Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Summertime Cooking

ON SALE, 99 cents a pint, limit 3 pints. Blueberries on sale? A buck a pint? Be still my fruit loving heart. I could make pie again or...I could try something new. I had come across a recipe for blueberry butter prowling around the web. You know, like apple butter but for blueberries. All that you need is a big pile of blueberries, some sugar and spices and your trusty crockpot. The instructions can be found at the Pick Your Own blog.

bowl of blueberries

These were pretty nice blueberries too. From New Jersey I think. Nine pints of fruit slowly cooked in the crockpot resulting in ten little jars of Blueberry Butter.

blueberry butter

But what to use it with first? Luckily the culinary godmother has sent me a recipe that seemed to be perfect for the occasion....Bacon-Jalapeño Cornbread.

skillet cornbread 2

Lord knows I've got the cast iron skillet and the bacon goes without saying. And yes, I did put the jalapeños in despite my reluctance but I figured the bacon would rule the cornbread.

skillet cornbread 1


cornbread and blueberry butter2

(OK, so I went really light on the jalapeños, sue me.)

cornbread and blueberry butter

The blueberry butter turned out well, nice and thick but I think next time I'll use one of the lower sugar content versions. I didn't get as much of the blueberry flavor that I wanted but the constituency is just right. It would be great in some thick Greek yogurt or slopped on a biscuit. Or bacon jalapeño cornbread. But if you're going to run the crockpot for twelve hours in the middle of a brutal two week heat wave, set it out in the garage because the ac bill is going to be high enough as it is and no pile of 99 cent blueberries will save you.

13 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

wow! I'm eyeing my little pile of blueberries...

Big Shamu said...

Go Froggy, Go Froggy....

MakingSpace said...

Oh. my. god.

That is all I have to say. Except - I did not know you could do that with blueberries. Imagining the taste...

Also, the blueberry butter label? Veddy nice. Veddy nice.

Dani said...

I.LOVE.YOUR.WONDERFUL.COOKING.HEART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buzz Kill said...

About the only good thing about South Jersey is the Blueberries. Hammonton, NJ - Blueberry Capitol of the World. I've had apple butter but never blueberry butter. I never thought about using the crockpot for canning. Great idea!

And it looks easy, although you need the whole day. I might try and talk the Mrs into this. And maybe some blueberry muffins while I'm at it - if the weather breaks.

Big Shamu said...

MS, gotta put those graphics to good use, can't just have them sitting around in my computer doin' nothing.

Dani, canning blueberry butter is much easier than teaching yourself to play the banjo.

Well Buzz, if you have to good for something, blueberries are not a bad choice. More like two days. I let my butter cook overnight in the crockpot. Then canned the next day. I remember my mother using our camping cookstove to water bath can outside and I was seeing the wisdom in that as I was canning.

Anonymous said...

Never heard of blueberry butter, but it looks divine. - Syd

Sorry for commenting "Anon". Fucking Google won't let me comment for some reason.

Big Shamu said...

Syd, you probably offended the Template Gods last night with all your fiddling.

It is pretty good.

Dani said...

Hope your arse is feelin' better Syd.

Dani said...

I have that same egg cup except mine is a light yellow.

Big Shamu said...

Dani I have that color to plus a white one. With all those egg cups you'd think I was the one raising chickens.

Karl said...

Good evening Shamy,

Jalapeños bagels with a fried egg, have recently become a favorite breakfast treat around my place. Although the bagels come from Trader Joe's. Which means there between 20 and 50% more expensive than they would be anywhere else. But Gee whiz, they'll get you motivated in the morning.

I'm not a fan of corn bread, but it looks mighty tasty.

Big Shamu said...

Good evening Karl, glad to see you again.
Jalapeños bagels with a fried egg? Yowza,I'm not ready to take my spice adventures that far just yet. Never thought you a Trader Joe's sort of guy?