Blueberries

The other night, Nick and I went to the store for dinner supplies and some fruit to put on top of dutch babies in the morning. His first choice was peaches, but they were all like rocks. He then suggested apples, but they were all mushy and mealy. The strawberries weren't looking awesome and bananas seemed boring and I was quickly losing patience with the fruit situation. The produce selection at the grocery store down the street from my house is absolutely atrocious. It makes me so sad. I've found some potatoes, carrots and a few apples there since I moved here, but nothing else worthwhile. I'd completely taken for granted how good I had it in my old neighborhood, where my lovely brother-in-law was the produce manager. The only thing that really stood out were some blackberries ($5 for a PINT?!) and some blueberries that were on super sale. A pint of blueberries was $3.99, but 2lbs was $3.88; because I am cheap, I naturally went with the bigger container after confirming with Nick that they'd be suitable for breakfasty things.


Much like with my artichoke situation, I got the blueberries home and looked at them without any idea as to what to DO with them aside from the dutch babies. I've been scouring the internet for ideas. My dear friend Mardi wants to make some blueberry syrup, so I'm looking for a Jessica-proof recipe for that and intend to make some semblance of this lemon curd & blueberry tart on Wednesday. In the meantime, those blueberries have been staring at me every time I open the fridge to get some half & half for my coffee. I'm not known for being a fan of blueberries. I tend to avoid them unless the choice is between a blueberry muffin or no muffin. I am loathe to admit that the first time I even saw the inside of  a blueberry was when we were in the middle of brunch the other morning. Between bites of dutch baby, I picked a berry up, bit it in half and noticed that the inside was sort of pinkish opaque. When I exclaimed my discovery loudly, Nick just smirked a little bit and told me I was cute. I am guessing that I am the last person in the world that found out that the inside of a blueberry isn't blue. Charming!


Anyway, Nick went home late Sunday afternoon and I came back to the apartment, cuddled with the puppy, drank some coffee and put some more thought into using those blueberries. I thought of making some blueberry scones, but meh. I could freeze them and use them in pancakes later on, but that didn't sound very exciting either. Cursory examination of the cupboards revealed the same basic baking staples as always, plus some dark cocoa. Blueberries can work with dark chocolate cake, right? I used the same (eggless) chocolate cake recipe I've been using for a few years now. I've pared it down to a 6-serving recipe, but to be honest it seems more like an 8 or 10 serving cake. I might be a bit biased since I'm not a huge chocolate cake fan, but it's pretty dense and a little bit goes a long way.

 

After ridding myself of most of the cake via a hungry neighbor, I paired a little slice with some lemon pudding and a handful of blueberries for dessert.The cake isn't terribly sweet and the lemon makes the blueberries taste brighter and it's pretty. And delicious. Delicious and pretty and you should make it into a trifle and serve it to people that you like because they will find it delicious, even though it seems like a strange combination of wonderful things.


 Eggless Chocolate Cake

1 cup + 2 tablespoons sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon raw sugar (you can use white sugar, if you prefer)
1/3 cup unsweetened good dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons good vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together, then whisk in the sugar. Add the vanilla, water and oil and mix well. Pour into an 8" pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tested inserted in the center comes out clean.