Loving Summer Fruit Desserts!

Maybe you are enjoying the seasonal berries as much as I am! I found this recipe, tried it once, turned it upside down one too many times, and so HAD to try it again! I took this on our camping trip, but it didn't survive the drive up, it ended up turning upside down one more time -- all over our stuff and in the back of the truck! Bummer! What could be salvaged was so delicious that I KNEW I had to make it again! Elaine liked it, too, so here -- I share it with you! And it comes from Cooking Light so it can't be bad for you!!

Summer Fruit Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake

1 c. (¼-inch-thick) nectarine slices
1 c. blueberries
1 c. raspberries
1 tsp. lemon juice
Cooking spray
1 Tbs. butter, melted
1 c. plus 1 Tbs. sugar, divided (I use less than the full cup and it's fine!)
1¼ c. flour
½ c. stone ground yellow cornmeal
1½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
5 Tbs. butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350º. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; toss gently. Coat a 9" cake pan with cooking spray. Brush pan with 1 Tbs. melted butter. Sprinkle pan evenly with 1 Tbs. sugar. Pour nectarine mixture into pan in an even layer. Set aside.

Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Combine remaining 1 cup (or less) sugar and 5 Tbs. butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat just until combined. Spoon batter evenly over fruit mixture.

Bake at 350º for 40 minutes or until cake is set and light brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Place a plate upside down on top of cake pan; invert cake onto plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. Yield 12 servings.

Calories: 221, Fat: 6.8g, Protein: 3.2g, Carb: 37.4g, Fiber: 1.2g

Still Alive!

Yes, it's true, we're still alive! Not that you'd know by the lack of evidence here on the blog, but we are! It has been a very busy last couple of weeks (has it really only been 2 weeks?!?!)! After our lovely camping trip we came home to turn around and leave again the next weekend for convention. Between the camping trip and convention I was originally scheduled to work a whoppin' 2 hours! I was fine with that, but my manager decided that wasn't fair to me and so he gave me 9.5 more and that really put me a bit behind! Oh, well, we managed alright! Convention was absolutely wonderful, as always, and I learned that I have A LOT to work on! Thankfully, there's plenty of grace and strength that comes with the changes that need to be made. While there I got to meet Katrina and her family and that was just lots of fun! I hope we can get together sometime and spend some time drinking coffee and playing with paper! Not sure what the men and kids will do, but I'm sure we girls will find lots of fun stuff to do and talk about! We also brought home a "stray" family who were visiting from southern California. They are good friends of Kent's good friend from his younger years. It was fun to have them and their 3 kids here. They shared some of their wonderful home-grown fruit with us and also included Tiana on a Boeing plant tour. After they left, we also had the privilege of helping Bonnie and Larry during his hospital stay by taking their houseguest from Kazakhstan out to dinner. It was good to see Amir again. He'd been here before and in Meeting with us. That was also a very busy week for both Kent and I at our jobs. I worked a number of early morning opens and he worked ALL day from Wednesday on, so that Paul could go to convention that week. I did manage to get quite a bit of crafting done -- something I hadn't had the time to do for too long! I'm still a bit behind, but not as far as before! Now we're just trying to get some last minute stuff done before school starts. I have some sewing on the agenda (why oh why?!?!), some cards still need made, and I really HAVE to get walking before that half-marathon that's fast arriving! We tried to walk, Lainey, Towa, T and I, but it just didn't happen today (I think the girls may have prayed for a deluge!), but that doesn't mean I shouldn't do something about it soon! Rain or shine!

So here's a bit of the creative side of things that have happened:




This was for Larry who was hospitalized with, what his daughter Michelle suggested, Squirrel's Revenge. Larry is doing better, so the card, from this Bandit Squirrel, said "i seek revenge You may have won this time, but I will be back! -- Squirrel" Pretty fun stuff!

Camp Cooking

Hobo Meatball Dinner (or Barbecued Meatballs)

3 lb. ground beef
1 c. oatmeal
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 (12 oz. ) can evaporated milk
1 c. cracker crumbs
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. chili powder

Combine all ingredients (mixture will be soft) and shape into walnut sized meatballs. Place meatballs in a single layer on a waxed-paper lined cookie sheet; freeze until solid. Store frozen meatballs in freezer bags until ready to cook.

For barbecue sauce:
2 c. catsup
1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

To make sauce, combine all ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved. Place frozen meatballs in a 9x13x2 pan. Bake at 350º for 1/2 hour. Bring out of oven and drain off any grease in pan. Pour on sauce and continue to bake for another 1/2 hour. Makes 80 meatballs.

For Hobo Dinner:

Place on foil square:
1 potato, diced
1/4 c. coarsely chopped onion
6-8 baby carrots
6 meatballs
salt and pepper to taste
other seasonings -- let your imagination soar!
1 can cream of celery soup
1 packet dry onion soup mix

For 6 Hobo packets mix 1 can cream of celery soup with 1 packet of dry onion soup mix and place dollop of soup mixture on top of each packet. Seal packets well (maybe even double the foil) and place in the hot coals of the campfire, carefully turning frequently. Cook for 15 minutes or so until potatoes, carrots and meatballs are done! YUMMY! Just experiment -- it's camp cooking!

Tortellini with Zucchini/Pepper/Onion Sauté

Boil water in fire-proof cast-iron Dutch oven. Add packaged tortellini (Trader Joe's is really good!). Meanwhile, sauté zucchini, red peppers, onion, garlic and fresh basil in a bit of oil in another cast-iron skillet, stirring frequently to avoid burning the vegetables! Double yum!

I have to say, you have to work out the details of how to drain your pasta, which jar of sauce you will add, etc., but this was what yumminess we played with!

Destination...

First stop (after a picnic lunch):
Chile

Africa

The Tropics


Best enjoyed in the company of small children (Emily, Jonathan, Toriana and the not-so-small-anymore Tiana) and their mothers! And all with no more than a 20 mile drive -- no passport needed!! For more pictures see here

Then, next stop VERTICAL RANCH

What a wonderful follow-up trip to the Vertical Ranch. You'll remember we visited here over Memorial Day weekend. Now there is no snow and it was just a beautiful, serene, fellowship and friendship filled weekend. Elaine and I took our kids (and an extra friend for Grant) up to the mountains and pretended to be the big ol' mountain women we are!! Hee! Hee! Our young men were AWESOME at starting us some roaring campfires where we tested our cooking skills (not bad!). Our girls did all sorts of beauty-enhancing tricks -- Tiana with lemon juice in the hair for blonde streaks and Victoria in mud baths for skin cleansing! Thursday and Friday we moms just relaxed, did a few crafts -- Elaine did embroidery, I did scrapbooking -- and we took a couple of GREAT hikes! The kids just played, annoyed each other, played some games, read Archie comic books and ate more marshmallows than any one person should enjoy in a lifetime!! :o) It does seem like we all ate LOTS and LOTS, but we worked most of it back off just climbing the mountain to our tents or to the next vista! Our husbands joined us on Friday after work. Saturday we went to the lake and they took the boat out. We went back to the ranch, had lunch and while that was getting ready, they hauled a 75' tree 60' up the hillside. What an impressive feat to watch! Both Gentry's full-size Chevy and Kent's "little" Tacoma got a piece of the action!

Just to share, here is one of the best viewing spots on the whole ranch -- and it's view:

Looky-Loo
Looky (from the) Loo

To feel like you were there with us, go here.

TAG!! You're it!

I was tagged by Katrina and she wants me to share 7 facts about myself! Be thinking -- YOU'RE NEXT!!!

*Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.*

1. I have lived over half of my life away from my parents -- once as a senior in high school when I lived in Germany as an exchange student, and then the rest of the time either as a single young lady trying to make my way in the world, or as a wife and mother! Gee -- I'M OLD!!! ;)
2. I LOVE to cook, but only if it's for lots of other people (they don't complain as much!!) and as a fair warning, I also love to try out new recipes on people!!
3. I used to be a couch potato, but I looked at my "new" driver's license when I got it two years ago and decided SOMETHING had to change!!! Since then, through diet and exercise, I've lost 30 pounds and managed to keep most of it off! I've done a lot of charity walks and am doing my 2nd half-marathon this October!
4. I do rubberstamping and card-making. I'm not a scrapbooker, although I know that I need to get into it because I have TONS of pictures that really need to be in an organized, easy to access and enjoy place. Not sure Kent likes the idea of another place for our money to go!! Hee!Hee!
5. We are looking very forward to a trip to Europe next summer. We need to get the planning a bit more settled soon because two of our tickets will be "free" due to airmiles!
6. Coffee is my vice! But, I'll admit -- I'm a coffee snob! May have something to do with the generous discount I get working at Starbucks?!?!
7. When I grow up I would like to adopt a child from Ethiopia, be a nurse and be especially needed for my sign language skills on the nursing floor!

Alright, let's see, I tag: (I do this because I know you have all the time in the world!! ;) )

Ivona
Elaine
Amy
Anna
Beth
Jane
Ligia

HELP!!! We have a teenager in the house!!

What a wild and crazy ride!! After a very fun, albeit cool and windy, trip to the coast, we celebrated a 13th birthday in the house! That part was VERY low-key, just a day spent with a very good friend and her parents and brother joined us for dinner. That was very nice after a whirlwind trip to pick Tiana up and join the Grandparents at the coast for the weekend. It was really not very nice weather at all, but the relaxation part was WONDERFUL!!! While we were there, I even did a 5K non-competitive walk to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Sadly, I was SMOKED by an old man who was speed-walking! Talk about embarrassing! Next year it would be fun to "compete" because then I'd get to run on the beach itself! Since then we've had the opportunity to go to the mall -- multiple times!!-- in order to spend birthday money and gift cards! I think when we came home from the coast we brought the cool, not-so-July weather with us and now we're all struggling to be motivated to anything! To see our weekend trip click HERE! To see the Birthday Girl on her big day, click HERE!

Sorry -- I've been mopey!

Man, it's been so hard. My sister's not here! I don't feel like eating, I could just lay around all day. I had a great time AGES ago 'cause I got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and play with Pixie, but then sister stayed behind! I did get a little excited, though, 'cause my bestest friend Jolyn came over last night! Oh, Boy! Oh, Boy! That made me pretty happy! Only thing is, mom keeps telling me I have to be gentle! I'm NEVER gentle with Jolyn! I don't get it! She did have this weird thing on her knee -- maybe that's why! I heard a rumor that she's going to be here this weekend. I wonder if that means Mom and Dad are leaving, too????


Yup, that's exactly what it means! Tiana's been with Grandma and Grandpa this whole week! Sounds like she's had lots of fun, too! It's given us time to get ready for the big 13th birthday comin' up! YIKES!!! We'll head out to the Oregon Coast this afternoon where we will meet up with mom, dad, and Tiana and spend the weekend celebrating her birthday! We're looking very forward to just relaxing! Too bad the weather report isn't so pretty! RAIN isn't in the forecast, though, so hopefully it will at least be pleasant! Before we leave town, though, we'll have lunch at the Bite of Seattle -- our favorite summertime foodie stop! This will be the second Bite ever that Tiana has missed since she decided to "blow our plans" of one last weekend before she'd be born! Poor kid has had to do the Bite every year near her birthday! Guess that's what she gets for being early!! ;o) Have a great weekend!