A Birthday Sandcastle…

Sometimes frosting just isn’t needed…

 

…if you have a fancy cake pan…and make Vanilla Blueberry Pound Cake…

 

and decorate it with turbinado sugar…that looks just like beach sand…

…and blue pennants made of ribbon…

…And eat it at the beach.

Kitchen Help...

What do you do on a cold, snowy day?

You find some helping hands...

...and mix up a batch of muffins...

It warms up the kitchen...

...and it warms up the tummy...

Blueberry Cobbler…

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook was to me what Mastering the Art of French Cooking was to Julie in the movie “Julie and Julia”.  I didn’t try to cook every recipe but it was the cookbook I learned to cook from…

My name and the date it was given to me is written in my mother’s hand on the endpaper…

…The pages I have frequently used are well spattered…

…and this is one of my favorite recipes.  It has lots of butter which seems perfectly alright after watching a movie on French cooking…

First a 8X8 or 9X9 inch baking dish is buttered and the oven is heated to 425.

Then make Cottage Pudding batter according to the recipe above…

1 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 cup sugar are sifted or whisked together…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then 1 well beaten egg, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup melted butter are mixed …I melt the butter in the microwave , then add the other ingredients right into the measuring cup…

  …

Stir gently into the flour mixture…

Mix 2 or more cups of blueberries with some lemon zest, sugar to taste (I used about 1/4 cup), a few grains of kosher salt, and 1 or 2 Tablespoons of flour…I just happened to have some Maine blueberries:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spread the fruit in the baking dish, dot with butter, and spread the Cottage Pudding over the top…

Bake about 30 minutes.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I usually serve it with vanilla ice cream but this is what I had for breakfast the next day…

 

 

 

…

I know for a fact that it is very, very good made with fresh peaches too.

Strawberry Galette…

More local strawberries from the farmer’s market…

…and company for supper made a good excuse to make a recipe that I had been eyeing for awhile…It was really simple…a rolled out butter pie crust…filled with sweet strawberries and a little cornstarch…

some egg wash around the edges…

then baked until brown…

Very yummy!

The basic recipe can be found here…but I obviously made it much simpler and I’m sure it tasted just as good…

Oatmeal Cookies…

With the recipe from the box…

…and a willing assistant…

…We baked some delicious cookies!

The Leftover Vegetables...

In honor of Theme Thursday today's blog is all about the leftover vegetables from our St. Patrick's Day Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner...

...in my opinion the best part of the dinner...

The leftover potatoes, carrots, turnips, and corned beef are chopped up and cooked with onion and garlic and red pepper flakes...
...eggs are then poached on top of the hash...

...the hash and eggs are served with leftover cabbage sliced, and sauted with a sprinkle of sugar, and salt, and lots of freshly ground pepper...

Making Bread...

A snowy day is a good day for baking bread...

The oven warms up the kitchen...

...and the yeasty smell fills the house...

There's always a feeling of accomplishment...

...and there is a reward to be thankful for...