Pantry Collective

My mom and I were talking one day and she mentioned that she had made this blueberry cake. I was in a blueberry mood - I’ve been eating lovely fresh blueberries on my morning cereal for weeks now, and just that day I had barely managed not to purchase a humongous bushel of them at Costco. (I would have bought them if I had known about this cake! But alas, I didn’t think I’d get through them before they went bad.) Upon hearing that the cake was chock full of blueberries and not too sweet, I knew I had to have it for myself. Unfortunately, since Mom is is Connecticut, I couldn’t swipe a slice of hers - I had to make it for myself, even though I regularly swear off making baked treats since John and I don’t need to consume entire cakes ourselves.

How could I resist this cake, though? CHOCK FULL OF BLUEBERRIES. That really says it all. Right now, blueberries are plentiful and cheap and ripe and delicious. The cake really is not too sweet, although you can certainly up the sugar if you like. It would be a yummy (if somewhat decadent) breakfast. I topped our slices with a little yogurt sweetened with confectioner’s sugar and a touch of vanilla extract.

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One of my favorite dishes to get when I order Indian food is Baigan Bharta (I’ve also seen it spelled Baingan Bharta), which is basically a curried eggplant dish. I’ve had it from multiple places and honestly every place serves it a little differently. This is a close approximation to what I usually receive, though! It’s a great, spicy, vegetarian dish that tastes even better the next day. It also smells AWESOME while it’s cooking. It’s hard to make it look as yummy as it tastes though!

I apparently am pretty sensitive to cayenne pepper, and I think 1/2 teaspoon is a little much, even over the 5 servings we got out of this dish. Next time I’ll reduce it to 1/4 teaspoon, and maybe increase the garam masala a bit.

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