Strawberry Season

 It is Strawberry season in Wisconsin! I was so excited they ripened in time to take our cousins when they visited two weeks ago. We had a lovely time. Sine there was so many of us we got a bit carried away and ended up picking 28 quarts! 

 I could of stayed all day in the strawberry patch! 

 Needless to say, we have gotten our fill of strawberries. (Enough to give me hives several times! Ha!) Including strawberry shortcake, strawberries and cream, plenty of plain strawberries and strawberry muffins! I used my favorite muffin recipe, omitting the cinnamon and adding chopped strawberries and vanilla extract. Strawberries and vanilla go so well together!

We also made 28 pints of strawberry jam! 

What is your favorite way to eat Strawberries? Have you ever picked your own?

Peach Crumble

This summer the fruit has been luscious and plentiful. And I must admit, I have been in heaven! Cherries everyday for a month straight. Blueberries in muffins and smoothies, atop oatmeal and cereal and by the handfuls. Raspberries, blackberries and peaches so juicy and perfect. And apricots that taste like apricots. It has been pure bliss!

I haven't had too much of a chance to make and bake with all the fruit (it gets eaten too fast!), but have managed to squirrel away a bit in the freezer. This week as I stared at a basketful of almost-overripe peaches I decided a simple crumble would be the perfect dessert. A quick chop and mix and it could bake while we ate dinner. A lovely ending to the meal!

This is just a basic crumble top found in just about every cookbook. This one I barrowed from "Family Meals" by Maria Helm Sinskey, with a couple of tweaks. And since Mandy (the non-dairy eater) was out of town, I used butter!

Crumble Top

1/2 cup soft butter

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3-4 cups chopped fruit

Mix together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture starts to stick together. Sprinkle on top of fruit in 9" pie plate or 9" x 9" pan or pretty tart pan. Bake at 400 for forty minutes.

If you think your fruit is too tart or too juicy, you can mix a bit of sugar and flour with the fruit too. My peaches were perfect and the crumble was quite sweet enough. There might have been a bit too much too. I think if I had a bit less, the top would have crisped up a bit more instead of being slightly gooey in the center.

Dining Room Update-Apples!

The cool weather has also brought cloudy days here. So instead of trying to fight it, I have decided it is time to get cozy! (There is a fine line between cozy photos and uninspiring dark photos, I have tried my best to stay on the cozy side!)

 This week I switched out the fruit prints for just apple prints. I love how the red and orange apples make a stronger statement. And they are perfect for this time of year!

The lamp is also a newer addition. It adds a lovely bit of coziness in the evening.

 My previous post and the old look is posted HERE. I am really liking the new more cohesive look. It is a bit bolder then the mixed fruit.

Blueberry Jam

One of my favorite things about summer is collecting the abundance of fruit. (I am kind of squirrel like, packing as many varieties as I can find into the freezer for winter baking.)
Last weekend my sister gifted me a five pound box of blueberries. She knows how to make me happy! I put a couple of pounds in the freezer, a pound in the refrigerator for eating and that left a few pounds for Jam!

I had visions of all the lovely pictures I was going to take of the luscious blueberry jam, a pot full of fresh blueberries, the thickening fruit bubbling in the pot, a bowlful of crystalline sugar flowing into the jam, but that did not happen.....

Once, I got everything set up for jam and put the pot on the stove, my Mom came in and distracted me. I was also trying to wash the dinner dishes, stir the fruit and clear a space on the kitchen table. As you can see, too much multi-tasking! Ah well! I did remember to take a few quick photos of the jam in jars at lest.

My favorite way to make jam is with the No Sugar Needed Sure-Gel, that way I can use little sugar as I like. These were lovely sweet blueberries so I decreased the sugar to 2 cups to 8 cups of berries.
The jars look very vintage don't they? I just grabbed a few from the stash in the basement not even noticing until they were filled with jam. Isn't the "Self Sealing" Kerr jar neat?

Delicious! Of course, I had to whip up a batch of biscuits so we could all sample the Blueberry Jam! Blue Ribbon for sure!

Are you planning on making jam this summer? What is your favorite recipe?

Apple Crisp Deluxe

Apple picking means yummy apple things to eat. This weekend it was Apple Crisp Deluxe. Well.....that is what I call it. I made a few changes to the standard recipe to make it a bit better. I don't know if it is "deluxe" or not, but that is what I called it.

An apple peeler is a necessity for apple lovers! How can you go wrong with this old fashioned device? And it makes peeling quick as a wink!

So what makes Apple Crisp Deluxe? That was my thought exactly. Since crisp is all about the crumb topping, more topping would make it better, right? Or two layers of apples and topping. And how about adding extra apple cider for a crisp fall flavor? 

Apple Crisp Deluxe

6 cups peeled and sliced apples

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons flour (if I made it again, I would try it without, it didn't seem to need thickening)

Crumb Topping

3/4 cup oats

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup shortening or butter

 Mix apples, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour in a large bowl.

 Mix oats, flour and sugar, cut in shortening until crumbs form. This takes a bit of mixing to get the shortening dispersed evenly.

 Place half the apples in a 9 x 9 baking dish with half the crumb topping. Layer the rest of the apples and topping in the pan. Drizzle 1/4 cup apple cider over everything.

 Bake at 375 until the apples are soft. About 35 minutes.

Yum! It sure didn't last long!

Apples and Strawberries

 I love apple blossoms, they are so lovely. (and Pink!)

 Last year I planted this little sapling in my backyard. I was horrified to discover, once the weather started to warm, that hungry bunnies had nibbled off the twigs on the bottom half. It now just has three branches on top!

 But on the top of each branch there is a little cluster of blossoms. It is rather a surprise as I wasn't expecting any flowers after the hungry bunnies. I am so glad it survived and is apparently thriving!

 I don't know about a bumper crop of apples, but we might get one of strawberries!!

Cherry Berry Summer

My cherry tree had cherries this summer!!! Yes, the fruit was ripe weeks ago, these pictures are almost a month old!

And not just two or three cherries, but a couple of handfuls! Around 25 to be precise. Yep, I counted! This was a momentous occasion. The most cherries it previously had was three. I think it finally got mature enough or maybe it is just a good cherry year? Not sure why this was the year. I was a little unsure if they were ripe, but the cherries started splitting open, so I guess that was a sign.

 

The tree is huge now. Around eight to nine feet tall. I was pretty sure the tag stated it was a dwarf, but I am not sure if I trust my memory.

The cherries were certainly tasty! Though there were quite a few people you were disappointed there wasn't enough for a pie.......... Maybe next year!