Summer Fun #32: Blueberry Picking and the yummy things I made

We love blueberry picking here! My favorite part is using the berries to make yummy food. This year I had the chance to make three different items with all the berries we picked. I used Pinterest to find new recipes to try.

I make Blueberry Buckle every year, it is my family's absolute favorite blueberry recipe I make. I use this recipe from Simple Recipes.

(image from The Novice Chef)

Next I made Blueberry Lime Cream Cheese Pound Cake. This recipe came from The Novice Chef and can be found here. I mostly stuck to the recipe, the only change I made was using lime juice instead of zest. I just don't like zest in the things I bake.

(image from Bake at 350)

Lastly I made a Blueberry Cheesecake Pie. Recipe is over at Bake at 350. The only change I made was with the crust. I didn't have any gingersnaps, but I did have an unopened, leftover box of Girl Scout shortbread cookies. I used the entire box to make the crust and followed the directions just like I was using gingersnaps. I loved it, but I'm the only one in my home who likes cheesecake, so I ate almost the entire things myself!

Now that I'm about 10 pounds heavier (totally worth it!), I'm done baking with blueberries until next year.

Blueberries!

I can't wait to go blueberry picking this week! To be honest, I'm not a fan of as a snack, but LOVE them made into desserts or other pastry type items (like muffins) I wanted to compile a list of all the yummy things I hope to make with blueberries. I found all the pictures and links on Pinterest, but linked to the exact post from the persons blog. Hope we pick enough, YUM!

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake from Alexandra's Kitchen

Yogurt Covered Blueberries from The Caffeinated Chronicles of Supermom

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars fromBaked Bree

Lemon Blueberry Bread from Sweet Tooth

Blueberry Scones from Broma Bakery

Blueberry Greek Yogurt Popsicles from Hey Donna

Blueberry, lemon and white chocolate chunk cookies from We Are Not Martha


Linked to Finding Joy in My Kitchen

4th of July Strawberries

These were super easy to make, and my 5 and 7 year old really enjoyed doing this. It doesn't require many ingredients either. All you'll need is:

~Strawberries

~White melting chocolate

~Blue sugar (I made my own by adding a few drops of blue food coloring to about a cup of white sugar and then shook it like crazy)

*Rinse the starberries and dry them very well.

 *Next melt the chocolate in the mircowave according to the packaging instructions.

*Then dip the dry strwberries into the white chocolate and then gentle into the blue sugar.

*Place berry on wax paper to harden. 

NOTE: If you dip the chocolate covered strawberries into the blue sugar to hard then it will push all the chocolate off the tip of the strawberry. So instead of having red, white, and blue berries, they'll be red, white, blue, and red.



This blog post is linked to the following:

www.iheartnaptime.net

 www.craft-o-maniac.com
C.R.A.F.T.

Red Hot Applesauce

This recipe came from my favorite slow cooker cookbook. Rival Crock Pot Slow Cooker Recipes for All Occasions, which you can buy from Amazon right now for only $4.99! Kids go nuts when they found out there is candy in there applesauce!

What you need:
~10 to 12 apples, peeled, cored & chopped
~3/4 cup hot cinnamon candies
~1/2 cup apple juice or water I used apple juice for a more apple taste

Combine apples, candies and apple juice in your slow cooker. Cover; cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 hours or until desired consistency. Serve warm or chilled.

Where to find me:

Pork Roast with Apples & Sage

I found this recipe in Womans Day magazine. It was a big hit and super easy to make.

What you'll need:

~4 tsp chopped fresh sage
~1 Tbsp minced garlic
~1 tsp kosher salt I used regular table salt
~1/2 tsp ground black pepper
~1 2 3/4lb boneless pork loin roast, well trimmer
~1 jar (12oz) pork gravy I used turkey gravy
~4 medium Gala apples I used what apples I had, I think they were Fuji

1) Mix sage, garlic, salt & pepper in small cup. Spread over top of pork.

This looks so yummy, I think I'm going to have to try to cook it just like this in the oven next time!

2) Place gravy in your crock pot. Core 2 apples & coarsely chop, add to gravy. Place pork on top

3) Cover and cook on low for 5 to 7 hours. Core remaining 2 apples and cut into 8 wedges apiece, add to crock pot for last hour of cooking.

4) Remove pork and apple wedges to a tray, let stand. Removed chopped apple with slotted spoon to a food processor, puree. Add 1 cup pf cooking liquid to apple puree. Slice pork, serve with apple wedges and apple gravy.

How good does that look? Trust me it was Delicious!

Caramel Apples

What you'll need:
~11oz Chewy caramels
~A few splashes of milk
~5 or 6 apples, make sure the skins aren't wax covered
~Candies, sprinkles, colored sugar, ect. to decorate
~A pot and metal bowl
~Craft or lollipop sticks
~Plate or cookie sheet covered w/ tin foil and sprayed with cooking spray


Time to make yummy caramel apples:
1) After you remove the wrappers from all those little caramel candies add them to a metal bowl.
2) Take lollipop or craft sticks and stick in the top of every apple. Leave apples in the fridge until ready to dip.
3) Add a little milk, about 1 Tbs. to caramels before you start the melting process. I found it easier to use a double boiler method to melt the caramels. I had it on medium heat until most of the caramels melted (this took about 5-10 mins) then I lowered the heat to the lowest setting. This way the caramel stayed smooth and creamy without burning

4)Make sure to stir caramel frequently threw out the entire process. If caramel is getting to thick, add another splash of milk.
5) Once the caramel is smooth and creamy start dipping your apples. Make sure to have the plate or cookie sheet nearby to put your caramel apples on!
6) Immediately after apples are covered, sprinkle with desired topping. Once complete, put caramel apples in the fridge to set. Enjoy!

Apple Crumb Pie

 (I couldn't get a pic before my family cut into this yummy pie!)

I found this recipe last year and thought it was delicious! It comes from All Recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) pie shell
• 6 cups thinly sliced apples the apples I was using were on the small side, so I needed 8 apples
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place sliced apples in a large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice if desired. In a small bowl, mix together white sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Toss until apples are evenly coated. Stir in raisins and walnuts if desired. Spoon mixture into pastry shell.
3. In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apple filling. Before I sprinkle the mixture over the top, I sprinkle a tiny amount of plain brown sugar over the apples to cut back on the tartness of the apples. Cover top loosely with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until top is golden brown. The total cooking time was closer to an hour and 15 min. but cooking time varies by ovens. Cool on a wire rack.

What's for dinner?

Anything I can put in my crock-pot! We're on day 11 with 90+ weather, add in the oppressive humidity and it feels like it's 98 degrees. Not the kind of weather that I want to be lighting my oven. That's why I've been planning my meals around what can be cooked quickly on the stove top or in the crock-pot. I'm also working on one of my goals-using my cook books. This recipe came from Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipes.

Super Slow Sloppy Joes

What you'll need:

• 3lbs 90% lean ground beef
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 1/4 c ketchup
• 5 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 3 Tbs prepared mustard
• 2 tsp chili powder

1) Brown ground beef, onion, and garlic in large nonstick skillet in two batches. Drain and discard fat.
2) Combine remaining ingredents in the crockpot, mix well. Stir beef into mixture.
3) Cover, cook on low for 6 to 8 hrs. Spoon onto hamburger buns. Enjoy!

Fun cupcakes!

Family Fun Magazine has to be my favorite magazine ever! I love all the children's activities and recipes they have. In one of the recent issues, there was a recipe in the back to make rainbow cupcakes. I honestly didn't think the color would take, or that the colors wouldn't blend together when cooked. But it worked great! This is also a great activity to help young children with counting because you will need quite a few drops of food coloring to achieve these bright colors.

Purple: 9 red & 6 blue drops
Blue: 12 drops
Green: 12 drops
Yellow: 12 drops
Orange: 12 yellow & 4 red drops
Red: 18 drops

All you need is a box of white cake mix made as the box says, then split it into six different bowls and add the right number of drops, bake, and viola! I can't look at these cupcakes without smiling.

Mmmmm, Blueberries

We went blueberry picking last week on my day off and had a blast! It was the first time we ever went blueberry picking. It was nice to have fun as a family and blueberries are very healthy, but I had no idea what to do with the massive amounts of berries we picked. A family can only eat so many plan berries. So I searched the web for yummy, and somewhat different, recipes for blueberries (I didn't want to make a pie or muffins)

What I found was a delicious recipe for blueberry buckle. I highly recommend if you have an abundance of blueberries, you follow the link and make this. YUMMY!

Blueberry Buckle: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blueberry_buckle/

Yummy Fishsticks

When ever I make something healthy and my kids actually EAT IT, I'm always shocked but happy. I'm also I lazy cook. I'll admit, I'd rather do laundry than make dinner, so simple, quick, and healthy is always my dinner goal. Recently I made homemade fish sticks with sweet potato fries. This is how simple the fish sticks were:

What you need:

• 1/2 sleeve of Ritz crackers
• dash of salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning
• about 1lb boneless cod fillet
• 2 TBS. oil
• 1 egg beaten

1) Crush Ritz crackers, add salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning, mix
2) Cut fish into strips about 1'' wide
3) Cover baking sheet with oil
4) Dip the fish strips into the egg, then roll and completely cover with Ritz crumbs, put on baking sheet
5) Cook for about 8-10 minutes turning once.
That's it. You can even have your kids help by giving them a ziplock bag filled with the Ritz crackers that they can smash.