Each year during blueberry season, I'm reminded of one of my favorite children's books, Blueberries for Sal. If you’re not familiar with this book, here’s the general storyline for this classic Robert McCloskey tale.

Sal, a toddler in a cute little romper, and her mother go to Blueberry Hill to collect berries to can for the winter. Little do they know that Mama Bear and her baby are also there, eating as many blueberries as they can before they tuck away for a long winter's hibernation. After Sal eats one too many berries from her mother’s pail, mom feels free to send her chubby little tot off to play and pick berries unattended on the wild hill so she can concentrate on her berry collecting duties (written in the 40s, this obviously couldn't happen today without Child Protective Services getting involved). Meanwhile Mama Bear is also annoyed with Baby Bear and so sends him off to find his own berries to store up for the winter. High jinx ensue -- after all, this is a children's story -- and everyone gets all mixed up on Blueberry Hill.

Sal stumbles upon Mama Bear and Baby Bear comes up behind Sal's mother -- but soon the kids are reunited with their appropriate parents. Sal and her mother have buckets of berries to bring home and Mama and Baby Bear can eat enough to store up for the long cold winter. The ending illustration is of little Sal and her mother canning away in their Maine kitchen.

I’ve always loved how this story encapsulates the fleetingness of blueberry season. Sweet and bursting with flavor for a short time, the berries on Blueberry Hill must be picked and eaten or quickly canned before they are lost. Irresistible to Sal and Baby Bear, they are a decadent delight for all children (or anyone) during their brief season. Sure, you can preserve them like Sal and her mom (or these days you can also buy frozen berries), but nothing compares to berries freshly picked.

Like Sal, I find blueberries hard to resist this time of year. Sadly I don't live next to Blueberry Hill -- although I would love to see Baby Bear up there eating his fill of berries -- so I don’t have the luxury of picking buckets of them. I can, however, find beautiful mounds of blueberries everywhere I shop. Ripe, plump and juicy, they are ephemerally at their sweetest right now. So in addition to the handfuls of blueberries I like to eat while standing in my kitchen, and the blueberry muffins I’ve enjoyed recently, I have also made my yearly fresh blueberry crumble pie.

The key to this pie is fresh blueberries. It can be made with frozen berries, but I recommend making it now while the fruit is firm and plump, deliciously sweet with a slightly tart burst. Cooked in a prebaked pie crust, the pastry is buttery and crisp and sits firmly beneath the berry filling (instead of getting soggy). I then top the pie with a traditional fruit crisp topping of oatmeal, flour, sugar and butter.

As Sal's mother and Mama Bear knew, blueberry season passes quickly; so why not make the most of it with a pie?

Blueberry Crumble Pie

Makes: One pie

Ingredients:

1 pie crust
5 cups blueberries (cleaned and dried with stems removed)
4 Tbsp flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch salt
Zest from 1/2 a lemon
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick butter

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie crust in you baking dish, top with parchment paper and either pie weights or beans, and bake for 20 minutes. Take crust out of the oven then and then remove the pie weights and parchment paper. Let cool until ready to use.
2. Mix berries, white sugar, flour, salt, lemon zest and peel in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix topping ingredients, being sure to thoroughly incorporate the butter into the flour, oatmeal and sugar so it resembles small pebbles.

4. Set blueberries into the cooked pie crust. Top with the oatmeal and flour mixture, being sure to mound it securely on top. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the filing is bubbling. If the topping browns too quickly while baking, place foil on it.
5. Let pie cool and serve with ice cream.

Berries n' Cream with Meringue and Pistachios

Fresh fruit, whipped cream, who doesn't love that? Add some crunchy pistachios for a little salty nuttiness, and a surprising crumble of airy meringues, and you've got one winning dessert.

This is one of my favorite desserts to make, hands down, especially in the summertime when fruit is at its best. It's totally no-fuss, requires zero time by the stove, and is a breeze to whip together quickly for a weeknight treat or party.

Beautiful blueberries

Mix and match berries, or even peaches would be delicious. I'm obsessed with blueberries, so I've been loading up on them while they're in season. Simply sprinkle a little sugar on them, add some lemon juice and zest for a subtle layer of bright, citrus flavor, and let the berries sit for a bit to macerate and get juicy.

Photo Credit: Kai Yu

Then, generously spoon over some sweetened whipped cream, crush a few meringue cookies on top, and finish off with a handful of chopped pistachios. I adore the combo of the whipped cream and the meringues. The meringues add a delicate texture that is totally unexpected, and gives the dessert just a kiss of extra sweetness.

A Big Bowl of Yum!

Berries n' Cream with Meringue and Pistachios

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1 pint fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of half a lemon
½ cup whipping cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar (to taste)
2 meringue cookies, coarsely crumbled (Trader Joe's makes great vanilla meringues with tiny chocolate chips)
¼ cup shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

Preparation:
1. Toss the berries, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, lemon zest and juice in a medium bowl. Let stand until juices form, tossing occasionally, about 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Mix in the vanilla and powdered sugar.
3. Divide the berries into bowls or parfait glasses. Spoon the whipped cream on top. Crumble the meringue cookies over the cream, and sprinkle with pistachios.

Summer is a tricky thing in San Francisco. A morning in July here often feels like a morning in February, much to the consternation of shivering tourist. We grab what sun we can two days here, three days there, until the fog rolls in and we're grabbing our sweaters and pashminas instead, shrugging our pasty shoulders all the while. If one never leaves the City, one has but few clues as to what life is like on the hot, sticky Outside. And I like that just fine.

I always know it's summer when I see berries flooding the markets. I grab baskets of them-- strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, snozberries-- and challenge myself to eat them all before they rot in my fridge, which happened last year, much to my shame. I decorate my cereal with them, never quite looking as well-placed as on the cereal boxes I never buy. I pretend I'm putting them in the wood chipper as I drop them into my blender to make smoothies. I sprinkle them over ice cream. I eat them out of hand.

If I want to put a little effort (and I do mean little) into doing something with berries, this year, I'm making berry pudding, one of the easiest and reasonably healthiest desserts around. If I were forced to give this dish human form, I would vote for Betty White. Rose Nyland-sweet, Sue Ann Nivens-tart, and just about as quick and clever as all Miss White's snappy answers on The Match Game. Put a little whipped cream on her and she's good to go. She's always good to go.

This is a recipe that is wonderfully simple in both preparation and outlook. Berries in, berries out. I was going to say it was easy- breezy but, unless eating raw fruits has a certain effect on your G.I. tract, it is merely easy. The only real time involved is the time the berries and bread must spend in the refrigerator, getting to know each other.

Berry Pudding

Many of the recipes I've read for Berry Pudding call for the berries to be cooked with sugar. I strongly object. Not to the sugar, mind you, but to cooking the berries. One might as well be using frozen fruit, and that, my friends, is a capital "C" crime in my book-- at least in high season.

I might suggest letting your berries ripen a bit before making them into pudding. They will thank you for it.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup strawberries, chopped
1/2 cup blueberries, whole
1/2 cup raspberries, whole
1/2 cup blackberries, whole
2 tablespoons sugar, taste the berries to determine their sweetness before adding sugar. Adjust accordingly.
8 one half-inch slices of white bread, brioche, or other neutral starchy vehicle, cut to the shape of whatever molds one is using.
A splash of complementary booze (blackberry brandy, Cointreau, etc.) Complementary as in "will complement the flavor of the berries", not complimentary, as in "free". Of course, if your alcohol is both complementary and complimentary, I say bravo to you.
A pinch of salt

Preparation:

1. Wash berries well, but gently. Chop strawberries to the approximate size of the other berries. Place all berries into large bowl and sprinkle with sugar, salt, and booze. Let sit for five or so minutes.

2. After the berries have macerated a bit, lightly crush them. I feel I was a bit too excited when it came time to inflict harm upon mine. Stir.

3. Cover the bottoms of your molds with your most attractive bits of berry, since this will be the top of the dessert when it is unmolded. Place one piece of bread on top. Add more berries, a second layer of bread, then more berries.

4. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, pressing gently down upon the filled molds to remove any major air gaps.

5. Refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.

6. To unmold, gently run the tip of a sharp knife between the outer edge of the filling and the inner edge of the mold. Hopefully, you have been clever enough to have removed the plastic wrap before doing so. Place serving plate over the top of the mold, invert, and gently giggle the pudding free of its form. Repeat with the remaining puddings, if you are serving them all at once.

7. Top with whipped cream, ice cream, or bacon. Whatever makes you happy.