New Pie!

Although the weather cooled down, my downstairs was pretty humid and warm.  It was cooler to be on the porch, so after a good bathroom cleaning, freezing more strawberries, and baking a pie, I high-tailed it to the porch to crochet.  Even though I should have been weeding, but....


...rain arrived during the night and well, it's we again.  The battle of planting continued.  Not to mention the weeding.

New pie for me.  Believe or not.  We missed out on getting a stockage of strawberries the last two years.  Not this year.  I made my first baked fresh strawberry pie.  Hubby was in heaven on this one too.  It was sadly the last two pie crust crumbles I had in the freezer.  I guess I better dig out my recipe and get that on the to-do list now.

Random Tidbits ~ New Recipe ~ Tip

 Beautiful sunrise. Although we ended up with cloud cover the remainder of the day.

Grab a cup of java or tea today.  It's a long post.

Apron Kind of Day

I've been having what I call "apron days" here lately.  Starting my day in the "garden" apron, then the "canning" apron, then my "housework" apron, and ending it in my "cooking" apron. 

Today's my day starts with draining more cheese.  Mmm!  Tonight we'll enjoy some with either hot pepper jelly, or port wine jelly, on crackers.
 

What we will get more of:

Cinnamon Blueberry Jam

I ran out of freezer space, so I started canning the last of the blueberries.  I am canning a new blueberry jam recipe - Cinnamon Blueberry Jam.  It's from Taste of Home if you'd like to try it too. 

Sizzlin' Summer

The 19 - 1/2 pint jars of strawberry jam I canned, are already being opened.  The family loves it.  I just hope I can keep some in stock all winter, as the wild black raspberries are on already.  I'm still watching our mulberries, but they are not ripe yet.

The kitchen has been in over-drive, but not nearly as it will be when tomatoes are in harvest.  A few days I didn't even wear an apron.  It was that hot.

The goats love me when I can.  Especially when they get the strawberry leftovers.  Not much goes in our compost this time of year. 
 

I somehow managed to read an entire book in 2 days.  I am taking my youngest to the library for the summer reading program, and even though I have a ton of books here to read, I brought one home last week.  I never expected to read it either.  


How did I do it?

Well, I read in between making all those batches of strawberry jam, while walking on the treadmill, and taking time on one of the porches.  Of course I had to let the bathroom cleaning go, but eventually it got done.

Now....I just need to fit time in for my writing as well.  And before those tomatoes start filling up my entire kitchen. 

Baking with Homemade Ingredients and Real Magazines

I don't subscribe to many magazines, but I do utilize my local library.   Just before the library closed for the holidays, I picked up a few of my favorites.  I also picked up one that I typically don't read - Ladie's Home Journal.

In this particular issue, I found another unique recipe, and one worth trying. Luckily, the recipes are also on-line, so I don't have to type it out, and I can direct you to the correct source.

Fruit Jam Crumble Bars
(Adapted from Ina Garten's Raspberry Crumble Bars)

I used the idea of Ina Garten's recipe, but utilized my home canned pear jam and homemade granola.  I initially wanted to use my canned wild black raspberry jam, but we ate it all.

I did not have sliced almonds and could have used more of the crust mixture, for the topping, but these were wonderful.  It was almost like eating pie with your fingers.

I used an 8 oz. jar of jam also, even though her recipe calls for a 10-12 oz jar.

And of course, my ultimate goal is to some day, use my own homemade butter.

Here is the link to the recipe for the granola.  It was in our local newspaper, and submitted by another writer who belongs to my Christian Writer's group. 

It was also one of the homemade gifts I gave this past Christmas.

Good Morning Granola

We are taking a trip to the library today.  They closed their doors just prior to Christmas and are opening them again today.