Cherry Pie Special - PPP - February

Nothing says pie quite like a slice of GOOD Cherry pie. Everything in the world is alright for about 10 minutes while you slowly savor the tartness of the cherries, the sweetness of the sauce, the buttery flaky-ness of the crust and the cool creaminess of the vanilla ice cream.
Are you drooling yet?!
This recipe has been one of my favorites since I was a very little girl. My favorite part of Thanksgiving has always been the pies after the meal. My mother and my sisters and I would sit around the table after the rush and the meal were over and would taste the pies, talk, and laugh a lot. My earliest memories of family gatherings involve these pies. My mother and my sisters are famous for their pies. I just try to keep up. :o)
Here is my special pie tip for the month.
USE FRESH CHERRIES. You can make pie from cherries that come in the can packed in water in a pinch but if you want a cherry pie that makes everything in the world OK then you need to use fresh or frozen (not in sugar) cherries.
Last year my good friend Jill Ann hooked me up with a source for quality frozen cherries. They don't come cheap but they are so worth it. Bryan, who really hates cherry pie was a little miffed at my spending so much on cherries. He came home and found the remnants of a cherry pie I made for myself and the kids and finished the thing off and came looking for me to find out WHAT IN THE HECK WAS THAT!! "That," I told him, "was CHERRY pie, REAL Cherry pie!" It is now his all time favorite. He has been begging me to make it and that is how it made it to February's pie spot. I was going to make it for Valentine's Day but had strep and he sent me to bed and took the kids out to give me the day off. That was great!!
My source for the cherries is..... Bithell Farms they deliver directly to you 3 different times per year. You can contact them to find out when they are coming to your area. I have used their cherries, red raspberries, and their apricots (apricot pie to come later this year!).
On to the pie.....

Cherry Pie Special

Pastry for a 2 crust pie 1 tsp lemon juice
4 cups frozen, pitted, tart red cherries 4 drops red food coloring
2 ½ Tbsp quick cooking tapioca 1 cup sugar
¼ tsp salt 1 Tbsp butter
¼ tsp almond extract Vanilla ice cream
Mix frozen cherries, tapioca, salt, almond extract, lemon juice, food coloring, and sugar. Mix and let sit until the cherries are mostly thawed. While that sits, you can make your pie crust.
Fit pastry into a 9 inch pie pan and trim about 1 inch beyond the edge of the pan. Fill with cherry mixture, Dot with butter. Roll out the rest of your pie dough and make the top. Either use a while piece of dough and cut vents or make 14 strips from the dough and make a lattice top. Moisten the rim of the pie when you add the lattice strips. Take the remaining strips and place them around the edge of the pie and press together. (I found that this edge is to keep the lovely pie juices from spilling out during cooking, duh!) For a pretty pie crust, brush the top with cream and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Bake in a hot over (450 deg F) for 40 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 deg for about 20 minutes. I added this extra time at the end because I found that the pie was never quite done, especially when you use fresh or frozen cherries. Then I turned the oven off and let the pie cool off in the oven with the door propped open.
Cherry pie is best served cool. This allows the tapioca to set up and you have a lovely looking pie!
ENJOY!

Winter Weather - Winter Quilt

We had another little ice storm yesterday.

It always makes the trees look so beautiful. The roads are incredibly dangerous though. Bryan had a small accident and ended up in the ditch while trying to deliver the mail (come rain, come sleet, come snow .... you know the mail must go on). We spent the rest of the day trying to get him out and then at the Auto repair shop trying to fix our car and my brother's car after trying to help him. Sam needed a new alternator and I needed my van's thermostat fixed.

I love how the branches look, covered all round with ice.

We even got icicles. We never get icicles here!
The poor animals didn't like it. Joe had to keep going out and breaking the ice in the goat water.

The chickens found the one warm place. They gathered around the front door. Jeddie figured this out and kept throwing them bits of his food all day. They love him! At least he didn't let them all in the house this time. (Another day another crazy story)


Today I finished and packaged up my Winter Quilt for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. I was delayed because of my father's death, then I picked a "simple" quilt design. It really was quite easy but VERY time consuming. I had no idea it would take that long. I though (as usual) that I could whip it out in one afternoon and send it off a day late. Four days later, I finally finished sewing all the blue strips together. Then it took me a few more days to even up the pieces, set them, and finally hand quilts it. (I did make two of the quilts just in case I messed up, that was good because I did and then I had a "better of the two" to send.)
Here is a close-up. The theme of the quilt had to be winter. The name of my quilt is Frosty Window. One of my favorite childhood memories of winter was the beautiful frost patterns I would find on my window in the morning. My house now doesn't have this due to double paned window, insulation, and central heat and air. Come to think of it, I don't see the patterns on the car windows here either. Hmmm, wonder why? It must have something to do with too much humidity or something.

Apron Happiness

meg
Originally uploaded by angry chicken

Ok I have to share this information with all of you. Meg over at Montessori by Hand has offered up this apron pattern. I have to admit that I didn't wait 5 seconds before I ran out and ordered one. This apron is HOT!!
Run over to her bog and check it out!!
http://www.montessoribyhand.blogspot.com/

Raspberry Fluff Pie - PPP - January

Ok this is a quicky pie. We got snow today so I had to come up with something that I had in the fridge.

Pie Tip --

Ceramic pie plates really are quite wonderful. They tend to make a better crust on your pie. They conduct the heat better and stay warm longer which crisps up the crust a little better. Besides that, they look wonderful. This is my Favirite pie plate. I got it about the time I got married. My big brother Joe Bennion made it.


Raspberry Fluff Pie

35 large marshmallows
1/2 cup milk
2 cups frozen raspberries
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
2 baked pie shells (grahm cracker crusts would work)
Chocolate topping (ganache)

Melt the marshmallows and the milk together. Stir in the raspberries. Set aside and cool.
Stir in the whipped cream. Pour into baked pie shell. Pour chocolate topping on top and chill.
Cut and serve.

Chocolate Ganache
1 cup cream
1 cup or so of dark chocolate chips
Bring the cream just to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate. Stir until melted.

Year of the Mouse - PPP - Potholder

Please remember that P also stands for Perfect, and that DONE is BETTER than Perfect!!

I did this really fast so bear with the imperfections in sewing this time (ok most times).

In keeping with the theme of the Year of the Mouse or Rat, the potholder for January is mouse related.
This is just a simple, padded square pot holder, the simplest of potholders.

Materials:
White scraps for mice
Dark scraps for background and backing
Scraps of bias binding tape
Decorative thread for embelishments

Instructions:

1. Cut out your background piece. Mine is 8 inches square. I like a hotpad big enough to cover most things.

2. Make some teardrop shaped templates, one large, one small. Trace them onto your "mouse fabric". Double the fabric over and sew directly on the lines all the way around. Trim the mice to about 1/4" of the line.


3. Make a slit in one side of the mouse body. Turn the mouse right side out and press. Place the mice on the background fabric where you like them and stitch in place.

4. Use your thread to add details to your mouse like ears, nose, and tail.

5. Layer the top, batting and backing together and pin to stablize. The batting and backing should be larger than the top.

6. Top stitch around the outside edge to anchor the three layers. Now quilt in any fashion you like. I tried to stipple and found that I kinda bite at that and need some more practice.

7. Add the bias binding tape and you are done.

This one was done so very fast. It is not perfection but it will do and will be just fine for spilling chili and such.

Year of the Mouse - PPP - Pincushion

Year of the Mouse 2008

This year is the year of the rat/mouse. I thought I would do something with that theme. Then I realized that I am a rat/mouse born in 1972, so is my son Joe born in 1996. You can check out the links to information. It was a fun read.

On to the tutorial. As I have said before, this year my tutorials are going to be PPP's, pincushions, potholders and pies. I started in on this project the day my dad had his heart attack and now I finally have a free minute to get back to it and finish it.

Mouse Pincushion

Materials:

6 inch square of fabric

felt scraps

yarn

stuffing

black purl cotton

Instructions:

1. Take the 6" square of fabric and cut the corner off. I measured in 2 3/4" from the corner in each direction and cut it off.

2. Fold the square in half to for a triangle and sew along the long open edge. Turn right side out and poke out the tip with a sharp object.

3. Fold the top edge under and stitch by hand with a gathering stitch.

4. Stuff firmly with batting and draw the gathering up tight.

5. Insert the tail and stitch in place. If you are not able to stitch the hole up tight you can cut a scrap of the felt and tack it in place.

6. Cut out some little ears from the felt scraps. Stitch them to the head and add eyes and whiskers with the black purl cotton.

You're Done!

O Mio Babbino Caro

O my Dearest Daddy

My Dearest Daddy passed away past last night.

My father was almost 86 years old. He was born during the early 1920's.

By age ten he was the head cook and bottle washer at his father's farm out in the Utah Desert.

I love this picture. You see the concern for his responsibilities in his face. My son is much like him.
He served a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in the Minnesota and Canada.

This is his mission photo. Wasn't he handsome?
He served stateside in the US army during WWII. His older brothers were overseas.
He married my mother in the Salt Lake Temple in 1949.

They had 13 children. (I am number 12). I was the daughter of his old age. He was 50 when I was born.

(that is me and our donkey Jenny)
It was pretty wonderful to come at the end of such a large family. I got to share many things with my brothers and sisters but got a lot of my parents later time to myself. This was pretty special.
Some of the driving forces in his life were his love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his family.
Most of my favorite memories of him involve him reading to us from the scriptures.

Another passion in his life has been the Boy Scouts of America.

He participated in the program and loved telling stories bout a scouting jamboree in Washington DC. He worked with most of his sons and some of his grandsons with the scouting program.

Here he is with my little brother Jonny at a scout camp. My dad was a master fire builder and taught me how to successfully build a fire with one match by the time I was eight.
He passed this information on to my son Joe.

My son finally mastered it the week before my father passed away and was thrilled to be able to tell him of that before he passed.
My favorite memories of my father of him with my children.
Twelve years ago my father suffered a massive heart attack and had to have 7 bypasses done. I remember the doctors saying that if he didn't find a purpose to live, that he would not live long. We all loved him and liked having him there but none of us NEEDED him like he needed to be needed. Two months later my oldest son was born and my father was NEEDED.

You can see the scar on my father's chest from the heart surgery.
When Joe was six weeks old, I had to return to work as a school teacher. My father was his primary care provider.

He took care of Joe everyday until he went to Kindergarten.
To keep himself healthy, my father would walk at least a mile everyday all year round.
Right up to the last, he walked to keep his heart going. It worked.
Last year Joe was home schooled and would walk every morning with his Papa.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad and Joe.


They had great times together. My dad was the best story teller. He loved to read stories to the little kids.
My father, being a college professor, always used big words with Joe and all my children. My son had a very large and interesting vocabulary. My father loved Geology and taught it for many years at BYU. My son loved paleontology and the two of them loved to identify rocks and fossils.

My father continued to help care for the rest of my five children. He was great to hold them, love them, and sing to them. He sang my children a special lulluby that his mother sang to him more than 80 years ago.
Wind of the Western Sea,
Blow, Blow, breath and blow,
Wind of the Western Sea,
Over the rolling waters go,
Come with the dieing wind and blow.
Blow him again to me,
While my little one,
While my pretty one,
While my little one sleeps.
(this is the poem by Tennyson)


I think though the best memory we will have of my father is his last day here. He was moved from ICU to a private room before hospice took him home. Bryan was able to bring the kids up to see him that morning. He was rallied himself and really had a good time with my children. He told them he loved them, cheered them up and gave of his great kindness to them. My little Hannah is only 5 years old and it just broke her little heart to see her Papa so sick. He called her over to him and she crawled up with him and he took time to comfort this little girl. It was a pretty tender moment in our family.

I appreciate the concern voiced by my blogging friends that have taken the time to track my down and find out where I am. I am sorry that I haven't been here to post for a couple of weeks but dieing isn't an easy thing to go through.