Fine Cooking Challenge

I have been buying Fine Cooking Magazine for a long time.......I've had lapses where I've missed issues for sure, but have most issues dating back to about their third issue. I buy them because in general Taunton has some really nice publications, and these are nice to look through and that's mostly what I do with them. Several times now I've said to myself that I need to make a conscious effort to actually make some of the recipes from these magazines.......or really, what's the point of holding on to them?? Well with all the berry picking that's been going on, I'd better get making something before they go bad! ......And....wouldn't you know it but the cover on the July issue claims to contain the best-ever blueberry desserts. So here we go.
I gave the Peach & Blueberry Crisp with Spiced Pecan Topping a try, and I liked it a lot. I like Pecans so I found the topping just right. If you don't find them appealing, you could always leave them out.

Peach & Blueberry Crisp with Spiced Pecan Topping
1/4 cup softened butter
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup pecans, chopped
3 cups room temperature Blueberries
3 medium Peaches, sliced 1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly butter 9 inch square pan. Combine four, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Add butter and work in with your fingers until well mixed and mixture will clump together when squeezed. Mix in the pecans. In another bowl, mix the blueberries and peaches. Combine the sugar, cornstarch and nutmeg and toss this in with the fruit to combine. Spread fruit in buttered pan. Take small handfuls of topping and squeeze into clumps while sprinkling them onto to the top of the fruit. Bake until the fruit is bubbling in the center and the topping is well browned, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm.

There...... now I've tried at two recipe from that issue.....but seeing as I have a crazy amount of berries still in my fridge I'm toying with two more. Gotta use up those blueberries! The Blueberry Lime Pound Cake, and the Blueberry Streusel Bars with Lemon-Cream Filling both have me equally taken. I have been very lucky this year to be introduced to a new berry. I'd never seen a Huckleberry until last Wednesday. It took a bit of searching and perhaps a near poisoning to identify them....but I did it! To my pleasant surprise I discovered that Huckleberries are closely related to wild blueberries only with a more pronounced blueberry flavour, a tiny bit more tart, and are huge in comparison. Top that off with the added bonus that they are 6-12inches off the ground, and they make for much easier and faster picking that their wild blueberry cousins. They are a little bit better to eat out of hand than wild blueberries, and quite a lot better tasting than commercially grown blueberries. Hello Huckleberries:)