Fresh Raspberry Pie

This pie recipe is award winning...really...I really won a trophy for the pie...It was a pie contest in my sisters backyard, there were about 30 entries, maybe more, or maybe less...but there were real judges who took their job very seriously and I legally won! My trophy may have looked like a bowling trophy and might have had someone else's name on it but I won it fair and square...anyway this recipe works great with blackberries, blueberries or strawberries made the same way....this is not a recipe, it is a procedure.....very easy procedure, promise....

You start with enough berries to fill your pie pan, heaping, about 3 pints.....make your favorite pie crust recipe and set aside.....

take out a third and put in a saucepan with 1/4 cup of sugar and mash the berries a little, turn the burner on medium heat and cook until it juices some....

like this...

take 1 heaping tablespoon of cornstarch in a bowl with 1/2 cup of cold water and stir.....

put into the pan and continue cooking in pan until it boils and turns to a jam like consistency...

like this, you don't want to much of this just enough to act like glue and stick everything together...set aside for a minute......

put 1/2 cup of softened cream cheese in a bowl and...

 1/4 cup of sugar.....stir until will blended....

put in the bottom of your prepared pie crust...and...

spread around....this adds flavor and helps the crust from becoming soggy....

then put the remainder of the fresh berries into the cooked berries and gently fold together.....

put on top of the cream cheese mixture and ...

place in the fridge for a couple of hours until ready to put whip cream on top...

make your favorite whipped topping, I used real whip cream.....

Ta Da!!!

Trophy winning Raspberry Pie!!!!!

Cheers to Happy  !!

Asian BBQ Chicken Breast...

Asian Barbeque Chicken Breast....This is a very flavorful and tasty bbq sauce...it is full of flavor and surprisingly low in salt...It gets most of the flavor from the sweet onion and roasted garlic....

Ingredients

6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup oyster sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
4 boneless, skin-on chicken breast halves (about 6 ounces each)


Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 350°. Wrap the garlic cloves in foil and bake for about 30 minutes, until soft. Squeeze the garlic from the skins into a small bowl.
2.In a skillet, cook the chopped onion in the vegetable oil over moderate heat, covered but stirring occasionally, until the onion is caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted garlic, ground black pepper and oyster sauce, add the soy sauce, add the water and white wine vinegar and simmer over moderate heat until the barbecue sauce is very thick, about 5 minutes. Transfer the barbecue sauce to a blender and puree until smooth.

4.Light a grill. Oil the grates and grill the chicken skin side down over moderately high heat until the skin is crisp, about 7 minutes. Turn the chicken and cook over moderate heat until the chicken is almost white throughout, about 5 minutes. Generously brush the barbecue sauce onto the skin; turn and grill until glazed, about 30 seconds. Generously brush the other side with sauce, turn and grill the chicken until glazed. Repeat the glazing on both sides. Transfer the chicken to a work surface to rest for 5 minutes.

5.Slice the chicken breasts crosswise and transfer to plates.

roast the garlic cloves in the oven for 30 minutes...

after 30 minutes it is soft and nutty....and golden brown...

perfect!

saute and caramelized the onions...

and then add the rest of the ingredients....cook, reducing by half and the transfer to a blender and blend until smooth...

set aside the finished sauce, this can be made a couple of days ahead...

lightly season your chicken breasts with garlic powder and pepper...

start your grilling...make sure you temp your chicken, proper temp is 165...

your chicken will get crusty and that is exactly what you are looking for..

This is great, with a great big salad and garlic bread!!

Cheers to Happy  !!

The Best Blueberry Muffin, ever...end of story...

Let's just get this on the table right now, Americas Test Kitchen is never wrong, never...and when they say they have the best recipe for something, you can be guaranteed that they have tested and retested the recipe...so with the abundant blueberries in the garden these were a given....during the test of the muffins, they wanted to add more berries but every time they did, it just made for a very heavy muffin...so they brilliantly made a slurry of berries and swirled them into the top of the muffins...they are not to sweet, and the texture is perfect!

Lemon Sugar Topping

1/3 cup sugar
Zest from one lemon (about 1 ½ teaspoons)

Muffins2 cups fresh blueberries
1 1/8 cups sugar, plus one teaspoon
2 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Stir the sugar and zest together until combined; set aside.



Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick spray. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to bowl and cool to room temperature, 10-15 minutes.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds (remember, 80 strokes). Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. The batter will be very lumpy with spots of dry flour; do not overmix

Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound, pushing it below the surface. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure eight motion. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, about 17-19 minutes, rotating muffin tin (front to back) halfway through cooking time. Cool muffins in tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 more minutes before serving.

you start with the freshest blueberries you can find....

gather all your ingredients.....

make your slurry and let it cool.....

add the zest to the sugar for the topping....

mix your dry ingredients in a large bowl...

mix your wet ingredients and gently mix into the dry....do not over mix....

and the berries and fold gently...the batter will be lumpy....

spoon into greased muffin tins (please don't look at the condition of the muffin tins) and spoon the slurry on top....

next take a chopstick and swirl around the top....just a couple of times...

now put on the top, the lemon sugar....(there is a perfume called lemon sugar, I really want it, really bad)....

bake in a hot oven at 425 degrees for 18 minutes...

then enjoy!

they are moist and tender...they have the signature holes that all good muffins should have...

Cheers to Happy  !!

Strawberry Spinach Salad...

This is the best spinach salad...it is great to take on a picnic or family reunion...the sweet and fruity goes well with a BBQ and the color is so beautiful! Young and old love this salad, I first had the salad when I went to a meeting and had this for lunch...I loved it so much I could have eaten it all...seriously...so I called the restaurant and asked the kitchen manager how it was made,and this is his own personal recipe...so cheers to 'Bill'!

the dressing
1 lemon
4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons poppy seeds

mix all together in a jar and shake...can be made a few days ahead...

Salad
3 cups of quartered fresh strawberries
1 medium cucumber peeled cut in half and sliced
1 medium size thinly sliced red onion
1 12 ounce package of baby spinach
Cut strawberries, cut cucumber, slice onion, add spinach, this can be made and add the dressing at the last minute, ready to serve!

Cheers to Happy !!

Garden in the middle of July....

Here is a look at my little garden today...by little I mean little.....it is cute and small....

the lettuce is abundant, carrots coming on, swiss chard picked almost daily....

here is the second planting of radishes....their little tops look so cute! I am thinking next year to buy more of these 'farm water trough's' for planting in....I think they are warmer and they need no fence!

the garden coming along fine....their is a fence around it to keep out the wild bunnies and stray cats....

tomatoes still growing....I have high hopes....we have not had alot of sun her in the PNW...

here are the beans...here is a helpful hint, don't ever use a metal bed rail for the beans to grow on...I think it is to slippery....they don't climb...I am having a heck of a time trying to get them to use it...

here is what I am most proud of! and the reason for blogging the garden...my compost...this is one side of my compost pile and...obviously the side I am using....

here is the other side! my compost pile is doing better than my garden! It is so lovely! and healthy looking...

.....there are volunteer tomatoes....

and the squash...who knows what kind I am having! or is it pumpkins?

more tomatoes....there is volunteer mint and parsley and I found some dill....and some of last years swiss chard....

maybe zucchini....

here are some blossoms...

my favorite, the happy nasturtiums coming out of the potatoes....do you have great plants coming from your compost? Is this a normal thing? I am loving the anticipation of what is growing!

Cheers to Happy  !!