Summer at its Finest: Fresh Blackberry Muffins

When I was a kid, one of the things I always looked forward to in the summertime was when the berry bushes were ripe. My parents' place had all kinds -- raspberries, black raspberries, and blackberries. I would check the bushes nearly every day, watching the berries start from little tiny green buds and finally grow into big, juicy ones. My mom makes a DELICIOUS blackberry syrup that when paired with vanilla ice cream tastes exactly like summer. It conjures up memories of each lazy, hot summer spent at home, and just makes me feel all happy inside. Anyway, I digress. This isn't a post about blackberry syrup, it's about muffins!

Last Wednesday I saw that there were some blackberry bushes just laden with berries next to the church building, and I just had to pick some! Since the Hubby and the Munchkin don't eat a lot of raw fruit, my usual spin is to put it in a muffin for them. I used a recipe that I've followed several times for strawberry muffins, and substituted in the blackberries. As the eloquent Andy Griffith says, "Eating speaks louder than words" -- we ate 6 already.

Here's the recipe -- I'm sure you can play around with some of the ingredients and substitute in healthier things like greek yogurt or alternate sweeteners, but I didn't feel like messing with a good thing. ;)

Fresh Blackberry Muffin Recipe

Makes One Dozen

2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or use paper lined muffin tin; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine eggs, milk, and oil. Stir into the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated (there will be lumps). Fold in blackberries.

Spoon into muffin tins and sprinkle tops lightly with white sugar. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  

Traditions, Thanksgiving-Style

Time for the obligatory holiday post. :)

When I was little I could not begin to fathom the idea of NOT having Thanksgiving dinner at my Nana's house. Ever since I could remember we had made the three mile drive down the road to the farm and enjoyed the company of the crazy crowd that is my Dad's side of the family. Everyone made the same dishes each year (my Mom's contribution was a dish called "Peas Elegant," which had been affectionately dubbed "Peas Elephant") and each year Nana would say "This is my LAST turkey!" Well, I'm almost 29 and she is still hosting dinner and cooking the turkey, so I don't think she's going to stop any time soon.

Then when I got married I realized, somewhat begrudgingly, that I wouldn't always get to follow "my" traditions each year. In fact, I've only been back home for Thanksgiving one year since we got married, and that was the year my sister's son was a newborn.

The Hubby's family celebrates the holiday differently than my family. Instead of one day of overeating and visiting with family, it is an entire week-long ordeal involving lots of camo, hunting, and a serious lack of indoor plumbing. Dinner isn't at a set time on Thursday; the ladies make the food and wait for all the guys to come in from the woods before we sit down to eat together. We also have something not every family does... a second Thanksgiving dinner on Friday! No Black Friday shopping here, but another celebration of family and the blessing of being together.

So, what is my point with all of this, you ask?

My point is that things change over time. The traditions that you remember from your childhood will not necessarily follow you through to adulthood. The important thing about Thanksgiving is to remember that it is a time to celebrate family. A time to be thankful for what you have. A time to be together and enjoy the simple things, making memories for years to come. Do I miss having dinner at the farm with "my" side of the family? Absolutely. I miss all my cousins and my crazy aunts and uncles. But do I enjoy spending time with the Hubby's side of the family and embracing their traditions as my own? You bet I do!

The Munchkin is still young enough that he probably won't remember much about Thanksgiving when next year rolls around. But following traditions isn't for the adults. I didn't understand that when I was little, but I do now. It's important that my son grows up knowing the importance of family, and a big part of that is actually getting to see them! It's easy to find excuses around this time of year, especially once the snow starts falling. Do I really want to spend 6 hours in the car tomorrow, at over 8 months pregnant? No. But I don't want to look back in the years to come and see all the missed opportunities to spend time with family and friends around this most blessed holiday.

I hope this has made sense... It made sense in my head, but sometimes things don't translate well into writing. I'll leave you with something completely unrelated in hopes to distract you from my incoherent ramblings:

The "Funny Thanksgiving" skit by Stan Freberg. (Click on the link and scroll down to the "Funny Thanksgiving" audio file). It's worth a minute of your time.

:)

November Meal "Plan" and 10K Views

Welcome to November! So, I'm a *few* days behind, and November is already well underway. But today IS 11-12-13, which is still pretty cool.

Know what else is pretty cool? Milestones. Such as hitting 10,000 total blog views, which is exactly what happened this afternoon. So thank you to all my readers (which I am sure is just family and friends plus a few wanderers).

Anyway, on to the reason for this post ... I'm not putting together a meal plan for this month, for several reasons.

1.) We were gifted over half a bushel of potatoes last month, and I'm still working through using them up.
2.) Since my husband hunts, November is the month to clean out the freezer in anticipation of fresh venison coming in later on.

But you can be sure that I will be making these for Thanksgiving week --

Instead of planning out new things to make this month, I'm cleaning out the freezer and pantry to make the most of what we've already got on hand. I'm sure we will eat crock-pot venison and potatoes in several variations nearly every night (which Hubby tells me is OK with him!).

In addition to the Thanksgiving holiday food costs, the Munchkin's birthday is this month, and what is a party without food and cake?

I don't know if I will be posting anything between now and December, so I wish you all a safe and happy holiday, filled with good food and good company!

Sewing Extravaganza: What Happens When the Hubby Gives Me A Day Off

My super sweet Hubby gave me today off. Isn't he the greatest? I sure think so!

He and the Munchkin enjoyed lots of quality time playing, eating "manly" lunches (pepperoni is a food group on the manly food pyramid), watching American Pickers and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, playing outside, and visiting the local archery store. Oh, and they picked up pizza for supper so I didn't even have to worry about that.

Meanwhile, this mama got to shower BEFORE nap time (a luxury to be sure!), spend two hours running errands by myself, and hole-up in the craft room with my sewing machine to work on some projects that have been on the back-burner for a few weeks:

1.) Flannel-backed Burp Cloths
2.) Maternity Pants converted to a Skirt

For the burp cloths, I followed the tutorial here. She does a great job of explaining things so I don't see the point in being redundant. :)

I bought these cloth diapers and then dyed them a light Kelly green. I shopped and shopped and shopped again for some cutesy flannel, but couldn't find anything I liked. Of course, my closest options are Hobby Lobby and Walmart, and neither of them stocks very many flannel fabrics. So I went the budget-friendly route and re-purposed some flannel receiving blankets that were the Munchkin's. We had six, and barely used them, so I sacrificed three of them for this project. I used each blanket to make two burp cloths, and still have some scraps left over.

 These were very simple to sew, especially if you're not super-picky about how straight or neat they turn out. (The burp cloths always end up an odd shape for some reason. Oh well.) The most important thing for me was making them extra-absorbent. The Munchkin managed to soak every single burp cloth that we threw at him, so I'm expecting nothing less from Baby #2.

The skirt was definitely something I made up on the fly. It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find comfortable, stylish maternity skirts that aren't maxi/jersey skirts. I love maxis, but cannot wear them in the colder WV weather. So I tried my hand at making my own! I had a pair of Gap maternity khakis laying around from when I was pregnant with the Munchkin, and sacrificed them for this project. They were a nice wide-legged trouser so I didn't have to add any fabric to make the skirt wide enough.

I apologize for not having a step-by-step picture tutorial for you guys. That would have required meticulously taking pictures of each step, and as we all know, one-on-one time with your crafts is PRECIOUS. I didn't want to waste it taking pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

First I ripped the interior seams all the way up each leg to the seat of the pants. (Since this was a nice mid-weight fabric it was easier to find the seams and rip them instead of cutting around them, and makes for a neater finish. I've also made a skirt out of denim capris, and had to just cut next to the seam.) Second, I laid it out on the bed and played around with pins to get the front and back seams to lay just right. I left a 12" slit in the back to make it easier to walk in. Lastly, I just started sewing it up.

Voila! Now I have another well-fitting clothing option for church services. Because we all know when you are pregnant, it's all about comfort. If you find your maternity wardrobe lacking when it comes to skirts, don't limit yourself to what you can find in the stores. It only takes a little creativity to make something uniquely your own!

I'm sure there are tutorials out there for converting pants to skirts if you need more specific instructions. Sorry that I'm too pregnant and lazy to take the time to write one up. :)

That's all for today... a big thanks again to the Hubby for letting me get these done! :)

October Menu Plan

I know that I say this just about every month, but... how is it OCTOBER already? I thought that time picked up speed when I had the Munchkin, but being pregnant with Baby #2 just makes it go even faster.

ANYway...

It's a new month, which means time for a new menu plan! We ended up not fixing all the meals I had planned for September, so you'll see a few repeats in October. You may also see a few themes running through this month's meals... We have TONS of apples that we just picked, so a lot of our treats this month will be apple-themed. And I am also trying to use up most of the venison we have leftover from last year to make room in the freezer (Lord willing!) for this year's hunting season. We shall see.

October Menu Plan

Main Meals

Venison Tips & Gravy over Mashed Potatoes*
Hamburger (Turkey) Stroganoff*
Homemade Pizza (bread machine dough)
BBQ Chicken (crock pot)
Mexican Stuffed Shells
Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup*
Venison Fajitas
Overnight Slow-Cooker Venison Roast*
Lasagna (Stauffer's frozen... I had a coupon!)
*See this page for printables!

Sides & Treats

Yellow Squash Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Butter Dip Biscuits

Peasant Bread

Easy Garlic Knots

Pumpkin Snicker-doodles

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Apple Butter

Easy Apple Dumplings

Apple and/or Pear Crisp

So there you have it -- this is what our household will be munching on in the coming weeks. Lots of yummy fall-inspired goodness to get us through the month of October. If you have questions or comments, please share!

Saturday Mornings and Sour Cream Banana Bread

Saturday mornings have a special place in my heart...

... And a special place in my menu plan! Saturday morning is when I set aside time to do some baking, and today it was banana bread. I've had some bananas on the counter for *several* days, and today was the "make banana bread or throw these away!" day. So I made banana bread.

A close friend gave me a recipe for Sour Cream Banana Bread, and I've been intending to try it for a while, but never had an extra half cup of sour cream on hand to make it. But today I did, so we tried it... and it is AMAZING. 

Now this is a very simple, basic banana bread. No fussy substitutions. No chocolate or nuts to distract you from the delicious banana flavor. Just a hint of cinnamon to give it some spice, and some sour cream to make it super soft.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

(Recipe adapted from Food.com found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/sour-cream-banana-bread-9351)

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)

1/2 cup sour cream

• In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients. 
• In same medium bowl (that you just emptied), peel and mash up the bananas. 
• Add bananas and sour cream to mixture and stir until combined. 
• Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 F for 60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Now, quick-breads such as banana bread are *supposed* to be cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and set aside overnight before serving. We don't do that in our house. We did cool it enough so that no one ended up with burnt fingers, but within a few minutes of slicing, we only had half of the loaf left!

To quote the wise Andy Taylor, "Eating speaks louder than words!" The Munchkin was pretty silent while he devoured his first piece, and the Hubby and I made short work of our slices, too.

The sour cream makes this bread extra moist, while the outer crust still has a fabulous slight crunch to it. Mmmm. Maybe I'll have another piece...

This will not replace my typical go-to recipe for banana bread, but if I have rotting bananas and sour cream on hand at the same time... you can bet I'll be making this again. 

Making the Most of Leftovers

Today let's talk about a controversial topic in households across the country... Leftovers!

Most people are not fence-riders when it comes to leftovers. They either love them or hate them. I recently watched an episode of Chopped in which the mystery baskets all had leftover food in them. I was not shocked to see the chef who said, "I hate leftovers!," chopped in the first or second round.

You can spend all the time in the world making a fancy meal plan, budgeting your groceries and clipping coupons, and slaving away in the kitchen to make tasty dinners, BUT if you end up throwing away uneaten food, you are WASTING YOUR TIME.

I have to admit, we do throw away our share of leftovers now and then. But I have some super-top-secret tips to share with you to help maximize your meals before they spoil.

Labels

What's my big secret for tackling leftovers? Label absolutely all leftovers before they go into the fridge or freezer. All I use is a roll of cheap masking tape and a Sharpie. I tear off a piece of tape, stick it to the lid, and mark it with the contents and the date. This helps eliminate the "When did I make such-and-such casserole?" question later on. Doubting whether or not something is still fit to eat seems to be a big problem when eating leftovers. A good rule to live by is "When in doubt, throw it out." Well, by taking the doubt out of the equation you'll know if things are still good to use. I also mark opened cans of spaghetti sauce, salad dressing and other condiments with the date (on the lid) so I know when to use them by.

Note: Speaking as one who has fallen off of the labeling bandwagon now and again, I can say with 100% certainty we eat up our leftovers better when they are clearly labeled. Keep the masking tape and marker handy so you aren't tempted to slack off!

Portion Control

Another big issue with leftovers is portion control. Many recipes make way more food than my family can possibly eat at one meal. If it's something that we eat well leftover, it's not an issue. If it's something that doesn't reheat well (like stir fry), any extra portions are essentially wasted (and money down the drain!). If you find yourself constantly throwing away leftovers from specific meals, cut the recipe in half the next time you make it to eliminate leftovers. Or, save yourself some time later on down the road and put half of the meal in a Ziploc bag and pop it in the freezer (cooked or uncooked, depending on the ingredients). For example, I made chili earlier this month and doubled the recipe, leaving us with three quart-sized Ziploc bags for later this fall. 

Note: Make sure to LABEL your frozen leftovers just as clearly as the ones that go in the fridge. Place them within easy access in the freezer, otherwise you'll end up forgetting they are in there!

Lead By Example

To change how your household handles leftovers, lead by example! If you want your husband or your children to be better leftover-eaters, then you need to do it yourself. Leftovers make great (and easy!) lunches during the week. Most are probably healthier than that Hot Pocket or boxed pasta, too. If you are the one planning dinners in your household, you have the power to work leftovers into your meal plan. You can serve it up buffet style and let everyone choose what they want. Or you can put a new spin on a leftover dish by adding fresh-baked bread or rolls and a vegetable side dish. Either way, you'll save yourself time making a whole new dinner, and money by not having to throw away the leftovers. 

I hope this post has been helpful! Nothing earth-shattering, but it is amazing how small, simple steps can help us live better, more organized lives.