Summer | Lemon Blueberry Crumble

---

All that lemon Pledge is making me hungry!

---

I grew tired of drinking blueberry smoothies two days into making them. The only antidote to all that healthy eating (while not wasting the blueberries I'd picked) was something extra sugary and buttery.

Enter: the lemon blueberry crumble.

I've adapted a Smitten Kitchen recipe because I don't always have refined sugar or cornstarch at the ready for baking, substituting brown sugar for white sugar without changing the ratios.

• 1 cup brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• zest and juice of one lemon
  
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 6 tsp flour
  
  
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. The dough should be crumbly. Place half of your dough into the prepared pan.
  3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, flour (or 3 tsps of cornstarch, if you have it) and lemon juice. Mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares, or the blueberries will ooze out.
  5. Refrigerate the crumble, or give away to friends who love lemony, tart desserts.
  

NOTE:
The original recipe simply called it a "blueberry crumble", but the amount of lemon zest and juice involved overpowered my delicious, freshly-picked blueberries, so the name change was a must - but it still tasted good, according to my guinea pigs friends.

A few days in the fridge mellowed out the tart lemon flavor of the crumble. Next time, though, I'll make one with just half a lemon (or maybe none at all) to get more of a blueberry flavor. I'll try some cinnamon on it as well.

Stay tuned!

Summer | Pattypan Squash Sauté Fail

---

Only the magic of post-processing makes this look like food.

---

A few weeks ago, I picked up a few random summer vegetables from the farm down the road. Among these was something calledpattypan squash, which looked like little yellow UFOs (how darling!) and were rumored to taste just like zucchini.

I visited my online recipe guru on a hunt for zucchini recipes, the closest thing I've encountered to the pattypan squash, finding some instructions for her quick zucchini sauté that seemed simple and fool-proof, requiring only oil, almonds, and julienned zucchini.

I dutifully sliced the pattypan squash, sauteed the almonds in olive oil until they turned golden-brown, and then paused to take in the scene.

It was not a happy scene: an unidentifiable gel was oozing from the squash, resembling the goo that comes off okra or aloe.

The recipe states, "The only two things that matter are that the almonds get brown and toasty in the pan, and that you only cook the zucchini for one minute." ONE MINUTE?! Nuh-uh, sister! Not with that weird goo stuff! I cooked it for at least ten minutes (10:00).

Now, I realize that my "1000% more fire" approach went against the recipe's main tenet, but recipes are meant to be tweaked - especially in in the face of mucky food oozings.

The original recipe also suggested that I could add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to the dish. Faced with the prospect of this dripping yellow disaster, my version NEEDED cheese. Lots of cheese.

Maybe it was the extreme over-cooking. Maybe it was the pattypan squash. Maybe it was me. Whatever the cause, the dish was not pleasant.

Final verdict: don't eat pattypan squash.

Ever.