I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

blueberries

Thirsty Thursday: Blueberry Banana Blast Smoothie

blueberry banana blast smoothie

A few years back when Price and I moved from our apartment in Brookline to another apartment in Newton we brought my mom some plants to babysit that we had kept in our little yard. I didn’t just want to chuck everything since we no longer had a yard. So we loaded up the car of our huge pots and hauled them down there. Well, now that we are getting our yard here set up I’m planning on taking some of the plants back. Specifically my blueberry plant. Well, that was until I called my mom and brought it up and got the bad news that her landscaper’s helper must have ripped it out of the pot thinking it was dead. SERIOUSLY?!?! Yeah sure, it’s winter so it looks dead with bare sticks but come on it was a little bush!!

No, blueberry plants are not expensive. I can get a new one for like $10 but we had taken care of it for years so that is the biggest bummer. Especially, since they don’t just fruit quickly. So I’ll deal and it will be my excuse to get more, as well as drown my silly sorrows in some blueberries. 🙂

This blueberry banana smoothie is a winner with fresh blueberries, blueberry Greek yogurt, and banana. It’s the perfect start to your day or for a refreshing afternoon snack.

blueberry banana blast smoothie_01

Blueberry Banana Blast Smoothie

Makes 2 smoothies

Ingredients

  • 6 ounces of fresh or frozen blueberries, I prefer fresh
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup blueberry yogurt, such a Chobani
  • 1 cup milk

Process

  1. Combine all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Very Berry Sangria

Price and I recently had a party at our place for my birthday. It was centered around a Mexican theme so I’ll be posting a few recipes from that that works well for a fiesta or just a great gathering. Enjoy!

I love sangria so much because it works well year round and with so many different add in’s. You can do citrus, stone fruit, or berries, or an combination in between. I really prefer wine sangria but I have been enjoying red sangria more and more. Most of all I love to serve sangria when people are over. It works well for a crowd since you start with inexpensive wine, add fun fruit to it and it really transforms into a great drink.

 

This red sangria is packed with fruity flavor. All of the different types of berries add so much sweet, bright flavor.  Each of the 4 different types of berries provides a different flavor to the sangria. Then when you add the tequila you get a bit of a kick to it in the end. The seltzer adds a nice bubble to the the whole thing to finish it off.

 

Very Berry Sangria

Serves 12-16 people

Ingredients

  • 4 bottles of red wine
  • 1 pound of strawberries
  • 1 dry pint of blueberries
  • 1 dry pint of blackberries
  • 1 dry pint of raspberries
  • 1/4 cup agave, depending on the wine
  • 3 cups of tequila
  • 1 liter of seltzer, or ginger-ale

Process

  1. Divide the 4 bottles of wine into 2-3 pitchers, depending on the size of pitcher. Fill the pitcher about half way full.
  2. Wash all the fruit. Discard an bruised fruit.
  3. Slice the strawberries.
  4. Add all the fruit to the wine, divide evenly.
  5. Add the agave and tequila. Gently mix the wine to incorporate.
  6. Let chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
  7. Right before serving add the seltzer to the pitchers.

Big Blue Cocktail

I live in the land of Patriots. But I am not a fan of these Patriots. No, I am sticking to my roots and I get flack for it up here. But I grin and bear it since I can always fall back on this game, this play. Bliss.

I am a Giants fan. I grew up in the tri-state area so they were always on in my house. I would cheer when I had no idea what was going on just to join in. I wore my dad’s oversized shirts to bed. Now, I have my own Giants shirts that I wear during games. (My brother has a Giants tattoo on his leg… now that is commitment!) I know they are having a rough season right now. But I’m not a fair weather fan! I am still cheering them on. Maybe those cheers are peppered with foul language but still I’m stinking to my men in blue. Especially after they were robbed last week with a bad call. I know they have it in them.

I had recently been going through old magazines and pulling out recipes. One was a really old issue of the defunct Blueprint Magazine. (Oh, how I miss that magazine.) I came across a Blueprint Martini on one of the pages and I knew I would have to make to enjoy while cheering on the G-Men. I made the cocktail form the magazine and it was just too much! Shocker here- I don’t like drinking straight vodka. Sure I’ll do a shot but this recipe called for 4 oz of it. I would have been on the floor! So I ended up reworking it and making it delightful! Now if only the Giants had won that game I would have been so happy. Let’s hope they beat the Cowboys today!

Big Blue Cocktail

*makes 1 cocktail*

Ingredients

  • 1 oz of vodka
  • 1 oz of Curaçao liqueur
  • 1 tablespoon of triple sec
  • 4 oz of seltzer
  • garnish with blueberries

Process

  1. Put the vodka, Curaçao, and triple sec together in a chilled cocktail shaker, and mix to combine.
  2. Pour the seltzer in a martini glass and then add the contents from the cocktail shaker.
  3. Garnish with blueberries.

Blueberry Lemonade

As much as I love to curl up with my favorite mug in the winter with hot tea or hot chocolate, I love the refreshing drinks that go hand in hand with summer. I don’t count Labor Day as the end of summer. I enjoy every summer sip and bite until the first day of fall. I don’t necessarily wear summer things until then- I wore a  long sleeve shirt and sweater today- but I will fill my stomach with summer’s last bit of produce.

If you are like you realize that you have 15 days until the first day of fall. That includes 2 full weekends for you to kick back and relax with a lemonade before the full onslaught of pumpkins, cider, and Halloween candy. Don’t even get my started on how I keep seeing CHRISTMAS candy in the stories!!

 

The combination of blueberries and lemons go together very well. I love them in desserts so in a drink the same would be true, right? Correct! The blueberries add a nice naturally sweet flavor to offset the tart lemons.

 

I decided to incorporate the blueberries into the lemonade by making blueberry puree ice cubes. I love when making an icy cold drink and making ice cubes part of the drink, not just something that keeps the drink cold. Also, I don’t want to use just regular ice cubes that will water down the drink. The blueberry ice cubes came out very well, but one thing that I noticed was that they broke apart very quickly. This was fine since I was drinking the lemonade right away.  If you plan on letting the drink hang around for a bit, I suggest that you make the ice cubes out of store bought blueberry juice and adding some frozen blueberries to the glass.

edit– right after I tweeted this post I got a tweet mentioning that vodka should accompany this lemonade. Umm, how did I forget to mention that? Well, obviously, vodka would make this blueberry lemonade even more delightful. Plus it gives you options… a regular vodka or you can get creative and use a flavored one. have fun and enjoy.

 

Blueberry Lemonade

Serves 8

Ingredients

 

  • 1 pint of fresh blueberries
  • 7 lemons
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 7 cups of water
Steps

  1. Blend the blueberries and then strain the puree. Pour the puree into an ice cube tray and freeze until solid.
  2. Squeeze all the lemons. 
  3. Combine the sugar and the lemons into a large pitcher.
  4. Add water to pitcher and mix well. 
  5. Serve the glass of lemonade with blueberry ice cubes and a slice of lemon.
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Mixed Berry Jam

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Canning Adventure that Emily and I had. Fruit was smashed, pounds of sugar was used, some lots of wine was consumed, and jam was made. Oh, how can I forget about that small kitchen fire? That alone is why Price tends to run away when the 2 of us are together. 

This was a major refresher in math skills. The original recipe called for 1 single fruit in quarts. Well we had to make it difficult by using 2 fruits in various containers. This involved looking for conversion tables online as well as harassing Price and his friend Chris for confirmation that we did it correction. Conclusion… “math is hard”

Prior to canning, I got 2 books that I found really helpful. We used Better Home and Garden’s You Can Can for this first canning adventure. It is a step-by-step book that really breaks down the canning and preserving process using photographs, tables, and clear instrcutions. I REALLY suggest this book for first time canners because it explains the process and the reasoning behind various things. For example, when to use boiling-water canning vs pressure canning. Hint: it has to do with the pH level of the food. This book, and the wine we consumed, made canning really fun.

Not to toot our horns too loudly, but this jam was pretty damn amazing. The texture was even with crushed fruit, while still having some rather large pieces of blackberries. Getting a spoonful with a large blackberry in there to spread over some toast was amazing. The combination of fruit works really well together- raspberries add a bit of a tangy bit that holds itself against the rich blackberry, which the blueberries mellow that flavor out a bit. It is a rather sweet jam so you could cut that with a bit of lemon juice (2 tablespoons added to the fruit prior to processing).

Mixed Berry Jam

Prep Time: 35 Minutes Process: 5 Minutes Makes: 8/9 Half Pint Jars

1 pint of blueberries
3 6oz packages of raspberries
3 6oz packages of blackberries
7 cups of sugar
1 1.75 packet of pectin

Wash and clean all fruit.

Combine the blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. In a LARGE pot, add 1 cup at a time, smash* the fruit together. Continue until all fruit is smashed. Stir in the pectin.

Heat over a High heat, stir constantly, until the mixture is at a rolling boil. Add the sugar all at once. Return to a rolling boil; boil for 1 minute, stir constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam with a metal spoon.

Immediately ladle jam into hot, sterlized janning cars. Leave 1/4″ inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, place lid on jar and screw on bands (so they are secure but not too tight).

Process jars using the boiling-water method for 5 minutes (start timing when the water returns to a boil). Remove jars and cool on a wire rack, just not directly on your counter.

*A potato masher works well. Or improvise, like we did.