Blackberries!

Our local Bountiful Basket had a great deal on blackberries the other day, so I bought a flat.  I've never had so many blackberries and have been having so much fun finding recipes to use with them.  However, I have to hurry to use them because Dale likes to just snack on them-they're disappearing fast!

I wanted to make a crisp or cobbler with them but couldn't find a recipe that looked exciting.  Finally, I decided to just use one of my all time favorite recipes for an apple-cranberry crisp and substitute in the blackberries.  It was delicious.  The sweet apples balanced perfectly the tart berries.  And, of course, with a big ol' scoop of vanilla ice cream, how can you go wrong?!

The recipe I used is a modification of a Pampered Chef recipe.  I used the fruit part of the recipe and then add the topping from a recipe that a friend of mine gave me--it is the best, all time recipe for a crisp topping.  (Shh--the secret is graham crackers!)  I get so many compliments when I use this topping.

Here's the recipe.....enjoy!  (I just exchanged blackberries for the cranberries in the recipe.)

Apple Cranberry Cobbler (part of which is credited to Pampered Chef)

4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

1 16-oz can whole berry cranberry sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 Tablespoons flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

1 cube melted butter

8 graham cracker squares (not rectangles) crushed

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Combine the first five ingredients in a large bowl and pour into a large baking dish.  In a separate bowl, combine all the topping ingredients.  Mix until combined and crumbly.  Sprinkle topping over fruit.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes until apples are tender and top is golden brown.

Two New Yummy Ideas--BBQ!

Dale's good friend Steve celebrated his 50th birthday at the end of April.  We went to the family BBQ and party and discovered some new delicious ideas.

The first was so obvious but one I had never thought of.  They had a big bowl of homemade salsa that they had just dumped a bunch of salad shrimp into--it was fabulous!  And so easy.  We came home and made one of my favorite salsas (from Pioneer Woman, see link below) and added some salad shrimp.  We scarfed it down in record time.  A few weeks later we made it again and this time added in some medium shrimp.  It was just as delicious with the "better" shrimp but not superior.  That's good so you know you can make it with whatever shrimp you have on hand.  It's Dale's new favorite chip dip.

The next discovery was carne asada.  Now we've had carne asada before at restaurants but I had never thought about making it ourselves before.  What I found out from the chef that night was that there is a local Mexican market that cuts and pre-marinates the meat for you.  You can just go pick it up and throw it on the grill.  I did some research so I could find the market and found the meat to be a little expensive.

A few days later I just happened to be at my local grocery store and found they had "carne asada" meat already packaged up (at a great price) just not marinated.  I bought it, marinated it in onions, garlic, lime and cilantro and we grilled that up--fabulous.  Perfect sliced, on a grill-toasted tortilla with a little salsa.  YAY--we'll be doing this a few more times this summer.

My Fuschia

Well, it's only been 10 months since I last blogged--terrible, I know! I guess I haven't been taking very many pictures. I've left that up to the people in the family that enjoy it so much.

I did take a picture yesterday of my Fuschia--I love it! I had always wanted to grow Fuschias because I just adore the hot pink color. Around these parts, the Fred Meyer stores have what they call "Fuschia Saturday." That's a day where you can go and buy little Fuschia and Geranium plants for cheap and then the store will plant them for free (in your containers). Actually the store will plant any plants you buy that day for free--and it doesn't matter what size of container/planter you have. I've seen people bring in huge cement planters!

Anyway, I've gone to Fuschia Saturday the last two years and done hanging baskets. It's so fun and inexpensive. The best part is, though, seeing the little teeny seedlings slowly grow and then start having these gorgeous flowers. This plant did a lot better this year than last. I hope it lasts a long time this summer.

(And hopefully I'll post a little more this summer, too!)

First Day of School 2010

A Junior in High School.

First Day of Middle School.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Hare Krishna Bread

This year Calista was in the Boise Fourth of July parade with her drill team. It was a lot of fun and just the right length. It was also fun because friends and family got to "march" along with the girls. It was neat to be able to walk down the street past the Capitol building.

There were lots of interesting entries in the parade, and one of the best were the Hare Krishnas. Of course, they had a very colorful "float" and beautiful costumes. As they walked down the street, they passed out little packages of sunflower seeds and raisins to everyone. Our family ended up with several little packages.

I was interested to know if the little packages had any significance, so I tried to research it. I didn't do a very good job, but I think I found out that these little "gifts" are called prasadam. Supposedly, worshippers give a treat to the gods at their temple, and then the worshippers are given a treat back. This treat is then shared with everyone. Many times the treats are made with some kind of nuts and fruits. (This may be entirely wrong, but that's the closest thing I could figure out.)

Anyway, we ended up with these little bags and, while they were OK to eat plain, nobody was that enthusiastic about eating them. I wondered if I could come up with a way to use all the little packets. They were interesting because the raisins and seeds were flavored with some sort of spice and some salt. I remembered a recipe I had made a long time ago from Bon Appetit for some pumpkin/sunflower seed bread and thought maybe that would work.

I found the recipe and realized that the recipe already called for some spices, so the already-flavored seeds and raisins just might work. I think the family was a little skeptical of my "Hare Krishna" bread until they tasted it. It was DELICIOUS!!! The bread was very moist and flavorful, and the sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds added just the right amount of texture and crunch. Guess we'll have to catch the parade next year, too.

For those of you who don't have Hare Krishna packets, I'll post the recipe and you can just use sunflower seeds. OK? OK!!

Pumpkin Sunflower Seed Bread (Makes 2 loaves)

2 1/2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. Combine all the ingredients (batter will be thick). Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake for about 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes then turn out on to a rack to cool completely.

Buttermilk Syrup

I recently saw a recipe for buttermilk syrup on a website. I had never heard of anything like it. The person posting the recipe raved and raved about it, and other commenters said it was incredible. I decided we might as well try, especially since it's such an easy recipe.

Oh, my goodness!!! You cannot believe how yummy this is!!! Seriously!!!!! It is so rich and delicious. You all must try it right now!!!! Go--get the ingredients right now!! It's worth it!!! We had it over French toast, and it was heavenly! OK--here's the recipe....

Buttermilk Syrup

Melt one stick of butter (not margarine) and 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1 cup sugar in a LARGE saucepan over medium low heat (Yes, large!). When butter is melted, bring the syrup to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla and whisk in 1 teaspoon baking soda. The syrup will foam up when you add the baking soda. Whisk the syrup for a second or two and the foam will go down a little, but not very much. Serve immediately over french toast, waffles, pancakes, etc. As the syrup cools down, the foam goes away and the syrup gets thicker, but it's still super yummy!!!

Have fun!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! I thought it would be fun to have a big old fiesta, but it ended up being a crazy day. We did manage to pull of a couple fun things for dinner...like strawberry margaritas (virgin, of course)

Crab ceviche with tortilla chips.

Fish tacos with a yummy lime cilantro sauce

And for dessert, mexican brownies with vanilla ice cream and dulce de leche drizzled over the top.

It was so crazy, we had to have all the parts of the meal at different times for different people, but it was still fun. I was also going to serve jicama with lime and red pepper but couldn't quite get it all done. Maybe next time....

Doin' Our Best For Charity

For the 5th year in a row, Dale's band played at the Children's Archery Challenge. This is an archery tournament/shoot where all the proceeds go to help fight children's cancer. The band plays for free at the Challenge but, as you can see, the family gets a lot more entertainment out than we put in. It's a fun thing to participate in each year, and it makes me happy that Dale and his band are willing to play for free for such a good cause.

Empanadas

When I was a kid, one of our neighbors had the opportunity to go to South America many times. She also had South American friends that would come and stay with her. A few times those friends would make South American food and invite our family over to share. On one of these occasions, a woman made empanadas. I had never had anything quite like them before, and it's one of those flavors that I can still remember from that one, exact time.

I've experimented with making my own empanadas over the years and made some pretty good ones, but never been able to quite duplicate that first one I had as a kid. This last time, I made them, they turned out really well. Instead of using the same filling that I usually do, I improvised a filling using some leftover potatoes and rotisserie chicken. They were very yummy and I even felt like I got the hang of crimping the edges pretty well.

Basically all you're doing with an empanada is making a little meat pie and baking it. The one thing that I always like to do, though, is to include the very traditional hard-boiled eggs and green olives. That really makes them taste like authentic empanadas. Look for the recipe link at the bottom of the page.

Buen Provecho!

Pork Tinga--Say That 5 Times Fast

WOW! It's been a long time since I posted anything new. I've thought about it, but never got around to it.

I bought some boneless country-style pork ribs for a good deal the other day, but wanted to try a new recipe with them. I searched a couple sites and found this recipe from Rick Bayless.

It was super yummy. It was a tomato-chipotle kind of sauce with falling-apart pork and potatoes and onions in it. We served it taco style on corn tortillas and garnished it with avocado and fresh cheese. Even the kids ate it up.

There was enough left over, too, that I'm going to attempt to make enchiladas out of the remaining meat and sauce. I'll post a picture of that if it works out. Check out the link to the recipe below.

(And I'll try and post a little more in 2010)

Christmas Stollen

Whenever I've seen "stollen" in stores at Christmastime, I have been infatuated. I always wondered about it--why it's around at Christmas, what it tastes like, where it comes from, etc. So today, when I went onto the King Arthur website and they had an "easy" recipe for stollen, I decided to make it right away.

It turns out that stollen is a German type of fruit cake. It's usually made with a yeast dough, several kinds of dried fruits or nuts, and then covered in powdered sugar or icing. The earliest known mention of a stollen is from Germany in 1474. The shape and look of a stollen is supposed to remind people of the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. (How sweet is that?)

It was very easy to make--and very yummy. This recipe uses baking powder instead of yeast, so it's much faster to make and has a more cake-like texture. The smell of it baking was wonderful, and two little boys I know gobbled down pieces with their hot cocoa in record time.

I guess the Christmas baking season begins....Merry Christmas!!!

Drinking Problem....

For the past couple years, I have saved the drink canisters we have used. Then at Christmas, I have decorated them and put treats in them for our neighbors. This year, I decided I was tired of doing that and I wouldn't save the drink canisters any more. A few months into 2009, I started saving them again because I couldn't stand to throw them away--it seems like such a waste. The other day I was cleaning out the cupboard where I keep these--I didn't realize I had so many--whoops! I can't believe there's 23 empty canisters! And there's two more that are half empty. That's a lot of drinking by our family. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Kool-Aid or soda pop.

Anyway...I guess I had better figure out something to do with these canisters again this year for Christmas--I would hate to waste them.

I'll keep you posted...

Chicken Marbella

Sunday Dinner this week. This recipe is from a cookbook named The Silver Palate Cookbook which celebrated its 25th anniversary a couple years ago. Its a pretty famous cookbook with recipes from a deli/food store back East. Many recipes from this book are well known--this recipe, in fact, is supposedly one of people's favorites. I tried it for the first time this past Sunday. It did turn out pretty yummy and very easy. Another recipe from that book is the tomatoes and pasta recipe that I posted last summer. I LOVE that recipe.

The reason I made this dish is because the woman who co-wrote the cookbook, Sheila Lukins, died of brain cancer a couple weeks ago. Lots of people have written about her or posted comments to different websites about how influential she was to novice cooks everywhere. I thought it would be a fun tribute to her to make one of her most famous dishes and post it here. Thanks, Sheila!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/CHICKEN-MARBELLA-SILVER-PALATE-COOKBOOK-1277030

Because Dale is out of town...

Three days ago, this is what the kids discovered in the tree in front of our house. It was well hidden in the tree, so we never noticed it until now. You can't really tell from the picture, but it was about the size of a basketball...maybe a little larger.
And this is what was swarming around the nest and crawling in and out....

Very Scary!! And of course this is the week that Dale is out of town backpacking. Every once in a while a job comes along that is just meant for husbands to take care of. This was one of them. (Another one was when a large bird crashed and died in our yard a couple years ago when Dale was backpacking---gross!)

I thought about just calling a pest control service, but my dad told me that could be quite expensive. So we did some research on the internet, got brave, and took care of it ourselves. There was only a little screaming and running. It only took us three days to get rid of it, but it's gone now...unless of course they all come back to life in the garbage bag sealed inside the garbage can. Poor garbage collectors!!!

I think Dale owes me one for taking care of this.

Cinnamon Rolls

My friend Shelli makes the BEST cinnamon rolls ever. Everyone always wants her to make them. A year or so ago, Shelli taught a class at Church about making cinnamon rolls. I got the recipe but never got around to making them. For one thing, I've never felt very confident about making cinnamon rolls--I haven't had much success in the past. The other thing is that most "good" cinnamon roll recipes use a lot of flour and so you really need a mixer (I mean, like a Kitchen Aid or Bosch) to mix and knead the dough.

Well, Shelli helped me out with that, too. While her son is on a mission, she let me borrow the Kitchen Aid that she lets him use while at school. It's so nice to have a big mixer like that. It's let me do recipes that I normally would avoid.

Anyway...

So I used her recipe for the first time today. And, after only one phone to Shelli for help, I turned out these beauties....my best cinnamon rolls ever!!! Mmmmm--sugary, cinnamony goodness!!!

Thanks, Shelli!!

Before frosting.....
After frosting.....

I bet you all want to come over to my house, huh? (Better hurry--they won't last long)

Happy Fourth of July!!

We really missed our friends and family this year and being in Provo, but we had a fun time staying home, too. Now if the air will just clear out so we can breathe again--whew!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Love, The Garrards

Lemonade Stand

Calista decided she needed to do a lemonade stand. She also decided she needed something else to bring in cash, too, so we did Rice Krispy treats. Turns out those were the big seller. Her friend Olivia helped out. It was fun to see the nice people in the neighborhood who would stop and purchase some goods.

Calista and Olivia. (Dylan and Olivia's little sister Annie helped out, too.)

You could choose from lemonade or strawberry-kiwi. And, of course, we had Sonic ice to make sure people weren't just getting a glass of tepid Kool-Aid.

The last, lonely Rice Krispy treat. She totally sold out of them a few minutes later. (Sold a dozen altogether.)

Her final profit total was around $6.00. Next time she is adding brownies and cookies to the mix, too. (By the way, it was probably about 95 degrees as she sat out in the hot sun for a couple hours.) But I think she had tons of fun, too!!

BEAR CLAWS!!!!

When I was about 12 or 13, our Young Women's group from Church decided we needed to do a fund raiser to earn some money for camp. We came up with the idea of making several pastry items: bear claws, pizza pockets, ham and cheese rolls, apple turnovers, etc. The interesting thing was that we used just one recipe of dough to make all the different things. (It was a very lucrative fund raiser.) I was thinking about that recipe the other day and found it in some old papers.

I've had fun with the dough. We made ham and cheese bread and these BEAR CLAWS!!!

They were very yummy and easy. You can't tell in the picture, but I also made a vanilla glaze to go over them that used REAL vanilla beans. Mmmmm!!

I still have a little dough left--not sure what to do with it yet. Strawberry danishes, anyone??

Happy Memorial Day!

Traditionally, Memorial Day was a day to honor those who had lost their life in service to our country. But it seems like today it has evolved to become a day to honor any who have served our country in the armed forces. That's what I would like to do today. Thank you to all who have had the courage to serve our country, both in peaceful times and during war. But an especially big thank you to the members of my family who have served. Thank you for being willing to stand up for what you believe in, to defend your country and its citizens, and to put your life on the line. We are forever in your debt.

Thank you:

My brother, Murray

My father, John

My uncle, Ken

My great uncle, Ned

My great uncle, Laurel

My great uncle, Seldon