a break from travels to make some jam

My friend beside a giant plant (Gunnera) in her yard

On Thursday night, we stopped in at the house of my friend Satwant to pick up fruit she had offered us. We left with a box of golden-green apple pears and two small boxes of yellow damson plums.

Yesterday I began tackling the plums—soft, very sour and each with a pit that needed removing.

After washing, picking them over, and cutting out any dark soft spots, I decided to soften them in the slow cooker before pitting. A few hours on high brought them to the mash stage, but steaming hot. So I set them aside to cool till later in the evening when I began the onerous job of removing every pit.

top left: jam colander || top right: pits and pulp

bottom left: cooking || bottom right: the jam set nicely

Mom's old jam-making colander to the rescue! I can't remember the last time I used one of these, but I'm sure glad I never gave it away. I dumped the mashed plums into the hopper and after a few minutes of working the mash through the mesh, I was left with this stony, pulpy mess. I suppose I could have discarded it, but I wanted the plum skins in the finished jam. So one at a time I fished the pits out of the pulp, returning it, now pitless, to the strained mash.

I found a super-simple plum jam recipe on Mama Knows website and simplified it even more. "Yellow Plum Jam" called for lemon juice and water, both of which I omitted. But I added the amount of sugar it called for (4 1/2 cups to 6 cups of plums). I cooked the jam this morning, boiling the mixture for twenty minutes as it suggested, then I bottled and sealed it.

It was great to see that as it cooled it set up beautifully and without an added crystal or drop of artificial pectin! The finished jam is very tart but yummy! As well as a great spread for breakfast toast or waffles, I think it would work beautifully as a condiment for pork or Oriental food like egg rolls.

That was fun!

My recipe for:

Yellow Damson Plum Jam

6 cups of prepared fruit (pits removed)
4 1/2 cups of sugar.

Combine all ingredients and bring slowly to boiling, stirring occasionally till sugar dissolves. Boil briskly for 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent mixture from scorching. Pour boiling hot into sterilized jars and seal.

food

Cranberries

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: GREEN (Fruit, Vegetables, Animals, Clothing, Vehicles,...)

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Cranberries are not only lovely to look at, but delicious to eat. Here is a super-simple recipe for Cranberry Sauce. (It's a recipe that's been on bags of cranberries since I was a kid and was my contribution to Christmas dinner as far back as I can remember.)


Cranberry Sauce

2 cups cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Put all ingredients into a cooking pot.
Place over heat and bring to boil.
Cook till the berries soften and pop.
When cooked to desired mushiness, let the sauce cool, then bottle and store in refrigerator.
Serve with turkey.

Use leftover cranberry sauce for lots of things—like stirring into plain yogurt. Add banana slices for a great dessert.

Submitted to Food On Fridays March 16 edition, hosted by Ann Kroeker.

book review: The Reluctant Entertainer by Sandy Coughlin

In The Reluctant Entertainer, a book that grew out of the blog by the same name, Sandy Coughlin encourages women of all ages to extend simple, gracious hospitality. And she does more: she shows them how.

Coughlin begins by naming and exploring excuses many women give for not inviting people into their homes: busyness, can't cook, house not big or fancy enough, don't know how to keep a conversation going etc. She encourages readers to leave these excuses behind in the nine chapters that follow. She covers subjects like how to overcome perfectionism, how to simplify hosting meals and parties, how to create an appealing ambience using the five senses, and how to deepen the level of interaction by asking stimulating questions, encouraging authentic conversations, and looking for ways to show hospitality that go beyond having people over for dinner.

Recipes are interspersed throughout the text with an appendix of more recipes at the back.  As well there is  a section on the pantry — what to stock in it and how to organize it.

The book is a thing of physical beauty — a cross between a coffee table and durable recipe book. It is bound in hardcover, not in plain vanilla under a dustjacket but sporting its own colourful front and back. It is printed on heavy, glossy paper with at last one colour photo illustration per two-page spread. Most of the photos are courtesy Coughlin's husband Paul. Included are some family pictures that cross the generations, giving the book a homey feel.

Coughlin's writing style reminds me of the warm, chatty tone of a blog. Although there were places where I thought the writing could have been more varied (in one section "perfectionism"  and its variants were used repeatedly and close together) and clearer ("Finally she decided to rid herself of those lies that were bogging her down: fanciness; perfection; material stuff like her home, yard and dishes..." p.18 So how exactly are fanciness, perfection etc. lies?), altogether the book was a pleasure to read.

Some things I liked about it:

• Coughlin's ideas of how to include children in the mix, from ways to accommodate the toddler crowd to strategies for getting older kids to mingle with the adults and make them feel like part of the action.

• The way the author stresses the importance of genuinely caring for people. This comes out especially in the chapters on making conversation and establishing deep connections, where she talks of showing hospitality in non-dinner-party ways (like delivering meals to sick people, taking old or disabled neighbours shopping, and inviting the people others ignore into one's home). As she says:

"When I think of hospitality, it goes far beyond the standard dinner party. Hospitality happens in our homes, in our churches, and in our neighbourhoods. It's the spark of friendships, of soul-satisfying experiences with others, eventually taking us to deeper connections as we learn how to reach out." p. 103.

• The  recipes. They look scrumptious and doable. However, the glossy paper means that if you want to jot notes beside them, you'll need to do it in pen.

• Several usable lists, e.g. The Ten Commandments of Hospitality (p. 27), ideas for types of parties (p. 67), yard sale tips (p. 74-75), and questions to use as conversation starters (p. 94). 

• Coughlin's experience. Because she has such a hospitable bent herself she knows whereof she speaks and gives useful pointers, pitfalls to avoid, and encouragement when things don't go as planned. She has weathered the storms of food not turning out, hijacked conversations, and awkward silences and, she assures us, so will we.

This book would make a beautiful gift for a new bride. But don't rule it out for the more established hostess. I've been entertaining (sometimes reluctantly too) for almost 30 years and it encouraged and inspired me!

Title: The Reluctant Entertainer: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality
Author: Sandy Coughlin
Publisher: Bethany House, Hardcover, 160 pages, August 2010
ISBN-10: 0764207504 
ISBN-13: 978-0764207501


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I received this book as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of writing a review.

Article first published as Book Review: The Reluctant Entertainer: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality by Sandy Coughlin on Blogcritics.

celebrating the lowly cranberry

Today we went to the Cranberry Festival in Fort Langley.

We started out with breakfast at Beatnik's. Hubby ordered a hearty omelette,  but I got into the spirit of the day with cranberry sourdough French toast — very yummy! 

Then it was on to ogle all things cranberry, and they were legion... from candles to candy, and vinegar to honey.

The Ocean Spray company was selling cranberries  by the bagful for $1.00 a pound.  Needless to say, we loaded up, coming home with a cranberry scone for lunch and 8 lbs. of berries -- which should help us survive the winter.

I'm sure you can guess what I did this afternoon ... made cranberry sauce.

Cranberry Sauce

2 cups cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Put all ingredients into a cooking pot.
Place over heat and bring to boil. 
Cook till the berries soften and pop.
When cooked to desired mushiness, let the sauce cool, then bottle and store in refrigerator.
Serve with turkey.

(Use leftover cranberry sauce for lots of things -- like stirring into plain yogurt. Add fresh banana slices for a great dessert.)

ant edition (1000 gifts #55-65)

Today I was the ant, preparing for winter. I have just finished finding room in the freezer for close to 20 lbs. each of peaches and nectarines. And with that little item I resume my list of 1000 gifts:

55. I love the summer fruit!

56. I love spending a day in the kitchen, especially when I have a tidy row of boxed ready-to-freeze items to show for it.

57. A few days ago it was blueberries. They were on the ripe side so I decided as well as freezing them whole, to make a little jam. When I discovered I was out of Certo, I googled "blueberry jam no pectin" and came across the simplest recipe (6 cups blueberries, 3 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice).  It took a bit of boiling and stirring but my jam set nicely.

58. On Saturday I went to a writer's event in Vancouver sponsored by The Word Guild. From it I have some helpful handouts to help me evaluate my career direction for the future.

59. I felt especially pleased when my plans to go and return by public transit worked without a hitch!

60. Yesterday we spent a beautiful afternoon with friends at Lonsdale Quay

61. ...where we found some fun public art.

62. ...and I discovered a wonderful place for an outing with our grand-babies at some future date (imagine a Thomas fan getting his hair cut here!)

63. French onion soup.

64. Hubby found a replacement carafe for our coffeemaker.

65. ...and a new dryer knob (bye-bye pliers).

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

what to do with a bucketful of strawberries

1. Hold a strawberry fete or regale. My little reference book about all things sweetly and old-fashionedly past tells me:

During the Victorian era, a favorite summer amusement on warm June evenings was the community’s annual strawberry fete or festival. Usually these eagerly anticipated outdoor socials, sponsored by churches or schools as fund raising events, featured an abundance of fresh-picked strawberries...


[...] "Strawberries in every style and form will furnish the refreshments for the occasion; strawberry ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream, strawberry whip, fruit lemonade, strawberry shortcake and strawberry sherbet."

2. Take a strawberry bath. Apparently Madame Tallien from Emperor Napoleon’s court loved to bathe in the juice of fresh strawberries, using 22 lbs. per basin. (Yikes, I hope for the sake of those around her, she didn’t insist on this kind of bath all year long!)

3. Find a double strawberry, break it in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex. Legend has it you will fall in love with each other.

4. Spread the goodness around by feeding some to the birds. Apparently the reason for the wide distribution of wild strawberries is because strawberry seeds pass through a bird’s digestion intact, and germination responds to light rather than moisture so seeds don’t need to be buried in soil to get started.

5. Take some as medicine. Ancient Romans believed that berries helped cure melancholy, fainting, inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, gout, diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.

6. Bake a strawberry shortcake. Apparently this originated with the American Indians, who crushed wild strawberries and mixed them with cornmeal to make strawberry bread. The colonists invented their own version of the recipe, and called it Strawberry Shortcake.

This recipe of Strawberry Shortcake is from my most treasured recipe book – the one handwritten for me by my mum. It’s predictably short on instructions (like how many strawberries, the order in which to add cake ingredients, size of pan and heat of the oven...so I’ll do a bit of guestimating).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Begin by slicing a generous amount of strawberries (3-4 cups?), sprinkle with sugar and set aside.

QUICK STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 well-beaten egg
2/3 cup milk
1 ½ cup flour
½ cup melted shortening.

Mix all ingredients. Spoon into a round, greased cake pan and bake for 15 minutes in hot oven (probably 375 - 400 F)

Let cool slightly, split cake and fill with half of the strawberries, reserving remainder for the top (or put whole strawberries on the top). Serve with whipped cream.

(For more strawberry facts, trivia and history, go here.)

(This is a re-post from June 8, 2005)

monkey bread

For a cinnamon bun-like treat, try making monkey bread.

Basic Monkey Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
7/8 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 Tbsp. shortening
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. yeast (the quick-rise instant type)

For dipping

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted - in separate container
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon - mix sugar and cinnamon and place in separate container.

1. Place all ingredients except dipping ingredients in the bread machine and set for dough cycle. If you mix the dough by hand let it rise for at least an hour before going on to step 2.

2. When dough cycle is finished, place on lightly floured surface, flatten and let it rest for a few minutes. While it's resting, melt the butter (keep separate) and mix the brown sugar and cinnamon (keep separate).

3. With kitchen shears cut the dough into random pieces, dip in butter, roll in brown sugar cinnamon mix and place randomly in a Bundt pan.

4. When all the dough is dipped, let it rise for 45 minutes.

5. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes until browned. If the top browns too quickly, place aluminum foil over it.

6. When done, remove from oven and turn pan upside down onto a large serving plate.

7. To serve, pull apart or cut in slices as you would a cake. IT'S YUMMY!!

Cracker Toffee

A delicious treat that's easy to make and fabulous for giveaways.

Ingredients:

- 40 soda crackers (1 sleeve from an approximately 250-gram box)
- 1 cup butter (or margarine)
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 cups chocolate chips (or more if you want a thicker chocolate topping)
- Other optional toppings: salted peanuts, candy sprinkles, coconut, dried fruit, granola; I used 1 cup salted peanuts)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Line a 17 x 12 pan with parchment paper or tin foil (if using tin foil, spray with non-stick coating - like Pam - or butter/margarine).

3. Arrange crackers in pan, flat side up and set aside.

4. Combine butter and sugar in heavy bottomed medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring frequently.

5. Increase heat to medium high and boil 3 minutes without stirring.

6. Pour mixture evenly over crackers; spread to cover.

7. Bake 5-7 minutes.

8. Take out of oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over crackers. Let stand for about 1 minute to soften. (If you're using additional toppings and want them covered with chocolate, spread them over the softened chocolate chips at this point). Spread the softened chocolate to cover base (and other toppings if used).

 9. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 2 hours to cool thoroughly.

10. Break apart and package.

Original recipe from The Savvy Shopper blog

7-layer squares

Still working on Christmas baking? Try these quick, easy, sinfully rich squares!

7-Layer Squares

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup flaked coconut
1 - 6 oz. package chocolate chips
1 - 6 oz. package butterscotch chips
1 can Eagle Brand milk
(this is sweetened condensed milk; 1 can=300 ml.)
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (walnuts or peanuts)

DO NOT MIX!

In 9 x 13 pan melt margarine.
Sprinkle graham crumbs evenly over melted margarine.
Sprinkle coconut over crumbs.
Sprinkle chocolate chips, then butterscotch chips over coconut.
Dribble condensed milk over all.
Sprinkle with nuts.

DO NOT MIX!

Bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes. While barely warm cut in narrow bars. Yields 32.

blueberry popsicles!

It's blueberry season. But what do you do if you haven't used up last year's?

Well, you make blueberry coffee cake, muffins, strudel, platz ...

Here's something else to try. It will get everybody, even your kids, helping with blueberry disposal without them knowing it's a project.

Make smoothies by blending frozen blueberries, yogurt, sweetener (sugar, Splenda or honey) and a tiny bit of milk to keep the blender blades from getting stuck.

Now you can drink / slurp them as smoothies or pour that all that gorgeous blue antioxidant sludge into popsicle cups and freeze for blueberry yogurt popsicles. YUM!

portzelky - new years cookies

This old post from December 30, 2004 is always popular at this time of year. Maybe I'll make some myself... If you choose to do the same - enjoy!

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It’s almost New Year's Eve and last night I thought of Portzelky. These are New Year's Cookies (fritters really). They are a Mennonite food and Mom always made sure we had a roasterful cooling by New Year’s Eve and a bagful dusted with icing sugar and ready to take to the watchnight service.

That late-ish New Year's Eve church service, consisting of hymns, testimonies and lots of prayers, always ended with lunch in the church basement - definitely the highlight of the evening for us kids. Portzelky was the star of the menu - iced, plain, coated in a sugar cinnamon mixture, or dusted in icing sugar. Some were soft as marshmallows, others were chewy. Some cooks filled theirs with apple bits, but most with raisins. It always amazed me how one food could turn out so differently in the hands of a variety of cooks.

Here is one recipe for Portzelky (though if you plug that word into Google, you’ll come up with lots of variations.)

PORTZELKY

2 pkg. yeast dissolved in
1 cup warm water
2 cups milk
½ cup melted butter
2 tsp. salt
6 well beaten eggs
2 cups raisins
6 cups flour or enough to make a stiff dough
Mix in order of ingredients.
Put in warm place until mixture has risen to double in bulk.
Cut or form dough into small bun shapes, place on greased or waxed paper-lined cookie sheets and let rise again 10-15 minutes.
Deep fat fry (moist side up first), turning until golden brown on both sides.
Drain on paper towel. Cool. Dust with powdered sugar.

Find more Mennonite recipes here.

another gift to make - Nuts 'n' Bolts

Maybe that's why I do it, Maxine. But that's not the only reason. Because I think homemade Christmas gifts say to the recipient - you're like a part of my family - the people I think about as I measure the ingredients, cook the coating, fill the house with delicious smells.


In that vein, I have a multitude of gift bags stocked with Poppycock and Nuts 'n' Bolts sitting under the tree, ready for tonight. We're doing our second of six Christmas performances and we've invited our friends to come over for coffee later. I'm planning to send each family home with a bag of these Christmas snacks.

If you've never made Nuts 'n Bolts - you should. It's one of the easiest Christmas snacks to make and a perfect companion to puzzle-making, game-playing, and movie-watching.


Nuts 'n' Bolts

12 cups Cheerios
8 cups Shreddies
4-5 cups salted peanuts
2 packages pretzels (about 500 grams/
1 1/2 cups butter (I don't use quite this much)
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
*2 teaspoon onion salt
*1 teaspoon garlic salt
(*Substitution - 2 teaspoons salt and add 1 teaspoon garlic powder)

Melt butter.
Add seasonings and toss with other ingredients.
Bake at 300 for a couple of hours or till crisp.

make this tasty versatile food

Is this a picture of

a] sour cream?
b] ice cream?
c] pudding?

Would you believe none of the above? It's homemade yogurt.

On our trip to the prairies last fall, several family members served us the most delicious yogurt. To our surprise we discovered they made it themselves.

Now I once had a yogurt maker. It was a Salton, a longish contraption with round holes into which you put glass cups filled with cultured milk. You then covered it, plugged it in and some hours later, it was yogurt. But I found the product was unreliable, usually runny and all the pouring into cups made it fussy. So the Salton got retired and sat idle in the cupboard for years. I finally graduated it to the thrift store last summer when we moved.

The Yogourmet yogurt maker that my brothers had was different. It consisted of one large tub into which you put the milk. That feature along with the great taste and the fact that E. and I like yogurt a lot convinced us we needed to splurge and buy our own Yogourmet system. We found one at a little health food store in Saskatoon.

The first batch I made was pretty much a runny disappointment though. One percent milk alone doesn't make great yogurt. So I decided to follow the additives advice in the recipe book that came with the it. After a little trial and error we've come up with yogurt that we figure is well-nigh perfect. Here's how I make it:

Ingredients:

- milk (I use 1%) enough to fill my 2 quart casserole bowl to about 3/4 inch from the top.
- 1 1/2 cups skim milk powder
- 1 package gelatin
- yogurt starter (I use a few tablespoonfuls of unsweetened yogurt from the last batch)


What you do:

Pour the milk into casserole bowl, cover, place in the microwave and heat at high temperature for 14 minutes.

While this is heating pour a little cold milk into a glass container and sprinkle gelatin on top to soften.

When the milk in the microwave has started to warm, take a little out and mix with the cold milk/ gelatin mixture. Stir to dissolve the gelatin in the milk entirely (I usually place the cup of milk/gelatin on top of the covered casserole dish in the MW for about a minute to totally dissolve the gelatin -- but watch that it doesn't boil). When the gelatin is totally dissolved, add it to the milk and continue to heat.

After 14 minutes the milk will be near boiling point. It should get to 80 C or 180-185 F.



Place the casserole dish with hot milk in a sink full of cold water to cool the milk. Let it cool to about 40 C or 115 F. (The Yogourmet system comes with a handy little clip-on thermometer that has the add culture temperature marked. One could also use a candy thermometer.)


Pour the warm milk into the Yogourmet container.

Add the culture and mix thoroughly.




Pour a little warm water into the large Yogourmet container, place the small container into the large one, cover and plug it in. (The warm water rises between the two containers and that plus a small element keeps the yogurt at the right temperature during the process.)

Five hours later - voila! Yogurt - the best you've ever eaten!




Of course it's possible to make yogurt without a yogurt maker. Here's one set of directions.

a gift to make

...for friends - or for you and your family.

POPPYCOCK

2 quarts popped popcorn
1 1/3 cups whole pecans
2/3 cups whole almonds
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup margarine
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix popcorn and nuts in large bowl.
Combine sugar, margarine and corn syrup in saucepan.
Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Boil stirring occasionally 10 - 15 minutes until mixture turns light caramel colour.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Pour over popped corn and nuts and mix to coat well.
Spread on cookie sheet to dry. Break up and store in tightly covered containers.

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I first put this recipe up three years ago (December 11, 2004). But the photo is this year's batch and proof that I'm still making it.

To find recipes for many more Christmas treats, visit this month's Recipe Roundup at Rebecca Writes, Wednesday, December 12th.

If you'd like to be part of the roundup, post a recipe of your favorite Christmas squares, bars, candy etc., then tell Rebecca via comments on this post.

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Coming in January - daily devotions for kids. Samples now online.

cranberry shortbread

2 cups butter
1 cup icing sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups dried cranberries

Cream butter and sugar.
Add flour and corn starch gradually and beat till fluffy.
Add cranberries and mix by hand until the batter clings together.
Shape into logs and refrigerate.
When thorougly chilled, slice and place on cookie sheets
Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

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The shortbread recipe above is from my Mom. I got the idea of adding cranberries to shortbread from Rita T. - our church's domestic diva (although I see it's elsewhere on the net). She also suggested adding chopped nuts like pecans, hazelnuts or walnuts.

november recipe roundup

Don't forget - today is Recipe Roundup day at Semicolon's blog. Lots of yummy holiday recipes here.

Regal "Come Again" Cookies

Another Recipe Roundup is just around the corner. It will be posted a week from today - Monday November 19th. Here are the taste sensations the roundup is after this month - from Semicolon's blog:

The November Recipe Round-up count down begins here and now! The category is Holiday Recipes, and I’m specifically looking for those special Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hannukah recipes that make your family’s celebration a little richer and those that get you all into the holiday spirit.

So, put up a holiday recipe on your blog. Then post a link to it on Semicolon's Mister Linky Recipe Roundup which is here.

Here is my contribution. It's from the recipe book my Mom hand-wrote and gave me for my birthday shortly after I was married. She made these cookies every Christmas and I have pretty much carried on the tradition.



Regal "Come Again" Cookies

A fruity Christmas cookie

2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
3 cups flour (all-purpose)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts
1 cup glacé cherries cut fine
1 cup mixed candied fruit
salt to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream butter and sugar well.
Add eggs and mix well.
Add flour with leavenings and other ingredients.
Mix and knead with hands for a long time.
Drop by spoonfuls or roll into the size of a walnut.
Bake at 350 F until brown (about 10 minutes)


When I make these cookies, I often omit the candied fruit (I'm not crazy about the taste). Instead I use glacé or maraschino cherries. Sometimes I slice green and red cherries in halves, press the cookie balls flat and put a colored cherry round in the middle of each cookie before baking.

blackberries (the kind you eat!)

My berries cluster black and thick
For rich and poor alike to pick.
I’ll tear your dress, and cling, and tease,
And scratch your hand and arms and knees.

I’ll stain your fingers and your face,
And then I’ll laugh at your disgrace.
But when the bramble-jelly’s made,
You’ll find your trouble well repaid.

—THE SONG OF THE BLACKBERRY QUEEN
by Cicely Mary Bar

Wild blackberries are like the ones you buy, but better. ("Wildman" Steve Brill)

The wild blackberries are here! Lots of good grazing on our walks lately.

Here are some blackberry facts and lore:

1. Also known as "black caps" and bramble berries blackberries are a healthy food; packed with anthocyanins!

2. 1 cup of blackberries has about 60 calories.

3. Ancient Greeks believed blackberries to be a cure for diseases of the mouth and throat, as well as a preventative against many ailments, including gout. Its bushes were also thought to magically cure whooping cough. Blackberry tea was said to be a cure for dysentery during the Civil War

4. The blackberry leaf was used as an early hair dye, having been recommended by Culpeper, the English herbalist, to be boiled in a lye solution in order to "maketh the hair black".

5. The blackberry is also the symbol of envy, lowliness, and remorse. This is because its thorns can catch you, trip you up, and hold on to you.

Blackberry bushes and other brambles can take over a habitat and choke out other plants, the way a greedy person may try to take things from others. So people in Shakespeare's day called lawyers bramble bushes, because they grab on to you and don't let go until they've drawn blood.
- from "Wildman" Steve Brill

Blackberry picking (and eating) tips:

1. Select plump, firm, fully black berries. Unripe berries will not ripen once picked. A ripe blackberry is deep black with a plump, full feel. It will pull free from the plant with only a slight tug. If the berry is red or purple, it's not ripe yet.

2. Keep picked berries out of the sun and cool as soon as possible.

3. Wash just before using.

4. Blackberries keep in the fridge for one week max.

5. Blackberries are freezable. Freezing instructions here.

6. Try blackberries in a cobbler.

7. Or make them into Bramble Jelly.

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When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. - Psalm 104:28

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Blackberry facts, lore and tips gleaned from:

PickYourOwn.org

"Wildman" Steve Brill - more lore on his blackberry page

the biz

... of writing:
If you're a writer, or wannabe writer, Editorial Anonymous is a blog you'll want to read. EA is wisdom from a children's editor who answers questions from readers about all things writerly from agents to queries. Plus you'll love how she does it - concisely and with acerbic wit.


... of reading:
Cousin blogs Novel Journey and Novel Reviews are great blog additions (new to my blogroll, though they have been around for a while) for the readers and writers of Christian fiction among us. Novel Journey specializes in news, interviews and vodcasts from the world of Christian fiction (note, for example, the recent interview with Beverly Lewis, winner of the 2007 Christy Award for Series books).

Novel Reviews (for which I've been accepted as an occasional contributor!) is strictly reviews of above fiction.


... of cooking (and eating):
Newest Recipe Roundup (Grilling recipes) is up at The Happy Wonderer.

bbq & grill recipe roundup...

is happening tomorrow (August 2nd) at Ellen's blog The Happy Wonderer. Don't miss it!

If you have a recipe for barbecue or grilling, or for a marinade or rub for grilling meat, fish or vegetables, post it on your blog and then add your link to her comments tomorrow and she'll transfer it to the roundup page.

Personally, I'm grill-challenged. We have not fired up the barbecue at all this year, due to the fact that it's missing one of its burners. But when we do, one of our favorites is barbecued salmon. My husband does this, so I'm not sure I have it completely right but this is pretty much how it goes:


Barbecued Salmon
Cut fresh or thawed salmon into steaks.
Place them in a barbecue cage.

During cooking, baste the salmon with the following sauce:

1/2 cup butter
juice of 2 lemons
2 garlic cloves (or to taste).

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Keep on top of the Recipe Roundup at Rebecca's Recipe Roundup Information page.