Let's Talk about Berries, Baby.

Yes, let's.  Summer screams berry season and as a lover of all things berry, it's my favorite time of year.  Though I'm not gonna lie, I say that about most of our Midwest seasons.  Except winter.  Our polar winter this past year kinda took away the glowing feelings I had about wintertime.  Winter, you've got a lot of making up to do this year, buddy.

Anyways, on to the berries.  First, I wanted to share some berry art with you to get ya in the berry mood.  I found this darling piece below on Etsy, but unfortunately for us berry lovers, it looks like it has expired, though I did track down the artist, Judith Moffatt, and her lovely tissue paper collages.  See the link below.

Judith Moffat's Collages

Her piece totally reminds me of the classic Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, one of my all time favorites.

So while I haven't been traveling, hanging with family, friends, and dogs, and taking insanely boring grad classes this summer, I've been enjoying some summer baking.  And what better way to bake than to use the fruits of my own labor: the berries from my backyard garden!

This season's berries started out with gooseberries galore, which were turned into a delicious gooseberry crisp, using Smitten Kitchen's recipe for strawberry rhubarb crisp bars (which I whipped up with strawberries and backyard rhubarb many times this summer too).  This time, I just subbed in gooseberries instead of the rhubarb and strawberries.

Now, if you aren't familiar with gooseberries, they are nature's version of the Sour Patch Kids (which I LOOOOVE and are my downfall in the candy aisle).  So, I can justify gooseberry crisp bars as being healthier than Sour Patch Kids, right?

The gooseberry crisp bars turned out sour and sweet and super duper delicious.  The gooseberries burst open a little bit, but still held onto their plumpness!  I even froze a couple for a snack for later (yeah, they didn't last long).

Please excuse the shadow-y picture.  It was probably caused by me or my husband lurking nearby to check how soon this dessert would be ready for devouring.

Raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are coming in soooooon.  So stay berry tuned in, okay?

Scrambled Eggs Super A La Peter T. Hooper Pizza (with apologies to Dr. Seuss).

I grew up watching Julia Child on television.  I would see her stirring up her wonderful concoctions (always with a pat of butter), hear her comforting chortle, laugh at her self-deprecating humor and funny remarks directed at Jacques Pépin, follow her confident motions in the kitchen, and often be lulled into a daydream of what I would do in my own kitchen one day.  My parents weren't huge believers in television (or cable, or the internet, or cell phones, or credit cards...don't even get me started on my grandmother who wraps her wallet in aluminum foil), so when the television was turned on, the shows we watched consisted of Julia Child's cooking shows, Rick Steves, or old school Batman (you know what I'm talking about, the real Batman with flashes of "POW!" "ZING!" and "Holy Venezuela, Batman!").

Last week after a massive harvest of peppers, swiss chard, arugula, and tomatoes from my garden, I decided to channel my inner cook.  Now, I am no Julia Child, and this is definitely NOT a cooking blog, but I thought I'd share an awesome and super simple recipe using Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough.  This stuff is awesome.  It makes putting together a pizza easy and makes me feel like I am still eating relatively healthy (though the cheese I add on probably triply negates the healthiness).

Art Lesson: Scrambled Eggs Super a La Peter T. Hooper Pizza

Objective: To create a homemade pizza using fresh ingredients and channel my inner Julia

Supplies: pizza dough, cornmeal, flour, garden greens such as chard and arugula, peppers, tomatoes, salsa, eggs, garlic, olive oil, cookie sheets, and courage

I wish I could say the cheese and eggs I use are from my garden/farm.  But alas, no.  One day folks,  one day.

1) Pre-heat the oven to 350.  Sprinkle cornmeal onto the cookie sheets (which prevents the dough from sticking), and stretch out dough on top of flour.

2)  Then brush dough with melted garlic cubes and a little olive oil and pre-bake for 5 minutes.

3) While the dough was baking, I worked on blanching the garden greens (super easy--just throw the greens into a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes, pull them out, and then place them into a bowl of icy water to cool down).

4) I also chopped up the tomatoes and peppers and scrambled about 8-10 eggs.

5) When the pizza had pre-baked, I layered on the following in order: organic salsa (go Costco, go!), tomatoes, blanched greens, peppers, scrambled eggs, and cheese).

6) Now, the bag of dough says to bake it for 10-12 minutes at 350, but I believe I baked my pizza for at least another 15 minutes, on top of the 5 minutes of pre-baking.  Keep an eye on it, or as my cooking-challenged brother says, "Cook it 'til it's done, and then for 5 minutes more."  No, don't really do that or you may get CHARRED pizza (instead of chard pizza, get it, get it?).

7) And in the spirit of Julia, "This is Miss French Fry, Bon Appetit!"

         Yes, this is what happens when you try to stage a pretty photo of pizza in my kitchen. 

 You leave it alone and HOLY BILL OF RIGHTS, BATMAN!