Can you believe this GORGEOUS dessert was made at our campground out of a cooler and in a campfire? I know, sometimes I amaze even myself! Cooking the strawberries and nectarines directly in the campfire gives a smoky earthy quality to a dessert that somehow makes you feel as though you’re one with nature. But before I tell you all the tasty details, let me share some of our week long camping trip with you. Read more
Another strawberry dessert! I was needing to use up my strawberries and thinking about what I’d make with them when I walked into our local grocery store and saw angel food cake bars for $1. I looked at the list of ingredients and was surprised to see that it looked like something I could actually make myself (not a bunch of chemical sounding ingredients). So for only $1 I couldn’t resist. Read more
Be excited friends, it’s blueberry week! A couple weeks ago I discovered a blueberry farm in Auburn called Canterberry Farms. Eric and I picked 6 pounds on Saturday, and I went back Sunday to pick another 8 1/2 pounds. So Saturday I made an entire meal of blueberry dishes for dinner, as well as some muffins for breakfast. I love blueberry muffins, but not as much as Eric, he made me promise blueberry muffins as his reward for helping me pick berries. Trust me, these muffins are quite rewarding, they’ve been my favorite breakfast with my iced lattes in the morning. The next two posts this week will have some more savory and sweet blueberry recipes for you!
I am so in love with this cake. It’s perfect for the 4th of July, every slice is a little American flag that will bring oohs and aahs at your Independence Day picnic, potluck or barbecue. I can’t take credit for the construction idea, it’s the brain child of Elissa (well her father’s idea actually). You have to check out her blog, she’s the greatest 17 year old baker and blogger I’ve seen. Anyway, I have only baked a couple cakes from scratch, and never a regular white cake, so decided it was time to experiment. My experiments in baking have become so successful, I’m less and less afraid to do it. I made the recipe below three times, once with no food coloring, once with blue and once with red. My only food coloring was the gel kind which always comes out pastel, if you can get darker, go for it.
We’ve been getting a lot of rhubarb in our CSA, which is great because I love its tartness, it’s like a confused little produce item that can’t decide if it’s a vegetable or a fruit. It’s the bridge between cold weather and harvest time that makes me feel like I can wait for local produce without getting scurvy (okay no I’m actually not worried about scurvy but it makes rhubarb even more fun to think it’s staving it off!). Sometimes I just suck on a little piece to feel my face pucker up involuntarily. With our first batch I made a rhubarb cherry skillet pie. Oh man was it good. But I wanted to start making something that could last, so I decided on jam which I can can (yes I said can can on purpose) and enjoy throughout the next year. Besides with pie I have to eat it all that day before it spoils, wait, pie doesn’t spoil in 24 hours? Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it 
