Best Summer Recipes and Cookbook Winner

Wow...great comments!
Thanks to everyone who entered the contest to win The Maine Summers Cookbook.

Here's my high tech choosing method - the Bonus Baby
picks names from a basket!

The winner is Janet!
Janet, please send me an email with your home address and I will send the cookbook right out to you.

My readers have a lot to get done before summer ends and most of it involves eating. I knew I liked you guys.
Elaine, Nancy and Teslaca want to have backyard lobster bakes.
Elle and Medusa need more fried clams (me too).
And John wants me to teach him to make dinner!

There's plenty that I haven't gotten to yet this summer as well, and it mostly has to do with food. Big surprise huh?

Here are five foods just made for August, when summer produce is at its peak. Click on the title and it'll take you right to the recipe.
What are we waiting for?
Enjoy!

1. Tomato Bruschetta

2. Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

3. Zucchini Spice Cake with cream cheese frosting

4. Maine Blueberry Cake

5. Lemonade Pie

Blueberry Crumb Cake and Excuses

My poor neglected blog.
Just lying there, so eager to please, so hungry for some attention.
Its mother  author has been so, so busy.
We had a graduation.

That's the Bonus Baby over his shoulder

How that sweet little boy grew to become this big lovable going-to-college guy overnight, I'll never understand.

We had graduation parties.
And company.
We had senior awards and convocation.
Baseball playoffs.

And oh yeah, two other children.
One who needs to be driven to a ferry for her job on the island every day.
And one whose class needs a chaperone for the field trip to Boston.

So the blog got pushed to the back burner. (Get it? Back burner? It's a cooking blog.)
Enough with the excuses - let's get to the food.

I cooked lots of it these past few weeks, but the all around favorite had to the blueberry crumb cake from Barefoot Contessa. If you ever want to try something new and have it guaranteed to come out right, then you have to go with a Barefoot Contessa recipe. They always work.

This cake has a thick crumb topping that reminds me of the Entenmann's cakes we had when I was a kid. There always seemed to be an Entenmann's box in my house, that we would eat sliver by sliver, then crumb by crumb.
That seemed pretty good at the time, but this is way better. It's an easy cake to put together, and a nice one to bring to a friend.
Excellent to eat by yourself too.

Blueberry Crumb Cake
Barefoot Contessa at Home


For the streusel:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter, then the flour. Mix well and set aside.

For the cake:

6 Tbsps. unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 extra-large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest (optional)

2/3 cup sour cream

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

1 cup fresh blueberries

confectioners' sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour (or use cooking spray for baking) a 9" round springform pan.
Cream the butter and sugar together, on high speed, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, until light, 4-5 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Add vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Fold in the blueberries and stir with a spatula, making sure the batter is completely mixed.
Spoon the batter into prepared pan and spread it out with a knife. With your fingers, crumble the topping evenly over the batter.
Bake 40-50 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely, then remove from pan to serving plate. Sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar.

Summer Produce-palooza Panic!: Maine Blueberry Cake

 Throughout the summer, I approach the farmers' markets each week with enthusiasm, excitement and anticipation.
 So much color and texture.
So much choice. So many possibilities.

Until there's not.
Suddenly it's September and now I visit the market with a bit of trepidation.
What if there aren't any more Sungolds?
Is this the last week for blackberries?
Will those baby zucchini still be here next time?

It was rough in early July when the local strawberries were done. Raspberries too - gone before I knew it.
It's a little like holding your child's hand. You never know when will be the last time.

So I'm in a bit of a panic. Especially about the blueberries. Those tiny Maine blueberries, that along with lobster and LL Bean are a symbol of all that's best and holy about our state.

I've been eating them every day on my cereal and in my yogurt. But for some reason I hadn't baked a single thing with them.
Until today. Which is pretty much the hottest day of the entire year.
But I couldn't wait any longer. Because you just never know.

This recipe is adapted from a wonderful blog I recently discovered called Baked in Maine. The cake has an extremely tender crumb, which is a nice contrast to the crunch of the streusel top.  And it's not at all stingy with the blueberries. I couldn't resist eating a piece warm from the oven.
Even if it is 93 degrees outside.

I made two 9x9 cakes from this recipe. You could do that or make one 9x13. Baked in Maine also suggests a bundt pan. I'm thinking of making this cake with chopped apples when the blueberries are all gone.

Maine Blueberry Cake adapted from Baked in Maine


3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsps. vanilla extract

zest of one lemon

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
(Can be found in the natural foods section of your grocer. Not regular whole wheat flour - it will be too heavy.)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsps. baking soda

1 1/2 tsps. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups plain lowfat yogurt

2 cups fresh or frozen Maine blueberries (or some other kind if that's what you can get)

Streusel:

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup whole oats

1 tsp. cinnamon

4 Tbsps. unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line your pan (or pans) with nonstick foil or spray with baking spray.
Make the streusel by mixing all ingredients together with a fork, until well blended.

In the bowl of a standing mixer (or with a hand mixer in a large bowl) cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Mix thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, the all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Alternating these dry ingredients with the yogurt, mix into the batter. Beat one more minute.
Place berries in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. flour. Mix lightly so that all the berries are covered with flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your cake. Fold berries gently into batter.

Pour batter into prepared pans. You can layer the streusel with the batter, or put all the streusel on top. Bake for about 40 minutes, depending on the size of your pan. Check for doneness with a toothpick - it should come out of the cake with just a few crumbs attached.