Blueberry Pickin' and a Recipe

Hello Everyone!

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while.  I think I kind of like to store up the happenings and the projects and then just hit you all at once.  ;)  I have several posts in the works that I'm hoping to get up in the next week or so.  Today, I wanted to share a few pics from our morning adventures. My sis-in-law, niece, friend and I, along with a passel of kids, went blueberry pickin. It was a great morning for it; not too hot.  My SIL and I neither one had gone last year so we were ready to do some serious picking.  We were both out and were planning on getting a lot of berries.  I ended up with 6 gallons and she with 9 gallons.

SIL writing her check for the berries.

My daughter tying up our bags.

I grabbed these few pics with my daughter's camera because it was a little point and shoot and I didn't want to mess with my big one.  I wanted to take more of us all actually picking but when you are trying to beat the heat of the day, you don't take time for pictures. As you can see, we picked a mess of berries.  We also got a couple for my mother-in-law. Fortunately, my niece and friend were able to pick those since they weren't getting as many berries for themselves.  "Thanks, ladies, for the extra help!" We started picking at 7:20 am and picked until around 1ish. So in 5 and a half hours, we picked 15 gallons of berries! Not bad.  We were all hot and tired by the time it was all said and done but oh, think of all those berries in the freezer through out the winter!  Oh yay, speaking of freezer, I still had to process all those berries when I got home.  So to say the least, this was an all day job. But now my freezer looks like this.

This was in my bigger freezer; approx. 26 quart bags full of blueberries.

There are 3 bags in my little freezer above the fridge.

The place we pick allows us to mound our berries so we actually come out at about 5 quarts to the gallon instead of 4. So that would be 30 quarts for me.  If you do the math, you will see I'm missing a quart.  Well, what's the use in picking if you can't have some berries to munch on right now? My last quart I put in a bowl and whipped up a yummy, easy dressing to toss them in.

Blueberries in Brown Sugar Cream Sauce

Here is the recipe.  Get ready folks, it is hard. (Just kidding. Just the opposite.)

Brown Sugar Cream Sauce for Blueberries
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup brown sugar

Blend together and toss with:
3-4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

This is great to eat alone or to pour over Angel Food Cake or Pound Cake. It is also wonderful over Ice Cream.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. If you try it some other way, let me know. I'm thinking maybe with waffles or funnel cake or some other such idea.

Well, there you have our day of blueberry pickin'. So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

Finally Winter

Hello Everyone!

Just dropping in for a quick note to say that winter has finally come to MO. At least to our part of the "Show Me State".  So, that being said, I'm going to "show you" a little of what we woke up to today.

Our dog didn't act to thrilled with the white stuff coming down.

A little disclaimer here.  I didn't check the settings on my camera.  I just went out on the porch and snapped as quickly as I could.  It was brrr! chilly out there.  I'm sure I could have gotten better pictures if I would have taken the time but I just wanted to get a quick shot for the records.  It's funny that we are almost into the middle of January before we have had much winter.  Last week it was close to 70 degrees.  I have a feeling we will have snow into the spring this year.  We'll just have to wait and see. So, did anybody else wake up to snow this morning?  So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

Impromtu Company and a Garden

Hello Everyone!

A funny thing happened the other day.  I called my sister-in-law to see if she was going to town.  I was making her daughter a pair of culottes and wanted to try them on before making any more.  I was doing this for her birthday and was using a new pattern so I needed to see if they would work.  When I called, her husband said that she wasn't but wondered if they could come over and till up a spot for my garden.  What was a girl to say?  Of course you can!!! 
A little background is needed here.  We have had a small garden in years past.  Last year, we never got one in because we don't own a rototiller, didn't have the money to rent one, and just didn't have the time to mess with it.  We were working inside last summer on my daughters room , my son's bathroom, and other various indoor projects.  We had talked to my brother-in-law about wanting a garden this year.  (He's a big garden person.)  Anyway, he offered to come over sometime to till up the ground for us.  Our previous garden had grown over with grass.  So we just figured sometime we would set up a time to get that done.  You can imagine my delight and surprise when he just suggested to come on over that day when I called.

We also did an even smaller one to the right of this one (closer to rock fence) to plant squash.  We would like to keep the squash bugs as far away from the other produce as possible.  Gotta hate those things!!!

Since it was evening, I asked them to just come and stay for dinner.  I was already planning on making chili and cornbread for dinner.  They have 7 in their family so I just doubled up and my SIL brought a salad and we were well fed. 

Sorry, no picture of the chili.  My daughter took it and it was pretty blurry.  I also made Pecan Pie Bars for dessert.  Those have to go in their own post with recipe included.  So yummy!!!

The next day, I got another call from my BIL who said, "Have I got a deal for you!"   He said he had just finished planting his potatoes and had extra and would I like to have them.  Once again, what's a girl to say?  Yes, I want them!  I was going to have to go to town and buy seed potatoes but didn't really want to have to go that day.  I teased him and told him that I thought the deal would include him planting them for me.  No such luck! So the next day I planted them myself.

This is the first time I have planted potatoes so we'll see how it goes.  I am going to dig up some of them really young and some we will let mature.  The middle of April is when I will plant my cucumbers, okra, peppers, squash and whatever else I decide to try.  So maybe this summer I will have some fun things to show you with our garden produce.  So until next...

Have a blessed day,


maggie jane