Did you know that July is National Blueberry Month?

Blueberry-Lemon Bundt Cake and a rant about Organic foods.

When my husband and I were in Italy in May I ate McDonalds one day. I’m not proud of this fact, but I have to tell you, at a certain point you get sick of any genre of food. I had just about had enough Italian food on that particular afternoon and McDonalds seemed to be the only place in sight that screamed American Food! The point is, I ordered my typical Happy Meal, (I’m sure it was called something else there) consumed it and somehow didn’t get sick! I have always gotten sick when eating Happy Meals which is why I gave them up several months earlier (even though I still secretly loved them)! I found it crazy that I didn’t get sick in Italy! 

Incidentally, on the way home from Italy to Dallas we had a layover in Chicago. I hadn’t slept on the 10 hour flight home and what sounded good to me after eating Italian food for 10 straight days? You guessed it, the comforting Happy Meal! Guess what though?!? When I ate the Happy Meal in Chicago it made me sick, when days earlier the “same” Happy Meal in Italy did not make me sick. Coincidence? Food standard differences? Why the heck am I telling you a story about a Happy Meal that I ate in Italy? Let’s move on to my blog topic of today. I promise you there's a point!

When I work with a recipe, especially when a recipe involves produce of some kind, I always purchase organic. I actually try to purchase everything organic. Why? Unfortunately in America the USDA allows pesticides and all sorts of crazy and wacky chemicals to be sprayed on virtually every single solitary item that we purchase for consumption at the grocery store! Have you ever noticed at Tom Thumb (this is a Dallas grocery store for my outside of Texas readers) that the organic apples look a LOT less shiny than the regular less expensive apples? Do you think that’s because they’re dirty or any less delicious on the inside? Nope, it’s because the non-organic apples are sprayed with all sorts of crap to make them shiny! If you’re eating that apple, you are also willingly consuming chemicals that were sprayed on it to make it look so pretty at the grocery store. In other countries, such as Italy. The food standards for EVERYTHING are much higher meaning that they aren't allowed to spray all of that crap on the food that the consumer will then consume (don't even get me started on meat and anti-biotics) I feel that people in America should have higher standards for themselves! We are what we eat after all!

Enough of that, believe me when I tell you that is a subject that I am passionate about. As if you couldn't already tell!

Today, I am making Blueberry-Lemon Bundt cake for a friend in my office who has been helping me with inspiration for my blog as far as things that she'd like to see made. We had talked about the recent seasonal cupcake at Sprinkles that was Blueberry-Lemon. I said I didn’t want to make something like that so soon after I had just made the cupcakes for David. So I found this recipe instead on Martha Stewarts site – have I mentioned on this blog how I think she might be another species all together, as in not human? Not in a bad way though because I absolutely adore her! Perhaps that’s a topic for another day.

You can find the recipe for the Blueberry-Lemon Bundt Cake at the following link, the only change I made to the recipe is that I added the juice of one of the lemons to the batter. Additionally, I made the lemon glaze, the recipe can be found at this link 

Here are the ingredients displayed for you. As an FYI, the organic ingredients in this recipe are as follows: the butter, eggs, lemons and blueberries. While I wish that I could purchase ALL organic ingredients (even the flour and sugar), at this time I just can't afford it. Unfortunately organic foods are much costlier than non-organic.

And here it is! The cake - naked, without the glaze! Oh, but the glaze is coming! By the way, I didn't photograph the ingredients for the glaze (lemon juice and confectioners sugar) nor did I photograph the finished glaze waiting to be poured over the cake. I will tell you though that the glaze has a striking resemblance both in color and texture of elmer's glue, but the taste! Ahhh, the taste! 

Here is the finished product, yes, I put the thick, tangy, gooey, delicious glaze on the cake while it was still warm and let the warmness of the cake help the glaze drip down the sides. Yum-O!

Did you honestly think that I could resist trying this cake? Are you serious? I mean, I do bake for others mostly, but I have to at least taste it! I have to say, this one is a winner! 

One more thing to all of my readers!!! I just want to tell you that I love you, I mean that, I LOVE YOU!!! You read my stuff and stick in there with me. Drop me a line if you feel so inclined and tell me about yourself! I'd love to learn more about YOU!