It’s the Berries!

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Raspberries…blackberries…blueberries…strawberries. Summer is berry season. Have you had your fill yet?

Nothing to pit or peel, naturally formed in perfect bite-size pieces, berries are the ultimate convenience fruit. Use berries as a topping for breakfast cereals or pancakes, in salads, and over ice cream or puddings.

For a simple dessert, mix berries with sugar to taste and let set for about half an hour, until they give up their juices to create their own sauce. Serve the sweetened berries with whipped cream, heavy cream, or yogurt.

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Wild Blueberry Season

By Lori Powell

I have the pleasure of staying in Maine for at least a week on the coast every year, usually in August. Wild Maine blueberries, if I am lucky, are still around for me to enjoy for breakfast, a snack, a smoothie or in a dessert. However this year, given how warm it has been, I suspect the height of the season will come too early and I will miss out on one of my favorite foods of summer.

All is not lost, however, as I came across wild blueberries at the Kingston Farmers’ market this past weekend in Upstate New York. If you have never tried these jewels, seek them out at your local farmers’ market since they are sooo different from the regular cultivated kind. In both size (half pint size) and taste (superior). Kind of like little pellets of the best blueberry jam you have ever encountered, but are so naturally sweet and just oh so good! No need for added sugar here.

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Berry Season

By Katie Barreira

Happy June! For me, the next couple of months are all about the berries. Sure, you can get them year-round, but these finger-staining gems are entirely different animals in peak season. Not only are in-season berries at the height of juicy sweetness, they’re also much cheaper, so eat up!

One challenge with seasonal berries is that they are so perfectly ripe that they need to be eaten within a day a two. If you find yourself with ready-to-eat berries that you’re not quite able to polish off, don’t fret, just freeze!

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Pancakes – Because Breakfast Should be more than Eggs

By Sandy Hu

Okay, I confess. Steve started making breakfast for the kids when they were growing up because he thought they should have more than eggs.

I love eggs and they’re my idea of breakfast –scrambled, sunny-side up, boiled, omelets or in the hole. Steve’s is pancakes, waffles, biscuits, popovers and muffins. Who do you think won out? The kids and I chose his, of course. And I blissfully relinquished breakfast-making duties to him.

Never one to let a recipe alone, Steve would improvise, experiment, research, try other versions of the recipe, until he created one to his satisfaction. And on weekday and weekend mornings, we would wake up to delicious smells from the kitchen of something freshly prepared, waiting for us at the breakfast table.

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Sweets in One or Two Bites

By Lori Powell

During the week, I mostly focus on the savory foods such as what to have for the day’s three meals: breakfast lunch and dinner. I am lucky enough not to have a severe sweet tooth but do on occasion crave a sweet bite of something which is usually satisfied by fruit or a bite of chocolate.

I love to bake but living alone, that can be a dangerous thing to have baked goods sitting around, like leftover chocolate cake, cookies, pies or tarts. If I had any of that hanging around, I might develop a sweet hankering.

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