Del Norte Eats: 'Tis The Blue Season

Blueberries also make great accompaniments to salads as they provide a healthy sweetness and are pleasing to the eye. The Morgantes suggest trying a Waldorf salad this time of year, as its main ingredients are fresh right now.

“This time of year, everything is fresh,” said Devon Morgante.

This classic salad was created just before the turn of the 20th century at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City.

It’s typically made with apples, grapes, celery and walnuts on a bed of greens with a creamy mayonnaise dressing, Morgante said.

He whipped up a variation of the Waldorf salad with apples, blueberries and pecans with a yogurt dressing.

Morgante chopped apples, toasted pecans, added the blueberries and mixed in yogurt to make this quick and easy salad. He placed a small mountain of the mixture onto a bed of spinach leaves.

The salad was a blend of textures, from a crisp crunch to a soft squish. Waldorf salad is different from a green salad as it’s hefty like a fruit salad and has sweet and savory flavors.

“It’s a salad with a lot of stuff,” Morgante said. “It has different components.”

Using yogurt instead of mayonnaise for the dressing cuts on down on fat content, but also gives the salad a tangy flavor, he said.

Adding sour cream to coffee cake makes this classic treat more moist, said Michelle Morgante.

“It gives it richness,” she said.

Coffee cake takes a little bit more time than a salad.

The streusel topping was a quick mix of brown sugar, flour and cinnamon with cold butter to get the crumble effect.

Morgante creamed the butter and sugar together before adding eggs one at a time, then vanilla, sour cream and a little milk. She mixed the dry ingredients together and added the flour mixture a little at a time to the batter.

She poured some of the batter into a greased round pan lined with parchment paper for easy removal. Morgante then sprinkled on blueberries before adding the rest of the batter and topping it off with more blueberries and streusel.

After baking in the oven for about 40 minutes, the coffee cake came out warm and moist, dotted with the bright blueberries that squished and practically melted in the mouth.