Hello readers! I’m sorry to have been M.I.A. I’ve been writing and sewing and all that good stuff, and hopefully I can share more about that soon.
In the meantime, here’s a dessert I made recently that was a big hit.
I like to go to pick-your-own farms, especially for apples, but since we couldn’t find a functioning apple farm, we went blueberry picking while in Western North Carolina over Labor Day. It was the end of the season—-slim pickin’s for sure—but still, the berries were delicious. We found the berry patch tucked in the hills. It had just rained, but the sun had come out, and though wet, it was such a gorgeous little spot.
I had planned to make a gluten-free blueberry pie from this book, but I ran out of energy for crust-making and just made the filling along with a half recipe of baked oatmeal. I then combined the two, and voila—blueberry cobbler sans gluten.
It had almost more of a pudding/ cake-like texture that was really lovely. The filling has the most surprising and wonderful secret ingredient: grated Granny Smith apple. Filling recipe here. At the time I actually didn’t have the tapioca, and it worked fine without it.
Baked oatmeal recipe here. I used gluten-free oats, halved the recipe, added some extra liquid, and did not soak overnight since I was in a hurry. When it was cooked, I roughly layered the still-warm filling with the baked oatmeal and baked (350, maybe?) until bubbly—not that long, maybe 10 minutes, tops.
Have you been reading anything good lately? I’ve been on such a memoir and nonfiction kick that I’m a bit worn out from it and have just started a novel called The Lonely Polygamist. So far, it’s hilarious.
On TV, loving the BBC’s Foyle’s War (WWII murder mystery) via netflix, and Borgen on DVD. Borgen is a Danish political drama featuring a female prime minister. Very smart and engaging, though it’s impossible to multitask while watching (due to subtitles and fast pacing).
Found a new podcast for writers: Narrative Breakdown with Scholastic editor Cheryl Klein. Really good, meaty stuff. Also found a mention of my easy reader, Slowpoke, in Books that Teach Kids How to Write by Marianne Saccardi. The author uses Slowpoke as an example showing kids how to slow down and notice the details they need to enrich their writing. Fun, eh? I’m honored.
Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a couple of quilts, but they’re slow-going. Nothing exciting to report. What’s new with you?
Chaoui loves dem des meurres!
Stella is spending the summer living with her Great Aunt Louise on the Cape. She is going to help Louise tend to the summer cottages adjacent to her little house. Louise isn't a big one on emotion, and Stella is surprised when after talking to Louise about her mother and blueberries, Louise wraps her in a hug. This pleases Stella, because she loves the idea of ties between people. Since her own mother isn't exactly dependable, Stella likes the even nature of Louise and her clean house and tidy garden. She even is trying to find a way to get along with foster kid Angel, who Louise took in thinking could keep Stella company. The two girls couldn't be more different, and Stella can't imagine why Louise thought having two girls was a good idea.
The thing is, Louise is older and she's not well. Angel and Stella make a gruesome discovery when they come home from school one day, and they have some heavy choices to make. Can they make a go of the summer on their own? Should Angel run? What will happen if folks find out they are living without any adult supervision? And what are they going to tell George - the local who is supposed to help Louise take care of the rentals? Most importantly, what are they going to do with Louise?
The girls decide to make a go of it, and have to figure out a way to get along. Their differences turn out to be a good thing as Stella could use some fire and Angel could use some forethought. Readers see the girls deal with bills, finding food, lying about Louise's whereabouts, and dealing with their own guilt. All of this is wrapped up in Sara Pennypacker's rich prose, describing the Cape, the cottages, the beach, as well as the interconnected nature of life. "I like to imagine the ties between us as strands of spider silk: practically invisible, maybe, but strong as steel. I figure the trick is to spin out enough of them to weave ourselves into a net." (p.1)
Readers will be left wondering what they would do if they were ever in Stella and Angel's predicament. Honestly at first, I was wondering who I would give this book to. It's clearly not for the same audience as
Clementine. There are heady issues in
Summer of the Gypsy Moths, and at times the bigger ideas are a little scary. Ultimately, however, this is a story of friendship, survival and hope, and thoughtful tweens will be ready for the serious nature of Stella and Angel's situation.
I harvested about 15 pounds of organic carrots yesterday out of my kitchen garden. My kitchen garden is a large raised bed outside, right next to my — yes, you guessed it — kitchen! By Golly, Ned, you just won a free copy of my limited edition Guide To Parallel Universe Travel For Less.
Carrots store very well in the fridge, but I will slice and freeze about 9 pounds of these carrots for stews and soups and roasts this winter. I have carrots growing in my main garden in amongst my tomatoes and the end of this month I will sow my fall crop of carrots. My daughter will eat Mom’s fresh garden carrots raw but not “store ones”.
I harvested more calendula yesterday and hung the flowers to dry. We ate fresh green beans with our dinner. There is quite a measure of assurance for me to grow some of our own food. Not to mention that it tastes superior to anything you can buy in a grocery store.
My daughter and I then canned 10 jars of blueberry jam. This jam cost me 6$ in jars, $2.50 in Reduced Sugar Pectin, $4.50 in fresh blueberries and about .30 cents in sugar. For $13.30 we made $30 (at least) in jam. Next year, we will have the jars and hopefully, the blueberries in our berry patch will fruit better.
Canning jam with my 11 year old was a lot of fun. She pushed the pulse button on the food processor to chop (not puree) the blueberries, she measured precisely — remember canning is chemistry — she poured the sugar quickly into the blueberry jam in its rolling boil — and her most favorite, she ladled the ready jam into the funnel on the jar. She got very good at knowing how much to ladle in to get the right headspace. I did all the hot dangerous activities with the hot jars and boiling water. We have a lid lifter — a green plastic stick with a magnet on one end — and this fascinated her to no end. She also enjoyed filling out the pretty labels and wants to be the one who sticks the labels on the jars.
It is much cheaper to entertain children then we give them credit for. And they enjoy being productive and contributing to the family’s well-being. Canning teaches math, chemistry, language arts, domestic arts, fundamental business principles and how to be self-sufficient. And it is not as time consuming as you might think, we canned the blueberry jam in about one hour.
Shall I tell you the tale of my latest sleepless-in-Seattle adventure for the week?
-last Sunday, the chickens accidentally got locked *out* of their coop at night rather than locked in. I didn't realize they were out until my daughter let our big black lab out around 10:30pm and he started racing around and barking and we heard great squawking as a result. We quickly got Jack back inside and I went out to round up the chickens. They'd been asleep, so they were kind of slow and loopy - Pearl staggered in. I caught Jasper sitting on the fence and put her in, but we couldn't find Jet anywhere.
I looked over the fence into the neighbor's yard with a flashlight, but didn't see her. I was afraid maybe Jack had caught and hurt her. We put his leash on and took him out because I figured if she *was* in the backyard, he would find her. She wasn't. We tried walking down the street a bit, but Jack was no help at that point. It was too late at night to knock on any one's door to ask to poke around in their backyard, so I reluctantly went to bed sans chicken. I hardly slept for worry - it was pouring rain, and there are raccoons out there (and they decimate chickens when they are unprotected...)(stupid chicken)(stupid me - for not being able to sleep over a chicken).
I finally got out of bed when it was light enough to see. Pearl and Jasper were up and 'calling out' and much to my relief I could hear Jet calling back. She was indeed in the neighbor's backyard calmly scratching away underneath their bushes. Since it had been pouring, the gate to their backyard was swollen and I couldn't open it. It was too early to knock on their door, but luckily my husband was working from home, so he got the gate open for me. It took me a bit chasing that darn chicken around their backyard - trying to be quiet so that I didn't wake the neighbors up while I tromping around outside of their bedroom window! Ed finally came in and helped block so that I could corner Jet and put her back in the coop, no worse for wear that I could see for her night out... *sigh*
We're a couple of weeks into November. Many of the leaves have fallen, but my blueberries are still startlingly vibrant -
-and if you look closely, you may even find a few lingering berries. All the sweeter for the lateness of the season...
We have a family of 10, and we love to can together – It’s great bonding time! Just finished pears and moving on to corn…
I found this great t-shirt that says “Yes, we canned!” We may all need to get one : ) Check it out at:
http://www.cafepress.com/cannedlaughter