~September Blackberries~

The blackberries behind my fence are still bearing and I wanted to make a pie this past weekend. The rain had made the ripe ones a bit mushy though so...change of plans! I've always been meaning to try raspberry curd (awful name I know!) but never seem to want to give up that many of my precious few raspberries. So hey..why not try it with blackberries?


The recipe I found to try is actually more like pie filling due to the cornstarch, but close enough for me! I really want to make the beautiful little tarts featured in the post. I'm not a huge fan of meringue, but theirs looks so cute! Anyways, back to the curd...here is the recipe. I doubled the original give or take..12 T of corn starch just seemed like severe overkill. And I replaced the Creme de Cassis with Chambord. Must get me some Creme de Cassis!

Blackberry Curd



4 cups fresh or thawed, frozen blackberries*
2 cup sugar
8 Tbspn corn starch
1/4 tspn salt
2 Tbsp Chambord
2 Tbspn freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 egg yolks
4 Tbspn butter
2 cup boiling water

1. In a food processor or blender, puree the blackberries until smooth. If desired, pour through a sieve to take out seeds (I actually like the seeds for texture, so I don't strain them out.) You should have one cup of blackberry puree; if there is extra, set aside for other uses.
2. In a saucepan (not yet heated), combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually blend in the blackberry puree, chambord, and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
3. Add the egg yolks and butter, blending until smooth.
4. Gradually add in the boiling water, stirring constantly.
5. Place the saucepan on medium high heat and bring to a full boil (at this point you can remove a few of the seeds if you didn't strain), stirring gently with a spatula and scraping the bottom (to prevent burning). Once the mixture begins to thicken, reduce the heat and simmer for one minute.
6. Remove the curd from heat and let cool.


So what you say am I going to do with all this curd??? How about little short bread cookies dipped in curd? Or maybe swirled in yogurt. And I have visions of scones and curd dancing in my head. Probably an awesome cake filling too. Or this yumminess,



I had a kind of creamy, cool dessert in mind and couldn't find just the right recipe so threw a few together and came up with what I'm calling

Suzy's Creamy Blackberry Delight

For Crust:
1 pkg graham crackers, crushed
1/4 cup sugar
1/4-1/2 cup melted butter (whatever it takes to moisten crumbs)

Mix crust ingredients then press into tart pan or pie dish. (I used a rectangular tart pan). Bake at 375° for 8 mins. Remove from oven and cool.

For filling:

1 8 oz box cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cream, whipped with an addl 1/4 cup powdered sugar (reserve about 1/3 of whipped cream for topping).
1 cup blackberry curd (or enough to spread a 1/4 layer over cream cheese filling)

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat again until smooth. Fold in whipped cream (remember to reserve 1/3 of it) until well blended. Spread in cooled crust. Top with curd.

For Topping:

Reserved 1/3 of the whipped cream
1/2 cup blackberry curd

Fold whipped cream and curd together until well blended. Spread on top of the curd layer. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until set.



I found the pretty vintage ball jar at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. This is my contribution to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays over at Coastal Charms.


Throwing in this pretty sky I snapped this evening.

Flashback and Foodie Friday ~A Fall Flower and Spiced Jam

I'm flashing back only a few weeks, short and sweet. I know fall is on the way when I take my morning walk and the dew has left teeny tiny droplets on every surface. It was one of those days when I captured these diamond studded roses.


With fall in the air, canning seemed like the thing to do! I made some tasty Spicy Peach & Nectarine Jam



Spiced Peach and Nectarine Jam
Adapted from Ball Blue Book

2 quarts crushed, peeled peaches
1/2 cup water
6 cups sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine peaches and water; cook gently 10 minutes. Add sugar and spices; slowly bring to boiling, stirring occasionally until think, about 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Pour, boiling hot, into sterilized jars. Adjust caps. Yield about 4 pints.



Join me if you have a flashback of any kind..food, flowers, family, fun :-)





If you haven't already done so go check out my Pay It Forward Contest post HERE and make a comment if you're interested in participating!



Don't forget to traipse on over to Designs by Gollum to see all of the Foodie posts!

Flashback and Foodie Friday ~Strawberries

Seems that all I've been up to doing the past few weeks are Flashbacks!! Lucky for me I have plenty of material. I am so thankful I got a monster external hard drive earlier this year. I can't emphasize enough the need to back up your precious pictures. I did lose a month of stuff in my hard drive crash, but most can be recreated from other sources so I'm back in business!

Stawberries are beginning to ripen here and I pulled my first a couple of nights ago. A little sugar and whipped cream and I was set (and in strawberry heaven).


I am waging war against slugs though who seem to love my strawberries as much as I do!


My flashback is to June of 2006 when I made some yummy jam. It has the freshest taste even in the middle of winter when the strawberries are a dim memory.



Strawberry Freezer Jam
This is the recipe from the Sure Jell box

4 cups prepared fruit (buy about 4 pt. fully ripe strawberries)

3 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl

1 box SURE.JELL For Less or No Sugar Needed Recipes Premium Fruit Pectin
1 cup water

Rinse clean plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.Crush strawberries thoroughly, one layer at a time. Measure exactly 4 cups crushed strawberries into large bowl. Mix sugar and pectin in large saucepan. Stir in water. Bring to boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add strawberries; stir 1 minute or until well blended. Fill all containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

Here's what was happening in my yard back then.

Hardy geranium 'Summer Skies"





And Mt. Rainier was getting ready for summer.



If you have a Flashback of any kind that you'd like to share please put your link below and check out there other flashback's while you're at it!


I'd like to put a plug in my for friend Debbie's Kick Off to Summer BBQ Event.

Join a group of friendly and funny ladies for this Kick-off to Summer! All are welcome, start digging for your favorite grilling recipes! Mr. Linky will be up and running on June 13 so you can post your photos and recipes. Visit her blog Mountain Breaths to learn more.


Also this will be my entry for Foodie Friday, the weekly event put on by Design's by Gollum.
Go check out all of the great posts.

Flashback Friday ~ Microwave Lemon Curd

I'm having computer trouble so just a quick flashback until I get my new harddrive! I'm using my old old old computer that I bought back in the stone ages... And let me tell you one thing. This is one flashback I would seriously love to have skipped. The computer age back in 2001 was VERY slow and painful! By next week this time I should be zipping along again at the speed of light! So in the meantime lets take a quick peek at January of 2008 when I made some Microwave Lemon Curd..a recipe shared by my friend Carol at There's Always Time to Cook. I think she got the recipe from a gal named Colleen. I used this easy as pie recipe to top the cute little cheesecupcakes pictured above. I made them with a basic cheesecake recipe and swirled with the curd before baking.

Microwave Lemon Butter (ColleenOz)

4oz butter (NOT margarine)

3/4 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons' worth)

all the rind from the lemons

grated 1 cup sugar (I use superfine)

4-5 eggs, thoroughly beaten

Put butter, sugar, lemon juice and lemon rind into a micro-safe bowl. Cook on high about 3 minutes, stirring halfway through. Butter should be melted and sugar dissolved. Beat in eggs and microwave in 30-second bursts until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Whisk after each burst. Cool and pour into sterilized jars. Cover immediately. Store in refrigerator after opening, or even before opening to prolong the shelf life, which is short. Makes about 3 medium sized jars. Sneaky notes: If you are making a lot of this, for gifts, etc, I peel the rind off with a peeler and drop it into the blender. Then cut off the white pith with a paring knife. Making sure there are no seeds, drop lemon flesh into blender. Whizz it up until the rind is pulverized. You should end up with about 1 cup of juice/rind mix per batch, to account for the rind and aeration. You can double or triple the recipe, just use a bigger bowl and adjust the times. I also use the blender to whizz the eggs. If they are not totally beaten, you can get little white strings from the egg white, which don't look great. If you overcook it and it separates, beat up an extra egg. Gradually mix separated (sounds much better than curdled, doesn't it?) mixture into egg. Repeat if necessary.

Here's a little photo flashback to Summer of 07

If anyone else has something they want to flashback to please join me for Flashback Friday! Put your link here and take a peek at the other flashbacks!

I'd like to make this My Foodie Friday Post as well. Please go take a look at all of the great posts over at Design's by Gollum!