The Little Red Hen

Better than the Best

Yesterday morning we picked lots of blueberries at the local u-pick farm. Buckets full - close to twenty pounds. It was our third trip to the farm this year and I have only frozen a few trays of them. We have been eating them like CRAZY.

Later in the day, I rolled out some  dough for cinnamon rolls and spread it with butter, brown, sugar, and cinnamon...

There on the counter was a big bowl of fresh picked blueberries. So, I tossed a bunch of those on the dough and rolled it up.

(my helper had to get a photo too)

They really turned out great. I was so eager to try them that I put the frosting on as soon as the came out of the oven, I should have waited a couple of minutes for that.

They were so good that I'm making them again today!

I know that I posted my cinnamon roll recipe as the Best Ever Cinnamon Rolls but I think we have succeeded in making the best BETTER!

Baking

We're having another busy weekend.

I've been baking.

I have also been working on some sewing projects. I'll have a couple of things to share with you next week.

 

Foraged Food

We had a cool rainy weekend which, I understand, is great morel weather.
We made quite a haul today.

And they were not tiny either.
We'll be having some mushrooms in our dinner tonight.

 

Brownie Roll-Out Cookies

P and I make some Brownie Roll-Out Cookies this week.

They are great when they are still warm out of the oven.

They are also excellent for home made ice cream sandwiches.

P has made this recipe for us to try next. She calls them Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

2 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
4 cups cinnamon
5 cups chocolate chips

Movie Night

Movie night means more than just watching a movie.  To me it means popcorn, knitting AND a movie! 

Some of us here really like our popcorn. I have been loyal to one national brand for a really long time. A few weeks ago, however, I saw some RED popcorn in our store. In addition to being red it was also locally grown so I had to give it a try. Am I glad I did? You bet! It has a much better taste; it actually tastes like CORN!

Yesterday we tried their white popcorn. This popped even better and had a great corny taste.

There's another reason to support local - it might even be better. This is!

Oh, and the knitting.

I finished some socks for B. They are basic men's crew socks made from Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn.

I also started some fingerless mitts. I love this pattern. It is an easy to memorize rib pattern that I can even manage during an action/suspence film!

The mitts are from the leftover yarn from this hat.

 

Double Chocolate Cherry Drops

Yesterday was the 100th day of school. P was home with a cold and was feeling disappointed that she was missing the 100 day festivities so we decided to make a favorite recipe and have our own celebration.

Santa brought M and B each a FOUR POUND BOX of dried cherries for Christmas. We have been using them to make Double Chocolate Cherry Drops and B has also been putting them in his granola when he makes it.

My mother-in-law gave us the recipe for the chocolate cookies. We love it and make them with one change - we substitute honey for the corn syrup.

P counted out 100 dried cherries and 100 chocolate chunks to go in the cookies.

Double Chocolate Cherry Drops

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/4 cup honey
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dired cherries (cut in half for smaller pieces)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt.

3. I large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in honey, vanilla, and egg until well mixed. Gradually add the flour mixture until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chunks and cherries.

4. Drop cookes by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-11 minutes or until tops are just firm. Cool on wire rack.

Serve with Milk!

 

Thanks for the cherries Santa!!

 

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

B heard about this great pumpkin recipe on NPR Friday - Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good.

We just had to try it with one of our pumpkins. I pretty much followed the recipe but also added a couple of apples. They had gotten soft and no one was going to eat them unless they were cooked with something.

If there had been more room in the pumpkin I also would have added some leftover potatoes from the fridge.

Oh. My. It was GOOD!

I could also see this as a dessert dish with apples and cinnamon in a pudding like center. We may have to try that too. It is a good thing we have some pumpkins left.

The Pear Experiments - Pear Ice Cream!

Last night in an effort to use up the last of the pears we remade the Italian Pear Cake. This time we added cinnamon and chocolate chips - a brilliant addition if I do say so myself. 

With last week's peach ice cream fresh on our minds we thought we'd try pear ice cream with the cake. D used the same recipe but substituted pears.

Have you ever had pear ice cream? It was DELICIOUS!

I don't think he measured anything but the basic recipe is something like this:

1 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup fruit (I think he used more pear than this)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

Mix the ingredients with a blender and then pour into the frozen ice cream maker, ours is similar to this but smaller. Churn until frozen.

The ice cream was surprisingly pear flavored.
Really.
It was excellent. We had to eat the ice cream quickly so I don't have a photo of that. But trust me, it was good.
I have some pears set aside in the fridge for another batch!

Italian Pear Cake

We have a bumper crop of pears again this year. After eating, freezing, and canning three bushels of purchased peaches we now have lots of pears from our trees. Yesterday, we tried this Italian Pear Cake. It used quite a few pears and tasted pretty yummy.

We could possibly be getting lots of raspberries too but we haven't battled the pumpkin vines to find them all yet. The pumpkins have grown from their patch up and over all of the raspberry plants.

I am busy cooking and canning tomato sauce every couple of days and this weekend will be trying my hand at canning pears. The canned peaches turned out great so we thought we would try the pears.

Ahhh. This is August.

Pesto Time

We braved the mosquitoes yesterday long enough to pull the garlic scapes. We added some to our dinner last night but there are still quite a few left.

I'll be making and freezing some pesto today.

I quilted some yesterday and finally got in the groove with the new machine but I ran out of the thread I was using in the bobbin.  I will have to wait for more thread to get the whole thing finished but I like the way it is turning out. It is a beautiful thing when the tension is right and the stitches look great on BOTH sides of the quilt. Sigh.

Today is a cooler, crispier day so we are heading out for a bike ride around the block.  Our block is over four miles round trip; not that far, really, but considering that I haven't ridden my bike for over five and a half years I think it will be far enough for me.