Sweet Teeth

Please take a look at my Favorite Recipes list in the left hand column of this page (this has now become my recipes index). Go ahead, you may do it now. Did you look? Did you? Ok, if you are being honest and you really looked, you may read on. One thing you may have noticed is that half of the recipes listed are...desserts.

This isn't because half of what we eat are desserts. We eat healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners every day. And we occasionally have dessert. On Thursday nights my brother and future sister-in-law come over for dinner. It's not that they need a dessert. It's just a good excuse for me to make one. So, I do. Almost every time.

You see, I have a problem. I don't have a sweet "tooth" like some normal people do. Every one of the teeth in my mouth are sweet. Every one.

I blame this somewhat on the way I was raised. There were always sweet, baked goods on the counter (cakes), in the fridge (pies) and in the freezer (huge tubs of ice cream and frozen cookies). Yes, often all at the same time. My mother, bless her, packed my lunch all the way through high school (I know, spoiled). I would have a sandwich, a bag of grapes or an apple and one of the following: a piece of pie or cake or a gob (a.k.a. whoopie pie) wrapped in wax paper or a bag of cookies. And for special occasions? Not one dessert. Several desserts, meaning lots of dessert leftovers lounging around the house after the company had left. All homemade, mind you. We are Mennonite.

Now, there were rules about how many sweets we could have, but when it's always sitting around and your mother is out hanging up wash or in the garden and you're hungry, who's gonna know?

Wow. I am really talking about this a lot. The point is, this all may have contributed to my sweet teeth. Maybe not. Once, we were out to dinner with Jamey's former boss, an amazing woman, by the way, who said that they always had bowls of M&Ms and other candy sitting around when they were raising their kids. She said their kids had some sometimes, but now, as adults, they really don't like sweets. She believes this was due to the availability of the sweets- they weren't forbidden. Sweets certainly weren't forbidden at my house growing up. On the contrary, they seemed to be encouraged.

So, does this mean it's my personality? My heritage? What?

Whatever it is, it requires desperate measures- at all times. I cannot keep chocolate in the house- in any form, except cocoa, since that doesn't taste very good at the height of sweet teeth desperation. I cannot keep icing in the house. Even vanilla, because while I don't like vanilla icing, you can always add cocoa to it, turning it into chocolate icing, which I adore eating. Straight. I also enjoy cookie dough and brownie batter and the baked versions of them both (of course). I mean, since I'm laying it all out here, I might as well just tell you everything.

When my brother and future sister-in-law leave after their meal, there is usually dessert left, but only a few pieces (since I've learned to bake in 8x8s to minimize leftovers lounging around my house), and those are usually wolfed-down by my runs-daily-high-metabolismed-very-low-percent-body-fat husband.

So, below is one of the strange compromises I had to invent when my sweet teeth were calling. Raspberries stuffed with soft (I microwaved them for 10 seconds) white chocolate chips leftover from baking scones the other week. They were pretty yummy and better for me than icing or half a bag of chocolate chips, right? (Sorry it's blurry. I was in some serious withdraw.)


So, if you have any idea what I am suffering from, please let me know. Farah, dear? Is there a treatment? Anyone? And what in the world do I do with my kids? Set bowls of candy around the house? Become a dessert pusher? Or pray that sweets in moderation is best? What do you do? Anyone? Anyone? Pin It

Applesauce Weekend

The very important business I had to attend to??? Applesauce. And, believe you me, in our house (and family) this is VERY important business. Since we don't buy produce all winter long, we depend on preserving and freezing our fruit to get us through the winter. Applesauce is perfect. Sam and Sadie adore it. It's how we get them to eat their dinner. It has the same power as dessert does when we need to bribe them into eating their vegetables or trying something new. And, because we use an apple that is so sweet it doesn't require adding sugar to the sauce, there is no guilt if they eat seconds or thirds.

This is a family tradition. Every year, my siblings and their significant others come together and make applesauce at my parent's house. We travel north to participate because the best saucing apple comes from up north. Red Cortlands. They make beautiful sweet, apple-ly, pink sauce. I've tried other apples and they are just not the same. A couple days before everyone arrived in town, my parents went to a local orchard and picked up our family's order of 28 baskets (the equivalent of 14 bushels) of Red Courtlands.


If you know me (and my mom), you know that the first thing you do when you have a boat load of fruit is make a pie. We made my mom's apple pie and a pear raspberry tart (in a pie plate). First things first.


Aren't these apples gorgeous?? Here is how things went this weekend.... Jamey, my mom and I started in Friday morning. On Saturday morning, a whole bunch more people came and chipped in, doing what took my mom, Jamey and I all day on Friday, in just the morning. Did that last sentence make sense? Ok. First, you wash the apples.

Next, we quartered them, leaving the skins and seeds in place, but removing the stems.

Then, we cooked them in pots on the stove in an inch or two of water until they got nice and soft.


This contraption (for those of you who haven't seen one before) is called a Squeezo or Victoria strainer or a food mill/strainer. You put the hot apples in the top. Then, you use a plunger, of sorts, to press the apples down the hopper as you turn the crank. The skins and seeds fall out of one end and into the tray to the back. The apple sauce gets pushed through a metal screen and flows down and into the apple sauce pan. Jamey is plunging and Sam is turning.


Here, you can see what happens when you add red raspberries (fresh or frozen) into the hopper with the cooked apples. The sqeezo takes the raspberry seeds out and you get this beautiful raspberry applesauce. I usually set enough red raspberries aside to make about a third of my sauce like this. It's simply delicious.


Here's my Sadie girl, helping to scrape the sauce down into the tray. Once the tray is full, you can mix in whatever (if any) amount of sugar into the warm sauce and ladle it into containers to freeze. Before we bought our second freezer, I canned a lot of my apple sauce. I ladled it into hot jars and hot water bathed them to get a seal.


Now, on Saturday, when we had an additional 10 people, we set up two applesauce stations. In addition to the kitchen, we set up a big table in my parent's garage, borrowed my Grammie's sqeezo and did double duty. We also borrowed their portable stove so we could cook apples right there and we used the laundry room sink to wash them.


Below are two pictures of the upstairs operation. My mom's parents and my dad's mother (Grandma, who visited us in August) helped work the upstairs operation while my dad, Jamey and my brother, made up the garage team.



It really is a lot of set up, work and clean up, but it's so much fun to do it all together. Many hands make light work and good applesauce.

Our share of the booty? We brought home 14 baskets (7 bushels) worth of sauce (144 quarts) and one bag of apples for baking. We barely managed to wrestle it into our freezers. Several quarts didn't make it in, so they are in our fridge just waiting to be eaten. Hmmmm. I do feel a little hungry.... Pin It

Pineapple Sage

Do you know about pineapple sage?? I didn't, until I was at a garden store with a friend back in the spring. I rubbed the leaf between my fingers and could not believe the smell- exactly like a ripe, juicy pineapple. I had to buy that plant. Especially since we don't buy pineapples any more.

I haven't really used it for anything this summer, other than to rub and smell every time I walk by. Oh, and I added it to mint tea once, but not enough, because I couldn't quite taste the pineapple.


Second only to the smell is what I saw the other day when I looked out my kitchen window. Beautiful, bold red flowers. They are popping out all over this happy bush. It did not start out as a bush, by the way. It started out, maybe six inches tall.


Here it is, crowding out some basil on the right and parsley on the left. It's trying to be as big as my butterfly bush, which sits just out of the picture on the left.


Hummingbirds like it, too. Like my bed of weeds in the background? It takes a lot of hard work to get that weed bed looking so weedy. It's really an iris bed. Couldn't you tell?

All this to say, next spring, when you are at the garden store trying to decide what to spend the money-you-really-shouldn't-spend on, pick yourself up one pineapple sage plant. It will not disappoint.

I won't be writing for a couple days. I have very important business to attend to. I'll fill you in on all the details when I'm done:-). Pin It

A Walk in the Woods

On Sunday, we decided to go for a little hike with the kids. Before we had kids, Jamey and I would go on hikes often. As I remember, I was always trying to keep up. Jamey loves trail running (I'll talk more about that another time), so it seemed only right to get the whole family out on the trail. For a very, very short spurt we were all running at the same time- Jamey thought this was great. I kept imagining someone diving headfirst into a rock.

We started out by heading to an easy little trail that we thought the kids would enjoy, but it was closed. You don't usually think of trails being closed, but this one was. Jamey wanted to hop the closed sign, but I'm too much of a stickler for rules and the law. So, we drove on up the dirt road to another trail Jamey thought would also be easy. Once there, we headed out on the trail- Sadie rode in the backpack and Sam walked.




We got to the look out after just a short while and decided to continue on the trail. This trail is part of a longer course that Jamey has run in the past. Up ahead was a pretty steep descent, which of course, we all had to hike back up if we went down. Down, down, down we went. We couldn't believe how much of a trooper Sam was- slipping and skidding his way down the mountain. All I could think about was that Sam was going to have to hike back UP this mountain. We made it almost to the bottom and decided to turn back. I was expecting tears and had visions of me carrying either a 40 or 25 lb. lug-of-a-child back up this steep mountain. Well...

Sam tore it up. He needed lots of short breaks, but lead the way most of the time, barely breaking a sweat. Jamey estimates (and he knows these kinds of things) that we climbed about 700 feet of elevation (one way, 1400 feet total up and down) over the 2 miles.

Once back on top of the ridge, Sadie was able to walk and off they went, often getting side-tracked by acorns, moss and wildflowers. Sam had fun looking for trees that may be big enough for Sam Gribley to live in (We finished the book, by the way. I bawled my eyes out. I was crying so hard, Jamey had to pick up reading the last few pages. It's not that sad, really. I'm just a sap.) They each suffered a couple spills. Sam shed a little blood, but all in all it was a really fun hike.




My poor daughter. I forgot to bring a barrette for her hair, so the whole time she was walking, she had to hold her hair out of her face. We think this threw off her balance a couple times. My advice? If you have kids, take them on a hike. They might surprise you. Oh, and take a barrette. Pin It

Vegetables I Do Not Speak Of

Jamey (my husband) uses a laptop a lot- for school, checking sports scores (mainly the Eagles this time of year) and...writing comments to my posts. Thinking back, you may not be able to recall many, if any, of them. This is because I have to 'reject' them. I have chosen a setting that allows me to 'publish' or 'reject' each comment. The reason his get rejected is because they are usually not related to the post or they are just plain funny (possibly only to me). He knows I screen them and expects me to reject them, so there are no hard feelings about him not being 'published'.

Where was I headed?...Oh, yes. A week or so ago he posted a comment (which I promptly rejected and now wished I had saved) which went something like this..."What is wrong with you? You have a garden and you never talk about corn. Don't you like corn? Corn is very good. You should talk about corn. You have a garden and you don't talk about corn. I do not understand."

Let me explain. There happen to be a few vegetables that are not my favorite and happen to be his favorites. He was raised eating these (his parents have a huge, beautiful garden), as was I. For some reason, these few vegetables (I don't even call corn a vegetable, but that's a whole other debate) have lost all pizazz for me. Maybe because I am not very creative in my preparation of them. I'm not sure. I do know that when my mother-in-law prepares any and all of them, they are heavenly. She's some kind of an expert in these particular vegetables. In my house they lose their appeal, flavor, excitement, etc. What is wrong with me?

Ok. Here they are in no particular order:

1) Corn

2) Green Beans

3) Potatoes (blue, purple, red, yellow, white, striped, polka-dot, whatever)

and, not a vegetable, but another favorite of my husband's

4) Watermelon

Are you gasping? I almost am and I knew what I was going to write. We still grow all these things. I still blanch and freeze the green beans- tons of them. The rest...well...Jamey is kind of left to deal with.

He shucks the corn and steams or grills it to add to dinner. He blanches and freezes a few quarts each year. I will eat it. After I cut it off the cob. Go ahead, gasp again. Even Sam doesn't understand that one.

He brings in the potatoes and I store them in my pantry. That's nice of me, right? Ready...brace yourself again...I don't like mashed potatoes even.

Then there's watermelon. Now, I really wish I liked watermelon. Every year I try it and every year I realize nothing has changed. So, Jamey and the kids eat copious amounts.

What DO I like??? EVERYTHING ELSE. So, please forgive me if you wish I gave more attention to some of these God-created, respectable, staple, will-feed-you-when-you're-poor vegetables (and starches). I just don't like them.


Look, dear! I posted a photo of one of the amazing watermelons you grew this year. Can you ever forgive me? Pin It

Eggplant and Beets

We planted two eggplant plants this spring, because I didn't want too many. Guess what. They died and we were left with none.

But, having friends who garden is wonderful. It seems as if whatever did really well for them, didn't do so well for us and vice versa. So, we find ourselves swapping produce.

My good friend, Cinde, brought us a huge bag of beets from her parent's (our beets did fine, but we wished we had planted more) and a few beautiful eggplant from their garden. We will be donating winter squash to their cause in a few weeks, as their's didn't do so well. Aren't friends great?

Of course I want to preserve some of the eggplant, so I'm going to take a recommendation from Cinde. She slices the eggplant, dips it in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and spreads them out on cookie sheets and freezes them. Once frozen, she divides them into plastic bags, with each bag containing the number of slices needed to make eggplant parmesan. Then, puts them back into the freezer.

When she's ready to make eggplant parmesan, she lays them in a greased 9x13 pan, allows them to thaw a bit and tops them with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and into the oven they go. Brilliant! Here is my favorite Eggplant Parmesan recipe. I like that it incorporates pasta. I find that it makes for a more substantial meal.

Update 9/23/08: Last night I prepared and froze the eggplant, as described. Tonight, I thawed and made Eggplant Parmesan and I could not even tell it had been frozen- it was wonderful!

Eggplant Parmesan (adapted from Cooking Light)

1 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 tsp. lemon pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 (1 pound) eggplants, each peeled and cut crosswise into 6 slices
1 cup flour
3 large eggs, beaten
30-35 ounces tomato sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
3-4 cups hot, cooked, angel hair pasta

There are two ways of doing this. The first way is to pull frozen, already floured, egged and bread-crumbed eggplant slices from your freezer and lay them in your 9x13 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Let them thaw on the counter for about 15 minutes. **Bake them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, top the eggplant with the tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and put it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese melts. In the meantime, cook the pasta, according to the directions on the package. Serve the eggplant over the pasta. Makes about 4 servings.

The second way, is to start with fresh eggplant. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a shallow dish. Set aside. Whip up the eggs a bit in a separate bowl and set it aside. Dredge the eggplant slices in the flour, then the eggs, then the bread crumb mixture and lay them in a single layer in your 9x13 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Follow recipe above beginning where you see the **.

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Tomorrow, for the first time, I will be trying my hand at a pressure cooker. Actually, it will be my neighbor, D's, hand and pressure cooker. She so graciously agreed to let me borrow her cooker and her expertise so I can can some plain beets.


The rest I will pickle today and also set aside some plain beets to eat on our garden salads for dinner. My favorite Pickled Red Beets recipe follows...

Canned Pickled Red Beets (adapted slightly from Margaret High's recipe in Simply in Season) See below if you would prefer not to can them.

1 gallon bowl prepared beets

To prepare beets, scrub them, leaving on their tails and 2-3 inches on their green tops. Place beets in a tall pot and cover them with water. Boil until fork-tender and when the skins slip off easily (about 1-2 hours). Drain, reserving 2 cups of the beet juice. Run cold water over the beets.

3 cups white vinegar
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups reserved beet juice
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1 1/2 tsp. salt

While the beats are cooling, prepare the brine by combining the ingredients above in a large sauce pan. Bring the brine to a boil and simmer as you slip the skins off the beets and slice them. Pack the slice beets into jars and cover with the brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, cap with lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 30 minutes.

If you don't want to can them, add the sliced beets to the brine in the saucepan and bring it all to a boil for 3-5 minutes. Let cool and refrigerate, covered. They will keep for 4-6 weeks. If they last that long:-).

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"Write them on the doorframes..."

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 11: 18-20

A couple years ago, on a website I can no longer find, a woman wrote about how she had stenciled Bible verses on the walls of her home. I loved this idea so much and I filed it away in the back of my mind. I've thought about it a lot off and in since then and about 6 months ago, finally bought the paint and brush and exacto knife. Friday morning, I had nothing on my morning agenda, and was thrilled to begin.


This is the entrance to our dining room from our kitchen. I wanted to start here, because I was very sure of the verse I wanted and it was a short enough verse that if I messed up terribly, it'd be less to paint over. Thankfully, it went well and I am excited to take on the next two rooms I have ideas for.

In case you'd like to try this, here is (a very detailed account of) what I did:

1) I opened a word document and typed out the verse, magnified '200'. I can be pretty slow about computer-related things and just discovered that you can make things bigger than '72' by typing another number in the top field. I used the font Papyrus, but you could choose any font, of course. I then printed it out on card stock.

2) Next, I used my brand new and very sharp exacto knife to cut out the letters, including the centers of letters like, e, a, b, etc.

3) Then, I lined up all the pages and taped them together, making sure that they all ran in a straight line and that words from one page to another were spaced the same distance as those that were on the same page.

4) I taped them onto my wall and used a level to level the stencil. This is very important in an old house like ours. The molding at the top of this door is NOT level, but thankfully, the ceiling is (good job, dear). This way, if you, or people you know have an 'eye' for the level, like I do, it won't be terribly distracting. Also, you want to make sure it is centered if it's over a door, window or on a small wall.

5) After your stencil is taped up, put little, tiny tape donuts on the backs of the inside of your e, a, b, etc. and tape them into place.

6) I used stencil paint, that was more like a paste, and dabbed my stencil brush into it and tapped the letter openings head-on. I used my fingers to press the stencil down right around each letter I was doing to keep my brush from sliding under by accident.

7) Finally, I very carefully removed the stencil and prayed that it looked alright as I stepped down off my stool. Whew.

For all you crafty-folk out there, I'm sure this is a no-brainer project. For me, it took a little thought, but not too much time. Start to finish it took about 2 hours and I was taking my time. In the same time, Jamey installed a new hot water heater (again, good job, dear).

It took about 1 minute for Sam to memorize it. Hmmmm. I think there might be a whole lot more scripture going up on our walls soon:-). Pin It

Red Raspberry Cake

And you thought I was done taking pictures and talking about red raspberries. As Sadie would say, "no yet".

(Before I get started here, I want to say thank you to all of you who had kind words to say about my last post. We are not alone. Let's remember this as we strive to do our very best and inspire our kids to do the same.)

I did a little online search to find a new red raspberry dessert recipe that I could use for our company tonight and tomorrow (two different sets of company). I wanted something I could make once, for both. This recipe turned out to be a keeper. Company #1 raved and I have to admit, it's a delicious, simple, buttery cake. And, really...how can you go wrong with red raspberries?

Red Raspberry Cake (Adapted from a recipe on epicurious by Barbara Steinberg)

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

Blend the two sugars and flour. Add the butter cubes and cut them into the dry ingredients until they form coarse crumbs. Set aside.

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine in a bowl with a whisk. Set aside.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

Mix in a mixer until blended.

1 cup plain yogurt (the original recipe called for sour cream)
2-3 cups red raspberries

Alternate adding the flour/salt/baking powder mixture and the yogurt to the butter/sugar/egg mixture (in your mixer), starting and ending with the flour. Beat until mixed well.

Spread half of the batter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Since I wanted for two night's worth, I used two 8x8 inch pans. Lay the red raspberries on top. Cover with remaining batter. Sprinkle the crumbs on top and bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a knife comes out just clean.



If you have access to red raspberries, please make this. You'll be really glad you did. Unless you're in a diet, then you'll be really mad at me. I apologize, in advance. Pin It

Homeschooling is Hard

There. I just came right out and said it.

Sometimes I think people have visions of homeschoolers sitting upright and quiet in their chairs, waiting patiently for instruction from their mother. Or, child and mother exchanging a hug and kiss and a "great job!" at the end of each school day. These things occasionally occur at our house. But of late, it goes more like this...

"Sam, stay sitting. Stop whirling your pencil. Please keep your pencil on the table. Sam, come back to the table. Please stop crying. You know how to do this and I'm here to help you. Please stop continuing to draw lines on your paper after you know you've made a mistake. Would you act like this if you went to a big school? What do you think that teacher would do? Do you think that when Daddy gets frustrated at school, he throws his pencil at his teacher and stomps off saying he's never doing school again? You must do school. It's the law, Sam. If you don't go to big school and if you don't do school at home, Mommy could get in trouble by the police." I get desperate, you see.

And, it's not that he's not bright, or doesn't understand the work. That, I could handle. That, I have patience for.

He just doesn't want to do the work. So, I try to understand. I don't want to do work a lot of the time. Oh, how I really hate scrubbing toilets and dusting. But, I have to do it anyway, so I just do it and try to be thankful that I have a toilet (two, actually) and that I have a house to dust. This is what I tell Sam, anyway. Does it work? Not yet.

Instead, Sam loses privileges. Not for incorrect answers or improper handwriting, but for fussing and complaining and not cooperating. Two days ago, he first lost a piece of candy I was going to reward him with if he did a good job. Then, he lost PBS privileges after school that day. Then, he lost PBS privileges after school the next day. Then, he lost the privilege of having his bottom not sting.

Then, after we were both in tears, we actually did have that hug and kiss and he was on his best behavior for the rest of the school day.

Oh. My. Word. It's going to be a very long school year if that's what it takes. But, you know what? I'm stubborn as all get out. And this is what we want. So, we'll find a way to make it work.

Yesterday, in the car, I asked Sam if we were going to have a better school day. He said yes. I said, "Let's have all the rest of the school days be better, okay?" He said, "I don't think I can do that."

So, we agreed to have more better days than bad days. At least he's honest. And realistic.

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Sour Cherries

The other evening, I mentioned that there was sour cherry pie in my fridge. I realized that I had not yet told you about our sour cherries. So, sit back and let me tell you a little story....

We have one sour cherry tree. One is enough. This is the first year that we bothered to net it. It was pretty much torture for me last year to watch all those beautiful blossoms turn into little light yellow cherries, turn into bigger pink cherries and then promptly turn into pits hanging from stems. That's what the birds decided to do with our cherries.

This year, I declared that no matter what it took, we were going to net that tree. Over the course of two days with Jamey and I taking turns at it, clothes pinning two large nets together while standing on a very tall ladder, muttering and struggling, we finally had it covered. Two birds lost their lives due to our netting this tree, but I like to think they were some of the lucky birds who ate the cherries last year. Oops. Did I write that? Anyway, we tied off any holes in the net to prevent any more deaths and waited. Hoping that it would all be worth it.



It was. They came mid to late June (before I starting blogging). All and all, I think we figured that we (along with some friends) picked over 100 lbs. of sour cherries. That's a lot of cherries.


For my birthday, my mother-in-law gave me a cherry stoner, a nifty little contraption that makes pitting cherries a breeze. Sam worked it for me a lot of the time. Once pitted, I canned some, dried some (for scones, muffins, etc.) and froze the rest for pie.


My favorite way to eat sour cherries is in pie form. This is actually the last bite- just as good as the first. Yes, I was eating directly out of the pie plate.


Sour Cherry Pie (adapted from my Grammie's recipe)

3 cups pitted sour cherries (thawed and drained, if used from the freezer)
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar (yep, this is yummy!)
3 tbsp. melted butter
one pie crust

Combine water, (white) sugar, cornstarch and almond extract in a saucepan with a whisk until cornstarch has dissolved. Cook over medium high to high heat, stirring constantly until it becomes thick and bubbly. Take it off the heat.

Lay sour cherries in crust. Pour cooked sauce over the cherries. Set aside.

Make crumbs by combining the flour, brown sugar and melted butter with a fork. Top pie with crumbs and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until crust and crumbs are nicely browned. Pin It

September Garden

I was out gathering a few things from the garden the other evening for dinner and realized how beautiful vegetable plants are- even though, for many of them, this is the end of their season. With camera in hand, I took a stroll.


Our carrots. Can you tell we didn't thin them enough? That's ok. Their shapes will be more entertaining and just fine for making a wonderful carrot soup (I'll share that recipe another day).

Remember these cherry tomatoes? They are still coming.

This is our old lettuce bed, going to seed. We are planning to collect the seeds this year.

Except for the row of bell peppers to the right, what you see here are our sweet potato plants taking over this section of the garden. Before growing them, I had no idea they did this.

Swiss chard. This grows all season long, well into fall.

This is one of the many HUGE pumpkins that are growing along side our butternut squash. Jamey says that this variety of pumpkin can grow to several hundred pounds. And...I wonder...what is it that we are going to do with hundred pound pumpkins? He says I can make pie with them and that we are going to sell them out by the road. If you live close and want to buy some harvest decorations- large harvest decorations, please let me know.

A better view of the pumpkin/squash patch in the back garden.

Oh, and I wish I had taken (yet another) photo of our raspberries. They are going gang busters this year. We are picking 1-2 quarts a day. I'm in heaven! If anyone has favorite red raspberry recipes, I would LOVE to hear about them.

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Swiss Chard and Ricotta Calzones

I am thoroughly enjoying exploring food blogs. One I have been regularly visiting, as of late, is this one. She has an index of recipes that are right up my ally. This is the first recipe of hers that I've tried.

I have made calzones before and they've been good. This one incorporates swiss chard, which I have a-plenty. These are very good. I served them to my brother and his fiance and they were a hit- lots of moaning and mmmmm-ing. We had them again the following night. Later this week, vegetarian friends will be coming for dinner and guess what I plan to make again?

Jamey is very pleased that I doubled the recipe. This means he'll be taking them to school in his lunches. Although, he says he feels a little bad eating good, homemade leftovers in front of his younger classmates who are eating hot pockets, power bars and pecans for lunch. These are pharmacy students who know about good eating habits and health. But, to their defense, they don't have a stay-at-home wife cooking them meals that lead to leftovers which lead to lunches either.

Ok, enough gabbing. Here's the recipe...

Swiss Chard and Ricotta Calzones (adapted slightly from Sara Beam's recipe which was adapted from Vegetarian Planet)

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 large cloves garlic minced
2 cups chopped vegetables (I used green peppers and roasted tomatoes- be creative!)
1 bunch swiss chard, leaves chopped, stems diced (I used about 4 huge leaves, minus the lower stems. You could also use spinach.)
3/4 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh-ground black pepper
crushed red pepper flakes (I skipped this for my kids' sake)
1 batch pizza dough (homemade or store bought refrigerated)
2 tbsp. cornmeal
tomato sauce for dipping

swiss chard

Cook the onions in the oil in a skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and other vegetables and continue cooking until the vegetables are softening. Add the chard and cook until it is wilted but still green (before it turns to brown mush). Drain off any liquid and transfer to a bowl.

Add ricotta cheese to vegetable mixture and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

Divide dough into 2 or 4 equal portions (2, if this is your main dish or 4, if this is a side dish). Roll out onto a floured counter into oval shapes. Divide vegetables between the dough, keeping it off to one side. My oval looks more like a circle. This seemed to work fine, too.



Fold empty side over the filling and crimp the edges of each calzone with a fork to prevent leakage while baking. Lay calzones on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until nicely browned.


Serve with warm tomato sauce for dipping. Mmmmmmmm. We've discovered that these baked calzones freeze, thaw and reheat very nicely. Pin It

Poll Results

Thank you to everyone who voted! This is my first experience with a poll here and it was really fun for me. To be honest, if I see a poll on a blog, I usually take the time to read the question and look at the current results, but I do not vote. Why? I'm not sure.... But, now that I've been on the 'polling' side of things, I think I will...

To the question of: "What would you like to know/hear more about?, here are your answers. Twelve people voted. Some voted for more than one, obviously.

Votes/Topic

2/Eating Locally
2/Preserving Food
2/Food, food, food
4/Ramblings
2/Homeschooling
2/Facts about us
1/Mennonites
1/Other ("garden and chickens")
10/I like what I hear

You gave me the go ahead to continue on which-ever-which-way my thoughts turn. Thank you. You all are very sweet. Even those of you who didn't vote. You're sweet for just visiting here.

I am glad, though, that the poll is no longer the first thing I see in the side bar. I'd much rather look at our pullets and the pumpkin patch. Wouldn't you? Pin It

End of the Summer Meal

It sure feels like this might be the end of the summer. The past two days have been unseasonably warm. No, hot. And this week's forecast is calling for cooler temps, in the mid 70's.

It almost seems as if I'm on the cusp of the change right now. The sun has gone behind the clouds and the wind is blowing fiercely. It feels wonderful.

Although we didn't plan a summery meal to celebrate the possible closing of the season, it turned out to be just that.

Jamey picked the first of our fall lettuce, making big salads for us, piled with homegrown carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. We had the very last of the corn, leftover tabouli (which has all good summer things in it- tomatoes, green peppers, onions, garlic, mint, parsley) with flat bread and scrambled eggs. I didn't even crave desert afterwards. This is an oddity for me, especially when there is sour cherry pie in the fridge.

It's all making me a little sad.... Pin It

Little Feet

My sister and her 6-week-old beautiful baby girl came to visit us for a few days. Sadie kept saying that she had "two mommies". I had no idea how much Sadie and Sam were going to dote on their cousin. And...well...be obsessed with her. I think that is a more accurate way of saying it.

If she was awake and downstairs, they were by her side. Sadie starting calling her "mine" and would cry, inconsolably, if she could not be with her (if she was off nursing or napping). Thankfully, they were both very gentle with her. And, she actually smiled at them and seemed to be amused by them and their antics and activity.

It's hard to believe that they were once as small as she. We measured feet for fun. Sadie's foot is first, then Sam's.



It looks like Sadie has inherited my flat feet. And Sam, Jamey's big toe. Sorry, kids. Oh, back to the visit. It was really wonderful and since we don't live too far apart, hopefully these visits will become routine:-). Pin It