March 10: National Blueberry Popover Day

 

Blueberry popovers ready to go
in the oven.

Today is National Blueberry Popover Day.  Now, I've made regular popovers a couple of times before.  Once, for a class, we followed Alton Brown's basic popover recipe and I believe everyone had success with the recipe.  (We were using the recipe as an example of steam leavening.)  I thought about using the same recipe and tossing in blueberries, but since I wasn't sure what that would do to the structural integrity of the popovers, I opted to use a recipe specific for blueberry popovers. 

Frozen blueberries, thawing while
 I take pictures.

I used this blueberry popover recipe from Reader's Digest.   I ended up with enough batter to fill nine sections of a cupcake pan.  (I'll talk about my choice of pan in a bit.)  I used slightly thawed frozen blueberries, since at this time of the year, it's the economical choice.  (Plus, the frozen non-organic blueberries were the only ones from the US.  The fresh organic and non-organic blueberries were from Chile, and the organic blueberries were from Canada.)  I'm wondering if my decision to use frozen blueberries affected the recipe because only a few of the popovers actually rose like normal popovers. 

The popovers to start deflating the second I pulled them out of the oven.  (Normal popovers give me a few seconds to grab a knife to pierce them before they start deflating.)  Plus, the weight of the blueberries meant that the center cavity was open and exposed on the popovers.  I also wonder if I put too many blueberries in each popover.  (The recipe says to put "a few" in each using a spoon - I used about one scoop of a tablespoon in each.)

Blueberry popovers straight from the
oven and already starting to deflate.

As usual, the batter part of the popovers was bland.  (And in my opinion, that's the way it should be, unless you're making cheese or herb popovers.)  The blueberries were the flavor star.  My only real problem with popovers is that they're meant to be eaten right away so they don't store well.  This is a recipe that wasn't bad, but it wasn't so wonderful that I'd make it again.  If I celebrate National Blueberry Popover Day again, I think I'll make regular popovers and fill them with vanilla pudding and blueberries instead.

Now, on what to use when baking popovers:  If you make popovers a lot or enter popovers in competitions, it makes sense to get one of these.  Otherwise, just use a muffin/cupcake pan.  When I made them for my class, I used custard cups.  It results in a slightly different shape than if you used a popover pan.  I've never owned a popover pan, mainly because I've always lived in places with tiny kitchens.

January 28: Blueberry Pancake Day

Blueberry pancakes are totally scrumptious.  I don't like using the large, juicy blueberries that you can regularly buy at the store.  Instead, I prefer using the smaller wild blueberries.  I find that using the large blueberries makes it hard to flip the pancakes (I like to use a lot of blueberries.)  When I'm at my parents and it's the right season, I'll pick blueberries right off the bush, wash them, then toss them in the batter.  I can't wait until it's blueberry season again.

I also find that blueberry pancakes are usually sweet enough I don't need syrup.  Sometimes, I may use honey, but normally just topping the pancakes with bananas is good enough.  It's almost like having blueberry-banana panacakes!

January 15: Strawberry Ice Cream Day and Fresh Squeezed Juice Day

Again with the non-seasonal food!  On my hike today, I was completely bundled up and using the little pocket heaters to keep my fingers from going numb.  A couple of times, I found myself slurring while I was talking because my lips and cheeks had gone numb from the cold.

So ice cream has probably been the last thing on my mind today, but today is Strawberry Ice Cream Day.  I do love strawberry ice cream- just not when it's pretty much freezing outside.  Strawberry ice cream in the summer when it's in the 90s?  Yes please!  Whenever my dad would bring home neapolitan ice cream, the pink stripe would disappear first.

A friend of mine has an ice cream maker and loves it.  An ice cream maker doesn't really have a place in my life as I don't need any one-use appliances that I would only use a few times a year, but I am looking at getting the ice cream extension to the KitchenAid stand mixer.  Still, it won't get a lot of use so we'll see.


Fresh Squeezed Juice Day

If you prefer concentrated juice to fresh squeezed juice, please let me know. Well, flavor wise, as I suppose concentrated or purchased juices are definite time savers when compared to fresh squeezed juice.  But nothing beats fresh squeezed juice when it comes to flavor. 

Fresh squeezed lemonade ranks easily as my number one drink.  Adding crushed fresh strawberries just makes it even tastier.  My mom loves fresh squeezed passionfruit juice and will mix it with crushed blueberries.  Friends of mine have expressed preference for fresh squeezed grapefruit, orange, and tangerine juices.  Personally, I think it's a travesty to not eat tangerines, but when you think about it, the only fruits you can squeeze are citrus fruits.  Everything else you have to crush or puree.