Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

I loved canning this weekend, but truth be told, I'm usually a freezer-bag-preservation kind of a girl. I get it from my mother. She will slave for a day over a "vat" of tomato sauce, only to let it cool enough to fill dozens of freezer bags so that her whole days' work stretches throughout half the year. I am always buying two if berries, peaches, or anything else I love that freezes well is available, and tucking it away for a rainy day. Evidence enough is the stockpile of blueberries in my freezer. This weekend, I was feeling rather sweet, and while the man slept in, I whipped up a batch of blueberry pancakes... Okay so truthfully, this came less from my heart and more than a little from an absurdly stubborn and, shall we say 'frugal' streak that runs through me. I had buttermilk leftover from a pan of cornbread I made almost a week ago, and since I hate waste, almost as much as I hate the idea of a dairy product sitting in our wastebin for a week, it needed to be used. What better use is there for buttermilk than pancakes?  

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes



2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 tablespoon cinnaomon

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup 2% milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup fresh or frozen (do not thaw) blueberries


I used my counter top griddle, because I'm obsessed with it, but these can easily be made in a heavy bottom (read: even - heating ) pan, set your burner to medium - high and keep it buttered (unless you have amazing nonstick cookware, )

Heat your griddle to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar in a medium bowl. Combine eggs, buttermilk, milk, and melted butter; add to dry ingredients gently, the batter should be a little lumpy, you dont want flat, tough pancakes.

Use your 1/4 cup measuring cup (or eyeball it, I won't tell) and pour pancake batter in pools. Dot the pools with your blueberries. When pancakes have bubbles coming through on top and are slightly brown around edges (slightly being key here), flip over. It will take much less time for the second side to reach golden brown so do not walk away to shoo the cat off the table, or to make sure your tea has steeped. Stay with the griddle!

A little tip from my mom (who probably stole it from Martha Stewart, truth be told) If you heat the oven to just under 200 degrees, you can slide your pancakes onto a cookie sheet and they will all stay warm together...Unless youre family is big enough to eat in shifts. Which occasionally happens where I'm from.

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Peach & Cream Popsicles

The weather in Boston has been strange this week. I wake up at 4am, the fan is still blowing, and I’m completely freezing. I step off the train at night, and the temperature is a swampy ninety degrees. Fall, it would seem, is creeping in early. With its warm days, and chilly nights fall is easily my favorite season (I also grew up in an apple orchard of a town in New Hampshire, which helps...) but I’m not ready to let go of summer. I've just started to really appreciate the sun. That, and the peaches. I could eat them in or on everything, but despite my best intentions, they always end up getting eaten ‘the traditional way’ (in my hand with lots of napkins for soaking up juices, while I lean against the kitchen counter). The man likes a peach now and again, but mostly (and especially in Summer) he loves to eat popsicles. If one could buy popsicle futures, I would, based solely on the popsicle consumption in my own home, We buy them, quite literally, in bulk.

These particular popsicles came about because of two peaches that were lost in the back of the refrigerator. They were looking a bit worse for the wear, and while they still smelled good and tasted delicious, they were a bit too juicy to eat the traditional way. I simmered pitted diced peaches in a combination of Gosling’s rum, crystallized ginger, and lemon zest. You can simmer them for a long time, to ensure the alcohol is cooked out, or just until the fruit collapses, which is what I did. This all got pureed in the food processor, and then combined with plain Greek yogurt. And a little fruit juice if you need to thin out the mix. It only made six popsicles, (which is a shame because they will probably be gone by Friday,) but its something I will experiment with, until fall really does set in and I find myself preoccupied with apples.



Peach & Cream Popsicles


2 peaches, scrubbed, pitted, and diced

3 tablespoons dark rum (I used Goslings, because it was on hand, and I like how sweet it is)

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

Zest of a small lemon, (or zest of ½ of a naturally sized lemon)

½ cup of plain Greek yogurt

1-3 tablespoons, as needed of fruit juice (I used apple) to thin them

Special Equipment: a popsicle mold, or dixie cups, saran wrap, and skewers
Combine the peaches, rum, ginger, and lemon zest in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, cover and cook until peaches collapse on themselves, and the rum has all but disappeared. Set aside to cool.
When peach mixture is cooled, blend in food processor until smooth, add yogurt and blend again, to combine. Thin as needed with juice.
Fill popsicle mold, and freeze, at least one hour. Then hide them in the back of the freezer, unless you want to share, which I hear is overrated, when it comes to popsicles.

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