Lucky for me, our summer vacation to visit my Aunt and Uncle in North Truro coincided with blueberry season. I was delighted to go wild blueberry picking near the dunes with their friend, Ira. We let some air out of the tires, and Ira drove us to his secret location. We were quickly enveloped in curtains of blueberry bushes the size of redwood trees. I entered “the zone” and began to pluck the large, vibrant berries from the bushes with methodical precision. Too much pressure and you could rupture the berry in your fingers. It was an artful dance to procure the ripest blueberries for pancakes and muffins. At the end of the morning, my stomach was almost as full of berries as my bucket.
Posts tagged desserts
Sugar Cookies
There is something magical about Christmas themed treats. For me, sugar cookies are the epitome of Christmas sweets with Italian flag cookies taking a close second. And now, what birthday party or baby shower is complete without themed sugar cookie? I’m not talking about the Pillsbury sugar cookie rolls that you slice and bake. Although, these do evoke a certain childhood nostalgia since they had to fill in the gap years when my mom went on a sugar cookie baking hiatus. I’m talking about the painstaking make-from-scratch sugar cookie dough that you hope might roll out correctly. Then, you pray that the dough will hold its shape as you press the copper or steel cookie cutters into the soft sugar dough.
White Cake (aka the Cake Mix Hack)
Let’s face it. We are all busy. You know, there is something about a cake mix that takes the pressure off of making a scratch cake. But, we still want it to taste like scratch. It is easy enough to “doctor up” a cake mix, as my grandmother would say. Real butter and buttermilk make everything taste better. Even the crust is more authentic with this hack. We had the trimmings for breakfast with coffee just this weekend. It was good even plain!