Oregon Berry Festival and a Guest Post

It’s berry season, the very best time of year! Do you love berries as much as I love berries? Then join me at the Oregon Berry Festival to celebrate the luscious little fruit. I’m thrilled to be one of the presenters this year! At noon on Saturday, July 13, I’ll be on the main stage demoing and sampling berry recipes from Flavored Butters. Then I’ll be signing books and answering your cooking questions from 1PM to 2PM at the Healthy Berry Booth. Hope to see you there!

I’m also excited to be featured on Plum Deluxe! My guest post is all about how you can use flavored butters to effortlessly wow your guests at your 4th of July cookout. It includes the Gorgonzola-Chive Butter and Whipped Chocolate Butter recipes from the book. Please check it out!

Here’s wishing everybody a fun and delicious Independence Day!

Mixed Berries

This is what summer's all about.


Sweet, luscious berries.


Certainly nature's most generous gift to us.


Strawberries. Raspberries. Blackberries. Blueberries.


Each one, perfection.


But combine them, and magic happens…The individual flavor notes meld and together gain in intensity, like instruments in an orchestra.


So it's no surprise that the flavor of these Mixed Berry Mousse & Gelée Verrines was described as "intoxicating" and said to "taste like wine". Magic indeed.

Mixed Berry Mousse & Gelée Verrines
Printable Recipe

10 ounces raspberries
10 ounces blackberries
10 ounces blueberries
8 ounces strawberries
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 ¾ teaspoons gelatin
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons Chambord
1 cup heavy cream

Puree the berries in a food mill using the finest disc. If the puree has seeds, strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove them. Divide evenly among 2 large bowls.

Stir ¼ cup of the sugar into ½ of the berry puree. Slowly sprinkle 2 ½ teaspoons of the gelatin over ¼ cup of the Chambord. Place the bowl of the gelatin mixture over a small pan of simmering water and heat until melted. Stir into the berry mixture. Whip the cream to stiff peaks. Stir 1/3 of the cream into the berry mixture, then fold in the remaining cream. Divide the mixture among 6 dessert cups. Refrigerate for about an hour, or until set.

Stir the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of Chambord into the remaining ½ of the berry puree. Measure ¼ cup of water into a small bowl and slowly sprinkle over the remaining 2 ¼ teaspoons of gelatin. Place the bowl of gelatin over a small pan of simmering water and heat until melted. Stir into the berry mixture. Divide among the dessert cups. Refrigerate for about an hour, or until set.

Serves 6. Serve topped with additional fresh berries, if desired. Can be made up to a day ahead of time and kept covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

Prescription for a Perfect Summer Day

Sleep in late. A visit to the farm is the thing to do, just don't forget the sunscreen. Stroll through the rows of blueberry bushes, sampling as you go.


Perhaps have a leisurely picnic lunch.


Watch the chickens scratch.


If you approach slowly, they may not scatter.


Relish the sweetness of the berries, warmed by the sun. For every raspberry that goes into your basket, one goes into your mouth. Find the biggest tree and lounge in the shade.


Follow the snake of trained blackberry vines.


You will be rewarded with the first ripe blackberry.


Then cool down with homemade frozen yogurt.


Hurray for summer.

Nectarine-Raspberry Swirl Frozen Yogurt
Printable Recipe

3 nectarines, pitted and quartered
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups plain yogurt
4 ounces raspberries
1 ½ teaspoons Chambord
½ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine the nectarines, ¼ cup of the sugar, and 2 tablespoons water in a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, or until tender. Puree in a food mill using a fine disc. Let cool to room temperature and stir in the yogurt. Chill over an ice bath until ice-cold.

Meanwhile, puree the raspberries in a food mill using the finest disc. If the puree has seeds, strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove them. Stir in the Chambord, lemon juice, and remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar. Chill over an ice bath until ice-cold.

Transfer the nectarine mixture to an ice cream maker and churn until frozen. With the motor running, add the raspberry mixture in a thin stream. Serve immediately or transfer to a container and freeze.

Makes 1 generous quart. A refreshing and fairly guilt-free treat. Peaches may be substituted for the nectarines, and blackberries may be substituted for the raspberries. If your ice cream maker doesn't have an opening for adding mix-ins, transfer 1/3 of the nectarine frozen yogurt to a container, drizzle with ½ of the raspberry swirl mixture, and repeat layering with the remaining frozen yogurt and raspberry swirl. For the best texture, enjoy as soon as possible after churning. This frozen yogurt will harden in the freezer; soften it by tempering it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before scooping.

Berry Picking

We drove out so Sauvie Island for the second weekend in a row, crossing our fingers for ripe and ready-to-pick strawberries.


The berries weren’t quite ripe last weekend. In a good year, the bushes are so heavy with fruit, you don’t know where to start picking. The strawberries practically jump into your mouth, they’re so irresistible, and you just can’t stop eating. Their fragrance is intoxicating. The strawberries are warm from the sun and sweet like sugar and so juicy. The juices stain your lips. Last year was one of the best in recent memory.

U-pick strawberries are about a dollar a pound. My husband likes to say they should weigh us before and after we go into the field, because for every berry that goes into the bucket, we eat two or three. But they haven’t caught on yet.

I can hardly wait for strawberry season every year. We usually make it home with about twenty pounds of fresh berries. This year I planned on making strawberry ice cream and popsicles, strawberry shortcakes, chocolate-dipped strawberries, strawberry charlottes, lavender-strawberry verrines, strawberry lemonade, frozen strawberry soufflés, strawberry panna cottas, and a strawberry tart, to name a few.

But this wasn’t such a good year for strawberries. And by the time we got to the field, they had been picked over. The strawberries didn’t taste like sugar. They were resistible, I didn’t feel an uncontrollable desire to eat every last one of them. We only picked a couple of pounds.


Just enough to make strawberry mousse cakelettes.


It turns out that a bad season for strawberries can be a good season for raspberries. And lucky for us, the farm we go to has both. We came upon the raspberries quite by accident, as we wandered around wondering what to do about our meager strawberry harvest. These were the best, most aromatic raspberries I’ve ever tasted. So we picked lots.


Behold, my strawberry tart turned into a raspberry tart.


Raspberry Tart
Printable Recipe

1 ¾ teaspoons gelatin
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg yolk
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces mascarpone, softened
1 fully baked 9-inch Pâte Sucrée Tart Crust
1 ¼ pound raspberries
2 tablespoons Chambord
3 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam

Measure 1 tablespoon of water into a small bowl and slowly sprinkle over ½ teaspoon of the gelatin. Heat ½ cup of the heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Whisk together the yolk and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a small bowl. Continue whisking while adding the hot cream in a thin stream. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, over low heat for about 5 minutes, or until it reaches 160˚F and thickens. Stir the gelatin and vanilla into the cream mixture and strain through a fine mesh sieve. Let cool to room temperature. Stir the cream mixture into the mascarpone, a little at a time. Chill over an ice bath until just beginning to thicken. Transfer to the tart crust and refrigerate for about an hour, or until set.

Puree 8 ounces of the raspberries in a food mill using the finest disc. If the puree has seeds, strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove them. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Slowly sprinkle the remaining 1 ¼ teaspoons of gelatin over the Chambord. Place the bowl of the gelatin mixture over a small pan of simmering water and heat until melted. Stir into the raspberry mixture. Whip the remaining ½ cup of cream to stiff peaks. Stir 1/3 of the cream into the raspberry mixture, then fold in the remaining cream. Transfer to the tart crust and refrigerate for about an hour, or until set.

Arrange the remaining 12 ounces of raspberries atop the tart in a decorative pattern. Combine the jam and 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and heat until melted. Lightly brush the raspberries with the hot jam mixture. Cut the tart into portions and serve immediately.

Makes 1 9-inch tart, serving 8.