Once in a Blue Moon

Every weekend, our CSA has a webstore where you can purchase specialty products like honeys, jams, and coffee. While I love local jam and honey, I’m rarely tempted to shell out the cash for them. But last week, they were selling a pound of organic blueberries and I whipped out my credit card faster than it takes to say “blueberry.”

Then when I picked up our CSA on Thursday, I was faced with a lot of blueberries and no real idea how to use them. I mean, I could have probably just eaten them all out of the container, fresh and sweet and juicy. But no one on the blog needs to see me Willy Wonka style, blue in the face with blueberry juice dribbling down my chin. Those sort of hot nights are for Alex’s eyes only.

I polled my friend Shannon over at Tilted Skillet, and she suggested coconut milk ice cream, and if I didn’t have an ice cream maker, blueberry popsicles. Well, sadly, but perhaps fortunately for my raging sweet tooth, we don’t have an ice cream maker. So I bought popsicle molds instead.

Blueberry Ginger Popsicles

• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 8 oz blueberries
• 1-2 teaspoons ginger

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds. Freeze at least 4 hours.

Still faced with a mountain of berries, Saturday morning I made blueberry scones based on this recipe. They were delicious. Were they super light and fluffy and airy? No, they were a little bit too dense (I seem incapable of making non-dense baked goods. Ideas on what I’m doing wrong?) but they were still crumbly and yummy and comforting.

Hippo lurking behind the scenes.

I can haz scone?

And finally, on Sunday I made a blueberry basil mojito. I’m not a big drinker, but I enjoy a good mojito. I didn’t bother straining the blueberry syrup so the drink was a little, ahem, chunky, but the sweet blueberries were so tasty that I didn’t care that it was a cross between drinking a smoothie and a cocktail.

The recipe was based on this one, with the mint subbed out for basil. I actually made virgin versions of the drink last night that I liked better – you can really taste all the flavors when there is no subtle bite of booze.

So the next time you have a glut of blueberries and don’t want to shove them in your face as fast as possible (another totally acceptable option), get into the kitchen and get creative!