Berry-cicles

Remember the rocket-pop molds? We've been using them all summer. There have been strawberry pops, strawberry-watermelon pops, kiwi pops (I had a request for green popsicles) and last night I finally attempted striped popsicles. These look pretty cool and have given me the courage to try other interesting ideas - I am particularly curious about freezing chunks of fruit into popsicles (raspberries or strawberries into lemonade sounds particularly delightful).
With these, I was attempting to make some sort of play on the traditional red/white/blue rocket pops, but unfortunately when you puree blueberries, they turn out purple. It was close, I suppose, and since my three-year-old has never seen an old fashioned rocket pop, he has no idea what he's missing (I always liked that whitish-layer).
The middle layer is plain yogurt mixed with some powdered sugar and the top layer is a mixture of fresh strawberries and cherries. My son powered through the strawberry/cherry layer. He was thrown a little off-guard by the "frozen yogurt" layer, stopping to eat more slowly with a slightly puzzled look on his face. Then he loved the blueberry layer so much he was slurping the last of it out of the bottom of holder. The whole thing probably could have been set to some nice piece of classical music. I know, I know, you're thinking "yogurt? really?" I am a bit leery of it myself (as was my husband), but I really wanted to throw in some extra protein/nutrients (and fat) for my skinny little guy. He survived and I'm sure he'll ask for another one.
As far as the mechanics of making these, I was surprised that when I blended the yogurt with the sugar, it lost all firmness and ended up the consistency of milk. Because of this, the blueberry layer sort of bled into it. I would have let each layer freeze separately, but the stick goes all the way through the popsicle, so I didn't think it would work. This is the problem with using popsicle molds to make striped popsicles. It pretty much negates the idea of using juice because the juice would need to be frozen in separate layers or else it would run together. In short, it works better to use purees when making striped popsicles.
In the kitchen, I can be quite a scientist and I always love my little experiments, even though they don't always turn out well. My husband is a patient man, but he does enjoy a good popsicle. Because of his unending patience with all of my healthy rocket-pops this summer, I finally just went and bought him a box of store-bought ones. I'm sure he'll be appreciative. Of course, I'm going to make him try out one of these - yogurt layer and all.

Birthday Cake (with Berries)

A good friend of mine went to pastry-chef school and makes wonderful cakes for church activities, friends' birthdays, etc. Since I am a believer in baking from scratch, I asked her for her recipes for white and yellow cake. I've made both recipes a couple of times over the past couple of years and they are always big hits because they are SO good.
Today for my grandma's birthday party, my mom and I made the white cake and put sliced strawberries in the middle and around the outside. It was a big hit. I also used the left-over cream cheese frosting from the red velvet cupcakes as the middle-layer frosting. It was a perfect filling. It cut the sweetness of the cake and I highly recommend it.
Here's my sales pitch: cakes from scratch are remarkably easy and taste so much better than box cakes! They have very few ingredients and if you can follow directions, you can't go wrong. When you bake from scratch, you know exactly what's in the final product. Also, cake batter from scratch is amazing stuff. White cake has only egg whites in it, so the batter is incredibly fluffy and quite delicious (if you like batter, that is, my husband is seriously grossed out by the thought of it).
I feel the same way about frosting. Make it from scratch! It's so easy and tastes much better! Here's the cake from start to finish (I wasn't so great at documenting this one since I admit it was an after-thought).

Batter spread into two 9" rounds, and then cooled on wire racks.My son tasting the batter and exclaiming "I like cake!"

The final product: white cake with butter cream frosting and strawberries. And of course, the recipient (with a little help blowing out the candles).
Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Before you buy: Blueberries

I know, I know, you were wondering how I was going to tie in the whole "berries" thing, right? First the background. My great-grandma, whom I knew very well as she died when I was 20, owned a farm in southern Washington where she grew blueberries and strawberries. We always went to visit during berry season to pick berries. (Having to pay for blueberries and strawberries still feels very foreign to me and I hate it!) One summer, I stayed alone with her for two weeks and helped out in the u-pick shed weighing berries and taking peoples' money. It is a very treasured memory of mine.
Now that I am grown, and she is gone, one way I am reminded of her constantly is by my son's absolute love of blueberries - fresh or frozen. My grandparents have blueberry bushes in their backyard that came from that farm and every year we get to enjoy a little bit of tradition and it is a special treat.
(Photo anecdote: I have this photo hanging above my kitchen sink. It is actually a greeting card by a photographer, Myron Rosenberg. I saw it in touristy shops in Alaska and had to bring one home since how often do you see a greeting card of your great-grandma while on vacation? He took the picture while visiting her farm in 1982. This is what she looked like while out in her fields, although usually she also had white zinc-oxide smeared all over her cheeks to protect them from the sun. She was a feisty Finnish lady.)
My great-grandma was very adamant about not using pesticides on her berries. The closest thing she had to pest-control was an air cannon with a motion-sensor to scare away the birds. She believed that blueberries could cure almost anything. Maybe they are magical since she lived to be almost 99. I miss her very much.
Fast forward to now. A friend of mine wrote a blog post about how she is determined to eat better and posted a link to something called "the dirty dozen." I had never heard of it, so I did some research and what I found, I felt like sharing. There are 12 fruits/vegetables that contain the highest levels of pesticides, as well as 15 that carry the least. This list was created by the Environmental Working Group. They spent 10 years studying 49 fruits and vegetables and then have listed them from most riddled with pesticide to least. The thing that scares me the most about this list is that the produce was tested AFTER it was washed.
So, without further ado, the full list of 2010 (1 being lowest pesticide levels, 49 being highest):

1 (Best)	Onions
2	Avocado
3	Sweet Corn (Frozen)
4	Pineapples
5	Mango (Subtropical and Tropical)
6	Sweet Peas (Frozen)
7	Asparagus
8	Kiwi Fruit (Subtropical and Tropical)
9	Cabbage
10	Eggplant
11	Cantaloupe (Domestic)
12	Watermelon
13	Grapefruit
14	Sweet Potatoes
15	Honeydew Melon
16	Plums (Domestic)
17	Cranberries
18	Winter Squash
19	Broccoli
20	Bananas
21	Tomatoes
22	Cauliflower
23	Cucumbers (Domestic)
24	Cantaloupe (Imported)
25	Grapes (Domestic)
26	Oranges
27	Red Raspberries
28	Hot Peppers
29	Green Beans (Imported)
30	Cucumbers (Imported)
31	Summer Squash
32	Plums (Imported)
33	Pears
34	Green Beans (Domestic)
35	Carrots
36	Blueberries (Imported)
37	Lettuce
38	Grapes (Imported)
39	Potatoes
40	Cherries
41	Kale / Collard Greens
42	Spinach
43	Sweet Bell Peppers
44	Nectarines
45	Blueberries (Domestic)
46	Apples
47	Strawberries
48	Peaches
49 (Worst)	Celery

I *thought* I knew what to buy organic, but I was pretty wrong in my assumptions. The scary part is that of the dirty dozen, we spend most of our summer eating about 8 or 9 of those and most of the time I don't buy organic because it's a lot more expensive. I was so very sad to see blueberries on that list the very day I had gone to the store and brought home a pint to surprise my son with. I felt like I was serving him toxic food. On the bright side, it was nice to learn the general rule that tropical fruit is the safest. My baby boy loves his mangoes and so I don't have to spend a fortune while we going through about 4 per week.
I am very tempted to make a little note card to carry in my wallet so I can remember this list at the grocery store.
The organic food debate is an interesting one. While it's true that if we stayed away from anything that might be harmful, we wouldn't be able to eat anything, I think it's important to make some effort. For example, pesticides affect children much more powerfully than adults, from what I've read. As a mother, I owe it to my children to feed them the best food I can. You might even call it an investment in their future. I found THIS article which was truly terrifying. It suggests a link between pesticides used on fruit and children with ADHD or even leukemia. This made my heart skip a few beats since my son truly does gorge himself on berries frequently. Yikes!
The thing I like about this list is that it's not suggesting we need to buy ALL organic produce, just helping us to prioritize. I'm going to be a lot more careful about my fruit and berries this summer! As consumers, we have the power to change the way farmers grow food and the kinds of foods grocery stores sell. If my great-grandma could speak before the joint House and Senate of Washington State when she was in her 80s about the importance of small farms, surely we can pay more attention to what we buy at the grocery store. This is why we joined a CSA a couple of years ago. Not only is it a nice supplement to the rest of the food we buy, but helps local farmers and we get fresh-from-the-ground organic produce - like stuff that still has dirt on it. The unexpected benefit of it is that we have been forced to try out all sorts of vegetables that we never even noticed at the store. We have discovered a love for chard, escarole and parsnips, among other things. The down-side is that I now know what a persimmon tastes like and I wish I didn't.