Summer Berry Icebox Cake

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There is a lot to like about this dessert, particularly where patriotic summer holidays are concerned. It is cool and refreshing, makes use of the sweet goodness of fresh fruit, will be enjoyed by all, it is boldly red, white, and blue, and probably most importantly is that this no-bake dessert is make ahead. There is nothing to putting together this simple dessert; it’s more assembly than anything. I have found its sweet, cool deliciousness to be quite welcome for breakfast, so I think this would be as suitable for brunch as it would be for lunch or dinner.

No Bake Summer Berry Icebox Cake

Adapted from cakescottage.com

 21 graham crackers

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 (3.4 oz) packages Vanilla Instant Pudding

2 c. whole milk

½ c. Amaretto

12 oz. Cool whip (or homemade whipped cream)

3 c. sliced fresh strawberries

1½ c. fresh blueberries

2 oz. white chocolate chips

 Beat cream cheese and dry pudding mixes in large bowl with mixer until blended; gradually beat in milk and Amaretto.

 Gently stir in Cool Whip or homemade whipped cream, reserving ½ cup. Spread a thin layer of Cool Whip in a 9” x 13” pan just to coat the bottom.

 Layer 5 graham crackers across the center of the pan, then 2 more, breaking them as needed, to fit around the top and bottom edges.

 Spread a layer of pudding mixture over grahams and top with a layer of blueberries and sliced strawberries. Place graham crackers on top of berries, then pudding mixture, and then layer of berries again. Repeat the graham/pudding/berries layers 1 more time (3 times total) and you should reach the top of the pan.

 Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight until the graham crackers have softened completely.

 When ready to serve, melt white chocolate chips in a bowl as directed on package and drizzle over dessert.

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Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole

After the exhaustion that was Thanksgiving — cleaning (Egad!), cooking, setting the table, driving 40 minutes one way to get Dad, then those 40 minutes back, serving a hungry horde, then repeating the process with dad, I realized, at my age (factoring in that I’m not getting any younger) that something different needed to be done. I talked this over with number two son, and, as usual, he had a good idea. He said, “I think what we need to do mom, is, instead of bringing Mohamed to the mountain, we need to bring the mountain to Mohamed.” That turned out to please everyone at Christmas, particularly Dad, who was so happy to have, as he put it, “Christmas back in the house.”

 
Late in the game I decided that I would make a brunch (like my mother used to do) and take it out to my dad Christmas Eve morning, and meet up with other members of the family. To cut to the chase, let me just say that it worked out beautifully, and everyone enjoyed it. Backing up a bit, I realized I could have planned this a little bit better, and started earlier. My mother used to put on quite a lavish display Christmas morning with her brunches that were known far and wide. What I didn’t take into consideration when I started cooking (the day before!), was that she worked on her brunch for weeks, preparing and freezing some of the casseroles ahead of time. Nope, not me, I decided to do all of the work the day before. I ordered a Honey Baked Ham (that was the easy part), then made French Rustic Potatoes, Cheese Peta, Eggsquisite Egg Casserole, New Jersey Coffee Cake, and, because I couldn’t find my mother’s recipe for cheese blintzes topped with blueberry sauce, came up with this rendition in the form of a French toast casserole, combining a number of recipes. It was a huge hit! More so than I ever imagined. Don’t get me wrong, everyone loved the brunch, but this was the one dish that drew the most comments.

Don’t wait until Christmas to try it; you might consider cutting the recipe in half and serving your Valentine a special breakfast, or including it in Easter brunch. At any rate, it’s make ahead, it’s delicious, and what a crowd-pleaser!

 Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole

6 1”-thick slices French bread, cut into cubes
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 ½ (12 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup milk
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon almond extract
6 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup maple syrup

For sauce:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup fresh blueberries
Juice of ½ lemon
1 Tablespoon butter

Spray a 9” x 9” baking dish with Pam; set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon, and almond extract until smooth and creamy. Place half of the bread cubes into the bottom of the dish, and dollop the cream cheese mixture all over the top. Sprinkle blueberries over the cream cheese, and top with remaining bread cubes.

In another medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and syrup. Pour over the bread cubes, pressing down lightly to make certain all cubes are soaked. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Remove from refrigerator, leave it covered, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, and continue baking 20 to 25 minutes longer until center is firm and top is lightly browned.

While French toast is baking, make the blueberry sauce. Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and water in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir in blueberries. Reduce heat and simmer 8 to 10 minutes until the blueberries burst and the mixture thickens. Stir in the butter and lemon juice. Pour over baked French toast. Serve warm.

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If you prefer something simpler, but still blueberry-licious, try these Blueberry Pancakes with Warm Blueberry Sauce.

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End of Summer, Touch of Fall Salad

Those of you who live in the heartland like I do are probably experiencing the same phenomenal weather. I cannot remember a better month of August than the one we had this year. To have highs in the upper 70s or low 80s, and nighttime lows dipping into the 50s has me thinking about fall. While I am thinking about fall, I'm not entirely ready to give up summer. This salad reflects those conflicted feelings. I love the fresh blueberries of summer, and yet I always welcome the tastes of fall like pumpkin, cranberries, warm spices, and nuts. In thinking about these feelings, I came up with a salad that captures it all. This is an easy one to throw together, you can use your favorite vinaigrette or the recipe that I have here, and serve it as a side salad, or two big luncheon salads. Whatever you do, you're going to love it.

End of Summer, Touch of Fall Salad

1 head Romaine lettuce
1 3-ounce package Melissa’s dried cranberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/3 cup toffee walnuts*
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles (can use feta or cojita)

Tear lettuce into bite-size pieces. Place it and remaining ingredients into a large bowl. Toss all ingredients together and top with your favorite vinaigrette. This makes four small side salads.

*To make toffee walnuts (or any nut for that matter), in a 9-inch skillet, melt 2 tablespoons granulated sugar over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. When sugar becomes liquid, add nuts, stirring constantly until well coated. Do not allow sugar to burn. When nuts are coated, turn out onto a cold plate. Break apart.

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Plumberry Pie

I am not a lover of pies. In fact, I have been known to refer to pie as the liver of desserts. As a kid I'd always choose cake over pie; as an adult I went completely off cake and now cookies are my favorite dessert. I mean, what's not to like about the huge variety, not to mention portability? No way, for example, could you slip a piece of pie into your purse to nosh on later. No.

For whatever reason, I could not stop thinking about pie, and wondering how a plum pie would taste. My mother used to make a lot of plum pies, often as holiday gifts. Everyone loved them. The very thought, back then, made me recoil, because, to me, a plum was just a young prune. Ew. This season, though, I have been enjoying the sweet juicy goodness of plums, so on a whim, made a pie. I tossed in a pint of blueberries for color and, truth be told, because I thought their days were numbered, and topped it with streusel because my big objection to pies is the crust overkill.  A bottom crust is enough, the top needs something fancy.

Here is thee result. It is amazingly good, even to a confirmed pie hater like me, and that's saying something! 

Plumberry Pie

2 1-lb. pkgs. Melissa’s Organic Plum Bites, pitted and quartered
1 pint organic blueberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
½ teaspoon ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
 1 single pie crust, purchased or homemade

 Topping

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

¼ cup butter, diced

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Make streusel: In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork or stand mixer just until the topping is crumbly; set aside. (You can also toss everything into a food processor and pulse until, as my grandmother used to say, "It looks right." This is what I did.)

Place your pie crust (purchased or home made) into a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie plate. Put a foil-lined large baking sheet in lower third of oven.

Toss plums and blueberries with sugar, tapioca, cornstarch, zests, spices, and salt in a large bowl; mound filling in shell. Crumble streusel evenly over filling.

Bake pie until streusel is golden and filling is bubbling, 1¼ to 1½ hours. Cool completely, 3 to 4 hours.

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Red, White & Blue Salad with Fresh Strawberry Dressing

This salad is SO good and just perfect for the sultry days of summer, those patriotic holidays in particular because of the red, white, and blue. It is a snap to toss together using spinach, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, and a sprinkling of bleu cheese (or any crumbled white cheese of your choice, feta, for example). What knocks this out of the park is the fresh strawberry dressing. You'll need a small blender or processor in order to properly pulverize the strawberries, but the dressing, like the salad, goes together in a breeze. Make lots of this one. People are going to love it!

Fresh Strawberry Dressing

1/2 cup fresh strawberries, halved or quartered depending upon size
1/2 Tablespoon granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard

Place all ingredients into a bullet (or any similar) blender and whir for 30-45 seconds. Drizzle over salad and toss. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

This dressing is equally good on any type of salad that you enjoy, whether fruitful, or fruitless. :-)

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Spinach Salad with Blueberries & Candied Pecans

I'm not sure just what I like the most about this salad, the fresh baby spinach, the sweet, juicy blueberries, the pungent bleu cheese, or the toffee-like crunch of the candied pecans. Whatever it is, this salad is a can't-stop-eating-it winner.

Based upon a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com, my version has a slightly sweeter, more complex dressing that really brings everything together. Easy enough for every day, it is also elegant enough for company. This salad can't miss.

Not a fan of bleu cheese? Substitute an equal amount of feta.

Spinach Salad with Blueberries & Candied Pecans

For Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

Combine ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid, and shake it, baby, shake it.

  

For Salad

1 pound fresh baby spinach

1 pint fresh blueberries

4 ounces crumbled bleu cheese

1 recipe candied pecans

Toss salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Drizzle with dressing to taste. Serve immediately.

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Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Is it just me, or has this winter seemed a whole lot longer than winters past? We didn't even get as much snow this year as last, not by half, but it seems as if it has been winter for years. The other day I was thinking about how good a warm-from-the-vine home grown tomato would taste.  We're four months away from those, but my craving for fresh fruits and vegetables will not be ignored, so this morning, after gobbling down a bowl of fresh blueberries, I decided to turn what remained into muffins.

I have a lot of good recipes for blueberry muffins, but this one from Ina Garten continues to be one of my favorites.  It's from her book Barefoot Contessa Family Style, and, true to its name, it is more like a moist, sweet coffee cake than a plain old muffin. Available in various locations on the web, I have reproduced the recipe below for the sake of convenience. I cut the recipe in half with great success and sprinkled each with a whisper of streusel topping (something I always keep in the freezer just for such an occasion).

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean. 

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Lemon Glazed Blueberry Scones

Remember all of those blueberries that I bought?  I am still chipping away at them.  I don’t regret buying those four GIANT containers, but they are starting to challenge my creativity. After using them in a savory dish here, I decided to go for something sweet with these fresh blueberry scones.If you have never made scones with fresh blueberries before, then you are in for a real treat.  They absolutely burst with freshness with every bite.  The additional moisture in the scones, however, prevents them from keeping for a long time, so be prepared to gobble them up on the same day that you make them, or package for the freezer where they will keep for up to three months.

Lemon Glazed Blueberry Scones

For the Scones

1/3 cup sugar
Zest of two Meyer lemons (reserve ¼ tsp.)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½” cubes
1/2 cup sour cream
1 extra large egg
1 cup fresh blueberries

For the Glaze

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest (reserved from above)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse together sugar and lemon zest until blended and fragrant.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and pulse until combined. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream and egg until smooth. Pour into flour mixture and pulse until dough forms, 5-6 pulses. 

Turn mixture into a bowl and fold in blueberries.

Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut into 6 wedges.  Carefully place on prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden, about 17 to 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, remove to a wire rack under which you have put a sheet of waxed paper, and prepare the glaze.

In a medium bowl mix together the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the tops of the warm scones once, then allow five minutes to set, then drizzle again, and let harden.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

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