking has been a real treat. We picked Dukes first, missed the next two varieties because they were picked so quickly, then went last Thursday after work to pick Bluecrop.

8lbs I picked on July 9

Oh my holy heck. The Bluecrops are incredible. I'm not one to eat fresh blueberries. I tend to like them in baked goods or frozen and eaten with yogurt or in smoothies. But these. Wow. So sweet. We picked about 14 pounds on Thursday and went back on Saturday morning to get more. Twenty pounds more, roughly. We've already eaten about half of those. Well, we gave some away, but yeah, we chowed down. I froze the rest.

I don't have any pictures from the Bluecrop picking but they were larger berries, generally, much sweeter than the Dukes and you had to work a bit harder to pick them. They don't ripen like the Dukes so there isn't the same grab handful after handful, stripping the bush type of picking, but more of a pick individual berries approach. Lots of green berries still on the bushes.

But they were totally worth it. Even when we end up with unwanted hitch hikers.


I'll put up with an occasional bug for organic berries!

Blueberry Oat Muffins

You might have seen that Dwight and I went blueberry picking last weekend, but we went again this Saturday, this time taking Dwight's mom. We brought her once last year, but hadn't realized the ranch had closed for the season. We didn't make the same mistake this year and took her early in the season.

The Blueberry Ranch has about 6 varieties of blueberry fields that come on at different times during the season. We started out picking Spartan berries, large (we're talking nickle- and quarter-size), tartly sweet berries that are apparently very popular. We were there about 40 minutes before they were picked clean. We were some of the lucky ones. If you didn't come early, you were out of luck. I don't know when they opened the Spartan fields for picking, but based I what I heard, it sounded like it might have been only the day or two before. Never underestimate ravenous blueberry pickers!


Here's an average Spartan berry. I picked one that was half again as big, but it's lost somewhere in the massive bag of berries in the fridge. (Is that the berry equivalent of a fish story? "It was THIIIS big, I swear.")


Here's a Duke berry. Regular ole size berry.

Our buckets were only half full by the time the Spartans were gone, so we headed over to the Duke field to pick. These are the variety we picked last week. We picked until the buckets were full, once again leaving with a good 22+ pound of berries in our possession. We couldn't help ourselves. I think we might have a problem.


Quite a difference in size, eh?

So what do you do when you pick upwards of 50 pounds of blueberries in two weeks? Bake blueberry muffins, of course. (And once again bless the fact that you have a standing freezer in the basement to store said berries.)

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Adapted from Mango & Tomato
Makes 12-18 muffins, depending on tin size and how full you fill them. I got 17 muffins from the recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups oats (I used old fashioned, but you can use quick-cooking)
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp Penzeys Baking Spice (optional)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Zest of one lemon (I used 1/4 tsp Penzeys Lemon Peel)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 heaping cup blueberries plus extra for topping
Flour for dusting berries

Oat Topping
1/4 cup oats
1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Spray liners with cooking spray.

In medium mixing bowl, combine sugars, oil, egg, milk, vanilla and zest, beating by hand until completely mixed.

In separate bowl, thoroughly combine flour, oats, soda, baking powder, cinnamon and baking spice, if using.

Add dry mixture to wet, mixing just until all the dry mix is incorporated. Let stand 3-4 minutes to rest and thicken slightly.

In the mean time, add a teaspoon or so of flour to the berries, evenly coating all berries. This helps keep them from sinking to the bottom. Be sure to reserve a handful or so of UNFLOURED berries for adding to the tops of the muffins.

Add the floured berries to the muffin mixture folding gently until evenly distributed. Fill lined muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. Add berries to the tops of the muffins as desired. Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over tops of muffins.

Bake 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven, checking at the half way mark to see if the pans need to be rotated. Remove when toothpick comes out clean. It might have blueberry on it, just make sure it's not doughy.

Remove muffins from tins and allow to cool slightly before eating. Be careful — those berries get HOT!


Enjoy! And yes, those are St. Patrick's Day cupcake liners. They were handy, OK? Plus I hadn't planned on blogging these, but they were so good, I just had to share. Shamrock liners and all.

Blueberries

Last Thursday, blueberry season officially commenced at the local blueberry farm. Aptly if unimaginatively named, Blueberry Ranch is one of the oldest U-Pick farms in the Midwest and is 100% certified organic. My dad let me know on Friday, saying that my mom was going picking that morning. Although we weren't quite dressed for it, Dwight and I decided to go right after work since the ranch is the opposite direction from our house; going home to change first seemed like a waste of time.



The weather was perfect and we happily picked for about 40 minutes, calling it good for the day. We'd already planned on coming back the next morning. We knew the weather was going to turn very hot and humid, so we arrived just after the ranched opened, around 7:00 am.



Each armed with a 10 gallon bucket, dressed for picking and donning our iPods, Dwight and I went into Picking Mode. And oh, what picking it was. Because the season just started, the bushes were heavy with fruit, looking more like grape clusters than blueberries, they were so thick.



The dew was heavy on the berries.


The easiest thing to do was place the bucket under where you were picking and catch them as the fell, especially the when picking close to the ground.


We picked for about an hour.


And ended up with almost 23 pounds of berries.


Not too shabby, eh? Add that to the nearly 13 pound we picked the evening before, and we're flush with berries.



I washed and bagged Friday night's haul and we still have most of Saturday morning's bounty in the fridge. I need to pick up more freezer bags, especially since the season goes for another 5-6 weeks with a new berry variety each week. We're going to be in blueberry heaven.

Thank goodness we have a stand freezer!