Adventures in the kitchen, part 2

March 22, 2020March 21, 20201 Comment

In addition to French onion soup, I spent a little time in the kitchen last weekend trying to make a strawberry rhubarb pie, which is a family favorite. But I depleted my stash of frozen rhubarb a couple summers ago and I’m not sure I’ll be able to harvest any this year, since we transplanted our rhubarb over the summer and I’m just hoping it’ll come back.

But then one day as I was wandering the aisles of my local grocery store, I happened upon a can of strawberry rhubarb pie filling. I’d never seen such a thing before! Naturally, I had to buy a can to find out what it was like.

I dug a box of pie crust out of my deep freeze and set it on the counter to thaw while I got dinner going. Once the dinner dishes were done, I set out to make my pie, with a little help from Bubbles.

Apparently, though, I should have…

Photo 365 #300

June 3, 20157 Comments

Holy cow – how have I been at this project for 300 days already? Didn’t I just start this thing?

Today is the kids’ last day of school. It’s the last day of school in the building they’re in for good (as far as I know at the moment), as the school district has decided to close the building. *sigh* The last day of school is supposed to be a fun day – it’s the beginning of summer, baby! – not a downer.

With that in mind, here’s a beginning I made last night:

2015-06-02 19.57.21

I suppose technically, I made this beginning last weekend, when I actually put together the pie crust and the fruit. Thing is, I didn’t actually get the pie put together until last night. When I trimmed the bottom pie crust, I had more left than I thought I’d have, so I tried to make the top crust out of my remains, but I didn’t have quite enough for that. That was when I decided to try a lattice crust. I’d never done one before, and the results aren’t exactly pretty (especially now that I’ve noticed I botched up the lattice), but hopefully it tastes better than it looks.

I’ll find out tonight. 🙂

Are your kids still in school yet? If not, how long have they been on summer break?

Photo Friday: Cookie time, part two!

December 12, 2014December 10, 20146 Comments

So, I’m sure you’re asking yourself how in the heck one manages to accidentally make somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 dozen cookies, right? I know I would be if I were you.

Look at all the cookies!

Mmm, cookies…om nom nom!

Bubbles and Miss Tadpole have a cookie walk tomorrow, and they are each responsible for providing ten dozen cookies. That’s 20 dozen cookies (aka a whole freakin’ lot). Last year they both helped with the baking and whatnot, but this year we’ve been so busy that it got left to the last minute. Bubbles is sick, so he wasn’t cooking anything for anybody, and Miss Tadpole was at school on Tuesday (aka, the only time I had to do any baking whatsoever before tomorrow), so it was on me…

Photo 365 #125

December 10, 20144 Comments

Christmas means cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. At least, it has the last couple of years.

Now, I like Christmas cookies as much as the next person, and I can’t remember ever not having Christmas cookies. But between my church’s cookie walk and the kids’ 4-H cookie walk, I’ve made more cookies the last two Decembers than I can ever remember baking. Ever.

Cookies are serious business. 🙂

And baking cookies is pretty much how I spent my day yesterday. It was the only day I had to get the cookies done for this weekend, so I took advantage of it – I found a recipe for some vanilla wafers that sounded promising, and I went to town.

Stop back on Friday and I’ll tell you all about how I accidentally made somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 dozen cookies.

Yes, you read that right. See you Friday!

Photo 365 #3

August 10, 2014August 11, 201411 Comments

This apple beauty was my reward for freezing God only knows how many quarts of corn. It’s upwards of 90, but the exact amount is uncertain because we ran out of bags. There’s still a boatload left to freeze, but we’re also out of freezer space.

apple pie

Apple pie has never tasted so good.

Lemon delight

July 13, 2014July 14, 20144 Comments

So the other night, I tried a new recipe. I don’t normally care for a lot of lemon things, but the rest of my family ADORE all things lemon. I thought this lemon bread would be a hit for supper (we wanted to keep it light that night), and I couldn’t have been more right. As a matter of fact, it was an even bigger hit the next day.

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