honey

Blackberry Ice….Very Nice!

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 22 Comments

 

Fresh Blackberries Please

One day they are green and hard and we wait. The next day it seems the drupelets have blackened and we cannot eat them fast enough. Such is blackberry season.

I have made Fourth of July Blackberry Pies in my Food on Fifth kitchen as well as Blackberry-Mango Drinks. I have shared my youthful blackberry picking snake story with you when I made a Blackberry Upside Down Cake and today offer the most simple and easy way to both preserve and cool down with fresh blackberries, A Very Nice Blackberry Ice.

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Plump, ripe Tennessee blackberries……

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….frozen on a parchment lined baking sheet. In the food industry this way of individually freezing product is called “IQF” which means Individually Quick Frozen. This is how it’s done on a “at-home” scale. If you do not want to use the berries immediately just pop them into resealable plastic bags or boxes and store frozen until ready to use for any of your favorite dishes.

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A food processor….some honey or agave nectar…….

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…plus a splash of balsamic reduction….

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…gives you this….

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….and this……

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…and best of all…this…fresh blackberry ice…very nice!

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Blackberry Ice, Very Nice

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Fresh Blackberries PleaseDSC_1266_2

Ingredients:

  • fresh ripe blackberries
  • honey or agave nectar
  • balsamic reduction

Directions:

1. Freeze whole blackberries on a parchment lined sheet pan in a single layer.

2. Put frozen berries in a food processor with 2 tbsps honey or agave nectar & pulse a few times. Add 1 tbsp balsamic reduction and pulse until smooth. Taste & adjust flavors. Immediately scrape into a glass or metal container & freeze for 30 min to 1 hour. Serve.

“Honeycomb Cocktail for Fall Musings” or To Recipe or Not to Recipe….

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 18 Comments

Do food blogs have to be recipe driven? While sipping my “Honeycomb Cocktail” my mind was wandering…..that is what a Honeycomb Cocktail will do to you….

It does seem that a good, simple recipe can wow the most jaded of audiences. A beautiful photo of that recipe certainly gilds the lily. But there are many times, when the recipes I am cooking & the cocktails I am conjuring up belong to someone else  & what I am cooking is not for me, but for a cookbook, a restaurant menu, a magazine article or ad.  While I do love my work it definitely slows down my home kitchen output. But while I am on a shoot I always keep my camera handy. Wonderful imagery abounds in ways obvious or obscure having to do with food. These images often are what inspire me to cook up a new recipe, look at an old recipe differently, see food more scientifically and humorously. Here are some recent encounters of the food kind, not so recipe driven.

P.S. Don’t miss the recipe after the photos  that got this idea percolating...”Honeycomb Cocktail for Fall Musings”

Pie on paper
Ten til Five.....beautiful stainless steel everywhere
Not to be confused with any other breader.
Chicago, on a shoot, view out my hotel window.
An image styled.....
....part of same image "un-styled".
Dried up pears from a tree in my neighborhood...on ground since last fall.
Bread Box with inspirational sayings on restaurant table.
Lots of Big Spoons.
Lots of Big Ladles.
Fresh green peas ready to be shot.
Red Stripes.
Chef's coats
"fun" written in chocolate syrup
Some folks still make real flour sacks
Kitchen in an abandoned house
Chayote was the subject
Old recipe box for home economic students
Egg & Whisk

A simple recipe for my “Honeycomb Cocktail for Fall Musings”

Ingredients: Chilled White Rum, Chilled Limoncello, Honey with honey comb

Honeycomb

Directions:

Mix together 1 ounce chilled White Rum, 1 ounce chilled Limoncello liqueur, a tsp good local Honey. Pour into a glass. Garnish with a wedge of Honey Comb. Sip and let your mind wander.

Questions?

How often do you really follow a recipe?

Do you listen to music when you cook? What kind?

Do you encounter images daily that create food & recipe ideas in your head?

The more you know about food…do you find yourself eating less? or more?

Do you think you eat more than your fair share of the earth’s bounty?

Is it more important to blog often with less content or blog less often with more content.

How many times have you actually tried the recipes you encounter on food blogs?

What would you blog about it you had nothing to eat for a few days?

I ask myself these and more…

…..food for thought…

salut!