Spring Multi-Berry Pie

I have been wanting to make this multi-berry pie for a week, and I've finally got around to it.  I added blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries.  Some of the berries had been from my garden, some I purchased and froze, some I bought last summer (60 pounds of wild Maine blueberries) and froze and some I bought this weekend at the market.

For the filling I used 1 cup of raspberries, 2 cups of blueberries, 1 1/2 cups strawberries, 1 1/2 cups blackberries.  I topped it with 1/2 cup of sugar*, and then sprinkled 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of flour and 2 pats of butter cut up and placed around the top.
  
If you look close you can see the big bunny on the pie to celebrate Spring!  I love to decorate the tops of my pies to give them a little character.  Would you like a slice?

My husband loves his dessert and now I'm enjoying them as well - too much though!  LOL!  I didn't grow up having dessert each evening, but my husband did.  I think the difference was he was his mothers only child, and I am one of seven!  Therefore, my mom would have been baking a cake every day to feed nine people dessert after making dinner for us each evening! 

The pie came out of the oven at 10:20 last evening! I have to tell you, my home smelled fantastic!

I used Ina's perfect pie crust recipe (sorry nana) which was really easy to make in the food processor, and super easy to roll out.  The recipe is below.

Ingredients

12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter*
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 -8 tablespoons ice water (about 1/2 cup)

Directions

1 Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.
2 Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix.
3 Add the butter and shortening.
4 Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas.
5 With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.
6 Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball.
7 Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
8 Cut the dough in half.
9 Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board.
10 Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan.
11 Repeat with the top crust.
12 **Ina Garten prefers to use Crisco shortening, that has been stored in the refrigerator.
13 ***Cook time does not include 30 minute refrigeration time.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream!

My substitution notes

* I did not use sugar in an effort to reduce calories. It's really tart, but I enjoy a tart pie.

**I used Smart Balance butter sticks to reduce fat and calories.

Happy 7th Birthday Duke!

Look who's turned 7 today!  Our little boy Duke, or Sir Reginald Marmaduke as he's know around town!  For his birthday we bought him a box of Greenie's, his most favorite snack in the entire world!  When we talk about them we refer to them a "G's" otherwise he runs to his bed to wait for one!

We're so happy to have this little bundle of energy in our lives!  We can't imagine the house without him.  He's made us laugh so many times it's unbelievable.   Like the time he came downstairs covered in white feathers - yup, he'd had a pillow fight and he come down to tell us he'd lost!  Needless to say, our king size bed was covered in feathers!

Happy 7th Birthday Duke! XOXO!!!

Dom's Recipe Challenge & Sunflower Rice

From Williams-Somoma Kids Cooking ~ Scrumptious Recipes for Cooks Ages 9 - 13!  Dom at Belleau's Kitchen is having a recipe challenge, click here for details!  The challenge calls for taking cookbook # 18 off your shelf, turn to a page and cook a recipe.  First I had to select the shelf, I have a serious amount of cookbooks.  Next, from my Williams-Somoma shelf I counted to number 18, and low and behold this is the book, "Kids Cooking."  I laughed until I was beside myself and said "why not, it will be fun."

Then I randomly selected a recipe, and it was Sunflower Rice, how appropriate for Spring!  It was delicious, the sunflower seeds gave the rice a really nice and unexpected nuttiness.  If you wanted to jazz it up some more try adding dried cranberries, carrots, and some green pepper.  I didn't add anything extra, I followed the directions!

This dish went well with the grilled steak and veggies that I served for dinner that evening.  It would also go well with chicken or fish, I thought it was a pretty versatile side-dish!

Below is the recipe as typed from the kid's cookbook!

Ingredients

2-4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup brown rice

2 2/3 cups chicken broth

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup sunflower seed kernels

Salt

1. Put 2 tablespoons of the butter in the medium saucepan.  Set the pan on a burner of your stove, turn the heat on to medium and melt the butter.  Add the rice to the melted butter and stir with the wooden spoon until each grain of rice glistens with butter.  Pour the chicken broth over the rice, stir once. Let the mixture come to a boil.

2. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, turn the heat down to very low.  Put the lid on the saucepan and simmer until the rice is tender and has absorbed all of the broth, about 50 minutes. (To make sure the rice doesn’t burn, start checking after 40 minutes.  Be sure to lift the lid away from you, as the steam inside the pan can burn you.)

3. Turn the heat off.  Remove the saucepan from the stove.  Carefully remove the lid from the pan.  Add the Parmesan cheese and sunflower seeds and stir lightly.

4. Taste the mixture.  If you want a richer dish, add up to 2 tablespoons more butter.  Add enough salt to make the rice taste great to you.  Serve immediately.

One last thing, if you don't Follow Dom at Belleau Kitchen I highly suggest you do!  Not only is he a fabulous cook, he has a fantastic sense of humor!  

Sweet...Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies with Sunflower Seeds

It's officially Spring! What a lovely weekend we had in New England!  Please join me,  Susan, From Beyond My Kitchen Window and Kary from My Farmhouse Kitchen in another Sarabeth bake-off!  Kary just e-mailed me to let me know that her post will be late because of flooding in California.  They woke up at 3:00 a.m. to a flooded dining room!

Hubby and I went to Maine for the weekend and had a wonderful time.  When we returned home to Massachusetts I had to scurry to bake my Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies with Sunflower Seeds.

I can honestly tell you these are THE BEST oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted.  Once again I followed a recipe from my Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook, and while the Quaker Oats oatmeal cookies are good, these are divine!  The extra effort in the recipe is worth the work!  I hope you enjoy them!

This recipe gets a delicious nuttiness from the sunflower seeds - an ingredient that you don't find in many cookies but which is a perfect complement for the oatmeal.

Ingredients
2/3 Cup super fine sugar
2/3 Cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned (rolled) oats
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten
1 1/2 cups seedless raisins
1/2 cup hulled sunflower seeds

Directions

1. Position racks in the center and top third of the oven and preheat to 350F. Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. Rub the superfine sugar and brown sugar together through a coarse-mesh sieve into medium bowl. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into another bowl, then add the oats and stir well to combine.

3. Beat the butter in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar mixture, then the vanilla. Beat, occasionally scrapping the bottom and sides of the bowl, until the mixture is pale yellow and very light-textured, about 3 minutes. Gradually beat in the eggs. Reduce the mixer speed to low. In thirds, beat the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, beating just until each addition is incorporated. Mix in the raisins and sunflower seeds. Do not over mix.

4. Using a 2-inch-diameter ice-cream scoop, portion the batter onto the prepared pans, placing the cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake, switching the position of the pans from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through baking, until the cookies are light golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool completely on the pans. (The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days.)*

This is the cookbook, and I highly recommend it!

Notes:

* I used a 1 1/2-inch scoop and reduced the baking time by several minutes.  

Blueberry Sour Cream Scones for St. Paddy's day

It's St. Patrick's Day and we thought we'd celebrate by taking a ride on this glorious warm (60F) and sunny day to Maine and stay at the cottage for a few days!  Spring has finally arrived - unofficially!  We've been walking, shopping and having a great escape for ourselves!

So I thought I'd bake some blueberry sour cream scones for St. Patrick's Day to have with our tea, we love our tea!  Well, I was running short of time and I decided to try the semi-homemade method.  They are still made from scratch, I scratched my head before I read the directions!  LOL!!!

Most of you know King Arthur has the best flours for any type of baking, so I knew it had to be good (check out the link on my side bar).  I was amazed at the size of the blueberries in this mix.  All I had to do was cut 6 tablespoons of butter into the mix, and then beat one egg into 1/3 cup of milk and add to the dry ingredients.  

Shape into an 8 inch round on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Cut into 8 wedges and separate slightly.

15 minutes at 400 degrees F.

They are melt in your mouth delicious!

Would you like one with your tea?

My Idea of Coastal Living

Welcome

These are photos of an ocean side home we toured in Scarborough, Maine a few years ago.  The proceeds went to Habitat for Humanity and Guatemalan Children's Relief Fund, both worthy causes.  

This is my idea of coastal living (not really, it's too big), can you tell I'm yearning for the foot of snow in my yard to melt and anxiously awaiting Spring!  This lovely home which was featured in Coastal Living magazine can be yours for a mere million +, I think it's still available!  Enjoy!

Family room

Kitchen

Another view of the kitchen

A closer look at the cabinets

Sun porch

Let's go upstairs

The master bedroom

The master closet

The master bath

Guest quarters

Roof deck

Another guest room

Out door room

Out door seating

The grounds

Let's walk around the house

There were more rooms, but I think I selected my best photos to show you!  I hope you enjoyed the tour, we certainly did!

Spring garden . . .

I've been inspired by all the Spring posts that I've seen this week, and I thought I'd post my Spring garden from last season since it's never been seen by any of my blog friends.  Today it was frigid outside and I have cabin fever!  So humor me while I dream of Spring, and please meander through my garden, we love visitors and gardening tips are always welcome.  Please enjoy the garden tour!

My white daisy!

Need to protect the wildlife!

Echinacea 

Hydrangea

Garden along the front of the family room

Garden along the side road, this will be widened
 and lengthened this year.

A peek at my kitchen garden.

Here's a poem I learned in kindergarten, we won't discuss how many years ago!  I hope it brings a smile to your face, it still brings a smile to mine whenever I think of it!  Enjoy!

A Little Frog

I'm a little frog, just a pollywog

I live in a pool underneath a log

Just because its Spring, Spring, Spring, Spring

I just want to sing, sing, sing, sing.