Cherry pie "Monthly Mingle' | Visiting granny’s farm

I haven’t been food blogging for 2 years, I’ve been pretty busy learning more about photography and I finally opened my photography business. The business is still in its infancy.   Right now I am trying to do all types of photography, weddings, family and children. At the same time I am trying to post about food in this blog. Doing food photography it has been one of my passions as well.

When I decided to go back food blogging, I forced myself to open up a new blog. Creating this new blog is easier than updating the old blog. If you like to visit my old blog click HERE. So this is the first time I participate to the event ‘Monthly Mingle’ which hosted by Sukaina and her lovely blog ‘Sips and Spoonfulls’.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we visited granny’s farm. Granny has some chickens; they weren’t ready for laying eggs yet. But I spotted one egg resting on the hay, well one of those chicken looks like it’s ready to start laying  eggs. Couple horses were happy enjoying their food and just chilling in the shade. I didn’t blame them, it was hot day!

Cooking CHERRY PIE, this recipe I adopted from Paul of ‘Sweet Paul’. Easy bake and delicious result.  I didn’t make the pie dough from the scratch but rather buying ready mix pie.

Cherry pie Serves 10

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup cold butter, in pieces
1/4 cup iced water
2 pounds cherries, pitted
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

In a food processor, combine flour, salt, sugar and butter.
Pulse until coarse.
Add water and pulse until it holds together.
Wrap in plastic and place in it the fridge for 1 hour.
Take it out and cut in half.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface.
Place in a 9 inch pie plate.
Cut off any excess dough.
In a large bowl toss cherries, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.
Fill the pie with the mixture.
Roll out the rest of the dough and cut into 1 1/2 inch strips.
Weave strips over filling. Press to seal on the edges.
Brush lattice with egg wash.
Bake until filling is bubbling and crust golden, about 40 minute

Mixed-berry & Banana smoothie { 4th of July }

It was 4th of July.

Block party, firework party, bbq party, picnic, grocery store jam with people buying picnic food for, parade, some street were jam. Yes it wasn’t quite, supposedly not quite for celebration right…

I do love seeing happy faces, they were telling me that they had an exciting plan! Even though I am a the type of person that doesn’t openly show excitement but I do love seeing and feeling their energy.

Spent that day just with family in our backyard, hot sunny day just gave me the mood of being lazy in front of computer editing some wedding photos (check them HERE)  and at the same time playing with my boy and our dog ‘Maxy’.  We waited until dark to light up sparkles and watched neighbor’s fire works.

            

Also we enjoyed our MIXED-BERRY & BANANA SMOOTHIE  while waiting for the sun to go down.

½ cup pomegranate or cranberry juice

2 containers (6 oz.each) mixed-berry yogurt

2 large ripe bananas, sliced

1 bag (12 oz) frozen mixed berries.

In blender, combine juice, yogurt, bananas, and berries. Blend until mixture is smooth.

My son made his own smoothie presentation by adding chocolate sprinkles and white dessert topping. Sure, he enjoyed what he made.

Happy 4^th of July . May this country become more greater and God bless America!

Down on the farm | Strawberry Jam

One fine afternoon, we as a family got a true taste of fresh produce and had fun picking strawberries at Finnell Farm Harborcreek PA. Those strawberries were big and sweet this time. This was my second time visiting Finnell farm. The place is only about 20 minutes away from our house. There are other varieties beside strawberries they have peas as well.

I always thought that strawberries have to be sweet, and yes they were! My son enjoyed picking strawberries but not for long thought, he tended to play and talk about everything while I was picking strawberries.

“why are those strawberries red?”

“oh look mommy, they are so big!”

“mmm mommy I don’t see any bananas in these bushes”.

“mommy… answer me pleeeeease!”

I didn’t have time to answer one question before he jumped to another questions. The best thing for me is simply enjoying myself picking those red and sweet strawberries. LOL

At home, I  made half of the quart for jam and  froze the other half. I used CERTO to make freezer jam. Freezer jam is very easy to make and doesn’t require any cooking.

QUICK & EASY FREEZER JAM.

Recipe to make 4 cups of freezer strawberry jam.

2 cups crushed strawberries

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

4 cups sugar

1 pouch certo

Direction:

Prepare fruits, discard stems and crush strawberries. Measure exact amount of prepared fruit (or juice) into a large bowl.

Measuring exact amount of sugar into separate bowl. (Reducing sugar or using sugar substitutes will result in set failures).

Stir sugar into prepared fruit. Mix well. Let stand 10 minutes; stir occasionally

Stir pectin into lemon juice and water (if required) in small bowl.

Stir pectin mixture into prepared fruit or juice. Stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes. (A few sugar crystals may remin).

Pour into prepared containers, leaving ½ inch space a top for expansion during freezing; cover.

Let stand at room temperature 24hours until set. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks. Otherwise, store in freezer for up to 1 year.

I made for about 8 jars of strawberry jam. I am hoping these will enough for sometimes next year:)