Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat

                                     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat: From Denny:  Blue food.  It's pretty to look at and cooling in this summer heat.  Blueberries are the very essence of summer.  Did you know the silvery bloom on blueberries is a naturally protective waxy coating?

Most people don't wash them until just when ready to eat.  Well, that doesn't work in our house so I pour a large bowl of water, add about 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar and let the entire plastic box and blueberries soak for about 5 minutes to kill bacteria.  Drain the entire box well, dry off a bit with a towel and throw back into the fridge.  Usually, a reputable grocery store - and even from the farm - they give the berries a quick vinegar wash to brush off leaves and bugs.

We all like to dine on blueberries by the handfuls as snacks, toss them on to the breakfast cereal or yogurt and make breakfast muffins. Here's a new twist: how about blueberries in your homemade lemonade?

This interesting recipe (from our local newspaper food writer) combines two fruit syrups:  a blueberry syrup and a lemon syrup.  You only use the blueberry syrup to color the lemonade to your preference.  The remaining blueberry syrup can be used on pancakes, waffles, toast or even in salad dressings.  OK, you got me, this lemonade is so doggone pretty!  Great idea for summer entertaining...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat

Recent related articles:

BBQ Grilling: Red Onions, Shishito Peppers with Peanut Sauce

BBQ Grilling: Butterflied Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Sauce

BBQ Grilling: Goat Cheese Stuffed Grilled Sweet Potatoes

BBQ Grilling: Grilled Puttanesca Gazpacho

BBQ Grilling: Tasty Compound Butters To Compliment Your Recipes

Summer Food:  Easy Blueberry Heaven Trifle

Summer Food:  Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake

Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All

Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag

Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya

Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

Easy Holiday Recipe: Daydream Dessert of Cake, Ice Cream, Slow-Cooked Apple Topping

Photo: Patrick Dennis/The Advocate newspaper, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

From Denny:  This is an easy recipe to throw together when you are pressed for time or too tired to make something more elaborate.  The slow cooker crock is to the rescue.  Make this easy topping - which only takes a couple of hours to cook on Low on its own - while you prepare dinner and get the kids organized for school the next day or help with homework.

Remember strawberry shortcake every summer and how easy it is to put together in a snap?  Well, this recipe is just as easy.  While the slow cooker does its work just hop on over to the grocery store and pick up those same pre-made individual sponge cakes and your favorite vanilla ice cream.  

This simple cooked topping involves only two apples, a handful of coconut, a small handful of sliced almonds, butter and brown sugar.  Serve on your most decorative dessert plate.  Build with a foundation of an individual sponge cake, a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream and then topped with the hot apple-coconut topping.  Garnish with more almonds and sprinkle with coconut...

Plum Swirls Clasp Wallet

Check out these joyful noodle swirls trimmed out in plum for a chilled attitude!

Fast Holiday Candy Recipe: Pecan-Raisin Clusters

Photo by Cynthia L. Nobles

From Denny:  Talk about a simple recipe that is fast to create!  Perfect for holiday entertaining this little gem of a recipe comes from Cynthia L. Nobles and it was featured in our local Louisiana newspaper a couple of months ago.  Of course, I quickly recognized it's worth as a recipe perfect for the holidays, whether it's gift-giving or entertaining the friends and relatives! :) 

Do you have a little leftover morning coffee?  This recipe uses up a few tablespoons of it so no need to throw it out after all.  I mean, really, when you can make a chocolate recipe with some leftover morning coffee who said being frugal couldn't be fun and tasty?...

Santa Music Round Compact Mirror

3 Tasty Persimmon Recipes: Bread, Cake, Pudding, Persimmon Facts

From Denny:  Persimmons.  Look forward to these every year when they are in season?  Just when you start to forget they exist, then, suddenly they show up in the grocery store.  Pretty much the story of our lives as there is so much abundance around us in the harvest time.  That sends you hurriedly searching yet again for a great persimmon recipe. So, you end up here at this food blog, right? :)

Seriously, these great recipes were recently featured in our local newspaper by an avid persimmon grower with a beautiful persimmon tree in her Louisiana yard, offering great advice on growing and cooking persimmons.  One tree yields a lot of yummy tasty treats to enjoy baking into awesome goodness!  This year her persimmon tree almost broke her record; it produced over 1,500 persimmons.

After a record amount one year, the persimmon tree will take a break next year and produce less.  After harvest, prune the house high tree because you will want it to branch out as much as possible.  Pruning is what keeps a tree producing a lot and prolongs its life for many years.  It's often difficult to reach the fruit at the top of tree so just leave it as food for your neighborhood birds.  They will be sure to thank you!...

Celebrate Chocolate iPhone 5 Case

Celebrate Chocolate every day as a holiday!