Yep, it’s been a while… changing jobs and heading out for fun summer travels made my internet access very sporadic. In face, now that I’m at a job where I’m not constantly online, I spend like little to no time websurfing. Anyway, that’s not for this blog. That’s for my LJ.

We’ve been to two foodie festivals and done a bunch of fun stuff. We went to the NH State BBQ festival at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in New Hampshire last month, and a few weeks ago we went to the New England BBQ Championships at the Harpoon Brewery in Vermont. The Harpoon event was much bigger, and on an interesting note the weather was totally shitty both times, but at Harpoon it was actually pouring buckets and that didn’t deter the crowds at all. My speculation is that the ‘Q was better, it being a bigger competition, and that Harpoon beer is better than the Bud family. Plus the neat thing about Harpoon is that if you registered as a DD, you got all the free Harpoon soda and water you wanted. Harpoon makes a root beer, cream soda, and orange cream, and they are all fantastic. Not as good as Henry Weinhardt, but damn good all the same. So I was happily sucking down orange cream sodas gratis while tasting spicy foods and some good ‘Q.

Also, last weekend the boy and I went blueberry picking in Goffstown, NH and that was a blast. We got a little overzealous and picked between us about 20 lbs of berries though… so I’ve been scrambling a bit to find ways to use them. Luckily, the coworkers are also total foodies so I have a ready team of guinea pigs.

Found a recipe for wicked easy blueberry muffins from allrecipes.com, the muffins came out a bit dry, but good nonetheless. I would have preferred a more berry-ey kick… to me it mostly tasted like a floury muffin with a couple berries randomly tossed in. I want my next muffin experiment to have the berry flavor all through the thing, not just where the berries are in the batter.

The blueberry pie was a big hit. It stuck like hell to my metal pie plate though, so I think I’ll stick with the glass one.

Made something that allrecipes called “blueberry buckle” but was more closer in texture to a coffee cake or crumb cake. Messed up the crump topping… let the butter get too warm instead of keeping it nice and cold. But man, that was a hit too. Best one so far. Nice and moist and sweet.

TOmorrow I’ll be working on a blueberry-white chocolate bread pudding. And hazelnut whipped cream. And more blueberry buckle, if I can locate my other baking pan. Sunday morning I’ll whip up some brie quesadillas and serve that at Unity with some blueberry compote.

Oh, and just so I’m not being a total slacker: Dr Gonzo’s Cheesy Delights recipe:

turn on a crock pot.
add 1 lb of velveeta.
add 1 can of refried beans.
add somewhere between 1/2 to 1 jar of supermash. (or peppermash or jalapenomash, if you prefer your taste buds intact)
when it’s all melted, turn crock pot down to “keep warm”

dip in hearty chips or saltines, and bring on the pain.

I’m going to try adding a bit of heavy cream to make it not so thick and not quite so hot. If I remember, I’ll report on my findings.

The boy has bought me a domain name, so stay tuned for a new professional page coming in the next month or two.

Ciao, y’all