Fresh Blueberry Bars

After looking through one of my food magazines…I spotted a recipe for Blueberry Bars and decided to try out the recipe. First, I made a small pan of the bars and to my surprise they sold out at the Deli right away.

So, I picked up more fresh blueberries and decided to make the bars in a half sheet pan, using one of the metal collars around it. I placed a piece of parchment down, laid the collar on top and sprayed the pan with vegetable spray.

I made the crumble crust mixture a bit differently from the original recipe. I used the extra Lemon Cookies with White Chips that we had in the refrigerator. I crumbled them in the food processor, added some old-fashioned oats and melted butter and made it into a crumbly crust. I added this to the bottom of the sheet tray and pressed it firmly on the bottom of the sheet tray.

I washed the blueberries and drained the excess water. I placed the blueberries in a bowl and added sugar, cornstarch, and some lemon juice, and tossed them together, and added the mixture to the crust. I used the left over crumble mixture to sprinkle over the top of the blueberries.

The bars were baked at 325 degrees for 40 minutes or until the top got golden brown. Let the bars cool completely in the pan and then cut into squares.

You can pick up one or two bars at Erin’s Deli, along with a salad or sandwich. Or take home a few for dessert!

Lemon Loaf

I have a great recipe for Lemon Loaf….and a story to go along with it. 

When I first moved into my house in the north hills area of Pittsburgh, over 40 years ago, my next door neighbor brought over a Lemon Loaf to welcome my family to the neighborhood. The Lemon Loaf was amazing and I had never tasted anything like it before. I asked her for the recipe and she gave it to me.

That Christmas, I decided to make mini Lemon Loaves to give to my children’s teachers, the bus driver, and my friends. I wrapped them in foil and left 23 mini loaves in my garage. One day, I walked out to pull some of the loaves and to my horror…they were gone, only a few scrapes of foil remained. It seems that my garage door was opened and my next door neighbor’s Golden Retriever CR (Comanche Red) got in and ate all 23 loaves, foil and all!

I called my neighbor in concern and told her what happened. I was worried that her dog was going to get sick or die from eating the Lemon Loaves and the foil. She promptly brought over 23 mini loaves and gave them to me. CR didn’t die (which totally amazed me). Nor did he get sick. He definitely must have had a cast iron stomach! But CR spent a few weeks in a kennel being banished and trained in obedience.

To this day, I still make my Lemon Loaves and love the fact that the recipe came from a neighbor, who became my friend, and had a dog named CR.

Now everyone in my house is grown up, and when I make my Lemon Loaves at Christmas, I give each of my children one or two of them and I give some away to my friends.

Recently, since I became the baker for my daughter, I decided to make Lemon Loaves. The Lemon Loaves were a change from making cupcakes, cookies, or scones. I am always interested in trying some new baking items for the Deli.

To make the Lemon Loaf, I use flour, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk, and fresh lemon zest. Usually when the Lemon Loaf is done and while it is still warm, I add sugar with the juice of a lemon and drizzle it over the tops of the loaves. Instead, for the Deli, I decided to make a thick vanilla icing with lemon zest.

Maybe because it was something different from the usual baked goods or maybe because it was summer…the two large loaves that went into the Deli, sold out in two days. Everyone who bought a piece of the bread raved about it. It was a big hit. It was also a thrill for me! Now I have been asked to bake more loaves for the coming week.

Stop in at Erin’s Deli and pick up a slice of Lemon Loaf before it sells out again! Don’t worry; it doesn’t come with foil wrap!

Clyde Butcher: American Photographer, Artist, and Environmentalist

While on my vacation in Florida, I spent a few hours going through the cool shops in Sarasota. One of the shops was the St. Armands Art Gallery. What pulled me into the gallery were the massive framed black and white landscaped photographs. At first I thought the photographer of the photos was Ansel Adams.

A few steps inside I saw an old fashioned camera on a pedestal. It was beautiful, old and the wood gleamed in the sunlight that streamed through the door. The camera took my breath away. I loved it. I loved cameras and it reminded me of my original Yashica camera that I used as an undergrad at Kent State where I majored in Journalism.

A man, who worked in the gallery. walked over to me and we started to talk about the photographs. He then proceeded to give me a crash course, 101, about the camera and the photographer called Clyde Butcher!

Clyde Butcher is an American photographer, artist and environmentalist. He is famous in Florida for his large photographs of the wilderness of the Florida landscape. Butcher was born in 1942 and he was from Kansas City, Missouri. He is a photographer who used to shoot his photos in color. When his son was killed, he ended up spending time in the wilderness where he used his over sized camera taking black and white shots.

Butcher, who is revered in Florida, earned numerous awards, like the Florida Artist Hall of Fame Award, Ansel Adams Award from the Sierra Club, North American Nature Photographer Association Lifetime Achievement Award in Nature Photography and many others.

As I walked around the gallery, I felt very small and very humble amidst these huge landscape photos. I finished my tour, bought a book, and two black and white photo cards. Now I know a little bit about Clyde Butcher. I hope that I see more of his work. I not only discovered his works but I learned about the man thanks to the man who gave me a crash course in him. At least, I have a book to read about him with some of his photographs.

I hope to see more of his work, even if it means going back to Florida to visit his gallery.

How To Make Pepperoni Rolls (my way)

One of my baking jobs is to make pepperoni rolls for Erin’s Deli. The job isn’t difficult but it does take a while to get the rolls made.

*First, remove the frozen dough and leave it in the refrigerator to thaw out.

*Next, when the dough is thawed, I take it out of the refrigerator and place it in the Proofer to rise.

* Take out the dough from each bag, cut it in half and roll the dough flat on a floured surface.

*After I get a few flat pieces of dough rolled ouy, I brush on an oil mixture with herbs, then place pepperoni on the top, and sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese.

*I pull the sides of the dough together and roll it up with the seam placed down on a sprayed parchment paper, on a sheet tray.

*When I get at least 9 pepperoni rolls, I put two slits in the top of the roll, brush on more oil mixture, and sprinkle chopped pepperoni on top.

After I complete all the rolls, I bake them and when they are a golden brown, I take them out of the oven and leave them on cooling racks. After the rolls are cooled, I place them in a plastic bag in the freezer to be taken down to the Deli.

The delicious rolls can be purchased at Erin’s Deli, downtown. The hardest part of this job is not to eat one of those delicious rolls all by myself!