Strange weather brings Confusing strawberries

   Strange title... right? Well we had a time with these strawberries.
We went to Howard's Strawberry Farm in Harmony. When we went,

we were on our way to Raleigh and planned on eating most all we 

picked there. We knew we wanted to can some, and we would have
to go back to get more berries. -Fast Forward-
   The weekend was over with, and this past weekend, we were
going to retrieve berries for canning. When we went back to Howard's,
the strawberries were gone due to the nice early weather. Terrific.
Now.... we were on the hunt for another local strawberry farm.
Some friends of ours told us about Hall's, a U-Pick in Bethlehem
(close to Hickory). Mom and Alyse picked a couple of gallons brought them home and we made strawberry jam, lemon-strawberry marmalade, and strawberry-jalapeno.

The strawberry jalapeno jelly recipe came from a couple who are trying things out for themselves. They have a great blog telling about their little farm experiences. Check out Jamie & Brady Wittkamper's blog and get the strawberry jalapeno jelly recipe. It's different, but good!

That's all I have for now,

Anna .V. 

What ARE you doing?

Grilling! 

The better question is, what are you grilling?

Gabby is doing a 4-H Turkey BBQ Presentation. While she was practicing... I brought the fun! 

Lighting the coals

What did we do while we waited for them to turn white? 

Roasted marshmallows! 

This made the time pass much quicker

I think she should take some just in case the turkey doesn't want to cook right,
at least there will be something to eat. 

Time to go to work... cooking turkey

Lookin good.

Anna .V.

Garlic + Cheese= Great!

Hey yall, I have tried this a few times and love it! I use more garlic than called for, because our family is a garlic lover. It tastes just like the pizza places. Defiantly worth trying out. I don't have a pizza stone, so I use the upside down pan method. Works great! 

Find it Here

Anna .V. 

Gooood In The Kitchen

You know those times... when you have stuff you need to get done, and you start, but don't feel like doing it? Then it seems to take forever to get done? Well today is one of those days. So... instead of doing what I need to do, I'll do this. I said earlier that all 7 of us kids were in the 4-H Food Show. Well.... we made everything from banana pudding to deer jerky! 

Everyone has their own personalities. It's funny to see it coming out in their cooking as they decide what challenges they want to take on. Some are skilled in the kitchen, others, not so much. So, names. Ages. Ribbon. And what they cooked:

Gabby (17)- Bean and rice wrap with mango salsa Blue Ribbon Best of Show

Anna (15)- Homemade apple turnovers with honey ice cream Blue Ribbon

Alyse (13)- Fried dough things with canned white nectarine preserves Red Ribbon

Malachi (11)- Deer Jerky Blue Ribbon

Lucca (9)- Banana pudding with homemade vanilla wafers Red Ribbon 

Maya (6)- Fruit smoothie Cloverbud

Victor (5)- Chocolate tractor cake Cloverbud

Malachi and his Deer Jerky 

Lucca's banana pudding

Alyse talking with the judges

Anna talking with the judges

Gabby doesn't cook too much :) 

Hope your week is good so far. We'll have recipes of these up soon.

Anna .V.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Hey yall, I know I know... it's been forever since I have updated this blog. Life has been busy! But that means that I have a lot of good things to share. 

The Area 4-H Food Show was back in February and all 7 of us kids entered some good smelling stuff. I'll post pics of that later, and I will also put some of the recipes up that we used. 

But this entry is a recipe for a great spring-time treat! Our family loves it. 

Lemon Blueberry Muffins:

• 4 C. + 2 tbs. all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 C. sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 C. creme fraiche (neufachel cheese)
• 4 tbsp. milk
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 C. oil, olive
• 2 eggs
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tsp. lemon extract
• 3 C. fresh blueberries

Crumbly Topping:

• 1 tbsp. butter, cold
• 4 tbsp. raw organic sugar (you can find it at walmart if nowhere else)
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• pinch of salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease or line muffin pan.

We use an iron skillet to make a muffin cake

Mix topping ingredients together in a medium size bowl, cutting in the butter until crumbly. Set aside

Coat blueberries with the 2 tbsp. of flour then set aside. 

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. 

Combine the neufachel cheese, milk, oil, egg, and extract together. 

Pour the wet mixture into the dry, stir. Add the lemon juice and continue to mix until the dough comes together. (You may have to add more milk or lemon juice)

Fold in the blueberries, carefully! Don't want to squish them much.

Spoon the batter into the prepared skillet or muffin tin, sprinkle with topping and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Ta-Dah! Great spring breakfast, side dish, or snack. 

Hope yall enjoy! 

Anna .V. 

! Bon Appetit !

 Dinner is always so much fun at our house. It's filled with great food, good family, and more times than not, a Bible study proceeding it. For us, dinner can last for a good 2 or more hours. To go along with the conversation, the food has to be good! So here are some pics of some of our dinners.

A good winter dinner!

warm vegetable soup with barley

With lemon blueberry muffin (made in an iron skillet)
I will have a recipe up for this soon. 

Our first time trying lighting the oil lamps

Our table complete with 9 place settings, oil lamps, and candles. 

Another dinner

Homemade bread with butter:) 

Fish with honey and a lot of herbs!

                                               Brown rice with vegetables and garlic

Hope this gives y'all some good ideas!

Anna .V.

Our Challengers!

Okay, so here are all you brave challengers who took the egg challenge with what looks like less trouble than we did. Congratulations! 

Maya

Lucca

Malachi

Alyse

Victor

Addison

Andrew 

Thank you guys for participating! 

Behind The Scenes: 

Sorry, but some eggs were harmed in the making of this post. 

If there's anyone else interested in the challenge that would like their pictures up, don't hesitate to send us pictures!  We would be more than happy to put yall up here too! 

You guys that attempted it did awesome! Much better than we did. And to those who tried it and were not posted, the Icards, we're glad to hear you had some fun with it! 

Anna & Gabby