Food p*rn

Yes, this is another post about blueberries. I realize this may be getting a little old, but don't fret:
I'll be putting this ingredient on the back burner after today. (Though I still have roughly 6.5 of the 8 pounds I picked, so expect posts on various experiments from time to time.)

Since my kitchen has been something of a monoculture lately, I thought photoblogging my adventures with blueberries would spice things up a bit. It's been fun and I kind of like how my pics came out. Certainly these wouldn't make the cut at Gourmet--easily the grandest of the food pimps--but overall they tasted as good as they looked.

Here's where it all began. The bounty and beauty of U-Pick.





Big fluffy blueberry muffins.




A great recipe from 101 Cookbooks, which I actually didn't make until this very Saturday morning. I loved the whole grain pancake--it had a really good crumby texture and you could taste the nuttiness of the wheat flour. I expected them to be more dense than the traditional pancake but they were actually pretty airy. The next time I try these I think I might substitute a quarter of the flour with some coarse cornmeal and see what happens.

The blueberry maple syrup was a nice match for these. I cheated and used fake maple syrup ($10 for an 8 oz bottle of the real stuff! This is what I get for leaving New England). I added a few shots of the blueberry syrup I made earlier in the week and a heaping cup of blueberries. When it was all finished I added another handful of fresh berries (but frozen) and they plumped up nicely...as you can see:


Last but not least...lavender ice cream with blueberry maple syrup. The lavender flavor is subtle, but it's neat how you can smell it and taste it at the same time. Tangy fruits like blueberries and marionberries are a nice match with it.

I don't know how food photographers manage to photograph ice cream so well. They must work in freezing cold rooms! You can see that my little wannabe quenelles are melting quickly. I like the second picture because one of the berries slid down the ice cream just as I snapped it. Food in action!




And yes, to answer your question, I did have (most of my) pancakes and ice cream for breakfast. I'm a slave to my art.

PS--I know my counter looks less than spotless, but try as I might, I cannot get these old tiles to sparkle. Old apartment, old kitchen -- everything gets prepared on my cutting board.