I can't even tell you how much I love this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. Warm days. Cool nights. And the berries. Oh, the berries... After much practice, my friends and I have somewhat perfected the art of berry picking with small kids. In fact, five years ago, we hauled our two toddlers and one newborn out to Sleight's Farm in Mulino to pick strawberries. At worst, this may sound like a recipe for disaster. At best, this may sound like lots of kid chasing and very little berry picking. The kids did great, though, and we managed to pick around 25 pounds each. The kids raced up and down the rows, filling their bellies with berries and Keep Reading
Blueberry French Toast Bake (perfect for fresh blueberries!)
Blueberry French Toast Bake I hit the blueberry fields again this morning, walking away with five hot, tired kids (It's okay. They were ours.) and four bowls of fresh, sweet blueberries. I decided that some of today's blueberries would be tomorrow's French toast. Only I couldn't wait until tomorrow. So we ate this French toast for dinner tonight. It was delicious and would make a great addition to any brunch or breakfast... or dinner menu. This recipe comes from our church cookbook, submitted by two great cooks in our congregation (I made a few minor changes). It quickly became a favorite, making regular appearances at many brunches & potlucks. Keep Reading
Basic Fruit Muffins with Streusel (great way to use fresh berries)
Strawberry Muffins with Streusel Topping I talked about how we can be frugal shoppers and a conscientous consumers all rolled into one. You may lean more to one end of the spectrum or the other, but there is definitely room in the zoo for a happy combination of both. In that post, I made the observation that, "Buying bum produce, no matter how cheap, is a waste of money." Michael Pollan calls it "voting with your fork." In other words, we send a message every time we buy food. Like most of you, I strive to buy quality produce in season. Generally this isn't a problem. No problem, that is, until those cartons of ridiculously red strawberries Keep Reading
Why I Can (and you can, too)
This is a re-post from a previous year. A few weeks ago, I posted a step-by-step guide to canning peaches for beginners. I was all set to follow it with several more basic canning tutorials. Next up, tomatoes! However, as I was pulling out of the Growers Outlet parking lot last week with 400 pounds* of tomatoes in the back of my van, it hit me: This is not normal behavior. In fact, the guy who loaded all 18 boxes even tried to intervene. "Uh, ma'am, have you ever canned before? Because... this is a lot of tomatoes. Are you sure you're up for it?" I assured him that I was splitting the order and the work with 2 other people. He still laughed at me as Keep Reading