Culture Bit: New Hampshire Blueberries

New Hampshire grows delicious blueberries.  I have become a huge fan since our move.  I have them with my morning cereal, dessert, sometimes alongside a lunch sandwich.  Delicious.  The BF and I decided to take advantage of a local farm that featured "Pick Your Own".  We found this handy information on the NH site: 

Super Acres - blueberries

722 River Road, Lyme, NH 03768. Phone: (603) 353-9807. Email us at:patrice.g.super@valley.net . Directions: Located just south of the covered bridge, or 4 miles north of the Thetford/Lyme Bridge. Click here for a map to our farm. We are open July, August. Our hours are: 8am-7pm daily during blueberry season. Late July through August. Pick Unsprayed blueberries in our 1,200 plant orchard near the Connecticut River and Clay Brook.

Onsite, they provided pints to take your berries home in, as well as picking buckets for customers to borrow.  They also had a handy sign to help us figure out what to do.

1.  Pick Blueberries

2.  Weigh blueberries (arrow pointing to scale right next to sign)

3.  Pay $2.50/pound

Simple, and a fun evening outing.  When we got home I spent an hour or so washing our 7 pounds of blueberries.  A kitchen sieve helped me pick through them, removing small bugs, leaves, twigs, and damaged berries.  Now I am onto the fun part: baking time.  I found two recipes to try:

Blueberry Gallettes from Haniela's blog

Blueberry Crisp from King Arthur Flour (another local feature!)

Make-Your-Own Brownie Mix

The BF and I recently had a heated couples discussion about a personal problem of mine.  It would appear that I am something of a choc-aholic.  Often on the weekends I will make various baked chocolate goodies that I then freeze to have throughout the week as warmed up dessert wonderfulness.  (It's my reward for being an adult).

Unfortunately this has led to a diminished amount of freezer space and organization (hence the heated couples discussion) which ultimately led to me bringing a variety of baked goods to the office to share with hungry coworkers.  I've changed my tactic, I will now take over a part of the pantry, which is much larger than either of our freezers (yes we have two, one is dedicated to wild game).

This weekend I found a lovely little recipe from King Arthur Flour for Make-Your-Own Brownie Mix.  What a fun idea!  To have the simplicity of a box mix on hand, without all of the preservatives.

2 1/4 cups (16 ounces) sugar1 1/4 cups (3 3/4 ounces) Dutch-process  cocoa (we love our deep-dark Double- Dutch Cocoa)1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon espresso powder1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) King Arthur  Unbleached All-Purpose Flour2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips 

In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together everything but the chocolate chips. If you’re using a stand mixer, let it mix on low speed for 5 minutes; it’s important to make sure everything is well combined, especially if you’re making a double batch of the mix. Stir in the chocolate chips at the end. 
Note: If you’re making a double batch, stir 2 cups of chips into each separately (rather than stirring 4 cups of chips into the entire batch). Scoop mix into an airtight container, and store at room temperature for up to 6 months.

Freya's Notes: She added a dash of cinnamon (I've read it helps controls sugar spikes), extra espresso powder, and 1/2 cup brown sugar, then decreased the white sugar to just 1 1/2 cups.

Recipe: Opa's Spritz Cookies

My family is very proud of our Dutch heritage.  After WWII my Oma & Ope (grandparents) moved to the U.S. to start a new life and a family.  My Opa left the family bakery he was to inherit and baked cookies in the U.S. until he had his feet under him and could start a carpentry business building houses.  He worked hard and honestly and many would say achieved the "American Dream".  My mother was able to gather a couple of the old recipes from him.

Spritz Cookies

5 part sugar
7 1/2 part butter
10 part flour
1/2 cup water or milk (more flavor)
couple drops vanilla extract (or almond)

Cream butter
Add sugar
Add water or milk
Mix all ingredients together 1 at a time
Add vanilla extract (or almond)
Fold flour in (don't mix or overwork)

Put in pastry bag and pipe onto cookie sheet (cookies will flatten out and expand)

Bake at 250 or 300 until cookies are a little brown on edge (sugar burns easily)


Freya's Score: 8  - easy to make and delicious subtle flavors, nice contrast to brownies and other chocolate cookies in flavor and appearance

I've only seen my Opa make Spritz cookies once.  He made them when we visited for Christmas one year and they are delicious.  I was surprised to notice that while all American recipes call for an egg, his does not.  I was faithful to this recipe (although I did substitute almond extract for vanilla) and the result was deliciously thin butter colored cookies.  They are far superior to the traditional sugar cookies in my opinion.

Thanksgiving Menu

Last year we tried something new with the turkey.  We embraced our Arkansas life and smoked it.  We now love smoked turkey, there is no turning back, it is amazing!  A couple months ago for a friend's birthday The BF brined and smoked a wild turkey he shot in the spring, it was even better!

ThePioneerWoman.com

It is important to note that to brine anything, you must be prepared a couple days in advance as it takes that time for the meat to absorb the flavors.

This year we will of course have the smoked turkey, and I've decided to try to create a healthy Thanksgiving meal with decadent and delicious desserts.  I believe that one should enjoy what they eat, not only while they eat it, but afterwards.  I hate the feeling of looking to the next workout because I overindulged at dinner, or wasn't sure just how much of my spinach was sour cream and how much was actually spinach.

Plus, extra calories should be saved for sweets.


Our 2011 Thanksgiving Menu:

Smoked Turkey (brined for two days beforehand)

Turnip Greens

Sweet Potato Casserole

Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce


Desserts:

Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Sweet Potato Pie


Wines:

Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc (my mother's favorite)

Les Jamelles Pinot Noir


Wines may be purchased at most local liquor Stores and from the Macadoodles new E-Commerce Site

UPDATE:  After conferring with The BF, several compromises were made.  It was pointed out to me that Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without regular mashed potatoes.  The Sweet Potato Casserole will be replaced with Mashed Potatoes and the Pumpkin Pie replaced with another Arkansas and Southern tradition: the Sweet Potato Pie