Blackberry Sherbet ~ Berry-licious!

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When I was in high school I worked as a maid on the weekends during the school year and full-time during summer break cleaning rooms at a motel. It was hard work but, I made a whole $2.20 an hour! It was great having money to buy clothes and shoes. Lunches were free, all the soda you could drink, a 1 ton ice machine pumped out limitless cute little square cubes (I love ice!) and all the sherbet I could eat. Let me tell you, I ate a lot of sherbet as a skinny teenager, but nothing can compare with homemade sherbet using sweet plump fruit straight from the garden!

Birthday Jammies and Lala Littles

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This year I'm making Jammies for our granddaughters' birthdays and a matching outfit for their Lala Littles! The beginning of this month was Matty's 6th birthday and today we celebrated Hannah's 6th birthday! They grow up way too fast!

I loved it when I was little and my Gram made me and my sisters floor length flannel nighties or clothes for our dollies! And now my Grands look forward to what their Gram will make for them! Tonight at Hannah's birthday party one of her cousins asked me if I was a designer. I guess I am, at least for their dollies! Aren't the doll jumpers cute? I hand stitch these because they are so tiny. It makes a nice project to work on while sitting in my recliner in the evening.

Matty's Jammies and Lala Little in seersucker jumper.

Hannah and Lala Little's LadyBug.

I found the youth T-shirts at Joann Fabrics on sale at 4/$10. I waited to purchase the iron on flowers and this ladybug at a reduced price with my 40% and 50% off coupons. I embellished the iron-ons with added embroidery stitches.

3 granddaughters' birthdays down . . . 1 more to go . . . Over at Julie's!!! What sewing or craft projects are you working on?

 

Fruit Crisp

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I absolutely LOVE pie! I love fruit pies, cream pies, pumpkin pies, nut pies and yes, meat pies! I love a flaky buttery crust! I love pie! However, even though I can make a killer crust, my secret is . . . I don't like to make pie crusts! My answer to this dilemma . . . is making healthier Fruit Crisps. They are quick, easy, and delicious, fresh from the oven, maybe swimming in cream or topped with a dollop of sweet whipped cream!

Boysenberries.

I ordered a little cookbook years ago from Oregon, when I was going through one of those moments of desperation. It was hot (118F. that's 47.7C.) and humid with no break in sight, and I was looking for a new state to live in. The two places I looked at moving to? Portland, Oregon on the west coast and Portland, Maine on the east coast! In a weak moment I ordered real estate brochures and a charming cookbook called- Oregon Sampler: Resorts & Recipes featuring a sampling of recipes from the resorts & people of Oregon, put together by the Assistance League of Corvallis. It's loaded with top notch regional recipes and this is my rendition of blackberry crisp with a three fruit combo ~ blackberries, peaches and boysenberries and a little thickener to hold the juice and fruit together.

Fresh, home-grown blackberries, peaches and boysenberries.

FRUIT CRISP

Serves 8

5 cups fresh fruit

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons corn starch

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Crisp Ingredients

1/3 cup flour

1 cup old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, melted

• Place washed, prepared fruit in a buttered 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Sprinkle with lemon juice
• Whisk sugar and cornstarch together; sprinkle evenly over fruit.
• Combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter; sprinkle evenly over fruit.
• Bake at 375F for 30 to 35 minutes.
• Serve warm. Top with cream for an old-fashioned dessert or with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

Fruit sprinkled with sugar/cornstarch combination.

 

Fruit Crisp with crunchy butter-oat crumble satisfies the most ardent fruit pie lover.

Or course this crisp can be made with any combination of fruits or a single fruit. It would be wonderful with just peaches, blackberries, boysenberries, plums, apricots, strawberries, rhubarb or pears. With so many fresh fruits available and those I freeze for the times seasonal, local fruit is not available . . . I can see a lot of Fruit Crsips in our future . . . Over at Julie's!!!

 

 

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Grilled Lamb Kabobs

I have never been very fond of lamb.  As a kid I maybe tried it twice with yucky mint jelly.  It tasted gamey, musky and, until a couple years ago I would have told you I hated lamb!  Funny thing is there are a lot of folk out there who still don't like lamb because of that one time they "tried" it with the dreaded bright green "mint" jelly!  

Recent Harvests

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Just thought I'd send a quick post to show you what we have harvested so far this week.

 

Rhubarb, peaches, boysenberries, sweet mini red peppers, tomatoes and a sweet onion oh, and a lemon!

We harvested 4 potato plants so far, and some of our garlic, tomatoes and more peaches and a quart and a half more boysenberries!

This was our first year growing potatoes (Yukon golds) and our first crop of boysenberries. The blackberries are abundant but small and hard this year. Not sure what went wrong.

Harvest sure makes a pretty photo . . . Over at Julie's!!!

JUST PEACHY ICE CREAM

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It's peach season in Arizona . . . time to create the best peach ice cream~ ever!

Zesty Peach Barbecue Sauce

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Last year I made this peach barbecue sauce for the first time. To test my sauce we made two slabs of baby backed ribs, one was slathered with Sweet Baby Rays, the other with Zesty Peach Barbecue Sauce. The homemade, home canned sauce won hands down in our family taste test!

Peach Clafoutis (kla-foo-tee')

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Tree ripened peaches, just picked this morning!

A Little Bouquet for You!

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I picked this little bouquet just for you to say Thank You, dear friend, for taking time to visit . . . Over at Julie's!!!

 

Happy Mother's Day!

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A very warm wish for every Mom on this Mother's Day! You are beautifully and wonderfully made and I celebrate your uniqueness and, the commonality you share with all mothers everywhere! May this year be a time of deeper discovery of the importance of your calling as Mom! And, may you be inspired and strengthened!

6 Serving Cheesecake

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Sometimes I crave a piece of cheesecake but, don't want a huge 12 servings cake. I came up with a recipe that still has all the flavor and texture of a full size cheesecake and takes half the time to bake.

Raspberry Rhubarb Cheesecake.

Garden Pretties

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Fragrant Veitchii Gardenia blossom and bud . . . first of the season. This plant will soon be covered hundreds of blossoms! I love to pick little bouquets to keep by our bed, in the kitchen, and living room so we can enjoy their heavenly smell!

Dehydrating Roasted Scallions

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I let a bunch of scallions, a.k.a. green onions, go full cycle . . . They grew huge, like mature leeks. Our little Pollinators enjoyed their flowers, and I harvested their seeds for my next planting. Finally, I pulled, cleaned and trimmed them. After laying onions out on a sheet pan, they were drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt. I baked them in the oven at 325F. for 45 minutes giving them a light roast and added sweetness.

Chuck and the Pressure Cooker

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I received my first pressure canner/cooker as a wedding gift from Gramma Helen almost 40 years ago. I used it to cook roasts and later for canning low acid foods like green beans. My first pressure cooker is aluminum, not the safest metal to cook food in, but still fine for canning. I blew the nickel safety plug once, during my first year of marriage. When the pressure cooker ran out of liquid, the plug hit the ceiling! I screwed in the extra plug that came with the pot, scrubbed out the burned on roast and my extra plug remains intact to this day! N.B.D. . . .NO BIG DEAL!

Radish . . . any one?

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Even before the Pollinators, a.k.a. the Ladies, arrived 3 weeks ago I've been allowing broccoli, green onion, mustard, dill, bok choy, parsley, Swiss chard, and last but certainly not least, 1 radish plant go through their complete growing cycle giving honey bees extra flowers to gather nectar and pollen. They pollinate the veggie's flowers so I can gather seeds for the next planting season.