blackberry quick bread

there are blackberries growing along the greenway behind the house, and they are good ones, too!  which is quite convenient and beats doing what i did last summer - which was trekking alongside the road picking somewhat inferior berries.  this weekend, i spent a couple hours picking a gallon of blackberries.

i froze most of them, but i wanted to do something different with the cup or so i reserved.  i toyed with the notion of trying something i heard from my dad...apparently a gentleman told him that the best thing to do with blackberries was to stew them with some honey or sugar and serve them over buttered biscuits (and a slice of hoop cheese on top).  this sounds like a pie without the pie, and it certainly works for strawberry shortcake, so i could see it.  however, today, i decided to try a quickbread.

i'll admit that i took this recipe from something i found online.  i suppose the joy of cooking might have had something on quickbreads in general, but i didn't find anything specific to blackberries.  so i decided the internet would provide this time.

preparation is quick/easy and only takes about 10 minutes.  cooking takes about an hour, and then it takes a little time to cool before cutting in and enjoying.

ingredients:
- 2 cups flour (all-purpose)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- blackberries (i had maybe a cup and a half or so)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- most of a stick of butter

preparation:
mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.  gently stir in the berries until well coated.

melt the butter in a separate bowl.  mix the eggs, milk, and vanilla with the butter, and incorporate into the dry mixture.  stir batter until fully mixed and add to a greased bread pan (i used a 4" x 9" pan).  bake at 350°F for about an hour, or until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick stabbed into the top comes out clean.  let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

verdict:
this particular recipe is less sweet than i was expecting.  considering how there was only a cup of sugar, i suppose this shouldn't be any real surprise, but it lacks that certain something.  after talking to mom, it could be improved upon by toasting a slice with cinnamon sugar -- or by applying (gasp!) blackberry jam and/or honey.  shawn suggests adding something savory -- like perhaps a goat cheese (which i could see).

nonetheless, the bread did cook through properly, and the berries did not burst, so it was a pretty loaf.  i might play with this in the future.

zucchini casserole

so this is rather belated, but i tried a recipe a few weeks ago that i'm finally getting around to documenting.  i had some zucchini lying around and wanted to do something with it.  my initial thought was to do something similar to the pork and aubergine casserole, but it turned into something a little different along the way.

 total prep/cook time is roughly 40 minutes, and there were maybe 4-5 servings.

ingredients:


- 18 oz mild italian sausage
- 1 large zucchini
- 24 oz jar of spicy tomato and basil sauce (i used a variety called "classico")
- bag of italian six cheese  blend.

preparation:
remove the sausage from the casing and brown over medium-high heat.  when mostly browned, add thinly sliced zucchini into the pan.  when tender, add the jar of sauce and simmer mixture for several minutes.

pour mixture into a baking dish and sprinkle the cheese evenly to the top.  cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes.  serve over rice (i used basmati).

verdict:
this was a strange dish.  there was a nice kick to it from the sausage and the spicy tomato sauce, but it wasn't overpowering.  served over rice as it was, it felt almost like an indian curry-type dish, but it was using italian flavors.  an odd combination.  overall, it was a little watery, and there wasn't any particular textural contrast to the dish.  if i could've gotten the cheese to crisp up a bit, that might've been a worthwhile addition.  possibly baking some cheese separately on a pan and adding it afterwards could work.  all told, though, the aubergine casserole was probably superior.