Friday, July 9, 2010

Health-full Kitchen Tip: Blackberry Smush



This week, we got two pints of gorgeous blackberries in our CSA delivery.  I love summer -- so much delicious, wonderful fruit.  Though I have to say, this July weather in Los Angeles is cold, gray, and depressing ... and endless, it seems.  What gives?  Well, eating bright, health-full food helps give me a little morning boost when there's no sunshine to do it.

Anyway, back to the blackberries.  This morning, there were five left over, sitting in the fridge, waiting patiently to be eaten.  Now usually I just eat them whole, but today I had this notion that I could warm them up slightly in the toaster oven (on top of my waffle), and smush them gently with a fork to make a sort of chunky, no-sugar-added, jam.  You see, I usually run on sugar, and my addiction was getting out of hand.  I've been trying to wean myself from this very unhealth-full addiction, and lately, I've been trying ways to have delicious treats with no added sugar.  Enter stage left: blackberry smush.

There's no recipe for this; I'm not even sure it warrants a blog post.  But it worked for me, and I love to share health-full tips, in case they might work for you, too.  Here's what you do: toast a piece of bread, a waffle, whatever you like, in a toaster oven*.  When it's lightly toasted, place the blackberries on top of the bread, and turn the toaster oven to broil.  Let the blackberries warm up under the heat of the broiler for 15 seconds - 1 minute, depending on if your blackberries are at room temperature or cold from the fridge.  Won't take too long.  You can poke them with your finger to see if they feel warm.  Now, pull your toast/waffle out and stick it on a plate, and then take a fork and gently smush the blackberries.  They'll spit some blackberry juice, so have caution when smushing and be sure you're not wearing your Sunday finery.

There -- you've now got toast or waffle, fancied up with some warm blackberries!

Salud!

*(If you don't have a toaster oven, you can do this in the regular oven: put it on broil, put your bread underneath, and when the top starts to brown, flip over to toast the other side, and then add your berries.)

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