Recipes Archives - Page 22 of 27

Gifting Goes Wild: Four Fab Finds for a Blue Christmas

Wild blueberries – sweet, delicious, and packed with powerful antioxidants – they are part of holiday-ready homes, not just in Maine and Canada but across the nation. If they aren’t part of your celebration, they should be. Blues do heavy lifting during the season as the perfect ingredient for the sweet, the savory, and everything in between. And, gifts that feature wild blueberries send a message that the recipient is as unique as what’s in the box.

Whether your love for wild blues cleaves toward the traditional – say, blueberry pancakes on Christmas morning – or the more enthusiastic (like the Maine Wild Blueberry Wreath pictured above from Maine Made Christmas), you can incorporate this beloved berry into your holidays. These four wild blue finds are a great start, whether you are gift shopping, entertaining, or in need of an exceptionally sweet treat.

Enjoy the season!

1. HoneyMaker Blueberry Mead

HoneyMaker Mead is handcrafted in Maine and uses the natural ingredients of the state – notably, locally sourced honey – to create its complex flavor. To make HoneyMaker Blueberry Mead, organic wild blueberries infuse a blueberry essence and a rose-colored hue to the mead, and the result is an aperitif that serves as a distinctive alternative to rosé.

Wild Cocktail Tip:

Lovely alone, cocktails are a creative way to enjoy mead. Try HoneyMaker Blueberry Mead in a Nor’Easter, a refreshing cocktail any time of year that combines Cold River Blueberry Vodka and Bar Harbor Blueberry Syrup – a true taste of the coast!

2. Pemberton’s Spicy Blueberry Steak Sauce & Marinade

This superbly spicy, savory version of steak sauce takes flavor to new heights when meat, chicken, or fish are involved. Its use of wild blues makes more traditional sauces seem old-fashioned. It was developed by a retired Maine police chief and perfected by Pemberton’s Gourmet in Gray. It recently received a seal of approval from Portland Press Herald’s food writer Meredith Goad. Spicy Blueberry Steak Sauce & Marinade imparts a subtle flavor to steak and chicken (even salmon) and works as a kicky marinade. Pick it up for the meat lover in your life at Pemberton’s Gourmet, where you’ll also find Blueberry Salsa and some mouth-watering ideas for giving your sauce a try.

3. Wild Maine Blueberry Tart

The art of the tart is not lost on wild blueberry lovers the world over. If you’re looking for a sensational dessert for a holiday party, hostess gift, or a taste of home to arrive at a far-flung relative’s door, iGourmet.com comes through with their Wild Maine Blueberry Tart, a decadent dessert made with fresh Maine blueberries, lime curd and a touch of coconut. This taste-of-harvest-season treat arrives frozen anywhere you wish.

4. Chocolate! (with a Touch of Blue)

For some, it’s a stocking stuffer, for others it’s the main event – chocolate, that is, a gift giving staple for all seasons. Wild blueberries create a sweet fusion with chocolate that local chocolatiers find it impossible not to take advantage of.

Exhibit one: Len Libby’s Maine Wild Blueberry Clusters. Go wild and add Blueberry Caramel Popcorn from the Maine chocolatier for a unique take on the state’s favorite flavor. You can also opt for Bar Harbor Jam’s Milk Chocolate Covered Blueberries, a sweetly sensational example of how this company uses wild blues in their wares. Finally, get your sweet on with Wilbur’s Chocolate Covered Blueberries – these dried blueberries dipped generously in white chocolate are tinted for their true blue look.

Baking for the holiday season? Make sure to keep Wild Blueberries Recipes close at hand. You’ll be prepared for seasonal surprises with everything from appetizers to cocktails.

Venison & Wild Blueberries: A Regional Pairing

Here in New England and Canada, hunting season has come to close, and venison has been making its debut on menus at home and in area restaurants. We recently shared a venison dish with TheUrbanMrs.com to demonstrate how an entrée that reflects our regional foods can create a flavorful pairing.

Proteins come to life when complemented by the bright, tangy complex flavors of wild blueberries, and they create an ideal flavor profile for this richly flavored dish. Even avid sportsmen admit that the secret of these Venison Medallions with Sautéed Apple Slices and Wild Blueberry Sauce is in the sauce, which combines red wine, beef broth, garlic, onion and currant jelly. It’s high on health as well: venison is particularly low in saturated fat, and wild blueberries provide powerful nutrition and antioxidants.

Get the full recipe at TheUrbanMrs.com. Then, discover other delicious entrées appetizers, snacks, drinks, and sides at WildBlueberries.com to round out your holiday entertaining.

Guest Post: The Urban Mrs.

Fusing Food, Fun, & Wild Blueberries

This week, we’re happy to introduce you to Linda Tambunan, the force behind TheUrbanMrs.com, a blog about cooking simple, healthy dishes. The blog’s tagline, “Eat. Play. Love – Daringly Delicious” fits her perspective perfectly. It’s a place where Fridays usually have the adjective “Fun” and “Muffin Mondays” are a weekly occurrence. Her approach to cooking says it all: “to explore new flavors and leave the dishes unwashed.”

The self-proclaimed food enthusiast draws her inspiration from her upbringing in Asia spent hanging around her mother’s kitchen, and more recently from her own culinary experimentation in her San Francisco kitchen, thousands of miles from her childhood home. Her edible exploits, revealed in engaging narrative and visual documentation, are often interpretations of Asian-influenced dishes infused with West Coast style.

Many of Linda’s recipes reveal a love of fusion at their core, like this Turkey Empana and Chimichurri Sauce, a solution for Thanksgiving leftovers, these sweetly health-conscious Gluten-free Apple Cider Doughnuts, and the surprisingly appetizing Spam Pasta Salad, where two worlds collide deliciously. This week, she shares a recipe perfectly suited to Wild About Health. For these Wild Blueberry Cupcakes with Coffee Frosting, she says, “I rely heavily on the sweetness and colors of blueberry, hence this recipe is not as sweet as a regular cupcake,” and adds, “this is one of our family favorites”.

(Coffee Frosting Recipe is courtesy of AllRecipes.com.)

Pie Time: Give Thanks to Berries This Week

Mince meat, apple, derby – they’ll all have their day. This holiday is made for berries – they emphasize the bounty of the fall harvest, provide a burst of color, and are perfect as part of a holiday that revolves around cuisine.

Of course, some Thanksgivings can resemble a game of pie poker with so many varieties anted up on the table. So why go all in with a berry pie? Plenty of reasons.

Taste. Tart, sweet, and savory pleases the palate after a meal. Warm from the oven, a berry pie provides a final flourish of intense flavor, and it’s less likely to weigh you down. Superb when solo, berry combinations are a pleasure as well – mixing tart with sweet by using cranberries with wild blueberries, for example, creates a unique taste sensation and grabs rave reviews at the table.

Health advantages. While healthy eating may not be at the forefront on Thanksgiving, berries, especially wild blueberries, are still antioxidant powerhouses. Just because it’s pie, doesn’t mean you aren’t getting the benefit of healthy, whole food in every forkful. And, calorically, most berry pies are on the light side. One slice of wild blueberry pie is approximately 360 calories. Pumpkin weighs in at about the same, while pecan pie is comes in at 503, says Slim Calm Sexy Diet author Keri Glassman.
Visual impact. Nothing pleases the eye like a dessert piled high with berries. A berry pie bubbling when it emerges from the oven, oozing its dark blue and red juices onto its golden crust, can make mouths water. You can achieve the perfect texture says Serious Eats by adjusting the cornstarch: less will yield a runny pie while more will provide a jammy texture.
Because it’s seasonally on target. It used to be some pie lovers stopped baking berry pies after the fresh season. Times sure have changed. Bakers know better today – waiting around for fresh is a thing of the past, and berry pies are served up in the best kitchens long after summer. Fresh frozen technology makes berries like wild blueberries superb for baking. Top chefs, bakers, and cooks routinely choose frozen for its convenience and baking ease as well as its frozen-at-peak taste and nutrition.

So start rolling your dough, and pour copious amounts of glorious berries into that crust. A search for the best berry pie is always fruitful. Here’s a taste to get you on your berry way.

Cloudy with a Chance of Berries

Amanda and Merrill over at Food52.com help you bake with confidence whether you are making a pie, a tart or clafoutis. Roll a pastry, hack a tart pan, and make it vegan if you choose. Then, try your hand at making this Lemon Cloud Winter Berry Tart – its blueberries float on a cloud. If you’re the unconventional type, this Very Odd But Delicious Pie is for you. It’s a blend of berries, including wild blueberries, pear, and apple, mingled with a shot of whiskey. Peculiar just might be the new delicious.

Berry Serious

We commend Serious Eats for touting frozen berries! They’re a winter blessing in this Mixed Berry Pie, and in this Classic Blueberry Pie, in which lemon zest works to bring out the tangy brightness of the blueberries – wonderful. Remember to go “wild” with your blues for optimum taste, nutrition and more berries per bite.

You can also head over to atendercrumb.com to delight in the wonders of dessert. This Double Crusted Blueberry Pie provides culinary rescue to pie monotony, paired here with vanilla bean ice cream.

Traditional, Not Conventional

Call it cranberry-blueberry or blueberry-cranberry – these two berries are perfect harmony inside a crust. This Cranberry and Wild Blueberry Pie is a paradigm of palatability. Must have pumpkin pie? Understood. We think this Pumpkin Blueberry Pie has great flavor potential.

Crust Conversion

Mix it up in the crust department this year. Start with Martha’s pie crust 101. Then, put your mad skills to work with in Deep Dish Mixed Berry Pie or go rectilinear with Blueberry Slab Pie to win high appraisals for unique geometry.

Or, forget the share tactics and choose individual pies to make every guest feel special. Remember frozen always substitutes for fresh – no compromising on flavor or nutrition necessary.

Oh, Yeah – The Ultimate Berry Pie

Six colorful cups of wild blueberries make this Wild Blueberry Pie the ultimate in flavor, health, and visual impact. Bake, slice and serve, and bask in the sweetness of blue – the perfect ending to the perfect culinary day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Wild Blueberries Complete a Colorful Table

5 Super Sides for the Fall Season

Wild blueberries have surged in popularity in dishes, sauces, and sides and as substitutes for traditional ingredients in classic recipes. Intense nutrition? Sure – but they also have an exceptional taste that pairs with proteins and shines in sweets.

When plating that’s pleasing to the eye is a central concern, wild blues provide a pop of color. Of course, wild blueberries are a seasonless go-to ingredient in pies, but fall gatherings are a perfect time to think outside the crust. If your goal is nutrition, flavor, and appearance in equal measure, side dishes that feature wild blueberries can turn a hum-drum nosh into a spectacular repast.

As part of your quest for wildly delicious sides, remember that frozen suits almost every recipe just as well as fresh – the substitution is one to one. Keep frozen wild blueberries frozen for cooking – no need to thaw – and make sure your blues are wild for maximum flavor, nutrition, and fruit-to-bite ratio (thanks to their smaller size). You can also substitute wild blueberries for cranberries in many holiday recipes, or swap half the cranberries for wild blueberries for a sweet and tart combination.

Ready for a fabulous feast? Here are five wild blueberry sides that will put your table on trend. (Careful, they might steal the show.)

1. Blueberry-Cranberry Sauce: A Neo-Classic

While wild blueberries outperform them when it comes to measuring both antioxidant capacity and cellular antioxidant activity, cranberries pack their own health punch. Together, these two vibrant berries score big in taste and nutrition. The zing of cranberry complemented by the unique sweet-savory flavor of wild blues is the perfect twist on an essential holiday side dish.

This Cranberry Sauce recipe readily suggests blueberry and pecan additions to the classic compote. The Examiner has a cran-blueberry take on this beloved side, and Allrecipes.com offers up a ramekin-ready take on Blue Cranberry Sauce.

2. Stuffing with Wild Blueberries: Sweet Surprise

Stuffing that includes wild blues? You bet. A touch-of-tart filling for a succulent bird provides a pop of color and the element of surprise. It’s on every foodie’s fall table this season. Consider what berries and currants do for a savory stuffing, and you’ll know why wild blueberries will work wonders in your own classic recipe – use 1 cup to 1 pound as a fruit-to-bread guideline.

If cornbread stuffing is a favorite, this Blueberry Cornbread Stuffing, originally from our own WildBlueberries.com, is a festive twist on the traditional. Cookingnook.com recommends fruit (wild blues, for example) to take this Best Turkey Stuffing to the next level, and Martha Stewart’s stuffing recipes, like Cornbread & Pumpkin Challah Stuffing and Bread Stuffing with Sage, encourage embellishments such as dried blueberries.

3. Wild Blueberry Stuffed Squash: A Visual Feast

This new table tradition is trending. Why? Because squash and sweet blues make a superb pair, and a halved acorn or butternut filled to the brim with berries is stunning to serve to guests. Acorn Squash Stuffed with Blueberries from Epicurious.com is right on the nose – you’ll find many recipes that riff off of this foundation. Others use rice or quinoa to stuff, and encourage berry additions.

4. Wild Blueberry (Turkey) Sauce: The Perfect Profile

It’s as if wild blueberries were made to pair with turkey. Entrees like turkey, chicken, duck and lamb achieve a sweet flavor balance with wild blues. Unlike the stand-alone sauce above, these sauces are meant for pouring, drizzling, and highlighting the main attraction, and their variations harmonize exquisitely.

Lay claim to this Wild Blueberry Grape Sauce, for instance, if you are looking for a colorful drizzle to liven up your platter. EatingWell.com uses thyme to complete the flavor profile on this Turkey with Blueberry Pan Sauce, and Wild Blueberry Chutney does similar work as a festive topping, be it breast, leg, or wing (or turkey sandwiches).

5. Wild Blueberry Bread: Beat the Beige

Bread completes any homemade meal, and with a scattering of sweet blue berries, it can do double duty by beating a holiday meal’s beige blues. With so many options, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity for some wild baking this season.

Raise the roof with this Quinoa Blueberry, Cheddar, & Caraway Rye Cornbread from Yummly, try Paula Deen’s Sweet Blueberry Cornbread, or this Blueberry Zucchini Bread, either for meals or morning afters. Taste of Home keeps the flavor refreshing with Blueberry Orange Bread, or take a left turn and go for Blueberry Bread Pudding from Food & Wine. Enjoy!

Want More Blue? Learn Why Wild Blueberries Should be Part of Your Thanksgiving, and get your 10 Most Popular Questions About Cooking with Frozen Wild Blueberries answered at FAQ Blue.

Want a Daily Dose of Blue? Pin Your Passion!

Inspired to increase your wild blueberry intake? You’re not alone. More and more of us are putting our yen for this colorful, delicious, powerfully healthy superfruit where our mouth is. Eating more wild blueberries means you’re replacing empty calorie foods with nutrient-rich ones, eating something you love, and, most likely, cooking more at home. And that’s good for your weight, your health, and your well being.

Luckily, there’s a place that satisfies a desire for everything blue and provides a new wild blueberry recipe every day to help maintain enthusiasm for your daily dose – it’s our Pinterest page – a place where those who love wild blueberries come together to share their passion.

Our “WildBlueberries!” page provides lively, colorful boards with themes like Wild Blueberry Cocktails and Wild Blueberry Daily Recipes. The Wild Blueberry Videos board contains a wealth of visual delights, facts about wild blues, and one-on-ones with chefs that use them in their recipes. Where else could you find a fabulous Fruit Pizza, a French Toast Sandwich and this Forbidden Rice Pudding with Blueberries in one place? And, because our Wild Blueberry Daily Recipes board provides a brand new wild blueberry recipe every day, it will inspire and assist you in your quest to get your daily dose of blue.

A Community of Blue

If getting a daily dose of blue sounds easy, that’s because it is. Many people already incorporate a half cup or more of wild blueberries into their diet each day. While some insist on a daily smoothie, others enjoy finding new and original ways to incorporate their favorite blue fruit into salads, sandwiches, entrées and desserts. In fact, if you are someone who is always seeking out new ideas to make meals exciting, you may reap health benefits. Those who eat a varied diet, include a diversity of fruits and vegetables, and eat widely across the color spectrum are often healthier. A colorful diet that incorporates a rainbow of colors provided by nature is an excellent basis for getting needed nutrients. Eating a daily dose of wild blueberries fits the bill perfectly, especially because of their year-round availability in the frozen aisle.

Get on Board

Ready to show your love for wild blueberries?

First, log in to your Pinterest account and visit our page. There’s lots of things to do there:

Follow us. Follow a favorite board, like Wild Blueberry Cocktails, the Wild About Health board, recipe board, video board – or all of them!
Get a link. Re-pin something anytime during the month of October from any of our boards and we’ll post a link to your Pinterest board on Facebook and Twitter.
Have your recipe featured on Wild Blueberry Daily Recipes. Choose a favorite wild blueberry recipe – something you found surfing the web, or something from your own website or blog. Then, post the URL to your recipe in the comment section here. We might choose it to be one of our Wild Blueberry Daily Recipes and share it with all our followers!

Indulging your passion with a pin is a fun way to learn about health and get inspired to create new dishes and share them. You’ll see how easy it is to start eating more wild blues – you may even want to do it every day.

Interested in incorporating a daily dose of blue in your diet? Ease into your regimen with ½ cup twice a week. Eating anthocyanin-rich fruits just twice a week, particularly wild blueberries, has been shown to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes. Then, move to ½ cup every day as a way to attain the recommended goal of two cups of fruit per day. Getting two cups of fruit per day means you have an ally in the battle to stay healthy and age well. It will help you maintain weight and may help protect you against diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Need something else to sweeten the pie? Dishes that include wild blueberries satisfy cravings for the sweet and delicious – and that helps maintain a healthy diet 365 days a year. Happy pinning!

Cranberries: 5 Things to Know About This Healthy, Colorful Fruit

In the fall, the cranberry’s heyday begins. Harvest season is marked by a sea of red for many regions, and while top cranberry producer Wisconsin is the state most recognized for its cranberry crop, Maine and parts of Canada also contribute to global cranberry production. Maine alone produces approximately 2 millions pounds annually, and this year, the state’s production may exceed 2.5, owing to few pest challenges and obliging weather conditions.

Known for its colorful skin and flavor pizzazz, the cranberry is one of just three fruits native to North America, where it enjoys renown for its distinctly sweet-tart flavor and its irrevocable role in juices and as a holiday complement. The cranberry is also a contender when it comes to antioxidant content. While wild blueberries outperform them when it comes to measuring both antioxidant capacity and cellular antioxidant activity, cranberries pack their own health punch. Just by virtue of being a member of the high-antioxidant, free radical-fighting berry family, they are implicated in many benefits for the brain and cardiovascular system, and as a defense against some cancers. Eating cranberries is a key part of experiencing the rainbow of colors that nature provides to assist in disease prevention efforts.

If this intrepid berry has piqued your interest, your timing is right on target. Here are five things that will help you better understand and embrace a colorful fruit this season.

1) An Historical Remedy

It’s widely known that cranberries are a lauded home remedy for urinary tract infections. Research into whether cranberries have earned their reputation as a UTI treatment is ongoing, but studies have found that they do provide a defense against the bacteria responsible for UTIs, as do wild blueberries. The berry’s ability to prevent bacterial attachment may also provide benefits for ulcers, for example. Native Americans were well acquainted with this bacteria-preventing characteristic – they would crush up cranberries and use them as treatment for wounds.

2) Berries from the Bog

Cranberries are known for their unique growing and harvesting method in bogs. Cranberries actually grow on vines – they thrive in soft, marshy ground and grow naturally in areas that provide this environment. When cranberries ripen on the vines growing in these wetlands, farmers fill the area with water. A machine used to beat the water releases the cranberries from their vines, and they are left to float on the water’s surface, creating the crimson tide that we know as the cranberry bog. There, the floating berries are easy to collect and ship.

3) Scarlet, Frankly

Initially, cranberries are white (harvesting while the berries are still white explains white cranberries and white cranberry juice) and they take on their deep ruby color with ripening, thanks to anthocyanin, a phytonutrient that provides color and health benefits. Natural sunlight is the catalyst to increasing phytonutrient content in the cranberry – the more sun, the more powerful the berry’s health benefits. Anthocyanins, found in all berries, promote health by fighting cell damage and reducing inflammation, a risk factor in many health issues, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.

4) Synergy

This red berry has more than spunk – it has synergy. Synergy is nature’s way of “packaging” nutrients that results in big health benefits. It occurs when components within the same food, or components between different foods, work together in a way that is more powerful than their effects would be separately. This heightened nutritional value supports disease prevention efforts and other aspects of health, such as weight loss. Some recent studies indicate that cranberries eaten whole rather than consumed as a liquid, dried, or in supplement form, for example, allow a synergistic reaction that heightens their dietary impact. (It’s the same with other foods like wild blueberries, a fruit that lends itself to being consumed whole if you are looking for a healthy, easy-to-eat alternative.) It’s another reason that buying the whole fruit is best for health – the special nutritional power of berries the way nature created them simply can’t be replicated.

5) Beyond the Bird

It might be early in the season to think about stuffing your Thanksgiving bird, but that’s no reason to wait to start enjoying cranberries. Berries of all kinds complete the health picture every day of the year by providing superb nutrition. And, cranberries are an excellent way to enjoy red-colored foods as we strive to eat across the color spectrum. Start welcoming them in your non-holiday recipes right now, in a Cranberry Relish for starters, to use in everyday sandwiches and sides. Enjoy a Cranberry Almond Cinnamon Tart to add zing to a meal, or bake Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies for the kids. Keep the trend going with Creamy Cranberry Salad to take full advantage of this colorful fruit. And, remember that you can substitute frozen wild blueberries for cranberries in many recipes.

Want a pie that packs and antioxidant punch? Please your palate with a Cranberry and Wild Blueberry Pie. Healthy eating never tasted so good!

What other fruits are native to North America? One is the wild blueberry, of course, indigenous to Maine and parts of Canada. The other is the Concord grape, which traces its history to nearby Concord, Massachusetts.

Photo Credit: “Cranberry”
Half Chinese

New England Memories Are Incomplete Without Wild Blueberries

Sunny Jennings shares plenty of wonderful dishes on her blog Tantra Cooking. Tantra, a method of cooking that puts the focus on the process of making the meal, allows us to combine our passion for whole, healthy food with the personal relationships that truly sustain us.

Jennings says wild blueberries are her favorite fruit, and calls them “naturally sweet and perfect.” This week, she shares her New England memories of wild blueberry picking and cooking, exclusively with Wild About Health.

I REMEMBER EVERYTHING about living in the hills of New England through a rosy glow of nostalgia, especially summers, my many, wonderful girlfriends and blueberry season.

We all anticipated wild blueberry season and would begin getting together our recipes weeks ahead. Old recipes had been handed down through the families, new ones were usually clipped from Yankee Magazine and many were experimental works in progress. While we ate blueberries every day of the season, one day each August my friends and blueberries came together. It was magic.

Although I lived in the verdant hills far from a city, I was blessed to live in a neighborhood with other houses nearby. Most had women near my age and all were wonderful cooks or bakers. Each year, we would plan a morning hike on our closest mountain. We carried empty bags up the mountain and brought back down bags filled with wild blueberries for an all-afternoon baking event. Often, it rained on those mornings, which only seemed to make the event even more special. Picture us: no make up, hair yanked back under baseball caps, blue teeth and tongues, wet clothes and muddy boots. Yes, these are the girls gone wild for blueberries.

While I routinely used blueberries all kinds of ways, that day was dedicated to deserts and lots of sugar!

We each had several quarts to work with and the six kitchens closest to one another became a communal culinary site. We cooked that way for other large events, however, one Saturday each August, we created the largest wild blueberry test kitchen on the planet. Or, so we told ourselves. We told stories, caught up on our news, laughed, experimented, carefully or casually measured ingredients, shared equipment and gently critiqued each creation as it reached its optimal temperature. We loved our time together, and each of us carried timers hooked to our waists to remind us to race back and check on whatever was in the oven or refrigerator. Amazingly, we never lost a dish to inattention. Hot crumbles and crisps, warm pies, cakes and chilled trifles, came out beautifully as the native girls passed their generations of family knowledge on how to work with wild blueberries. For one day each year, we didn’t worry about whether our jeans would zip the following week and delved into pure yummy.

None of us had secret ingredients or recipes we refused to share. That isn’t the New England way, and we were all about helping one another develop even better recipes.
Now that I no longer live there, I keep my eyes open for wild blueberries, and I’m thrilled to have found them at better produce outlets. Not only do they allow me to feel connected to my wonderful friends in New England, but each is a sweet gift of flavor as it bursts in my mouth. It’s easy to forget how healthful they are! Over the years, I’ve cut back on the mountains of sugar we used during our blueberry baking marathons. Fortunately, blueberries don’t actually need sugar to sweeten them. They are naturally sweet,
naturally perfect.

We all have our favorite pie and crumble recipes, so today, I’ve included an updated recipe that is so healthy, I can enjoy it nearly every day. It’s a Wild Blueberry and Quinoa.

Add spice to your life in the kitchen.

Sunny Jennings, at www.Tantracooking.com.

Wild Blueberry and Quinoa Parfait

Most of my girlfriends from the gym begin their days with Greek yogurt, granola and blueberries. That’s a great start before our workouts. I’ve switched over to this quinoa recipe, which has the added benefit of Omega-3s. Also, the use of honey and walnuts reminds me of wonderful Greek deserts.

By cooking the quinoa the night before, I can assemble the dish, eat and get in half a workout before I wake up!

Nutritional Fireball! Tomatoes Make the Grade in Health & Taste

There is plenty of passion for the fresh tomato. When this veggie-turned-fruit took off in the world of nutrition, it was good news for those who love it – and so many of us do, enjoying it in sauces, on pizzas, in sandwiches, and in salads. But during the season, the fresh tomato is infinitely easy to enjoy. A local beefsteak or heirloom can be sliced and eaten with just salt and pepper. Or, add mozzarella, olive oil, and basil and eat within minutes of picking to enjoy all the tasty sweetness that nature intended.

While wild blueberries are heralded for their versatility with meals – they move from breakfast to lunch to dessert with ease – tomatoes also work in unexpected ways during the season, making full use of their categorization of both fruit (botanically) and vegetable (culinarily). The tomato is an end-of-summer delight whether on toast or with eggs for breakfast, cooked into a tarte for lunch, or served, as in this Green Tomato Pie, as a palate-pleasing dessert. And, just as wild blueberries show off there high polyphenol content in their deep blue skin, tomatoes advertise lycopene in their fiery color – the nutritional key to what makes them a superior indulgence.

The Skin They’re In

We know much of the mystique of the wild blueberry resides in its skin. When you eat a serving of wild blues, you are eating plenty of tender, colorful skin, and that’s where the nutrients reside. Polyphenols, which are responsible for the dark blue coloring, carry the potent antioxidant effect. Tomatoes are similar – their skin is their strength. The red pigment is a sign of nutritional value and the existence of lycopene, a phytochemical found in red fruits and vegetables. It’s present in peppers, carrots and watermelon as well.

Studies show lycopene holds antioxidant properties – at least when it occurs in its natural form. Tomatoes also contains vitamin C, folate, and potassium which may work in synergy with lycopene to make the tomato so nutrient rich. Because of its antioxidant properties, the tomato can help protect us against cancer and other diseases of aging by protecting our cells from damage.

But is the buzz about tomatoes really news? Sort of. While we’ve always known fruits and vegetables provide us with high nutritional value, it’s only recently that scientists have made the connection between the tomato and lower risk of disease. Also notable is research indicating that unlike most fresh fruits and vegetables, cooking tomatoes increases their nutrition. In fact, a recent study indicates that the lycopene present in a cooked tomato may slow the growth of or even kill prostate cancer cells. Cooking, it seems, increases the bioavailability of the lycopene, which is bound within the raw tomato in a way that the body can’t efficiently use. It’s news that makes our love for eating tomatoes in sauces and cooked into so many favorite recipes quite fortuitous.

Buying a Killer Tomato

If you must look beyond your own backyard for a tomato this season, here are some ways to get the best at farmer’s markets and grocery stores:

Choose a local tomato. Local has less distance to travel, so it’s fresher and tastier, and it’s picked when it’s riper. Commercial tomatoes endure off-the-vine ripening and hybridization that saps flavor, the bane of winter tomato lovers.
Try the heirlooms. Heirloom tomatoes are grown naturally and represent the best of the bunch.
At the grocery store, go for UglyRipe or Kumato. These varieties have sweeter, juicer taste, according to Cook’s Illustrated.
Don’t choose photo-worthy tomatoes. Non-commercial tomatoes are rarely perfectly shaped; even a crack in the skin is A-OK, says Cook’s. Also, don’t be fooled by the vine-ripened label, they advise. While better than commercial tomatoes that are picked while green and blasted with ethylene gas, the “vine-ripened” moniker means most of the ripening still occurs off the vine – just 10% of the skin is required to be red to get the designation.
Never refrigerate. Cold reduces flavor, so store tomatoes at room temperature, even if they have been cut (then, just wrap in plastic and use within days).

A Tomato Makes the (Entire) Meal

Tomatoes bring versatility to the table when summer is high. While sauces are fine for winter comfort foods, recipes that capitalize on freshness are the key to summer tomato eating. Here are four that represent an entire meal, proving that no matter the course, tomatoes never have to sit it out this time of year.

The Cocktail: Star Ledger’s Spirited Gardner serves up a tomato-infused cocktail garnished with a mozzarella ball. Refreshing!

The Salad: Making full use of the season’s bounty is this superfruit-infused Tomato, Watermelon, & Blueberry Salad from About a Mom.

The Entrée: Lunch doesn’t get any better when it comes to fresh tomatoes than this Tomato Basil Frittata from Connecticut Chef Melanie Driscoll.

The Dessert: This Bon Appetit Tomato Tarte Tatin is a taste revelation as well as a lycopene winner. According to the description, “As the tomatoes cook in the caramel, they become sweet and tender but retain their clean, fresh flavor. Prepare to be blown away.”

Use Your Blues: Bountiful Season = Classic Recipes

Also: Know Wild Blues? Win a Deluxe 5-Day Bar Harbor Trip!

Wild blueberry growers are expecting a bountiful harvest this season, and the race is on to make this abundance of blues work in our favor. Switching out frozen for fresh can mix up our blueberry repertoire and help us get a little closer to the origins of a favorite fruit. Chefs, bakers and home cooks all around the region are busy taking advantage of this fresh product while the getting is very, very good.

Don’t know where to start? Help is everywhere this season. First, every week in August, the Portland Press Herald will share fantastic ways to use your blues while they’re fresh. (And, you can take the recipes into the winter season by replacing fresh with the just-as-nutritious frozen.) Get a start this week with the Azure Café’s Campside Wild Maine Blueberry Upside Down Cake.

Also, The Montreal Gazette reminds us that Quebec places second to Maine in wild blueberry production and offers up Classic Blueberry Crisps and Blueberry Meringues to help get the season started. Down East, publisher of The Wild Blueberry Book, weighs in as well, reminding us of an award-winning recipe, Cinnamon Nut Coffee Cake, that is destined to be a classic.

Know Your Wild Blues? Take the Quiz, Win a Trip!

What can knowing about wild blueberries do for you?

Well, a lot. Integrating just a half a cup of wild blueberries into your diet (health researchers indicate the more the better) can help you age better, provide protection against cancer and diabetes, and coat our bodies with an armor against disease.

What’s more, it can help you win a fabulous expense-paid 5-day trip to the heart of blueberry harvest country – Bar Harbor, Maine – that is packed with amenities.

The Wild Blueberry Association is holding the ultimate wild blueberry sweepstakes. The winner receives a 5-day, 4-night getaway in Bar Harbor, Maine, including round-trip travel and accommodations at the deluxe Bar Harbor Inn & Spa for two. Included in this special getaway is Acadia National Park passes, a windjammer cruise, and dinner for two. Add to your stay a full wild blueberry breakfast each morning, two 50-minute Swedish massages and a Go Wild Tour of the wild blueberry barrens to see first hand the origin of these nutritious, antioxidant-rich berries that make life better and bluer all year long. In short, it’s the Ultimate Wild Blueberry Getaway.

Just enter to win—it’s easy. You’ll watch a video to bone up on why wild blueberries are nature’s antioxidant fruit. Then, you’ll take a short, fun quiz to test your Wild IQ. Provide your info, and you’ll automatically be entered to win.

Did You Know?

Wild blueberries aren’t planted?

Wild blueberries have natural protectors so they can handle the stress of their wild environment?
A quart of wild blueberries includes several different varieties?
Chefs use wild because their flavor is more intense than cultivated berries?

It’s true—and it’s all part of the reason we celebrate wild blueberries everyday, every season, fresh and frozen.

See what a little knowledge can do. Enter Now for a Chance to Win and enjoy a luxurious stay in the place where it all begins – Wild Blueberry Country!

Fusing Food, Fun, & Wild Blueberries

5 Super Sides for the Fall Season

Also: Know Wild Blues? Win a *Deluxe 5-Day Bar Harbor Trip*!

Also: Know Wild Blues? Win a Deluxe 5-Day Bar Harbor Trip!