For us the surest sign is a road trip, one we’ve taken every end-of-summer for years, up to northern Minnesota – way up north, as they say, near the Boundary Waters. So sacred is this trip to our little family that I believe if we did not make the drive, time might stop and summer would never end. And if the prospect of a sweaty, eternal August scares you, don’t worry: while there’s breath in our bodies and gas in the car, we will not miss granite coves or wild blueberry danishes or glittering Lake Superior, so wide and welcome and cold.

Thus we are off toward Highway 61 – revisited – in just a few days. And before I break into song about pine trees and seagulls and pie, I’d better make with today’s ten words:

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Road trip

Due north

Beloved berry break

Fish, cake

Cool.

What’s your favorite road trip?

Hope you’ve been enjoying a marvelous summer. I’ll be back soon with a few longer posts, a few food posts and a few sweet surprises.

ah, last year.

More of Minnesota’s North Shore:

Josie and the Pie, with Diamonds

Comfort for the Too Close

How could this velvet bowl hate the camera? And what’s with those bits? Like lucky ocean gems at the table, up close they just look squidly, or naughty, or like a cook’s lost thumb. That’s already more words than I wanted on this soup, which seems destined to stay vivid in memory but die on film. What does this color suggest to you? Tell me all about it – in ten words.

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Oh, bisque.

In person, so lovely

On film, Lobster-Bismol.

This is a flurry of activity, it is, after what we’ve called The Summer of Nothing. It seemed she did not want to do classes, or camps, nor any effort that required organization, even forming a line.  No, she wanted to swim, and hang with friends, scoop blueberry sundaes and climb rocks with old mom and dad in the cold waves of Lutsen, Minnesota. We let her, and now it’s back to the books.  Will her head be empty as the berry bowl, or charged by summer’s fruit? We’ll see.

———

Berries, sugar, water

Minnesota-toted blueberry jam

simmer

spoon

sauce remembers.

Easy Blueberry Sauce: simmer 1-2 pints blueberries with dash of sugar and splash of water. When warm and sugar has dissolved, add about 1 cup good-quality blueberry jam or preserves. Stir to melt and combine. Optional: add a squeeze of lemon or pinch of nutmeg for extra flavor. Serve warm over pancakes, waffles, ice cream. May also spoon directly into mouth.

For even more zing try adding another fresh summer fruit, like sliced peaches, plums or nectarines.

So – do you have a few words on berries? Pancakes, waffles, pound cakes or cobblers? Is there a pandowdy in the house? Tell me how you like your blueberries – and please, keep it to ten, and make it juicy.

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Knitter

Baker

Productivity breakers.

Talk and talk…

…rain, coffee, normal.

————

As we like to say around here, coffee is no longer optional; as in, I don’t think we’re getting special benefits, like perkiness or open eyes – it’s just plain required.  Do you have ten words on coffee?  Spill.

Today – a travel daydream and the one that got away?  No problem.

1950′s cookbook

mmm – maybe

wandered

came back later

gone.

Merde!

what slipped through your fingers?

I love oatmeal, especially the steel-cut version, which is supposed to be healthier – and given the price, it better be.  Unfortunately, steel-cut oatmeal takes longer than the quickie 2-minute stuff and I rarely make it at home – but I did enjoy some recently at Ingredient, a local restaurant that really did it up right with heavy cream, toasted pecans, brown sugar and bananas.  Oatmeal heaven!  So good it deserves its own paragraph, but let’s do it in ten words:

Thank you, steel cut oatmeal, for keeping things on track.

I believe that about says it all.

Anyone else have an ode to oatmeal?  In ten words, give it your best shot.

Spicy, please -

- green beans…

…Bo Ling’s.  Gong POW!

Peppers, ow.

Sorry, but I believe the brochure does clearly state that “every bite tells a story,” not “every bite tells a tightly crafted legal brief.”   And if you’re an efficiency expert you won’t be sitting through my fifth pie story anyway – so to each his delicious own.

That said – after a particularly long post, heavy with meaning and calories, I feel the need to tighten up, both literally and, as my jeans like to say, figuratively.  Maybe even stop talking about brownies.  I feel the need for a Ten-Word Thursday.

I considered naming this feature “Simmer Haiku,” or “Simmerku” or even “Simmer-Ku to You!” – but honestly, I couldn’t recall how many syllables form a haiku, and if they’re different printed or aloud, or if I could actually write a haiku about, say, chicken parmesan.  So let’s go with “Ten-Word Thursday,” a weekly outing in which I must explore one theme through a few pictures and just ten words. Oh, I see Greg slapping his money on the table right now, but I’ll show him – I rigged the keyboard to shock me at 9 1/2. Today’s theme: ice cream.

End of summer.

Dreamy dairy drips -

- away.  Butter Pecan. You?

Ha!  I love Thursday.