Blueberry Week

I've been seeing blueberries everywhere lately. My sister has a blueberry bush in her yard. My parents have wild blueberries, raspberries and blackberries growing out behind their house. My neighbor has blueberry bushes in her yard, too. I know there must be some blueberries growing out in the forest behind our house because I'm constantly finding purple bird poop on my front porch. Luckily, I managed to find blueberries fairly inexpensively at my local Martin's grocery store. That's how I decided that it should be blueberry week here at my blog~ Oh, that and I found zounds of great blueberry recipes in the July 7, 2009 Women's Day Magazine! Most of these recipes are coming from that magazine. I have actually made most of them or plan to make them very soon. I really hope to bake the blueberry scones before I get the recipe posted. They sound so yummy to me. The recipe I have for you today is Blueberry Focaccia. It sounded so interesting and delicous that I absolutely had to try it. Admittedly, I am not the best with yeast but I tried it anyway. I found out that this particular bread doesn't require any fancy work with the yeast. It was quite simple. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I never heard of Blueberry Focaccia before so it is something different.

I also managed to take a few decent pictures of the focaccia before and after baking it.

I hope you try this and let me know how you like it, if you do.

BLUEBERRY FOCACCIA

Serves 12
Active: 20 Mins.
Total: 2 hrs (includes rising)

½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
3 to 3-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 packet (1/4 oz) rapid rise active dry yeast
¾ tsp salt
1-1/4cups whole milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups blueberries

1. Pulse sugar and lemon zest in food processor until zest is finely ground and incorporated into the sugar. In a large bowl, whisk 1/3 cup of the lemon sugar, 3 cups of the flour, the yeast and salt until blended.

2. Heat milk in a 2-cup measure in microwave on high 1-1/2 minutes, or until temperature registers 130 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant –read thermometer; add to flour mixture with egg and butter. Mix with a rubber spatula until a soft, sticky dough forms; scrape dough onto a floured surface. Using a dough scraper to assist, knead with some of the remaining ½ cup flour to form a smooth and pliable dough, about 2 minutes. Cover the dough with the mixing bowl; let rest 10 minutes.

3. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide dough in half. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, stretch and pat out on parchment into 12-in. free-form rectangle, about ¼ in. thick. Scatter with half the blueberries and half of the remaining lemon sugar. On a floured surface, pat out and stretch remaining dough slightly larger than the first piece and place over bottom dough. Press edges together and tuck under loaf. Cover with a sheet of greased plastic wrap. Place baking sheet in a warm area. Let rise 1 hour.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, with floured fingers, dimple surface of loaf (pierce any bubbling with a knife tip to release air pockets). Scatter top of loaf with remaining blueberries and lemon sugar. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Slide focaccia onto a wire rack and cool slightly. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Classic Meatloaf

It is hard to wax poetic about meatloaf. Why am I making meatloaf in the middle of July anyway? The answer to that question lies in the fact that D is coming home from a week at Boy Scout Camp at Cedarlands in Long Lake, New York today. He asked me to make meatloaf for him before he left. He could have asked for Filet Mignon or lobster and somehow I would have made it for him after this long sad crazy week. I'll first have to explain the sad and crazy part of my week before I get to the recipe. Sorry, that's the way it goes.

B and I dropped D off at the VFW hall at 4:45 am on Sunday morning (the meeting place for his scout troop). Everything went well. I didn't cry too much. At least not so he could see me. Afterwards, B and I went out to breakfast and then on to BWI airport to leave for our trip to Greensboro, North Carolina. B knew that I would never be able to stay home without him or D being around. I would have gone stir crazy. B had to go on an important business trip that he couldn't reschedule so he decided it would be best if I joined him. I have to admit that I was a bit excited about seeing Greensboro even though I've been told that I wasn't missing much. In any event, B and I were sitting at the gate waiting for our plane to arrive when I got a phone call from my sister. I had talked to her earlier in the morning when she told me that she and her husband were taking my dad to the hospital. He had fallen in the back yard the night before and he wasn't doing well. I took her second call just at the moment our plane was called for boarding. My sister said, "Dad isn't going to make it. Come or stay, it is up to you." Well, what would you have done? I could not in good conscience get on a plane to fly anywhere knowing that my dad was probably going to die that day! Needless to say, B and I went up to the counter and told them of our situation and that we wouldn't be boarding the plane. Our bags would still have to go to Raleigh but at that point I really didn't care. We got on the mini bus to take us back to our car and my sister called again and talked exclusively to B. I was sure she was telling him that dad had died. They talked for quite a few minutes. I cried throughout. Finally, once B got off the phone with my sister he told me that dad's pulse had gotten down as low as 10 or 12 and he had come back!! He was essentially dead without a pulse and no vital signs at all. They put in a temporary pacemaker and he came back to us! I am completely amazed. I didn't mention that he is 89 years young! What a guy. He is home now and has a permanent pacemaker. I saw him yesterday and he was walking around and chatting like nothing had happened at all.

The only good thing about this whole nightmare is that I couldn't spend much time worrying about D being so far away at scout camp. I did keep thinking that he would be devastated if his grandpa died while he was away at camp. Fortunately, that didn't happen. And we finally got our bags back on Monday night!

The next crazy thing that happened on Tuesday night during a storm. My mom and I (she stayed with me a few days while dad was in the hospital) heard a huge bang. It sounded like it could have been dynamite. We found out the next day that my house had been hit by lightening. It fried our Internet and cable service as well as one of our garage door openers. We finally got our Internet and cable fixed yesterday. Just in time for D to get home! Now if we could only get our garage door openers replaced....

It is finally time for me to get to the recipe. I wasn't at all faithful to the recipe but I know that meatloaf is a very forgiving food. I substituted Italian chicken sausage for the pork sausage. I had no celery so I used celery seed and flakes. I also substituted dried parsley for fresh. My boys don't care for onion so I used minced onion instead. What else did I change? I used liquid egg substitute instead of eggs because I had a carton of it open in my fridge and needed to use it. I really did use fresh breadcrumbs because I still have some in my freezer. I also used the suggestion to put in half a teaspoon of hot sauce if you didn't use spicy ground pork or Italian sausage. I would have added some fennel seed but I had none in my spice closet. I also used organic Worcestershire sauce because I always do.

The simply recipes website gave another good tip: try 1/3 ground pork, 1/3 ground veal and 1/3 ground beef when making meatloaf. You can sometimes find this combo in the grocery store but probably not in the middle of summer.

Classic Meatloaf Recipe

from http://www.simplyrecipes.com/
Preparation time: 20 minutes to prep, 1 hour to cook.


Ingredients
1 cup of finely chopped onion
1 celery rib, chopped fine
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 carrot, chopped fine
1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions (can substitute onion)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 teaspoon salt (use 1 1/2 teaspoons if using Italian sausage)
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup ketchup
1 1/2 pounds of ground chuck
3/4 pound of spicy ground pork sausage or Italian sausage (a mix of sweet and hot if you are using links)
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 large eggs, beaten slightly
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves


Method


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


2. In a large heavy skillet cook the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and scallions in butter, over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cover the skillet and stir occasionally until the carrots are tender, about 5 more minutes. Stir in salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/3 a cup of ketchup. Cook for 1 more minute.


3. In a large bowl, combine the meats, eggs, vegetables, bread crumbs, and parsley. Form into a loaf and put into a rectangular baking pan with 2-inch high sides. Cover the loaf with remaining ketchup.


4. Bake the meatloaf in the oven for 1 hour.


Serves 4 to 6, with plenty for leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches.



I usually serve meatloaf with mashed potatoes but since it is July, I think I'm making corn on the cob instead!



Enjoy!



The Creative Cook