Sue's Famous Blackberry Crisp

Let me start this post with a huge disclaimer.

This blog is not a cooking blog.

It even doesn't pretend to be a cooking blog.

It doesn't play one on TV or the Internet.

But, I came across a batch of wild blackberries in our field last night and had to make something fabulous with them.

I should warn you though, blackberries don't like to be picked. They wage war on you the minute they see you skipping up to them with an empty Cool Whip container.

For starters they have prickers the size of kitchen knives. And the beetles were everywhere. I was sure they were in my hair so I whipped my head around every couple minutes like Taylor Swift in concert.

Then I stepped into the berry patch and my flip flop fell off.
While trying to wiggle it back on I lost my balance (probably dizzy from all the hair whipping) and the vines wrapped their knives around me like a fly in a spider web. It was chaos. I felt like I was in an episode of Curious George.

Eventually, bruised and bloodied I stepped into the house and had a nice bunch of berries.

I took them out of the Cool Whip container for this lovely, pixel-y picture
taken from my cell phone. Hey if you want The Pioneer Woman, hop over there. I would!


So, I searched online for a recipe and ended up using bits and pieces from each one to make my own blackberry crisp.

Sue's Famous (it's my blog I can say that) Blackberry Crisp

3-4 cups blackberries
1/2 cup white sugar
2 TBLS of flour (because the berries get runny when baked)

Mix and put into buttered baking dish.

Then mix:

1 c raw oats
1 c brown sugar
1 c flour
2/3 c melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Chopped walnuts..if you like them...I do. So I put in lots.

Then dump, (that's how I do it) the mixture into the baking dish on top of berries.

Bake at 375 until topping is browned and berries are a bubblin!

If you serve it hot with ice-cream, your ice-cream will be insanely jealous that it's not the star of the show. But go for it, I've heard that ice-cream never holds a grudge.

Homemade Vanilla ~ start it now for Christmas gifts!

My favorite morning radio team Tommy and Brook gave me a great idea for Christmas gifts...

Homemade Vanilla!

I am not only excited to make this for gifts but to have it for myself, there's nothing like real vanilla to make Christmas baking wonderful. Yum!

Hop over to their page and check it out, you're going to want to start it 6-8 weeks before Christmas so now is the perfect time!

The recipe is on October 20, 2010 for those of you that find this post later.

STAR 105.7 with Tommy and Brook

Friday Fluff and other random happenings

Ok...I'm at it again, but NO sidebar button!
If you missed the first installment of FF, go HERE


*** It has been cold and snowy here in Michigan for far too long now. I'm ready for a break.
This is what we do when we can't go outside to play:

We build forts in the house. That is Lauren, Daddy and if you look real close you see the dog in there too! In case you notice that she has no shirt on...the child is hotblooded and I have a full time job trying to clothe her. Sometimes I leave the room for just a moment and when I come back, she down to her unders. Occasionally I fight it, mostly we've all gotten used to it.

***However...she was just given a lifesize (her size) Barbie, and my boys do not at all appreciate seeing Barbie in nothing but a pony tail holder. I have had to convince her that Barbie is sick and needs her clothes on. So now we have to wipe Barbie's nose. The nose I can handle, if it gets any weirder, I'm done.

***Last time I did this, a few of you wondered about a comment I made about my son Matt. Matt is a character and always giving me ammunition for the blog but I try to be discreet with the kids. However, you have to hear about his latest antics.

He is in college and is studying genealogy in one of his classes. They are supposed to look up their family history and make a family tree etc. Well, that seemed too involved for Matt, so instead of calling his grandparents and getting all the information, he decided to make up his own family and NAMES!

Mind you...some of these precious people are still living and he is changing their names!

If he had done the slightest bit of research he would have found that his ancestry goes back to people like Helen Keller on his Father's side and the Kennedy's on my side (sorry, I can't be responsible for that!).

But no, he made up names and occupations just to finish his project with the least amount of sweat on his brow. I'm not excusing his behavior mind you, but he did catch me off guard when I mentioned his Great-Grandma and he said, "Oh Grandma Stevens?" which is not her name in the real world, only in his pretend, liar world.

*** Another "Matt-ism" is that he loves to do illusion and tricks. He especially like amazing his littlest sister with his slight of hand. She's always good for a good jaw-dropping when he makes her toys disappear. Then the music starts of course!

Lauren thinks she's figured this all out and she will take a nickel into her hand, put both hands behind her back and then ask you to choose. When you choose an arm, she will transfer the nickle to the other and show you her empty hand. She repeats this until she finally drops the said nickel behind her and shows you both her empty hands as she gasps with amazement at her ability to make things disappear. Of course we all gasp too.

*** So last week I finally threw out the Christmas tin with a handful of mixed up caramel, butter and cheese popcorn at the bottom, how about you? Did you hesitate thinking that maybe you could re-use that tin, or did you just pitch it like me because you already have 2 in your basement?

*** Everyone in this house, except my dear husband, loves ranch dressing. We have a local restaurant here that makes it best! I used to have a friend who worked there and would bring me home the packet to mix it up and make my own. The only problem was that it was a large packet and I wasn't good with fractions so I had to make it all, and as much as we love it, a five gallon bucket was more than we could handle (just kidding- don't send letters to help me with the fractions).


But seriously, I do plan meals according to what we can dip in ranch dressing. That waitress no longer works there, but I found an awesome recipe that I can make in smaller portions.

Here is my tried and true favorite:

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup Kraft mayo
1 Tbls Hidden Valley Ranch BUTTERMILK mix
1/2 tsp. coarse black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Mix and eat with anything and everything!