Blueberries on the floor and other musings...

So we are seeing a lot of these lately.  We are experiencing a bumper crop.  We have also had no rain.  This makes for happy blueberries.  So we pick and then pick some more.  Today we had some u-pickers.  That was interesting.  The little boys, who came with their mom, got into the ditch beside the blueberries and were top to toe in black peat mud.  I hosed them off.  With their mom's permission.  But I digress.  This is the time of year where blueberries are often found on the floor in the kitchen.  It just happens.  

We are rather new to the whole business of blueberries and as we bought an established farm, we don't have any information about the actual varieties so we make up names.  We really like picking marble berries.  They are big, round and tasty.  But the best berries are the cake berries.  They are HUGE!!!!!  I put them next to our now defunct Canadian penny.  That is a marble berry on the far right.  The cake berries are on the left.  They are they best.

The recipe from yesterday...
Let them eat cake
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen  (the original recipe asks for 1 and 1/2 cups of blueberries but we kinda think go big or go home)

In a large bowl, cream shortening and add sugar gradually.  Add egg.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Add to batter along with the milk, vanilla and blues.  Pour the batter into an 8" by 8" pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 50 to 55 minutes, less if you are skimpy on the blues.  Or if you are feeling so inclined, pop them into cupcake papers and make 8 jumbo to die for blueberry cupcake muffins.  Oh my goodness.  So fabulous.  Bake those for about 40 minutes but watch them.

So there.  Check the floor after baking.  Blueberries just have a way of landing there and trust me, they aren't pretty when you step on them.  Ick.

Linking up with Cindy at Random Thursday.

On Sunday...

MMMM.  Smell o vision needed.  Husband made bagels today.  Fabulous.  Most delicious.  So while he was doing this...

I was doing this.  Getting brave with Amy Butler's Messenger bag pattern.  This is the second time I have made this bag and I have to say that even though her patterns are more like blueprints... it went together much faster than I expected it would and in fact, way faster than the one I made several years ago.
Now I just need a picture.

More bagels...

The thing about corn bread is...

MMM... yummy.  I love cornbread. Love it.  Husband is not really a fan but something I must have said awhile ago convinced him to give it a whirl.  He made it then and it was good but not like it was when he made it yesterday.  MMMMM.  Awesome.  I asked what made the difference and he humbly admitted that this time he had followed the recipe.  So silly.  And this is the recipe.  Michael Smith... Food Network.  

It was so good that I could have eaten the whole batch when it was warm and just out of the oven.  But I didn't and that was a good thing because I got to have some in my lunch today.

Linking up with Deb of Triple Zip fame for Tuesday at the Table.  But I will do that on Tuesday.

I do know how to bake

I had the card ladies over for Whist the other night.  Husband made the meal but I made the dessert.  I have had to defend my ability to create things in the kitchen lately.  I don't get a lot of baking time but I do know how to do a few things.  I made an apple crisp to take to a friend's a week or so ago.  Everyone was enjoying it.  It was quite yummy.  Someone made the comment that my husband sure knows how to make an apple crisp.  I said, "Hey!  I made that."  He is a fabulous cook.  But I digress.  This is a Pear and Almond Tart.  I made it.

Enter the Smitten Kitchen.  If you do not know about the Smitten Kitchen, you need to check out her blog.  She has also just released her first book.  I found this recipe on her blog and I made it.  It had a lot of steps but I just had a feeling that it would be worth it.  The ladies were over.  We had dinner.  We played a few rounds of cards before dessert.  I took a serving of the tart down to Husband who was banished to the family room.  He took a bite and had a certain look in his eye.  I knew that look.  It meant, "Wow!  This is wonderful."  You know.  That look.  I ran back upstairs and served the tart to my card ladies.  One of my buddies took the first bite and groaned while rolling her eyes.  You know.  That sound, those eyes.

You have to try this.  It is worth it.  So good.  Pear and Almond Tart.  The Smitten Kitchen.  Heaven on a plate.

Linking up with Cindy at a Colorful Life for Random Thursday.

What do you do with the fruit?

Yesterday, Mum and I canned peaches.  Some of the peaches were REALLY ripe and we put them aside for something REALLY yummy.  I just happened to have a few blueberries... just a few.  I had a bunch of family coming over to pick blueberries last evening and it is nice to have something dessert like when the picking is done.  This family favourite uses any fruit that you have on hand, fresh is best but frozen works too.

Platz  (I always called it Plops as a child!)

Base:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup table cream or whole milk

Topping
fruit in sections:  plums, apples, apricots or peaches... blueberries too!
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Stir together the dry ingredients for the base, cut in the butter and set aside.  Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter for the topping and set aside.  Prepare your fruit.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the milk into your base mixture and stir.  It will form a ball sort of.  Clump it into a ball and press it into the bottom of a 9" by 13" pan.  You will really have to press it into the pan and work it to cover the bottom but it will do it.  I sometimes sprinkle a bit of minute tapioca on the base before adding the fruit if the fruit is really juicy.  Layer the fruit in a single layer on the base and sprinkle the topping over the works.  If you are really fancy you can organize the fruit so that when you cut into the platz, each person will get one apricot half for example.  But you might not be that particular.  I was not in this case because I was using super ripe peaches that could not be cut in half nicely.    I just sort of spread the fruit everywhere.

Bake until golden.  I check it at about 35 minutes or 40 minutes and see if it is looking good but it is dependent a lot on the type of fruit you use.

If you want to be really naughty, whipping cream or some old fashioned vanilla ice cream would be lovely.

This is a Mennonite fruit coffee cake in fact.  Who knew?  It is delicious!  Grampa had seconds.

Webster watched us canning peaches.  He was most intent.

What to do with that rhubarb?

Pink pudding.  Rhubarb pudding.  Red pudding.  Or you can just call it yummy.  My dad loved this pudding.  Apparently a favourite in Denmark.  I have Danish roots.   My daughter asked on the phone if we had made it yet this spring.  She asked us to freeze some rhubarb for her and to make sure we told her how to make this.  It is just so pretty.  Simple and intensely rhubarb-y.  Yum.  


Rhubarb Pudding

8 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

Clean and chop up 8 cups of rhubarb.

Place in a pot with 1 cup water. Bring to a boil.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

Strain this so as to collect the juice.

You might have to leave the strainer on top of a large bowl for an hour or so and stir the pulp on occasion.

Pour the collected fluid back into the pot.

Stir in 1 cup of sugar.  

Take some of the fluid and mix it into the 1/4 cup of cornstarch so as to make it very smooth.  This is important so that you do not get any lumps.  Lumps are yucky.

Now pour the corn starch mixture also into the pot with everything else.

Simmer for a few minutes while stirring constantly.  It should burble and glurp in the pot just a little.  Careful not to scorch it!

The pudding should thicken nicely.

Rhubarb pudding should not be firm. It should be thickened but without becoming firm or indelicate. 

Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

How About Some Pie?

When we moved to our small farm a few years ago, we looked all over the place for the rhubarb.  We knew it had to be somewhere on the farm because our place was settled in the 1930s and every old farm has a rhubarb patch. Husband found it up the hill and did he ever find a lot of rhubarb!  It is amazing rhubarb.  The very best.  He picked the first rhubarb of the season yesterday and made a pie for me to take to my card ladies last evening.  My husband makes awesome pies. He doesn't use a recipe.  He just makes pie.  Never too sweet.  Perfectly delicious.  Pie.  Too bad blogs don't have smell-o-vision.

He's baking up a storm!

He just keeps on baking.  Isn't that just the most beautiful bread?   YUMMY!  Husband is baking up a storm because it's Easter and Mum is coming to stay.

And Mum arrived.  She always brings a car load of treasures and today was no exception.  Not only did she bring me a old recipe book of my Great Gramma's with hand written recipes and pasted recipe clippings but she brought me a BAG of vintage sheets!!!  Woo hoo!  I have yet to take pictures but believe me when I say... AWESOME!

So there.  Now to visit with my mum.  Have a lovely evening!!!!

Hot Cross Buns

I love Hot Cross Buns.  I love all the dried fruit and the cinnamon.  MMMM.  Just so yummy.

So here they are.  Compliments of the best bread baker I know.  My husband!

1/2 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon of dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins or a combination of raisins and mixed dried peel
1 egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of cold water
confectioners' sugar frosting

In large warmed bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle with yeast.  Let stand 10 minutes and then stir well.  Meanwhile combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt in a pan and heat over low heat until the butter is melted.  Cool to lukewarm and add liquid mixture to dissolved yeast.  Add cinnamon, beaten eggs and 1 1/2 cups of flour.  Mix vigorously.  Gradually add enough flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto a floured board and knead about 8 to 10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease  the top.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down and turn onto a floured board.  Knead in raisins.  Divide dough into 18 or so pieces and form buns.  Place on a well greased pan. Combine egg yolk and water and brush the buns.  Let rise until doubled again about an hour.

Carefully cut a cross on the top of each bun with a sharp knife.  Bake at 375 degrees F until done about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from pans.  Cool and frost while warm.  Enjoy.  Great toasted.  Yum.

Edited to say:  Husband then informed me that he substituted some ingredients.  Because I am on a no fun food diet, he replaced the 1/3 cup of sugar with home made applesauce.  He used lemon juice in the confectioners' sugar for the frosting.  They are to die for.  Just saying.  


Linking up with Debbie at the Quilter's Table!

4 more sleeps!

Sugar Cookies are the best and this is the best recipe I have ever found for them. This recipe is simply no fail.  It can be doubled and freezes beautifully.

Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter or margarine softened
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (use the good stuff)

Soften your butter and then cream it well.  Gradually add sugar and cream well.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix.  Scoop everything into a plastic bag or container and pop in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Roll dough on a lightly floured board and cut with your favourite cutters.  These bake quickly ... maybe 7 to 8 minutes only as I do roll them fairly thin.  For Christmas, I let them cool and then decorate with sugar cookie icing.  Other times I brush a simple icing sugar and milk glaze on the cookies while they are still warm.  Tinted if you like.  Orange pumpkins at Halloween, Pink hearts for Valentine's but at Christmas you can get a little fancy.

Sugar Cookie Icing
1 cup icing sugar
2 tsp milk and then add enough to make it the right consistency
2 tsp corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
food colouring if you like.
Mix until it makes you happy with the thickness.  Pipe and let set before storing.


Merry Christmas!!!!

baking, shopping, wrapping, playing...

cute?????  a gift from my secretary!  

It has been a busy few days of last minute shopping, last minute baking and last minute playing  (board games and whist!).  Husband and I have made it a goal to avoid all malls in our Chrtistmas shopping preparations and so far it has worked!!!  I have not yet stepped into a shopping mall and yet, we are pretty much finished all that Christmas shopping mayhem.  Yesterday, I even baked.  Yep, for real.  Shortbread stars with dark chocolate drizzles.  A standard for Christmas at this house and today it is sugar cookie time.  Thank goodness the little chicken girls are starting to produce in an impressive fashion.  But if you notice in the egg carton above, one of those eggs is not like the other!  It is a double for sure!

Merry almost Christmas!  Hopefully I will find some quilting time today!

Christmas baking and a wonky little star work in progress...

While I am off at the coal mine (aka my wonderful elementary school), Husband has been busy Christmas baking.   Look at all the wonderful goodness he is churning out!

Last evening, I put together my wonky little stars for a pillow top.  I love them so much!  I think I could easily do a whole quilt of these little wonkies.  I might make them just a wee bit bigger and I would have to have a design wall for sure.  They have a stained glass window impact.  Husband thinks so.  I just love their happiness.  I have 3 of the 4 pillow tops on my list done. Phew!

And yesterday we celebrated something VERY special!  It was "First Egg Day" for our current flock of young chickens.  Suzy was the lovely chickie who gave us this little lovely.  Clever girl, she is!

I hope to have a bit more time for sewing this evening but apparently I have to put little icing diapers on the gingerbread babies.  Happy Tuesday!

Happiness all wrapped up in a muffin

I just have to say that these are really awesome muffins.  Husband made them the other day and I think we have oinked just about all of them.  Husband found the recipe at his favourite online recipe source, Canadian Living. Maybe what made them the most yummy was that he used Mum's home canned peaches.  She cans the best peaches.  So anyway, give these a try and you will find happiness in a muffin!

On the quilting front "Trees for Sale" is sandwiched, spray basted and ready to quilt.  I  just have to figure out how I am going to quilt it.  Such a dilemma!  Have a lovely Thursday.  Long weekend for me and a whole lot of quality quilting time on the agenda.

Happy Wednesday!

Husband has been at again.  Yep.  He's been baking and there is nothing better than cinnamon raisin bread for toast in the morning.  Mmm, yummy.

And will you look at the size of those maple leaves?  Those are Big Leaf Maple leaves.  Appropriately named for sure.


Joy, who blogs at aVintage Green, has nominated me today for a Liebster Award.  How lovely is that?  The Liebster Blog award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  How perfectly lovely.  Thank you, Joy!  Apparently "Liebster" is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, loveliest, cutest...

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

1.  Thank the giver and link back to her/him
2.  Reveal your top picks and leave a comment on their blog.
3.  Copy and Paste the award on your blog.
4.  Have faith that your followers will spread the love too!

And since part of the fun is in passing the award along... my picks are

cherry red quilter   (85 followers)
Hoosier Toni  (93 followers)
cheerful thrifty door (50 followers)

I am going to leave it at that for now!  You have to check out these 3 great blogs and stop by and see Joy at her blog.  She just rescued a very scary looking piece of furniture and turned it into something lovely!

Have a super rest of your day!!  Check out these lovely blogs too!

Good cookies!

PUMPKIN SNICKERDOODLES

Husband has been baking.  At one point there were ten containers of cookies on the counters or in the deep freeze.  He likes to bake and cannot seem to stop.  I, however, can only eat so many cookies and he does not eat cookies at all.  This is a problem.  I took cookies to school this week.  The staff loves that.  They know how to eat cookies!

I found this recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles on Judy's bog this past week and I emailed it to Husband.  They just sounded so good!  And I was right!  You have to try them.  So yummy!  The hit all the right taste notes for fall.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Recipe (only slightly adapted from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen)

• 2 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 Teaspoon salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/2 Cups sugar plus another 1/4 cup
• 2 Sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 Large egg
• 3/4 Cup pumpkin puree
• 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In a separate bowl, cream together the softened butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg. Add the pumpkin puree and mix everything thoroughly. Slowly add the dry ingredient mixture a little at a time until everything is incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

In a small, shallow bowl, mix together the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. Take a heaping teaspoon full of dough* and roll it into a ball. Roll the ball in the sugar/cinnamon mixture, and the place the ball on the cookie sheet. Flatten the ball so it’s about 1/4-1/2 inch thick (if you want thicker cookies,  flatten the ball a little bit less). Make sure you space the cookies about 2 inches apart from each other.

Bake cookies for 9-12 minutes or until the edges and bottom start turning golden brown. The flatter you make the cookies, the shorter the bake time.

Makes about 2 dozen large cookies

*If the dough seems too sticky just let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes. It should be easier to work with once it sits for a little bit.

Enjoy!  Totally yummy!  

oh yummy!

Would you look at that?  Husband knows how much I like Hot Cross Buns.  He made some without the crosses and some loaves as well.  He says the recipe is broken though.  The buns are HUGE!  He says he likes to bake.  He makes such amazing bread.

 Happy Monday!  Don't forget to check out the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side!  There are some amazing quilts to check out!

yummy

Husband made cookies.  Darn.  They are really good.  I will have to be on the bike longer.

Butterscotch Honey Cereal Crunchies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F)

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup liquid honey
1 egg
1 3/4 cups butterscotch chips
2 cups corn flakes
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup flaked coconut (optional)

Combine flour, baking powder and soda.  Cream butter and sugars, honey and egg.Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing well.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.  Drop by tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden.  Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet then cool on a rack.  Yum.

mmm, yummy!

Husband did some baking today while I was at school kid wrangling.  Daughter is coming home for university reading break tomorrow so you have to have some baking in the house, right?  Husband makes awesome cinnamon buns.  He thinks it is all because of the pan.  He calls it the magic pan because it doesn't matter what he puts in the pan, it always tastes like heaven.  Magic.  What a scent to come home to!