Irish soda bread / vegan mofo 2009

It's always nice to have a little home-baked something to go along with soup. It makes the meal seem homier and more comforting. When I saw this quick bread on the Holy Cow blog, it looked like just the thing to whip up for our meal. I've always enjoyed the dense texture of Irish soda bread, and although the original recipe appeared to be lighter than the normal soda bread, I made a couple of changes that probably affected the texture. Vaishali used half whole wheat flour and I used all white whole wheat flour. She added cream of tarter, and I used her suggested substitute because I didn't have any. And I added raisins, just because I felt like it. You might want to try her original version - it looks really good!

Love Soup by Anna Thomas

When I became a vegetarian, one of the first cookbooks I bought — maybe the first — was "The Vegetarian Epicure" by Anna Thomas. It was filled with recipes that not only I, but my omnivore friends, found delicious. It was a book that made vegetarian cooking seem almost mainstream and gourmet at a time when vegetarians were still seen as a little odd. Anna Thomas was a graduate student in film production at UCLA in 1973 when she wrote that classic book. She went on to write "The Vegetarian Epicure Book II" in 1978 and "The New Vegetarian Epicure" in 1992. In addition to writing cookbooks, Anna Thomas is a screen writer and producer. She won an Academy Award for best writing/screen play written directly for the screen for El Norte, and additional kudos for My Family/Mi Familia which she co-wrote and produced. She was also a screen writer on Frida as well as other films.

Ms. Thomas has just released a new cookbook, "Love Soup," devoted to wonderful-sounding soup recipes, and I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to review her latest effort. Although the book is described as vegetarian rather than vegan, it's "vegan friendly" in the friendliest of ways. Ms. Thomas' two sons are vegan, and she knows her way around a vegan recipe. In nearly every chapter (desserts might be an exception) the vegan recipes outnumber the vegetarian ones, and most of the non-vegan ones could easily be made vegan with the simple substitution of Earth Balance or olive oil for a bit of butter, by using a vegan garnish instead of a non-vegan one, or by substituting vegan sour cream or cheese in the few recipes using those ingredients.

The veggies from spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup

The Book begins with lots of useful information about stocking the pantry, choosing ingredients and equipment, and measurements. It continues with a chapter on homemade broths, offering seven recipes for soup stock, all vegan, for those who like to make their own. The main soup chapters are arranged by season, to facilitate shopping at farmers' markets or using produce from your garden. There are also chapters for breads, enticing condiments and spreads to round out your meal.

I was planning to try a fall soup, but was too attracted to certain winter and summer recipes to do that. The summer soup I chose features zucchini, Yukon Gold potatoes, and fresh basil - all of which are in abundance at our farmers' market now. The second recipe, spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup, sounded so delicious I just couldn't wait until winter. The next soup I plan to make is also a summer recipe, roasted eggplant and garbanzo bean soup. Doesn't that sound tempting?

Zucchini and potato soup

I decided to make zucchini and potato soup first, and I chose to make the puréed version because I was in the mood for a creamy soup. The author warns not to over-blend because potatoes have a tendency to become gummy when over-worked, and I under-blended at first. I didn't achieve the creaminess I was after, so I re-blended to creamy perfection. The taste was rich and delicious, and the texture lush and smooth. The soup was truly sumptuous - can't wait to make it again! I served it with an Irish soda bread. The soup took me one hour to make, start to finish.

Spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup, simmering

My next test-recipe was spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup. Would you believe this soup contains an entire half cup of shredded ginger? Well, it does. It's a root vegetable soup with yams, carrots, parsnips, onions, garlic, peanut butter, tamarind, lemon, and fragrant herbs and spices.

It was a little more complicated and time-consuming than the zucchini soup, but it was worth the effort. (And it wasn't hard to make.) I asked my husband what word he would use to describe the taste, and he said, "exquisite" - this is from a person who doesn't usually get beyond "very good" when describing something. The flavor was rich and complex, and I'd love to make this soup for company. In fact, there was SO MUCH soup that I was wishing we'd invited a few people for dinner. It was filling, too, and along with a salad, made a fabulous meal.

I'm looking forward to trying lots more of the soups from "Love Soup," if I can stop myself from making these two over and over! If you enjoy making soups filled with seasonal vegetables, beans, fresh herbs and condiments, you should take a look at "Love Soup."

Cooking from the vegan blogs

Lately I've been enjoying making things from other people's blogs and cookbooks. It's satisfying and creative when I devise my own recipes, but with so many intriguing recipes already perfected by others, and begging to be tried, it makes sense to benefit from my fellow-bloggers' hard work. We had a family dinner (minus two) Sunday night and everything we served came from food blogs and cookbooks.

I made a batch of Cheezy Quackers from Have Cake Will Travel to have on hand when our hungry guests arrived. I especially had in mind the mini-guest, aged 19 months, who really likes to eat, and appreciates a good cracker or two. I was right about this - she had a cracker in each little fist both before and after dinner, and even carried a couple home with her. Because I was thinking about Miss E, I reduced the pepper in the recipe by about half. Although the crackers were delicious, they were a bit salty for me so next time I think I'll reduce the salt a little, too. I used white whole wheat flour with a very small amount of baking powder and they turned out great.

My favorites were the ones I thought I had rolled too thin! I didn't have a tiny duck cutter - just a pig and a flower - but I opted to use a pastry cutter, and cut the dough into rectangles because I'm lazy, and it's the easy way out of a lot of cutting. But I made pigs and flowers out of the scraps left over from straightening the dough. I may be lazy, but I like a certain amount of variety. :)


For the main course my husband prepared Sweet Chili Lime Tofu With Wok Steamed Collards, and Quinoa from Vegan Yum Yum. This has become one of our favorite dishes. We used a combination of collards and kale for the vegetable, and a combination of red and regular quinoa for the grain. I've already blogged about this dish in the past so I didn't photograph it. Here's a photo from the old post, just so you can see how attractive it is:

I also made a simple salad of sliced, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

For dessert I baked two selections from Ricki's cookbook, "Sweet Freedom." I'd been eying the butterscotch blondies forever, and finally got all the ingredients together to make a batch. She warned me in the recipe not to over-bake them, and I tried really hard not to, but without a working timer in the kitchen, and so much going on, I probably did over-bake them just a little. (Sorry, Ricki, I'm not used to the oven in this house, yet.) But, they were still fantastic! Everyone loved them, and now I have a really good excuse to make them again.

The blondies probably would have been enough, but I had two over-ripe bananas on the counter, and there was a recipe in "Sweet Freedom" for Banana Oat Bars that called for two very ripe bananas, so I made those, too. I subbed chopped prunes for the raisins or cranberries, and ground almonds for the coconut. I wanted to use coconut but we didn't have any, but they turned out great anyway. Guess I'll have to make these again, too, so I can try them with coconut and cranberries. (I also topped them with chocolate chips because I have a weakness for bananas and chocolate.)

The next day, I used the leftover quinoa and greens (the tofu was all gone, tsk) as the base for a lunch salad. I added tomato, cucumber and avocado, with olive oil and lemon for the dressing.

Now go make all this stuff! You won't be sorry.

Scrambled tempeh, Singapore noodles, general weirdness

Last night we attended an outdoor evening performance of Lullaby Moon, a celebration of the new moon and of dreams. The Lullaby Moon Web site says:

Lullaby Moon is a year-long invitation to Seattle to explore a world of dream. A celebration of the night sky, the series of performance events brings bedtime whimsy and wonder to parks and other public spaces throughout the city, enlivening and enlightening the dark time of each month. Performances take place on each new moon for an entire lunar year beginning in October 2008.

I can describe this event but really, I think you would have had to be there. It took place in Magnuson Park on Lake Washington. As soon as we got out of the car, we saw a line of female figures with horse heads, all in white, pushing antique white baby buggies filled with white flowers. They proceeded from the parking lot down the long winding path to the lake shore where the rest of the white-clad characters and objects interacted with the night and the audience. Along the path we also encountered an entirely white-clad young man riding an enormous antique-looking white tricycle. On the grassy "stage" there were large white beds with billowing white quilts, occupied by a changing cast of characters.

There were clock people and rabbits, and black-tuxedo clad people as well. There was a live orchestra playing lullabies and other nocturnal music, and when it got dark, there were lights. We were there with Miss E, who at 17 months, was transfixed - alternating between glee and awe.

I'm glad we forced ourselves to go out on a gloomy, overcast evening, unfed, to enjoy this spectacle of fantastic weirdness. No real supper for us last night, but we have been sampling recipes during the past week.

My son cooked one night, and he made Singapore noodles. It was really delicious but when I asked him where he got the recipe, he said he watched a you-tube video.

We also tried Scrambled Tempeh from Vegan Brunch and it was great. There were a couple of additions and subtractions to accommodate our refrigerator's contents but the tempeh was prepared according to the recipe, and kale was the green of choice. (subtracted peppers and added zucchini and green beans)

update: Here's a link to the Singapore noodle video my son watched before making our dinner. He veganized the recipe but I don't have any specific information about what he did other than to use tofu instead of meat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFVJeiHzUrQ

Plums, cooking pot, salad, sandwich, soup

My son and I were out and about this morning prowling the neighborhood, taking advantage of the beautiful weather, getting some (three hours worth of) exercise and doing an errand or two. First we walked to the library so I could return a book and maybe find another but the library was closed so only the return was accomplished. Along the way I spied a hand-printed sign offering free plums from a plum tree. The note advised passers-by to pick from the tree twice a day to keep the plums from falling to the sidewalk. We did our part and picked a large bagful of what turned out to be my favorite plums - Italian prune plums. They're perfect!

We headed towards a local shopping area where I wanted to check out the thrift store. In the housewares section I practically stopped breathing when I found a like-new (maybe actually new) 5-1/2 quart Le Creuset white round cast iron French oven for $25. In spite of the fact that we'd have to carry it home, I bought it. We continued on to Archie McPhee where I got a strange gift to send to someone back in Wisconsin. (Can't say what it is in case he reads this.)

We ended the morning at a vegetarian Thai restaurant where we had lunch. I had something called ginger delight, and if I'd had any socks on, it would have knocked them right off. It might have been the most ginger I've ever eaten in one sitting. Good thing I love it.

Not a lot of creative cooking has been going on around the house as we've been living an undisciplined end-of-summer life. We eat when we want to, which can mean lunch at 3 or 4 o'clock, and a late dinner when we're too tired to put a lot of thought into the meal.

See this salad? It looks like it was meant for at least four people but nope, it was made by me for me on one of those late lunch days. I was starving and got carried away but yes, I ate the whole thing. We've been shopping at a lot of farmers' markets and also gratefully receiving excess garden produce, so salads are high on the fresh and easy meal list.

Another day my son made this spicy tofu sandwich for lunch and it was so good. I rarely eat sandwiches but when I do, I'm always surprised at how good they taste.

Here's an old familiar soup we had for dinner last night. It's called Tuscan stew and we ate so much of it last year that I couldn't even look at it for a while. But it was just right last night, filled with late-summer veggies from our kids' garden. Yesterday was dark and gloomy, with a windy chill in the air, and this soup was exactly what we needed to warm us up.

From bean to bar - chocolate bar of course / fudge sauce

The Theo Chocolate store is filled with chocolate you can taste and buy.

On Labor Day six family members and I took a tour of the Theo Chocolate factory in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. This was the second time I had been to the store but my first tour of the factory. The first time I visited the store front, I was a bit overwhelmed by the quantity and variety of chocolate available for sampling, and quickly became a fan of the delicious Theo chocolate. Theo has earned the title of the only organic, fair trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the U.S. Here's a quote from their Web site:

At Theo Chocolate, we are changing the definition of “quality” by uniting creative excellence that results in deliciously award-winning chocolate with our unwavering commitment to changing the way the cocoa industry conducts business. At Theo, we believe there is no luxury in products that benefit us today, while jeopardizing future generations ability to meet their needs. When you taste our chocolate you will experience our passion and integrity in every luscious bite. We promise, there is something for everyone from the adventurous “foodie”, to those seeking the simple comfort of a delectably creamy milk chocolate bar.
We follow our passion for excellence to bring you chocolate that will delight your palate, ignite your imagination and inspire you to think and act sustainably! Be a part of our movement to save our planet and its capacity to nurture and sustain all living things. We can’t do it without you!

Even Jane Goodall has given the chocolate her blessing, and has two varieties, a milk and a dark, in her name. "Proceeds from the sale of these [Jane Goodall's label] chocolate bars will benefit cocoa farmers, promote conservation in the tropical rainforest and directly contribute to the Jane Goodall Institute’s efforts to save chimpanzees, develop community centered conservation efforts and direct youth education programs around the world."

We had to wear "cool" blue hair nets on the tour.

After our first little excursion to the shop, we blabbed so often about how much we loved it that our son decided to host a tour for his family, in-laws and parents. Whoohoo. We got the low-down on the history of the building and company, and a tour of the factory itself. Because it was a holiday and the factory was closed, no chocolate was actually being made while we were there, but the aroma of chocolate floated around our heads, and the samples flowed into our greedy little mouths.

Our animated guide, Abby, a food scientist by trade, was incredibly well-versed in all things chocolate. We learned more than we thought we wanted to know! It was so fascinating, and Abby was such a talented guide I found myself wishing I had become a chocolate maker instead of a graphic designer. We learned that the historic building was still in it's original state - just as it had been in its past lives as a trolley barn and a brewery. We learned about the fair trade practices involved in procuring the chocolate beans and the difficult task of gathering and fermenting the beans. (Did you know that fermentation was part of the chocolate-making process?)

We saw the machinery involved in making chocolate and learned how it worked. The machines were brought from Germany and are very old. (There is actually someone whose job it is to keep the machinery running, usually by making new parts to replace the old, worn-out ones. I think his name is Willy Wonka...)

In addition to the crazy machinery, there were buckets of beans and shelves full of chocolate molds. Did you know the reason chocolate bars are divided into sections is because they were originally designed by doctors, and each section was a dose? Yes, my friends, dark chocolate is a medicinal product.

We saw the kitchen where new flavors are created, and special chocolate confections are literally made by hand.

After the tour we re-entered the store and discovered a new display that we hadn't seen before. Theo has collaborated with a small vegan online company in Philadelphia to produce vegan specialty bars and hand-made chocolate confections.

Nicobella is an online small business. Click here for the Nicobella blog.

Since chocolate has been touted for its health benefits (lots of antioxidants in dark chocolate), and we can eat it with a little less guilt, I made sure to pick up a 91% cacao bar - for medicinal purposes, of course. I may need a daily dose!

...............................................................................

I wish I could send everyone a bar of Theo chocolate - perhaps a giveaway would be appropriate. What do you think? In any case, I'll share a chocolate recipe.

Back in 2007 I blogged a recipe for chocolate crispy rice treats. I just made them the other day because I needed a quick dessert, and as I was stirring away at the stove, dipping my (clean) finger in for a taste, I thought, "this would make a great fudge sauce for ice cream or whatever." I made some (with slightly different ingredients) to try it out, and it was really good. As it sits on the cold ice cream it starts to harden and become caramel-like and stretchy in consistency. Makes my teeth tingle just to think about it. This recipe makes one cup of thick sauce.

Chocolate-almond hot fudge sauce
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup barley malt syrup (for gooeyness and caramel-like texture)
1/4 cup agave syrup (for sweetness)
1/4 cup vegan dark chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch sea salt (opt.)

Place almond butter, syrups, and chips in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly until melted, thick and hot. (about 5 minutes) Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. (Gets thicker as it cools.) Make hot fudge banana splits using 1/2 banana, a scoop of ice cream and a ladle of fudge sauce.

Here's a link to a chocolate - peanut butter dessert sauce that I haven't tried but sounds wonderful.

note: Instead of saving my leftover sauce as sauce, I stirred crispy brown rice cereal into the pot of chocolate then pressed the mixture into a pan for some brown rice treats to have on hand.

Bon appetit - Pizza Pi and salad

Vegan pizza takeout from Pizza Pi in Seattle

We decided to do a dinner and movie night out. Actually, back in Wisconsin, we'd switched to movie and dinner, in an attempt to economize when movie prices started rising. We'd go to an inexpensive 4 o'clock show, and then out to eat. That seemed to work in Wisconsin, but apparently it doesn't work so well in Seattle. The 4 p.m. show we went to cost us $19. This was our first movie since moving here, and we picked a theater close to home that was showing the film I wanted to see - Julie & Julia. We almost walked past the Seven Gables theater because it looked like a large house on a residential street complete with a hefty set of front steps. My husband spotted the movie sign and up we went into a large house of sorts with a box office and theater and other lounging rooms. The place was old, and slightly decrepit, but "arty" in a very cool way, if you know what I mean. It was also packed, and we stumbled in the dark up the center steps of the theater to claim a couple of seats in the very back. My seat was not very comfortable - sprung springs and forward slanting, but I made due in the name of art. I mean, I can be as artsy as the next person. But still, trying to stay on the seat was sometimes competing for my attention with the film. There was another little thing - the screen. It was so small and far away. Plus, there were at least 10 previews (I'm not kidding), and I was very much missing our Sundance Theater in Madison.

We loved the film, and all the actors were terrific. My only complaint was that Julie Powell and her husband couldn't have possibly eaten all that butter and cream and not put on weight. "Julie" SAYS she gained weight but the tiny and adorable Amy Adams shows no outward signs. Meryl Streep was fabulous as Julia. I will have to rent some videos so I can watch the real Julia Child. I think I love her. The whole movie was wonderful.

We were feeling pretty good after this film but as we headed back to the car we saw tickets being placed on windshields. What? Did we overstay the two-hour limit? What? What? What? Yes, there was a ticket on our car, and it soon became clear why. There were multiple, stacked parking signs on the street - you know the kind - and we'd spent some time trying to decipher their meaning. We finally thought we'd got it worked out when we decided it was okay to park from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for two hours, except on Sunday. What we missed completely was the top sign that said "no parking AFTER 6 p.m." The ticket was for $44, making this the most expensive movie we've ever seen. As we drove away, I was wishing that the seat had at least been comfortable and the screen, bigger...

We went home to organize dinner because we didn't really have a set plan - the kind that involves reservations - and we were feeling a bit deflated after the ticket. No one really wanted to cook so I said I'd make a salad if he went out for a pizza. Going out for a vegan pizza isn't an option we've ever had before, so the novelty was kind of appealing. He went off to Pizza Pi to pick up the broccoli and mushroom pizza we ordered, and I went to see if there was anything left in the refrigerator to make into a salad. I've always wanted to be able to do this - order out for pizza like any normal family might. La-di-da.

Surprisingly elegant homemade salad from the dregs in the fridge

In the fridge was a bit of romaine, a few baby carrots, a small hunk of cucumber, baby beets, very soft yellow pear tomatoes on their final day of life and some leftover cashew-dill dressing I had made a few days before. This was not going to be a Julia-quality gourmet meal, but out of respect for her memory, I cut those veggies as carefully as I could. Elegant little strips of julienned beets and perfectly cut spears of cucumber. (The dressing, by the way, was made by blending cashews with water, olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, dill, lemon, salt and possibly other stuff until it was creamy, smooth and delicious.)

The pizza surprised me at first because it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be whole wheat. It looked just like regular pizza from Pizza Pit except it was a little under-baked. It was a bit limp instead of crisp but the crust was nicely chewy and the toppings were fresh and good. Pizza Pi uses Teese for the cheese topping. We re-heated some slices in the microwave (yes, we have our first microwave in the rented house) and they improved greatly. It wasn't quite as good as homemade but it was good and I'm sure we'll be having it again. The salad was perfect.

Zucchini-spinach soup etc.

Buffy in her traveling crate

On Aug. 15 we set out for a four-day car trip from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest and we've been trying to get settled into our rental house since we arrived. I don't think this was what Buffy had in mind when I asked her if she'd like to go for a ride in the car. It's been a long time since I've written a blog post, and I've got so much to say I could write at least ten. I don't want to bore those who come to this blog for cooking ideas, so I'll try to condense and leave out as much as possible. Scenically, the most surprising part of the trip was through eastern Washington which looked just like New Mexico. When the cascade mountains formed, they cut off the moist air from this half of the state and it became much drier and sunnier than the western part. I've been told if the winter gray is really getting me down in Seattle, a two-hour trip to the eastern part of the state will provide some relief.

Being here still feels more like a vacation to me than "real life" since I no longer have a job, and my husband hasn't started his new one yet, giving us lots of free time. And our whole family is together again which means we see each other often for dinner, parties, etc., and that usually only happens during holidays.

We live near Green Lake, which is surrounded by possibly the most popular walking/running path in Seattle, and have taken advantage of that. Unfortunately I bashed my big toe on a piece of raised sidewalk the other day, and walking for pleasure and exercise has temporarily lost some of its appeal. We're also within walking distance of various shops and restaurants and have sampled some of the local offerings. Restaurant food prices are surprisingly reasonable here considering the high cost of everything else. At the local farmers market last week I saw green beans for $9/pound! I also saw them for $3 and $4 which seems like a lot compared to back home. And the regressive sales tax is a whopping 9 percent, 9.3 in restaurants.

This week we're taking care of our granddaughter full time until her new day care center opens next week. She's napping now and I thought this would be a good time to catch up with the blog. My husband took her to the zoo this morning (I didn't want to do the walk with my wrecked toe) and I used that opportunity to make a soup that I've been wanting to experiment with since before we left Madison.

Before I get to the soup I have to mention some of the food-related places we've visited recently starting with the Theo chocolate factory. We didn't plan enough ahead to get a spot on the factory tour, but we visited the storefront, and holy cacao! All you chocoholics would have been in bliss consciousness. There are displays of all the different chocolates they sell with heaps of samples in front of each one. I bought two bars and a lip balm but I think I may have eaten my weight in chocolate samples. Sorry Theo...

Ginger-sesame bowl

Thai peanut bowl

We ate at Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe twice. The menu is half raw and all vegan, and I ate raw on both visits. The first time I had a ginger sesame bowl and my husband had a Thai peanut bowl (cooked). Both were delicious. The second time I had a raw nacho plate that I mostly didn't like. The flax chips didn't have a taste and the sunflower dip was, um, gritty. The salad and mango chutney were both great but I couldn't eat much of the rest. My husband, however, enjoyed his (cooked) lentil burger.

We've also been to Sidecar - a completely vegan store that supports an animal sanctuary, and a handy little sushi spot called Kisaku. At Kisaku we had delicious edamame and very good vegetable rolls. To our surprise, the rolls came with a complimentary salad and bowl of miso soup. Too bad the soup was made with fish stock, and when I told the waitress we were vegetarian, no offer of veg soup was made. Bummer.

So about the soup I made for today's post.. I was trying to make something similar to the soup we had at a vegan meet-up dinner back in Madison, and while the two main ingredients are the same, the soup tastes very different. My son and I liked it a lot but my granddaughter was not thrilled. To be fair to the soup, I have to add that she wasn't very hungry today, and mostly dumped her food onto the floor, to the delight of the dog. I think she would have liked it more yesterday when she seemed to have the appetite of a young bear. (You can view her reaction below.) I didn't spice the soup up as much as I might have because I was planning to offer some to the babe, but I probably would have added something hot. I have to say that the soup had a very fresh taste exactly like the veggies it was made from.

Zucchini spinach soup

• 6 cups fresh zucchini, in small cubes
• small bunch fresh spinach, washed well
• 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 - 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup) plus zest
• 1-1/2 cups white kidney or cannelini beans, rinsed well and drained if from a can
• 1 cup water or broth
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar (evaporated cane juice)
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon dried dill weed (to taste)
• fresh ground pepper to taste (optional)

1. Saute the zucchini and garlic in the oil in a wok or large pan until the zucchini begins to brown and soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the spinach, and toss to wilt, about 1 minute or less.
3. Place the vegetables, lemon juice and zest, beans, water or broth, salt*, sugar and dill in blender and blend until very smooth and creamy. (*If you are using broth, blend and taste before adding salt.)
4. Place blended soup in a pot and heat gently to desired temperature. Grind pepper over the top if desired.

...............................................................

We went blackberry picking along a bike path and now I've got blackberries in the freezer.