Photo Friday: Focus On Food

I don't know about you, but the focus here has been on food during the pandemic, because you've got to look forward to something! Here are some food photos that I've taken over the last month:

In June, my daughter and I went strawberry picking. Last week, it was blueberries. We picked 6 pounds. Due to Covid, the farm asked that you bring your own buckets. The best thing I could find here were some old Halloween pails. They turned out to be the perfect size.

My favorite thing to make with any fruit is pie. I can't say this is the prettiest pie I've ever made, but it was full of blueberries, so let's just say it was healthy.

My daughter found this recipe on Pinterest and wanted to try it. It was called a Blueberry Cheesecake Crumb Cake. For all the work that it was, I thought it wasn't that great and wouldn't make it again.

Does anyone recognize this fruit? It is called Durian and is notoriously known for its distinct pungent odor. It is banned on airlines and various places where it grows in Southeast Asia. I've been fascinated with it ever since learning about it on cooking shows like Top Chef. My daughter-in-law loves it and said it was a treat for her "like ice cream" when she was in college in Hong Kong. She and my son brought one for us to try when they visited a few weeks ago. They bought it at Jungle Jim's (maybe Chatty Crone has been there?)

This is what it looks like when you cut it open. The red thing is an oven mitt, because those spiny things are sharp! My DIL said that this was a small durian, so it did not have much fruit inside. While it definitely did not smell good, it was not the horror show that I've read about online. One story said that they stored one in their hotel fridge and the hotel charged them for the fridge because it had to be thrown away later. To me, it smelled like penicillin. Not appetizing, but not something that would make you run screaming.

It looks nasty, doesn't it? There was not a lot to it because most of it was the pit. It had the consistency of avocado and to me, it tasted like sweet garlic. My son had it when he was in China last year, baked into a cheesecake-like pie, and he thought it was good. I'm still cracking up that my DIL compared it to ice cream. Nope!

Another Covid pastime has been for us to do blind beer tastings. My son brought these over on their visit. I'm usually pretty good with guessing what flavor is involved. When I tasted the Vanilla Whip Milk Stout, I immediately said it tasted like a vanilla milkshake. It was delicious.

Last week, I met some friends at a winery to social distance with a glass of wine. We drove separately and packed our own lunches. There were only 3 other people on the whole property. In the distance, you can see the reservoir that we walked to afterwards.

Here's the winery.

View of the winery from the reservoir. It was really nice to do something with friends again.