Blueberries & Zucchini

Blueberries and zucchini seem to be my theme for the last two days.

Yesterday I tried some wild blueberry flavored coffee...Worst mistake I could have made. It was horrible.  Then I went out to dinner and had a blueberry martini...Best possible choice!  The martini was so scrumptious it was hard to stop at just one...But I did!

Today, I continued on with my blueberry theme by making some blueberry zucchini muffins.

They turned out really yummy.  Tomorrow they will be making their way to Ed's office for his team.

I grated a little too much zucchini for the muffins, so after I was done baking I wondered what to do with the extra zucchini sitting in my food processor.  That's when inspiration struck and I made zucchini pancakes.  OMG so good!

I tried them two ways.  First with just salt, then with some curry powder mixed in.  They were very good both ways.  They were so simple and I believe they would lend themselves nicely to a variety of spices.  I guess I'll have to get some more zucchini and experiment.

Do-It-Yourself Therapy

When I'm feeling kind of blue, or when I'm really pissed off about something, I have one sure fire way to cheer myself up or calm myself down...My do-it-yourself therapy is to head into the kitchen and cook something.
I don't know, there is just something so zen about going into the kitchen and chopping vegetables, measuring spices, etc.  If I'm upset about something, I seem to calm right down within a few minutes of going into the kitchen and starting a recipe.  Also, if I'm feeling sad, I can go in the kitchen, start gathering my ingredients and soon I feel great.  Isn't it funny that some people are emotional eaters, but I am an emotional cooker!

Anyway, I recently made one of my favorite summer dessert recipes and thought I'd share it here. I made a beautiful blackberry granita.  Yes, it's loaded with sugar, but thanks to the scrumptious blackberries, it's also full of disease fighting antioxidants. And best of all, you only need a handful of ingredients to make this.

1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1 c fresh or frozen blackberries
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
3 c water

To begin, combine sugar and water in a non-reactive pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Once the sugar is dissolved, add the berries and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. 

After allowing this to cool for a couple of minutes (hot liquid in a blender can be very dangerous if you're not careful), use a blender and puree the mixture.  After you puree, pour the mixture into a large, shallow metal baking pan and freeze until it becomes icy, about 4 hours.

Next you remove the icy mixture from the freezer and break it up by scraping with a fork. Refreeze for 2 more hours, break it up again, and refreeze. about 2 hours before serving, break it up one last time and then refreeze.

When you're ready to serve the granita, I recommend putting it in some pretty dessert glasses or a nice wine or margarita glass. Here, I've topped mine with a homemade mixture of whipped cream, vanilla yogurt, and confectioner's sugar.

Do-it-yourself therapy and a tasty summer dessert!