Thursday
The Best Rhubarb Strawberry Crumble Pie
The most requested pie recipe on my blog is this amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie, so here it is again for the beginning of summer! My garden patches of rhubarb are growing so big and wide, I am harvesting the first batch and will be making gone of these this weekend.
Mother nature is amazing. The hearty nature of rhubarb is why the pioneers and homesteaders would bring starts of it when left to go across to the plains. It served as a vegetable and fruit for them. For us, it is the perfect tart compliment to my other favorite fruit, the strawberry.
Strawberries are in season and rhubarb is obviously ready to harvest, so this past weekend we made my favorite pie the Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie. This pie is so simple with only a few ingredients. It showcases the fruits of the season without the spices that some fruit pies add, which in some cases detracts from the pure summer goodness of the fruit. My favorite way to eat this pie is cold, ice cold! The crumble hardens crisp and the fruits are tender and sweet...with a little tartness. Oh my heart!
Tuesday
Cheddar and Biscuits
One of my favorite breakfasts as a child was my grandma's Cheddar Biscuits. We would watch them puff until golden and slice them open and eat them with a slice of sharp cheddar, crisp bacon and a fried egg. The heat from the biscuit melted the cheddar and the golden yolks were better than butter over it all. It is one of the most simple and elegant breakfast we had on the farm.
Her Cheddar Biscuits are the inspiration for the Cheddar & Biscuit Barn Quilt that is in The Shop this week. The barn quilt diamonds represent the perfectly golden trays of biscuits with the Prairie Paint color, Cornsilk being the perfect soft yellow representing the cheddar cheese that came from the Holstein cows on the farm. The barn quilt is available in three sizes, framed and ready to light up your country mornings.
In a food processor add flour, baking soda, baking flour and the cubed, cold butter. Use the pulse feature to cut the butter into pea sized bits o' butter in the flour ingredients. Dump the butter-flour mixture into a mixer and add the milk and eggs. Mix till sticky and together.
While you wait for the oven to heat, beat one egg and a Tbs of buttermilk together with a fork. Brush over the top of the biscuits. Pop into the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden flaky and irresistible.
Let cool and enjoy with breakfast, lunch or dinner. We love to eat them warm with a slice of cheddar, a slice of bacon and am over easy egg. They are also a favorite dinner biscuit because of the savory chive and cheddar baked through them. We are having some tonight with Salmon!
Friday
Summer Barn Quilt Workshop Too
Wednesday
Angels in Scrubs
Our Angels in Scrubs Barn Quilt was designed for an office in France who wanted us to design a quilt block to pay honor to the medical angels who used their gifts to save us and serve us through the Covid 19 Pandemic.
The painted barn quilt of this block is beautifully hand painted with our Prairie Paints and features the Red Cross symbol with angel wings in white representing grace, peace, life, and hope. Four wings and four gifts we receive from those who sacrifice and work so hard to keep us safe and healthy. Of course we used our favorite Lambs Ear Green for the scrubs background. It’s simply beautiful and hope it honors our medical angels well.
We have three sizes available in Our Shop and will have a fabric quilt pattern released in June, so watch for it. It has been a joy to design this block to honor those who bless us everyday. Thank you!
Monday
Rays of Hope
For as many fear driven stories and realities played out on television screens and in personal accounts of loss there has been stories of hope. We see it in the front line essential workers who have served us, kept us fed, worked long shifts and I can't even begin to express the awe and gratitude to our medical workers and leaders. I am equally touched by the way our teachers have kept spirits up with parades, zoom parties, gifts to door steps and their smiles that offered hope.
Around us I began to see rainbows. Many colors. Rainbows in windows, chalk drawn on driveways, flags of color flying from porches, and of course in our skies after the rains had passed. That simple blending of light creates something magnificent that we all can see as a symbol of hope, much like the small and mighty acts of kindness and service we have witnessed during our Covid19 pandemic. My heart breaks and then I look for hope. It's a daily thing for me.
I created this Rays of Hope Barn Quilt as a symbol of this time. Just like barn quilts and hexes in history with their symbols and colors all signifying some memory, I wanted a quilt from this time to remember there is always a ray of hope before us. This barn quilt is framed and comes in four sizes in Our Shop. We also offer a pattern and kit for those who want to paint it themselves.
The pattern comes in full color step by step instructions with a traceable pattern and tracing sheet. This allows you to enlarge the pattern to the size board you want to paint, lay down the tracing sheet and trace the pattern onto the wood. How simple is that?
Tuesday
Farm Roasted Chicken
There are few dinners more farmhouse classic than the chicken in a pot or Farm Roasted Chicken. It's simple flavors combine to be what we call God's meal. What I love is how it looks like you have prepared something so special, but secretly you know it took less than twenty minutes and just a few ingredients. It makes you a hero!
To make the perfect Farm Roasted Chicken you need to purchase a whole chicken. Look for one that is plump and fresh. Bring it home and unwrap it. Clean it with fresh water and make sure there aren't any pin feathers. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Get out a large dutch oven or a large flat roasting pan.
Bring together a lemon or a lime. Some flaky salt and pepper. Some soft butter. A cluster of garlic, and a bunch of fresh thyme. Reach inside the chicken cavity and make sure you remove any "extras" they might package in there such as the heart, liver etc. Run the inside of the cavity with two teaspoons of flaky salt and a half a teaspoon of fresh ground pepper. Quarter the lemon or lime and add to the cavity along with the thyme. Slice the garlic cloves and add to the cavity. Using some kitchen twine, tie the legs together to help keep the juices in the breast meat.
Monday
Harvest Star and Black Eyed Susan Pattern Release Day
You have been asking for a couple of years when we would release the patterns for the Harvest Star and the Black Eyed Susan Barn Quilt, and today if the day they are completed and in The Shop. This was for sure one of those patterns that was worth the wait. We were so happy to add full color diagrams and templates to these two patterns and to offer them as a PDF Download for those of you who can not wait for snail mail!
Friday
Cotton & Star Barn Quilt Kit
What do you do when you have 300 amazing kits from cancelled workshops that are ready to ship to your favorite friends? You add them to Your Shop with free shipping!
Natural Egg Dyes for Easter
I have been wanting for years to try dyeing my own Easter eggs with natural ingredients and with the extra quarantine time and not being able to go to the store for Easter stuff...and let's say the Easter decor is burred under hundreds of Pinners Kits for later this year...I decided that his was the year to try dying eggs with ingredients I have in my kitchen, and it worked!
Thursday
New Dates for our Summer Workshop
Our Spring Workshop that was set for April 25th is being moved out to a summer date of July 18th! We are sad to miss out on the Spring Workshop date, but are happy and feel a good sense of peace about setting a date in July.
Saturday
Dutch Baby Breakfast
This morning we were anxiously waiting the beginning of our church service to begin on television due to Covid19 and not being able to meet, and we were wanting something different, easy and fun to make. I knew about Dutch Babies from one of my dear young adult friends, but had never made one. It was so much fun to make, and quick, perfect for a weekend morning.
I poured over three or more Dutch Baby recipes and found a combination that came together to make a perfect puffed pancake. In total, it took about 35 minutes and just a few simple ingredients.
Dutch Baby Pancake
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and put 2 Tbs of Butter into a cast iron pan. If you don't have a cast iron pan you and use a 9" x 13" pan. Place the pan into the oven and heat.
To a blender, add;
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Whole Milk
1 Teas. of Vanilla
1/4 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Teas. of Salt
Blend for 30 seconds.
Add 3/4 Cups of Flour and blend for an additional 30 seconds.
Bring the hot pan out of the oven. Swirl the melted butter up the sides of the pan. Pour the batter into the pan and return to the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes until puffed and golden brown.
Remove from the oven and brush with 2 tablespoons of butter. Serve hot with a drizzle of maple syrup, fruit, whipped cream, or even ice cream!
Friday
Keep Your Face to the Sun
In addition to the lettering being primitive, I added scraps of fabric in an overlay method of Sashiko Stitching to look tattered, mended and loved. To add the scraps of fabric to the base piece of fabric, I used a little glue stick and glued the fabric in place and let it dry prior to stitching. I added rough dashes and x's to the patches and then stitched the sun and flower stems over the patches.
Wednesday
Homestead 80/20 Bread
I learned how to make bread on our farm as a little girl. It's funny how many skills you lean on when you can't go to a grocery store or restaurant for your meals. My grandma had this huge, deep, metal, hand-crank bread maker. I loved turning the handle to knead the bread. The best type of bread was a mixture of wheat and white. I love to call it my 80/20 bread.
Tuesday
Nothing But Honey Bundt Cake
A little of this a little of that and you have a honey of a bundt cake! This is one of my most asked for recipes. It is a cake that can be made in advance and refrigerated until the party begins. It takes a few ingredients from your pantry and an orange. You will love this comfort cake especially this spring, with resources limited and we are all craving a bite or two of something sweet.
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