Start of a summer family tradition?

The girls and I went blueberry picking. John stayed home to watch Germany dismantle Argentina. I think those were the teams. Football, for those of you wondering. Oops. Forgot. You people probably call it soccer. Anyway.

It went something like this:

"Mama, is this one ripe?"
"What about this one?"
"And this one?"
"Look, I picked a blueberry."
"I'm sweaty."
"Look, my fingers are blue."
"I'm hot."
"I need a drink."
"I need to go potty."
"I'm tired of bending down."
"Can we leave yet?"
"Look at my blueberries!"
"Are we done yet?"
"I want to pick more!"
"The flies are biting me!"
"Well, they're tickling my legs!"
"I want to go!"
"I want to stay!"
"Aren't we done yet?"

Fun family tradition, I tell you. Don't you wish you could have come too?

By the way, if you didn't know (and I certainly didn't before today) - blueberry bushes are about the height of a not-very-tall adult female (me). The berries grow in convenient clusters, about the size of your hand. There aren't any thorns. People around us sat on stools to pick. These are E.A.S.Y. to pick. Easier than cherries (and you've heard the phrase cherry-picking, haven't you?). Easier than strawberries (oh my aching back!). Easier than blackberries (Ow!).

We came home with this:



Twelve pounds of freshly picked blueberries.

I froze some, refrigerated some, and made a cake.

Blueberry pound cake (slightly adapted from The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook)

2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup (4 oz) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz low-fat yogurt*
Cooking spray
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice

*recipe called for lemon yogurt. I found lemon chiffon yogurt, lemon meringue yogurt, lemon creme yogurt, but no plain old lemon yogurt. And the low-fat stuff was sweetened with aspartame or Splenda, which I think just tastes yucky. So I went with my standby - Stonyfield farms low-fat vanilla yogurt, and added the zest of a lemon.

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat granulated sugar, butter and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes, or in my case, until I assembled all the other ingredients). Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. (Oops. I just realized I forgot the vanilla.)
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 tablespoons flour and blueberries in a small bowl; toss to coat. Combine remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in blueberry mixture.
4. Pour batter into 10-inch tube pan coated with cooking spray. (I didn't have a tube pan, so I used a bundt pan. Apparently a tube pan has a removable bottom. This is important later. I also didn't use the cooking spray, because I think it tastes funky in baked goods. This is also important later).
5. Sharply tap pan once on counter to remove air bubbles. (I think I tapped many times. This might not have been a good thing.)
6. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (Mine was done in an hour.)
7. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove cake from sides of pan. Cool 15 additional minutes on wire rack; remove cake from bottom of pan. (Assuming the sides and bottom of your pan come apart. Mine didn't. I just let it sit until it was time to go to the party I was taking this to.)
8. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl drizzle over warm cake. Cut into slices using a serrated knife.
9. (Or struggle to remove the cake from the pan because you didn't grease it properly, before giving up and cutting it directly in the pan, since the non-stick finish is apparently not non-stick anyway. Mangle some slices. Notice that the blueberries mostly sank to the bottom of the cake, and wonder if that rather spirited 'sharp tapping' might have contributed to that. Eat. Enjoy.)