Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Blueberries

Blueberries are one fruit where an apron can come in handy!

My neighbor has 2 blueberry bushes that are bearing heavy this year. It's not unusual to pick a gallon of berries from them every other day.

So what do you do with all of those berries. One of my favorites is the simple fruit crisp or buckle or cobbler (depending on where you're from).

Take about 3 cups of fruit - blueberries, cherries, peaches, apples, etc. Mix in about 2 or 3 tablespoons of cornstarch (flour will work in a pinch) and 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and cinnamon to taste. Mix the fruit with the dry ingredients until well covered. If the fruit is a bit dry, add a tablespoon of water.

Put in a baking dish such that the fruit takes up about half of the space in the dish, so that would be about a 6 to 8 cup baking dish or pan.

In a bowl, use about 1 1/2 cups bisquick (or flour), a stick of butter, 1/2 cup (or more) of brown sugar, 3/4 cup regular oatmeal, cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixute begins to look like cornmeal - it may even start to look like cookie dough - that's ok too, it will still work.
Spread mixture over fruit. You can sprinkle with some brown sugar if you want.

Bake at 350 for about an hour. You can smell it when it begins to get done.

Cool or serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I don't have a formal recipe for this - I've always made it on the fly, as it always depends on the amount of fruit, how much juice it generates and how sweetness the natural fruit has.

That takes care of some of the berries!

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