Jenyfer Matthews

I’ve heard about the fabulous blueberry picking opportunities in the area nearly every summer I’ve visited my parents, but have never gone picking myself until this weekend. There is an area up the Gunflint Trail that has been cleared at different times by forest fires where the blueberries grow plentifully. I could tell you more specifically where we went, but then I’d have to kill you.

It was a hot day and very still – and it takes longer than you’d think to fill up a gallon sized ice cream bucket even if the berries are fat and juicy!

If I crouched too long, I’d get stuck in that position.

But standing wasn’t so much better!

Even after we’d been out there a couple of hours and I’d filled my bucket 2/3 of the way, I still couldn’t stop. We had decided to go back to the car and maybe find another spot but I kept having to stop and pick just a little more because the berries were so pretty!

As you can see, all that hard work paid off in the end. Is there anything better than fresh blueberry pie?

Editing always makes other jobs seem so much more interesting and imperative. This week it seemed like a good idea to catch up on my recipe resolution.

The first recipe I tried was for baked falafel. I love falafel, but I don’t like to deep fry things – if nothing else, it’s messy. I’ve tried to make it up myself and bake it but never have gotten the mix quite right. So, I finally looked for and found this recipe.

The only thing I did differently was to skip the fresh cilantro and use only parsley – not because I don’t like cilantro, but because I didn’t happen to have any, but I did have a lot of parsley. I also skipped the hot sauce because I didn’t think the children would enjoy it. I was encouraged when I made up the batter – it was moist but not drippy. I scooped it out and put the majority in my cast iron skillet and the overflow on a cookie sheet.

The patties on the cookie sheet actually cooked much better – I suppose because the cookie sheet heated up so much more quickly. I ended up pan frying the ones in the skillet just to crisp them up a bit at the end. Next time I’ll just use a cookie sheet for all. And there will be a next time – these were great and everyone enjoyed them so much I didn’t have any leftovers.

Many of my recipe ideas come from some item hanging around in my kitchen. The parsley inspired the falafel patties. The aging strawberries and leftover spray whipped cream from my daughter’s party inspired me to try my hand at strawberry shortcake.

I’ve only ever had strawberry shortcake on top of sponge / angel food cake and I have to say that served that way, it doesn’t tempt me much. Make a fresh shortbread base for it though and oh-my-goodness-is-it-good. Seriously yummy.

I am also pleased to say that I’m making my way through the final edits for Separation Anxiety bit by bit. Once those are complete, I only need to format it and get it uploaded (hopefully by the end of the month).

ETA: I bought a pastry cutter last summer and finally got to use it when making the shortbread recipe. It’s much easier to clean than my food processor, but I’m not sure that benefit outweighs the speed and efficiency with which my food processor would blend in the butter! Also, I’m already making plans for alternate toppings for the shortbread – like raspberry sauce, plums, peaches, etc. Hard to go wrong with just about any berry or fresh fruit. Kind of like a reverse cobbler!

I was rummaging through my cupboard the other day, taking stock of my baking supplies, when I ran across an unfamiliar package. Turns out that my husband bought himself some brown sugar by mistake – then left the opened package in the cupboard. It’s a miracle that it wasn’t totally infested with ants, however it was hard as a brick. So hard that I had to cut and tear the packaging to free it!

It’s not the first time I’ve had brown sugar go hard, but I’ve never had it go quite THAT hard. I did a quick search on the internet and found a tip that suggested putting the hard sugar in an airtight container with a slice of bread for a few days. The sugar would absorb the moisture from the bread and soften – problem solved.

I wasn’t sure it would be quite that easy but I didn’t figure it would hurt anything either. What do you know – worked like a charm!

I love the internet

Here’s a freaky fact that might just come in handy the next time you need to bake an emergency carrot cake and find that you are out of carrots – you can substitute the same amount of shredded POTATOES and still get a totally awesome cake out of it! Sure, it’s more of a spice flecked beige than orangey-brown but the cake is just as moist and wonderful. How do I know? I ate some over the weekend. I would never have believed it otherwise.

But because I’m me, now I’m wondering what would happen if you substituted beets for the carrots. Pretty in pink or just plain yuck??

I thought when soccer season ended I was done with baking – especially since we’re traveling for the holidays. I should have known better.

This is my children’s last week of school and all of the classes are having Christmas parties. I was asked to make brownies for my son’s class. No biggie – brownies are easy to make and for him to carry to school. However, I am one of three class reps for my daughter’s class and as such, I’m responsible for helping to organize her class’s party.

We’re trying to keep things fairly simple. The children will bring their lunch as usual only we’ll take them outside to have a picnic and play a few games. Duck-duck-goose with a Santa hat should get a giggle out of them. It was also suggested that someone should bring in cupcakes for a special treat. After the mix-up that occurred with my daughter’s soccer team where they ended up with no cupcakes, I felt compelled to volunteer to bring the cupcakes – all three dozen of them.

Sigh.

Oh well – at least they’ll actually have cupcakes. I’m planning to top them with white frosting and stick a peppermint to the top for a little extra holiday fun.

I mentioned before that I was trying to turn over a new leaf – eat better and exercise. I’m happy to say that things are coming along.

I’ve activated my Curves membership. I haven’t been many times yet but that’s not entirely my fault – their hours during Ramadan didn’t mesh well with my schedule and then I was away and when I came back the kids were off school, blah blah blah. Their new hours are much better for me so I went this morning. While I’m not totally sold on their “rah rah” motivational atmosphere (their wall clock says “Time to Amaze Yourself”) I do like their thirty minute approach – cause that’s about all I want to spend there anyway!

I’ve also tried out a couple of yoga classes at a new studio in my neighborhood and signed up for a water aerobics class. Can I just say now that water aerobics, done right, is hard!? I couldn’t walk for about 4 days after my first class. I wondered if I was going to be limping around Italy! I did enjoy it though and since I’ve already paid, I suppose I’ll be going back this week.

So, after two years of doing next to no exercise, I have a new (ambitious) plan. Barring school holidays, travel, or illness I intend to do yoga once a week, Curves three times a week, and water aerobics once a week. Next week will be my first full week. We’ll see how it pans out.

I’ve also been eating better – having so many evening sports activities with the children has forced me to do more meal planning. We’ve been eating such nice meals that I’ve even been able to keep my occasion longings for fast food in check. So what’s the problem?

The problem is when people like Shelley Munro go and post a recipe like this on their blogs! How’s a girl supposed to resist that? Optional chocolate chips, my foot!

Nothing good can come from it – well, maybe one thing: I’m sure to get crowned Best Mom ever after school today.

And I mean that in the best possible way!

It’s really ridiculous how energy sapping it can be to host a child’s birthday party. I spent yesterday morning baking cupcakes (48), making finger sandwiches (64), cutting up cucumber sticks (???), stuffing party bags (40), and the pinata (1!). DD invited her entire class but many never RSVP-ed and many others were bringing siblings so I wanted to be prepared for masses. (I have no idea how many children attended in the end – I was pretty much on my own and when it was busy, it was madness. But I got rid of most of the party bags so I’m pleased.)

I had the party at her school which has its pros and cons. Pros: they could swim and run around on the playground like hooligans and I didn’t have to spend much energy on supervision or cleanup. Cons: I had to cart all the food and supplies to the school.

It was 100F here in Cairo yesterday and I was very glad to have a shady spot to set up. I kept the food in the coolers for as long as I could and still the frosting on the cupcakes began to ooze and the bread on the sandwiches toasted in the wind. Judging by what was most popular, I might have saved myself a lot of effort and only served Cheetos Puffs, watermelon, and cupcakes! As you can see, I attempted to arrange the cupcakes to look like a soccer ball. It looked much better in my head, but the kids didn’t seem to mind!

Pinata was a hit (pun intended) It was reinforced inside with wire so it lasted being pummeled 2x by each child and then made it back to the beginning again before they finally tore a hole in the top. At that point I just tipped it over and dumped it on their heads!

DD wanted to open her presents as soon as we arrived home. I am always divided on the issue of birthday party presents. So often we get a pile of inexpensive, inappropriate stuff. That’s not necessarily a criticism of the gift-giver – it’s more a comment on how hard it is to find nice things in Egypt that don’t cost an arm and a leg! I’ve toyed with the idea of requesting “no presents” but that doesn’t seem fair to DD who really enjoys the whole spectacle if nothing else.

I have to say that I was truly impressed with the presents she received yesterday. Last year was the year of board games. This year, people really seemed to make an effort to find out what interests DD had – in fact, a few of the parents even called me to ask. (Demonstrating to me that I am going to have to work harder on my own present giving in future!) Among the most appropriate and surprisingly generous gifts were a book of facts about Football (soccer to the Americans), a ceramic bank shaped like a skateboard and 50LE ($10), capri pants and a top that she actually likes (a minor miracle), and a card with 150LE ($30). DD was over the moon and already planning on what she will buy with her cash (a shiny new soccer ball). We’ll be working on thank you cards over the weekend.

Oddest gift – an inflatable rubber raft, 76″x45″. Optional oars not included (thank god!)

I’ll be going out shortly to pick up a couple of birthday gifts for parties we’ll be attending over the weekend – at least I’m not hosting them! Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow – author Amy Corwin will be here with blurbs from two historical romances including her latest release I BID ONE AMERICAN as well as a great article for writers on characterization.

My family always knows that summer is coming when the boxes and packages of items I’ve purchased online start to pile up, waiting for me to retrieve them. Shelley Munro had a Thursday Thirteen post this past weekend about shopping. And it got me to thinking that I need to start on my summertime shopping list for when I’m back in the US.

I do my best to make do with what is available locally where ever it is that I am living. And depending on where I’m living that can work better and worse. It was easier in Dubai than it is in Egypt by far! Making do with local products was what prompted me to learn to bake cakes from scratch when mixes were outrageously expensive or just not available and had me trying food I might not otherwise ever have eaten. But there are certain products that I just need on hand and when a large can of Bush’s baked beans costs $10 and a bottle of McCormick’s Pure Vanilla extract and a canister of Hershey’s cocoa go for $20 each (when you can find them at all!), you can see why I max out my luggage allowance on the way home.

I have a friend who says she goes to the Omaha Steak store and packs coolers with frozen meat to bring back with her. Another friend admits to bringing back bags full of bacon. I’m not quite that ambitious and try to restrict my groceries to specialty / long-lived / dry goods, but I do have a growing shopping list.

My shopping list, in no particular order, so far:

Quilting supplies – good cotton fabric is hard to find and that goes for thread as well. Ironically, Egypt exports most of its cotton to other countries for processing. I bought a piece of white cotton on my last trip to Dubai that was marked “Egyptian Cotton, Made in Japan”. There is no batting available locally at all. I usually have one very large, very light bag packed full of batting! I weight the bottom of the bag down with the next item on my list…

Kids shoes – because the shoes in Egypt are either 1) crap or 2) $$$ . My children are both very sporty and it’s getting to the point where one pair of cross trainers isn’t good enough. They need to specialize! I’ll have to look for all purpose sport shoes for school, soccer cleats, and a smoother bottom shoe for playing tennis on a clay court. (I am hoping for athletic scholarships but I may have spent as much on their shoes and equipment as I would have on tuition at the end of the day!)

Mom’s shoes – because a girl can never have too many pretty shoes

Baking powder – it’s available locally but is sold in teaspoon sized packets!

Baking soda – again, available locally in tiny cans for about $1.50 each. I can buy a detergent sized box in the US for not much more!

Vanilla extract- see above

Ground flaxseed – a wonderful way to pack a few extra vitamins into banana bread, pancakes, etc. Not so easy to find hippy freak food in Cairo.

Cookie sheets and baking trays – $20 is more than I want to pay for a cake pan so I’m holding out for a trip to Walmart!

Food coloring, cake decorating supplies – generally hard to find!

(There seems to be a definite baking theme emerging here!)

Wild rice – so yummy and since I’ll be in Minnesota anyway…

Canned pumpkin – $5/can in Cairo and only available around the holidays

Spices – certain spices are hard to find or aren’t exactly what you expect. “Chili powder” here is actually pure red pepper!

Duct tape – you know, I never really used it when I was living in the US, but it was sort of comforting to know I could get it if I wanted it. I imagine I could practically trade it on the black market here, land where things are repaired and repaired and repaired again.

Christmas presents - if I can leave the children with my mother for an hour or so, I’ll buy a few things for their Christmas stockings that I would NEVER find in Egypt.

That’s what I’ve come up with so far but I’m sure there will be more in my bags at the end of my stay. There are no doubt many wonderful little gadgets in the baking / cooking aisles at Walmart that I’ve not dreamed of. The quantity and variety of items available in the US can be a little overwhelming when you’ve been away from it for a time!

I’m looking forward to being overwhelmed

I ran across this recipe the other day and just had to share it – how much easier and healthy could it be??

Yum Yum Brownie Muffins
PER SERVING (1 muffin): 181 calories, 3.5g fat, 357mg sodium, 37g carbs, 2g fiber, 20g sugars, 2g protein

Ingredients:
One box devil’s food cake mix (about 18 ounces)
One 15-ounce can pure pumpkin

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the two ingredients together. The mixture will be very thick, but don’t add anything else! Place batter into a 12-cup muffin pan lined with baking cups or sprayed with nonstick spray. Place pan in the oven, and bake for 20 minutes.

What can I say about this weekend except that it was busy? Two simultaneous baseball games bright and early Saturday morning and tennis every evening in addition to all the usual fun.

I only got one new quilt top made this weekend. Cute isn’t it? When you have such cute fabric you can get away with a simple design:

The kids are back in school this week – finally! – so I’m trying to settle back into routine that includes writing. It’s tough after taking some time off. I had all these plans to do some editing this morning and wouldn’t you know it, I was seized by the urge to bake. Simultaneous procrastination and productivity.

I have made a batch of banana bread muffins, have a batch of honey oatmeal bread rising and, if I don’t run out of steam, plan to make double choc chip cookies later in the afternoon.

What’s on your agenda for the day?