Originally published March 2017.

So, my grandpa Paul called me three times to make sure I had enough blueberries. He left a couple voicemails, like: “Hi, Rebecca. It’s your grandfather. Your grandmother wanted me to call and let you know that whatever bowl or container or whatever you use, it should be filled with blueberries somewhere between two-thirds and three-fourths of the way up. It does take quite a bit, so she just wanted to make sure you got enough.” I bought all these extra blueberries because I got paranoid. I ended up with more than double the amount necessary. My grandpa set up FaceTime for my grandma Bettylu (Lulu to her grandkids) in their beautiful kitchen in Chicago. I was so thrilled to see them, even just via laptop. I don’t get to Chicago enough. I waved hello excitedly and my grandma smiled back. Paul was out of the shot, hiding off to the side somewhere. But, to his credit, I believe he was in the kitchen through the duration of the making and baking of the Blueberry Bettylu.

I love Paul and Bettylu’s kitchen. There is so much counter space and insane amounts of light streaming in from outside. There are always beautiful flowers and bowls of fruit out. And someone is always reading the paper at the kitchen table. One of my favorite things to do when I visit is just sit in the kitchen. I guess that’s also because that’s where the food is. Kitchens are usually my favorite place wherever I go. I think a vast majority of people would agree that it is always best to be as close to the food as possible.

A couple visits ago, I was sitting in the kitchen with my grandparents, making fun of their breakfast routine (I know. I’m an actual monster. Who makes fun of their grandparents’ breakfast choices?) Or, well, I wasn’t making fun so much as laughing and questioning their choices? Anyway, the thing is that Paul eats a grapefruit every other day and alternates with a bowl of oatmeal. Bettylu does the same, but eats oatmeal when Paul eats grapefruit and grapefruit when Paul eats oatmeal. “We kind of find routines sort of comforting. You feel like it’s reliable, like you know what’s coming up next,” Paul explained. “Sure,” I responded, “Fine. So what other routines do you have?” “You don’t want to know.” And I suppose I don’t (I do, really). During this same conversation, I asked Bettylu if she had any routines and she immediately responded, “Nope. No, I’ve never been able to do that ever.” I pointed out the whole oatmeal/ grapefruit breakfast thing and she explained that that’s the only one and she’s not even totally able to follow it. “Well, you have routines. You have a certain type of coffee with a certain amount of milk,” my grandfather pointed out. “But sometimes I put more milk in and sometimes I put less,” Bettylu explained. “Well, I don’t know–“ “It’s true, Paul!” she insisted, “I am not capable of having a routine. I’m just not. I never have been.” And then Paul and Bettylu got deep into an overlapping “conversation” of “What are you talking about?” “What are you talking about?” These two ridiculous humans have been together for over 60 years. And I love how silly and sweet their interactions can be. Despite their whole breakfast routine, they both maintain terrific independence while still being there for each other. Depending on what time I call, one of them is usually out and about; my grandpa teaching med students, playing tennis, or doing yoga or my grandma at a board meeting or fundraiser or on her way to the gym. And the two of them have the best little comedy routine together and they don’t even know it. My phone is filled with notes about things they’ve said. For example, in 2013: Bettylu: [This woman] is totally with it and she doesn’t wear glasses or a hearing aid. Paul: But she can’t hear or see! I don’t know. Maybe it’s only funny in person, but it was really funny at the time. Ok, well what about this one from Lulu in 2012?: Bettylu: I wonder if someone whose last name is Tonin would name their daughter Sarah. Oh, they would! They’ve go to. I’m sure of it! Cause serotonin! Get it? Ok, whatever. These are two of the best people I know. I guess I don’t know a lot of people, so it isn’t really saying much, but they know a lot of people and those people have pretty high opinions of them as well. So, you’ll just have to take my word that you should take other people’s words for it. Now, I actually conducted a thirty minute interview with my grandma about Alzheimer’s for the purpose of this blog post (a little light conversation while the dessert baked). I’m still just having trouble tying the food and the people and the cognition bits of my blog together, so I’m sorry this is a bit of a sloppy transition, but… When asked about her personal experience with multiple members of her family being diagnosed with Alzheimers (including both of her parents), the first thing my grandma did was tell a story about me as a baby. “You were acting out like a real brat,” she started. Alright, should’ve known that was where this was going. Ok. “We were out to lunch and [my mother] was pretty deeply into Alzheimer’s and you were being… You were very precocious, but you could be very bratty. And we were at lunch and you were being impossible. Finally, somebody took you and plopped you in [my mother’s] lap and like that, you shut up. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. And the woman that took care of her, Hazel, told your mother that she was going to have to explain you to the teacher when you started kindergarten.” You know what? Forget all that nice crap I said about my grandma earlier. Just forget it. I mean, this woman has now referred to me as a brat three times. Are you kidding me? My grandma also shared a story about her father accepting an invitation to give a speech at an economics club after he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “We thought [we had to] find a way to get him out of it. And he insisted on doing it. And he did it. He had no speech in front of him. And he was fantastic. We couldn’t believe it. We just couldn’t believe it. But there were certain things he was just so talented at that he was able to do it. And so we should know about things like that… About people who are really suffering from the disease [and can still talk about things that are so engrained in their minds].”

Bettylu was on the board of the Alzheimer’s Association for eight years and speaks very highly of the organization. While there, she helped with federal policies that distributed more funding to Alzheimer’s research. This research is increasingly important as the population is living longer and longer. It is a devastating disease that affects so many families. To donate: http://www.alz.org/join_the_cause_donate.asp. Now, without further ado (I realize there has been quite a lot of ado up to this point), I am so excited to get to share this recipe for my grandma Bettylu’s Blueberry Betty(lu)! Thanks, Lulu!

For the exact measurements and comprehensive-ish recipe, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Otherwise, the easy (or hard depending on what sort of person you are) version of this recipe is as follows: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Get a soufflé dish. Fill it about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way with blueberries. Dump as much cinnamon as you want and a couple squeezes of lemon onto said blueberries. Mix it around.

Mix about 3/4 c – 1 c flour and 3/4 c  – 1 c sugar in a bowl. Add around 6 TBS butter.  Mush it all together with your hands until you have a crumble.

Pour the mixture onto your blueberries.

Shake to cover. You shouldn’t see any blueberries peeking through.

Stick it in the oven for fifteen minutes. Now, for your enjoyment, a photograph of me and Lulu doing shoulder exercises over FaceTime while the dessert was in the oven:

Now, lower the heat to 350 degrees and keep baking for another 35 minutes. More shoulder exercises:

And grab that delicious dessert out of the oven:

Blueberry Bettylu Ingredients  – “Enough blueberries” (this will likely amount to around 4 cups) – 2 tsp cinnamon – 2 tsp lemon – 3/4 c flour – 3/4 c sugar – 6 TBS butter Instructions – Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. – Pour the blueberries into a soufflé dish until they reach about 3/4 of the way up the dish. – Gently stir in lemon and cinnamon. – In a medium bowl, mix sugar and flour. – Add butter. – Mix together with your hands until it forms a crumble (it will be a bit sandy and clumpy in texture).  – Pour the crumble over the blueberries. It should come almost all the way up to the top of your dish. Don’t spread. Shake the dish a bit to distribute the crumble. No blueberries should be peeking out. – Bake for 15 minutes. – Leave it in the oven, but decrease the heat to 350 degrees F. Bake for 35 more minutes, or until top in golden-brown with blueberry oozing through. – Eat it straight out of the dish! I mean… Daintily scoop it out into fancy bowls and serve with ice cream?