Blueb's

We've had houseguests for the past few days. Chelsea & Co. are sleeping as I write out here, in the blessedly cool (finally) back yard, with a slice of toast and a darling (tired) doggie, who's not sure if she can or cannot wait for the drowsy tots to wake up ('cause then it's play, play, play, play, play, and play some more). I am considering blueberry pancakes or blueberry coffee cake, since I still have a whole tray of frozen blueb's waiting to be bagged — maybe I'll just use them this morning and get some more later today.

This is a good recipe for blueberry-buckle coffee cake (and you can find places to pick your own at this web site, too), though I would use the topping I use for the S.C.A.P. instead, because it seems more buttery and less sugary and just . . . yummier. This recipe made a deliciously moist cake last week and it lasted for four days and just refused to go stale — fantastic. Speaking of recipes, I have a giant pile of wrinkled, stained, folded-up print-outs of internet recipes that I use repeatedly, and which I always mean to re-copy by hand onto my beautiful silk-screened handmade recipe cards that Andy made me for my birthday. But now the pile is so big and daunting that I'm sure I'll never get through it, so it sits in a big sloppy mess underneath the recipe box and makes Andy mad. So I'm thinking I may just re-print them all (if I can even find where they came from again) and slip them into page protectors and a three-ring binder and call it good, and save my handmade cards for special recipes, and family recipes (which I have already rewritten a lot of, and I've had my mom rewrite hers for me), and stuff like that. Anyway, if I get it all together I'll show you. I was going to make an on-line cookbook but they wouldn't let me use copyrighted recipes in it. Boo. So in general my recipe collection is pretty much of a disaster, and this cooler weather we're having makes me feel like cooking again, so perhaps it's time to remedy all this and put a system in place, once and for all.

By the way, don't you love that pale brownish-blue color of that egg in the photo above? I like all those blues — the turquoise, the navy, the pale brownish — all together. Maybe I should make an all-blue quilt. A blueberry-buckle quilt.

Speaking of quilts, the Ollalieberry Ice Cream is finished, and I decided to do a pattern for it, too. Aren't I nice? My friends leave later today, so I'll get some pictures ready to show you tomorrow. Now that it's cooler, so many more things seem possible.

Comments

[Whistlepea]

You are nice. And yet evil for making me crave cake.

[HeidiAnn]

MMMMM- that looks SO good - and it just so happens that I have a big container of blueberries in the fridge......

[Jennifer Conway]

Oh yeah - that looks scrumptious!!! My whole family are blueberry lovers - your gorgeous photo's are inspiring me to head off to the kitchen!! *smiles* ~Jen

[susan]

Yes !! A blueberry quilt - how perfect. I live in Nova Scotia in an area that is considered to be the blueberry capital of the WORLD.

[Christa Jeanne]

Yum! You're making me hungry - but alas, I'm stuck in a cubicle with nothing but PopTarts and Lara Bars at my disposal. Oh well, sometime soon...

On the recipes - a three-ring binder with page protectors is the way to go on printed-out recipes! I was in the same boat, and doing that saved my sanity. It is nice to keep the family recipes on real cards in a real recipe box. It's worked for me!

[leanne]

i've been thinking about blueberries lately...

[Laura A.]

Oh, those are my favourite colours! Make the quilt and then let me make you an offer on it. ;-)

Yum. I've been thinking about blueb's myself, especially since the wild ones are just coming out. (There are many reasons to find living in the Great White North challenging. Driving an hour for freshly picked wild bluebs is wonderful compensation.)

[Lorna]

Dear God...now I'm hungry. And I already just ate breakfast. Yum!

[Beth]

I am now inspired to tackle my mess of recipes too... afterall, that was my New Year's resolution to organize my recipes... but so far... nothing. Now is the time and a 3-ring binder with page protectors sounds like the answer. Thanks for the inspiration...

[Julie]

Do we all have the giant binder of printed recipes??? Oh how the internet has changed things! I used to use page protectors, but I have SO many that they just make my binder too big. Have you tried allrecipes.com? I have been typing mine in and then you can actually have a cookbook printed with all of your own recipes. (You can also upload your own pictures because really, what good is a cookbook without pictures?) I've also thought about making one with family recipes as gifts...

[Allison L.]

Ooohh, blueberry buckle quilt! An excellent idea. Growing up I never liked blue, but over the years I noticed little bits of blue popping up in my wardrobe. Well now I'm absolutely smitten and hope you do make a blueberry quilt. I'd love to see it!

[amy]

holy bejesus. i'm hungry! looks delightful. lovely blog :)

[janet clare]

I too, puzzled for years about how to save all my special recipes. I have finally solved it by by doing this;

http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/?p=140
hope you like it!

[Paula]

Well, I got ambitious, once...and retyped my mother's recipes and had them made into a book with pictures of her through the years (she is no longer with us) and gave them for gifts to sibblings and friends that knew her. BUT, I am thinking the notebook idea is marvelous with a neat little cover that is embroidered!

So far, mine are piled up on top of my cookbooks...and need at least organized. Good luck!
Paula :)

[Patti Smith]

That is what all my favorite recipes were like, except I had all mine thrown in a Ziploc bag! After my hubby got tired of searching for them (recipes), I finally got them together. I put all of mine in page protectors in a three ring binder. It is so much better and much easier to find what I am looking for. I also decided, if I am never going to actually make the recipe at some point, I do not save it. I guess one has to start somewhere trying to clear up the clutter! Love your blog and glad you have some cooler weather at last!
Patti S.

[Amy of Progressive Pioneer]

I have the same chaotic pile of recipes and every time I want one I have to dig through the whole stack. Someday I will organize it, someday...
And I vote for blueberry pancakes! We put flax seeds in ours and I could eat them three meals a day!

[Susan, Tsawwassen, BC]

Here's what I do ... for all my non-cookbook recipes that I glean from the internet or magazines I keep in pocket folders. You know the ones that are like duotangs but when you open them there is a pocket on each side? I think they are called twin-pocket portfolios. They come in lots of colours. I have a folder for all types of categories, ie Breads/Muffins, Rice/Grains, Vegetables, Soups, etc. noted with a labelmaker label. New recipes go in the left pocket. Once used and determined if it's a keeper (do-againer) it goes in the right pocket. I've been using this method for years and it works great!! We always know where to find our favourite recipes. Another word of advice is to go through the new recipes once in a while and be more discerning whether you really think you will make it ... as they can pile up and if you are like me you can have more recipes than you could ever make in 10 lifetimes! (eating blueberries as I type this)

[Claire]

Ha, j'adore la tarte aux myrtilles !
Il en reste ??? J'en veux !!!

[Modern Crush]

Oh my recipe "situation" is so so similar, half stained. But, if they weren't stained would that mean there was no life in my kitchen? The pie looks amazing, I certainly will try it. By the way I made the deep dark chocolate cake with cloudberry frosting you make for my dad this weekend... glorious. I will never make a cake from a package again! Thank you so much for inspiring me!

[Gauss]

Hi Alicia, I've been reading your blog for a while and I love when you talk about food! Today I finally made the fruit clafouti that you recommend so often - Ina's recipe - and it is absolutely amazing. Thank you for pointing out this great recipe!

[Colleen]

I could not agree more with your last comment. I'm so pleased to not feel like we Portlanders are living in an oven!

[Kim G.]

Oh that blue berry dish does look nice. I think blue berry muffins, buckles, cakes, etc. are at the top of my favorite things to bake.

[Sarah]

"Now that it's cooler, so many more things seem possible."

- Amen to that! The sun only JUST came out today, at 3:30, and I wish it would have stayed abed in those clouds; I roasted squash this am and am about 40% through the hours-long process of baking bread...

gotta love the grey; there's a chance it might rain here Sunday! fingers crossed! (hey, maybe you should tell Andy you're saving the copying for a rainy day. Not only is it a perfect rainy-day activity, but with the way our summer is going weather-wise, that should buy you a reprieve until October!)

[Deirdre]

Blueberry Buckle quilt, YES!

[lizbon]

I realize this is odd, but if you wanted to send me your wrinkled stack and your pretty cards, I'd copy them for you. I have very lovely handwriting, honest.