Just to prove — once again — that you can actually make my shortbread crumble bars in almost any flavor, I decided to go for three more unique ones: Jostaberry (a cross between a gooseberry and a black currant), Cloud Berry (golden blond raspberries) and Lingonberries (loosely related to cranberries). Over time, I had either made or bought jams of all three and decided to make bars from them. As always super easy to make and are delicious.
Here a bit using the of bounty from my weekend in Maine: Chanterelle and Caramelized Onion Breakfast Tarts with the chanterelles that I foraged in the woods myself. Let me start with this disclaimer: If you do not know your wild mushrooms, please don’t go foraging; just buy them in the shops. Even if you know your mushrooms, please be exceptionally careful. I have been “mushroom hunting” since I was a toddler with my family … it’s a German thing.
As is tradition in my little world, I went strawberry picking over the weekend, and what comes after strawberry pickin’? Jam makin’! Every year, I try to make something a little different, and this year, I used a little bit of honey. It’s just a little bit of a taste of floral, but nevertheless adds something nice.
Well, yes, it’s been nearly two weeks since I posted anything. Let’s just say that lots of things are wrong, I am feeling a lot of complex feelings and while I am have been baking and cooking, it’s been a lot of “just the usual” things, without much fanfare.
But I had promised another rhubarb recipe, so here we have some Old Fashioned Oatmeal Rhubarb Bars. Rustic and simple, these are great for a dessert at a potluck picnic. Not too sweet.
When I think of purple foods, the first thing that comes to mind are blueberries. There are, of course, other purple foods — plums, potatoes, cabbage even artichokes, eggplant and asparagus — but the easiest for me is blueberries as I have a whole bunch frozen in my fridge plus the jar of jam that I made last year. The color came out very dark but the glaze was perfectly blueberry-esque.