Huckleberrying

It's huckleberry picking time here. We went "Huckleberrying" in the woods with some friends.   We had bear spray with us, but didn't see any bears thankfully.  It's probably because we made enough noise to keep them away. We did buy some Huckleberry Gummy Bears at the local grocery store however to taste. As for real huckleberries, the rule was you could eat one for every 10 you picked. She was caught eating them! This guy was determined to fill his bucket with huckleberries before he left, but after 4 hours of picking, each family had just a gallon. Don't tell any huckleberry purists, but we broke off a limb full of huckleberries to take to Mummo, so could see, smell pick and taste them fresh from the woods:) And you can see , we had a nice break to eat our sandwiches in the woods too. It was so beautiful there.

My husband has been carefully sorting washing, drying and freezing our huckleberries.  He's been reminiscing about picking blueberries in Labrador Canada and I remember picking them in Finland this time of year as well.

Picking raspberries is a whole lot easier than picking  huckleberries is.   One neighbor's raspberries have grown under our fence and they've also given us permission to reach over the fence and pick some as well. Another neighbor has also invited to pick at their house.  After picking huckleberries all afternoon our kids picked raspberries at the neighbors house.  We've enjoyed huckleberries and raspberries alone, on waffles, in syrup and so forth today.  We could substitute them for the blueberries in the Cardamom Cake I posted earlier or in anything else which uses blueberries, but huckleberries are used sparingly, since they are so hard to get.  Maybe we'll make a cheesecake to sprinkle some on.  We'll freeze almost all of our huckleberries and bring them out on special occasions, like the first day of winter to remind us of our enjoyable outdoor summer adventure.  

Here is a link to some huckleberry recipes I found online. http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/uma/hucklebe.htm

As for the raspberries, I think I'll try what our neighbor served the recipe exchange the other night.  It's much like the strawberry rhubarb soup (kisseli) I've posted the recipe for before, but it made with berries, this time of the year, raspberries.  Yummy!

Maria's Swedish Berry Cream Dessert Soup

1 quart berries (straw, rasp, goose, blackberries or currants)
3 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
2 TBSP potato flour or corn starch

Clean berries. Bring water to a boil, add berries and sugar and boil several
minutes. Mix potato flour with small amount cold water, stir in and bring
again to boiling point. Cool covered and serve with cream or milk.

Olympic Size Salad and Salmon

Tonight we returned to our monthly Recipe Exchange dinner and invited our husbands. It's been extremely hectic, so little time to prepare, I made a quick salad.  My husband added the Olympic decorations pictured here. 

We also grilled salmon and the recipe for the marinade is below. Thanks to Jessica for sharing both recipes with me.  

You may also see other pictures and read about our husband's night out at the RS recipe exchange at http://rollinghillsrs.blogspot.com/2008/08/hubbies-night-out-relief-society-recipe.html

Craisins Salad

Head of red leaf lettuce
Head of green leaf lettuce
Head of iceburg lettuce
8 oz. pkg. shredded mozzarella
8 oz. pkg. shredded parmesean
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
8 oz. craisins (dried cranberries)
1 c. sliced toasted almonds

Toss together.

Dressing:
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1 c. sugar
1/2 onion chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp mustard
1 c. vegetable oil

Mix everything in a blender except for oil. Add oil, blend again.

Makes an Olympic sized salad!  Tonight I just used a huckleberry vinaigrette I'd purchased since it's also huckleberry season.  

Grilled Marinated Salmon

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
lemon pepper to tast
garlic powder to taste
salt to taste
1/3 C. soy sauce
1/3 C. brown sugar
1/3 C. water
1/4 C. oil

Season fillets with lemon pepper, garlic powder, and salt. In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water and oil until sugar is dissolved. Place fish in a large resealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture, seal and turn to coat. Marinate each side for 2 hours. Put in 9x13 pan lined with foil and bake at 425 for 20-25 min.

More of the recipes others brought can be found at http://recipeparty.blogspot.com

Fresh raspberry topped white cupcakes

Our son is the baker now and I asked him to make a quick dessert for Sunday dinner.  Although he has his own cookie recipe, it needed to be quick, so he choose a white cake mix and wanted to make frosting so I googled "butter powdered sugar frosting" 

and left him to make 
Creamy butter frosting recipe

http://southernfood.about.com/od/icingrecipes/r/bl30108o.htm

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound (3 1/2 cups) sifted confectioners sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Preparation:
Cream butter, salt, and vanilla, beating until light and fluffy. Add sugar gradually, beating after each addition. Add 3 tablespoons milk, beating until smooth. Beat in more milk until desired spreading consistency is reached. Makes about 2 1/3 cups of frosting, enough to frost tops and sides of of an 8-inch 2-layer cake or a 10-inch tube or bundt cake, or about 1 dozen cupcakes.

He made it with very little assistance before church.  His 2nd cousin who was visiting helped him while I made lunch.  He then frosted the cupcakes after church. He just came running  in from the back yard where he picked fresh raspberries to decorate them with. Here's a picture!

A fan of flan

This summer we hosted 2 teen aged girls from Belgium who came with their dance and flag throwing group www.vredon.be to the International Dance and Music Festival. Soetkin turned 16 while she stayed with us. I asked her what her favorite cake was and she said flan. 

I immediately thought of the flan shells my Mother always made and made it for her birthday. It's also what I made when I was in college and won a cooking contest with.  I won a Hamilton Beach mixette with this recipe and I still use it today.  It turns out Belgian Flan isn't the same. Oops! Just goes to show you how our environment shapes our perceptions. I would have googled "Belgian Flan" had I not had this perception in my head, which I did later that night and found http://www.recipezaar.com/304379, but alas, it was the thought that counts, I guess.

I'll have to email her and ask for her Mother's Belgian Flan recipe.  Here are my Mother's recipes:

Flan Shell #1

Crumble together:
1/2 lb. margarine
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Add:
3 beaten eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

For a lower fat and sugar version try:   

1 cube margarine

1 envelope Butter Buds mixed with 1/2 cup hot milk 

1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cups sugar

Blend well then add:

3 beaten eggs

1 can evaporated skim milk

2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

Now add the 

3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt.

Beat well. Grease and flour Flan pan. This recipe makes 2 large or 3 small Flan shells plus 12 muffins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  These freeze well and are nice to have on hand.

Flan Shell #2

1 yellow cake mix (or chocolate)
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
Use milk instead of water in the amount the mix calls for.

Divide the batter between 2 large Flans that have been well greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let set only for 1 minute, then take out of the pan to cool.

Filling #1

1 c. whipping cream
1 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
Mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar well.
Add the whipped cream.
Pour into 2 prepared Flan shells. Let set.
Top with one of the toppings.

For a less fat version try:

Prepare 1 small instant vanilla pudding

Add 4 ounces softened, light cream cheese

and 1 cup cottage cheese finely blended.

Filling #2

1 pkg. instant pudding
1 c. milk
1 c. sour cream
Mix as directed on box.
Top with one of the toppings.

Topping #1

2-3 cups fresh strawberries
Arrange these on the Flan. Make 1 pkg. Junket Danish Strawberry Dessert as directed on box for PIE, but adding 1/4 c. sugar more. Cool some and pour over strawberries. Enough for 2 flans.

Topping #2

2-3 pkgs. frozen raspberries thawed and drained. Mash some of the raspberries and add the liquid, thicken with cornstarch. When cool, pour over the rest of the raspberries Danish dessert.

Rich Chocolate Filling

3/4 large Hershey bar
20 large marshmallows
1/3 c. milk
Melt together in a double boiler or microwave. Cool.
Whip 2 cups whipping cream until stiff.
Add to chocolate mixture.
Then mix in 2-3 Heath bars that have been crumbled. Fills 2 flan shells.

You can fill the flan shells with anything your heart desires, like fresh fruits, whipped cream or maybe your favorite pie filling.

Family Favorites:

1 1 lb. 4 oz. can of pineapple (crushed or tidbits or chunks), well drained
1 c. whipping cream, whipped and sweetened or light cool whip or dream whip
Fold together and pour into Flan shell. Top with shaved chocolate.

Fill flan with wilderness pie cherry filling and top with sweetened whipping cream.

Chocolate flan filled with banana cream pudding and sliced bananas. Top with whipped cream.

Anita's Favorite-- Fresh Peach Flan:

Crust:  flan shell #1 (bundt cake)

Bottom layer: cream cheese and sugar

Top: layer of fresh peaches (or 5.5 oz. can, lower sugar amount some)

Glaze: 1 c. apricot nectar, 1/4 c. lemon juice, 3/4 c. sugar, 3 T corn starch, a little lemon jello powder

Boil until thickened.  Cool. Spread on top of the peach layer.  Serve!

Tuula's Chocolate Flan 

1 cube margarine

3/4 cup powdered sugar

cream together

add 1 oz melted chocolate

vanilla sugar -- liquid vanilla extract makes it runny

2 eggs, one at a time

beat 4-5 minutes each

Scrape bowl often.  Decorate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings and sliced almonds.

Cardamom Crumble Cake

My husband helped me make this red white and blue "Cardamom Crumble Cake" the morning of July 4th when we were headed to the parade and needed a breakfast to take with us.  Our neighbor who sat by us at the parade requested the recipe, so here it is.

Cardamom Crumble Cake
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen raspberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the streusel topping (recipe below). Beat remaining ingredients in large bowl. Gently add and fold in 1 cup frozen blueberries and 1 cup frozen raspberries (optional, as he added them for the 4th of July). Spread half of the batter into a greased 9x13 pan; sprinkle with half of the streusel; top with the remaining batter; sprinkle with the rest of the streusel. Bake until toothpick comes out clean about 35-40 minutes.

Streusel
1 cup chopped nuts
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom
6 tbs. firm butter
* or use 1 tsp cinnamon and omit cardamom and vice versa according to your taste. This day it was only cardamom.

Mix all ingredients until crumbly.