Even in the shadows
of cold, gray winter days
the Rose of Sharon seed pod
glows with vibrant light
and hope
and promise
of pink and purple petals
and green leaves
and summer sunshine
if only
we are
patient enough
to wait.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
summer
Blackberry Pie Squares
I made another dessert this week…
I feel like I am at a meeting admitting my addiction.
But when I found this recipe for Blackberry Pie Squares via Pinterest from Kathleen at Gonna Want Seconds, I just couldn’t resist!
And besides, I was on vacation last week and baked NOTHING (as my son – with like 6% body fat – has reminded me at least twice).
And besides, my recipe for Sugar Free (Almost) Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies earlier this week WAS almost sugar free.
As summer is drawing to a close, recipes with blackberries and raspberries and peaches will make way for pumpkin and apples and cinnamon.
I sorta can’t wait!
But in the meantime, this recipe turned out BERRY good and got thumbs up from the guys as well as my son’s friend who was over last evening who claims he does not like dessert…. except he always loves mine!
And he even asked for a second!
Oh – he knows the way to my heart… ❤
Hope you'll give this yummy recipe a try before we call it quits for summer. You won't regret it!
Here is the recipe from Gonna Want Seconds, and I’m guessing you are gonna want seconds.
Blackberry Pie Squares
Crust:
- 1 1/2 Cups Flour
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 Sticks Cold Butter, cubed
Filling:
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
- 1/3 Cup Flour
- Pinch of Salt
- 2 Cups Fresh Blackberries
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line an 8″x 8″ baking stone or pan with parchment paper, allowing to extend a couple of inches up on all four sides. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. (This makes it easy to remove from pan once cooled)
For the crust, mix flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Add the cubed cold butter and blend with pastry blender until the butter pieces are about the size of peas. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture to use as a topping. Press the rest of the crumb mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes.
Remove from oven and lay the berries in a single layer on top of the crust.
Combine the eggs, sugar, sour cream, flour and salt in a medium bowl, and pour over the berries.
Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture on top of the filling.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the filling is just beginning to turn golden and is set.
Cool bars completely on a baking rack, and then refrigerate to completely set.
Enjoy these yummy treats!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Thank You Berry (Salsa) Much
Thank you cards might be my favorite cards to make and send. There is something so heartwarming about putting to art and words your feelings of gratitude and sharing it with the person you are thankful to.
So when one of my co-workers did something especially nice and helpful (which is a regular occurrence from her – lucky me – eh?!), I had this little card I had made a while back when I was practicing water color painting where I had laid out some fruit and mint leaves and tried to create it. I was goofing around with making it a (not sure of the term?) combination of words and “art.” (Anybody know the technical name for this or is there even such a thing?) Need to work on my handwriting, but thought it was fun… or maybe I ruined it??
Nonetheless, I used this, along with a little batch of my Fresh Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies as a way to thank my friend and co-worker. (Thank you Judy!!)
And while we are talking about the wonderful fruits of summer and berries, it brought to mind a favorite recipe I used to make and demonstrate from Pampered Chef years ago when I was a “Pampered Chef Lady” that I thought I’d share with you here today. Only, I kicked it up a notch by adding fresh red raspberries too! I’ve got to make this again soon!
Berry Salsa with Cinnamon Chips
Photo courtesy of myreciperoundup.blogspot.com
Ingredients:
2 Medium Granny Smith Apples, chopped
1 Cup Strawberries, hulled and chopped
1 Kiwi, peeled and chopped
1 Cup Red Raspberries
1 Medium Orange, juiced and zested
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Apple Jelly
4 Large Tortillas
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
Directions:
Gently mix together first seven ingredients in a bowl.
Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Brush tortillas with water using a pastry brush. Combine cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over tortillas. Cut each tortilla into eight wedges, and place on a baking stone (or cookie sheet). Bake 5-7 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Remove to cooling rack, then place in a bowl or basket alongside the salsa, and ENJOY!
Recipe from The Pampered Chef (modified)
Cheers & Hugs & Thank You BERRY Much for Visiting LifeinBetween.me,
Jodi
Four Seasons of Sheltering Tree
It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for another Guest Designer Inspiration Card for The Paper Players Challenge.
This week’s theme challenge is “The Great Outdoors” for PP252.
When I think of outdoors, I think of trees. And when I think of trees, I adore how different they look in all four seasons (at least where we live here in Mars).
So I heat embossed an “empty” tree from the StampinUp Sheltering Tree Stamp Set with Early Espresso (Dark Brown) embossing powder onto four pieces of watercolor paper.
I then broke out the Brusho Crystal Colours again and sprinkled and spritzed different colors onto each tree to represent, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.
I backed each tree with a piece of Early Espresso card stock and then adhered to Very Vanilla for the card base.
I stamped some fun sentiments from the Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler to make them into basic notecards.
Doesn’t it make a fun set?
Hope you are enjoying whatever season you are in!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Balsamic Grilled Peaches & Chicken Salad Dinner
Oh Friends… you know how much I love chicken and discovering new and different ways to prepare it.
Well this week I discovered another Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
It’s simple, it’s fast, it’s healthy, and it’s YUMMY!
I have seen and heard about grilling peaches, and I was intrigued.
Having some ripe peaches in the fridge that weren’t getting eaten, now was the time to try it!
It was so easy, and they were DELISH!
If you are looking for another light and simple, but full-flavored summer chicken dinner, look no further!
And remember, like I always say, if you don’t like a particular ingredient, switch it up! Substitute goat cheese or feta or even shredded cheddar for the blue cheese if you are not a blue cheese fan (but BOO to you because it is DIVINE!). Change up the greens to ones you prefer. I used Spring Mix, but it would be awesome with Spinach or Arugula or Kale too!
Be creative.
Have fun!
Make dinner a celebration.
Create art on a plate.
You won’t be sorry about this one!
Balsamic Grilled Peaches & Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breast halves
- 4-6 cups Spring Mix Salad Greens
- 2 large sweet Vidalia onions, sliced into 1/2 thick slices
- 4-6 ripe peaches – cut in half and pitted
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1 Bottle Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing (I used Ken’s Light version)
- Olive Oil
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions
- Marinade chicken breasts in 1/2 bottle balsamic vinagrette for at least 4 hours.
- Grill chicken when ready to serve.
- Place Onion Slices in a grill basket (or foil). Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill until translucent and char-grilled. Place on one side of grill while chicken is grilling on the other side. These two take about the same amount of time – approximately 20 minutes.
- Once chicken is done, remove from grill, and set aside.
- Sprinkle peach halves with olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar. Place cut side done on grill, and grill for about 5-7 minutes until soft and char-grilled. When done, remove from grill and slice peach halves into three or four pieces.
- To plate, place a cup of greens on plate, top with grilled onions, peach slices and crumbled blue cheese. Add chicken to side or slice and mix in with chicken.
- ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing
Looking for a bright, light, fresh summertime salad? How about fresh baby spinach leaves, slices of juicy ripe strawberries, chunks of creamy goat cheese, and crunchy candied walnuts all drizzled with a sweet and tangy poppy seed viniagrette? It just screams summertime!
Since we were talking about strawberries this week, I couldn’t resist making this when asked to bring a salad to Liz’s birthday party last evening.
Candying the walnuts is a cinch and homemade dressing makes it so much fresher. This salad is super easy and bursting with flavor.
Enjoy!
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients:
- Large bunch or bag of fresh baby spinach leaves
- 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
- 1/2 cup goat cheese, broken into chunks
- 1/2 cup candied walnuts
- 1/8 cup powdered sugar
- pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
- pinch of salt
- Poppy seed dressing
- 1/8 cup white vinegar
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp shallot or onion powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground mustard
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp poppy seeds
Directions:
- Prepare candied walnuts:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix dry ingredients in small bowl. Set aside.
- Blanch walnuts in a small saucepan of boiling water for 3 minutes, and drain.
- Mix sugar and walnuts together, and spread onto baking sheet.
- Bake 10 minutes until golden.
- Prepare dressing:
- Whisk together vinegar and sugar until sugar is pretty much dissolved. Add in shallot powder, salt, ground mustard.
- Whisk in olive oil.
- Stir in poppy seeds.
- When ready to serve, toss spinach leaves with poppy seed dressing thoroughly.
- Stir in sliced strawberries, goat cheese, and candied walnuts.
- A protein can be added for a full meal (i.e. chicken breast slices, steak slices, salmon chunks
Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend, and have fun doing things at life in between.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Shades of ‘Maters
Red…
Orange…
Yellow…
Green…
Any way you slice it…
End of summer goodness…
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Gone Fishin’
Where did summer go?
I can’t believe it is Labor Day Weekend already!
And Marty and I are celebrating early as we both took today off to extend the weekend into four days instead of three.
And we are going fishing today! Well…….. Marty is going fishing, and I am going for a boat ride 🙂
And our trusty First Mate Mikey will be with us.
I hope you are taking some time to relax and enjoy this holiday weekend.
Savor every moment of these last days of summer as we approach the magnificence of Fall – which I am going to strive to embrace again this year! (Fall is so beautiful, but for many years I have not savored it knowing that winter was ahead and summer was over, but I realized last year that I was wasting a lot of beauty and joy worrying about what was behind and what was ahead instead of enjoying the moment I was in.)
So here’s to the ending days of Summer…..
the beginning days of Fall……
and every moment at Life in Between.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
the creative life in between 