LeDonna's Rhubarb Pie

Hello, LeDonna here, and thank you Jill again for letting me guest blog for you.

Today I am going to share a special rhubarb pie recipe.  Some of you may say, ewww, I don’t like rhubarb pie!  Well read through and see then if you would like to try.  This recipe I got over 20 years ago from a newspaper and have loved it ever since.  I have had people who normally don’t like rhubarb pie, love this one!  And I have come to love this as a

STRAWBERRY BLUEBARB PIE!  Which is what I made and will show/describe below.

2 9-inch pie crust  (I used to make home made crust, not anymore, I love pillsbury crust ready to roll out), but kudos to you if you make your own!!!!!

3 T. flour

1 ½ Cup Sugar, yes I go a little lighter than a full 1 ½ Cups

3 Cups rhubarb in chunks, you can just use rhubarb, or mix in strawberries/blueberries/raspberries to make up the 3 Cups.  Today I have strawberry/blueberry/rhubarb mixed.

3 eggs, beaten

Line bottom of 9-inch pie plate.

Stir together rhubarb (berry mix), sugar and flour.

Add beaten eggs.

Pour into pie shell.

Top with 2nd crust, fold under and pinch to make scallop

Poke top of crust multiple times with fork.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Serves 6-8.

I forgot to take picture of pie before we cut into!  Lol!  I love to serve the pie warm with a little vanilla ice cream!

This pie has a custardy filling because of the 3 eggs, so I always store my leftover pie in the fridge.

Hope you enjoy!

Yard Yahtzee!

WooHoo!  Hi everyone, we are Mark and LeDonna Fair.  Thanks Jill for letting us guest blog while you are away!

We hope everyone is having a fabulous summer!  We would like to share with you a fun yard game! 

Our good friends, Barry and Cindy Voisinet, visited us here in the U.P. (De Tour Village), for the 4^th of July this year and introduced us to YARD YATZEE!  It was so fun and entertaining with a group of friends!  Here are pics and details for you to make your own game and hope you enjoy!!!

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

-5 gallon bucket with lid

-4x4 wood post that is 20” long

-saw, (chop saw best)

-sand paper

-any color felt (if you can find some already with adhesive-awesome), otherwise you need glue too

-or use paint and a circle stencil 

-8 ½ x11 inch paper

Cut the 4x4 wood post into 5 equal squares, see above that the square is about 3 ½ “ wide, a 4x4 is about that wide.  I know, shouldn’t a 4x4 be 4” and not 3 ½”!!!?  I am just saying!

If you like you can sand the wood squares and put poly on them.

Paint or cut felt circles and put the dots for 1 – 6 on each of the 5 wood squares to make dice.

Take 8 1/2x 11 inch paper and make the yatzee score sheets.

Use 5 gallon bucket to store dice and score sheets, and use bucket to shake and throw the dice.

Invite friends over and enjoy some fun, while sipping your favorite summer beverage!!!

In our case it  worked great to have one score keeper, positioned up on the deck with a birds eye view to make the official call if a dice was on edge and keep score for everyone playing.

And how exciting it was when we had 2 people actually roll yatzees!!!!!

May the rest of your summer be filled with love, laughter and lots of game playing!!!

Enjoy!

Mickey Takes Over - Mushroom Rice

Hey everyone its Mickey~ Since I get to be a guest on the blog this week I figured I would share one of my all time favorite recipes. Unfortunately I am a terrible cook, so I have to have Kyle make it for me! This is a recipe that his mom has been making for years and years. Its so delicious that we have it at every family function, or just because! 

You will need:

Uncle Ben’s converted rice

1 stick of butter (or make healthier using 1/2 a cup of olive oil)

1 Large can of Mushrooms

1 Can Beef Consume

1 Can of French Onion Soup

Preheat oven to 325. Mix all of the ingredients into an oven safe container, and bake covered for 30-40 minutes (or until rice is cooked). 

And thats it. Its that easy.

Dear Deers and Their Devastation - by Candy

Candy sent me this about her recent hosta vs deer battle and I thought I'd share her story with you...

My hostas were looking so nice this spring!

Then we had some visitors.



















After their un-announced visit, I found this - devastation! What to do?

It's pretty hard to fix! The roots from the tree make it almost impossible to dig. And I don't want to get too close to the hosts roots (hoping for a better year, next year! I'll have to get on a regiment of some major stinky stuff to repel those little dears!). Well, today I tried to make it look better. Since the nurseries are having lots of sales, it's a good time to buy! i bought a couple flats of Dragon Wing begonias for $6 each. Some non-stop begonias, some caladium, and a new guinea impatien. You can't be picky about colors this time of year, but there's still a lot to choose from. So now it looks a little better out our den and bathroom windows! Hopefully it will fill in quickly. Miracle Gro is coming out tomorrow :)

River Cruise Packing

Guys! This feels so weird to say, but we are going on another trip - leaving tomorrow for a river cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg Germany, then a couple days in Prague. We have had this trip planned for a long time - the England trip a couple weeks ago was sort of a last minute thing thanks to our friends the Skinners, normally we would not be doing 2 big trips back to back like this. But hey, I'm not complaining - other than trying to once again figure out what to pack!

I did a little internet searching for a generic "what to pack for a 10 day outing in Europe" and actually came up with quite a few articles and lists. I narrowed it down to one site that has an "ultimate carry-on packing list" (click here for the list) which I think will be helpful with all the things I want to remember besides clothes (papers, cards, contact info, chargers, memory cards, voltage adaptors, etc.) and my favorite article (click here for that link) gave me tons of ideas for outfits and minimal packing tips. For instance, I read that for a 10 day trip you should shoot for having no more than 15 articles of clothing (not counting pajamas, coats, etc.) including tops, bottoms, and dresses. The idea being that every top goes with every bottom (which I already try to do but...) - one site said "only pack it if you can wear it at least twice", and the best advice that I'm trying very hard to stick to is keeping everything in a very neutral simple palate. So for now I have 17 pieces (pretty close to the 15 goal haha) mostly in black, white, and blue. Right now I'm trying to find jewelry and scarves to jazz up this very basic wardrobe. I really want to have room in my suitcase to bring back a few souvenirs!

Here's a picture of what I'm roughly packing, in addition to wearing a very comfortable (almost pajama like) maxi dress on the plane - so I guess that makes 18 articles of clothing! I haven't tried to fit it in my small carry-on yet, fingers crossed :)

yep, you're seeing correctly - I have 5 pairs of shoes for 10 days...I think this is pretty good actually ;)

I'm not sure what the wifi and cell service will be like on a river cruise (it wasn't so great in England and I'm worried I won't be able to have good access!) so I've asked a few people to help me out by being guest bloggers while I'm gone - hope you enjoy their posts! See you in a couple weeks with hopefully some good stories and photos to share. Bye!!

Bleu Cheese Dressing

I'm not sure where I got this recipe - it's typed out on a piece of paper and says "Outback Steakhouse Bleu Cheese Dressing" on the top - I wasn't a bleu cheese lover but someone in my family requested that I make this for their birthday (for a wedge salad) and I'm so glad I did. It's really really good and I have to say that after making it that first time I became slightly obsessed and started putting it on everything - now I make it all the time and have found that I'm starting to like bleu cheese more because of it.

not my photo but I googled until I found one that looks
like my wedge salad! found it here

This is more like homemade ranch dressing with bleu cheese crumbles added - so if you don't love bleu cheese but do like ranch give this a try and see if you don't like bleu cheese just a little bit more now!

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk (plus more to make it thinner, see note)
• 1 tablespoon crumbled bleu cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together by hand in a small bowl until smooth. Cover and chill for 30 minutes before serving. Makes 1 cup.

Notes: I always double this and use way more buttermilk to make it runnier. Only using 2 tablespoons leaves it very thick which is great for a dip. Just keep adding buttermilk until you get the consistency you want. If you don't have buttermilk put a little bit of white vinegar in milk and let it stand for a few minutes before adding to the recipe.

Wedge salad is simple: literally a wedge of iceberg topped with halved cherry tomatoes, crumbled bacon bits, red onion if you like. I drizzle with balsamic vinegar (if you put some balsamic in a small saucepan and heat it until it reduces and gets thick and syrupy it's even better!) before adding the dressing over top of it all. Add more bleu cheese crumbles if you want. Yum!

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July from the very patriotic Sarge! 

Patriotic Nail Art

Ok, this isn't really nail "art" but it's a fun last minute idea if you're going to a party or just want to do a little something to dress up for the Fourth - I just painted my nails different colors (thumbs blue, 3 middle fingers red, pinky white) but then with the bracelets and blue ring it all looks fun and patriotic together (I already own all of the jewelry - I made the red bead wrap-around bracelet and my friend Mary made me the beaded flag bracelet years ago, I have no idea how she did it...I should ask her to show you guys, I love it and wear it every 4th of July!).

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

I made these to take to my sisters house Monday for the Fourth - pretty easy although I'll warn you they're a little messy to make - especially on a warm day :). 

First I made small chocolate chip cookies using my small cookie scoop (about 1 tablespoon). After they're completely cool match up the cookies into roughly the same size pairs so the sandwich will be pretty similar on both sides. Let a tub of vanilla ice cream sit on the counter until it gets soft (not too soft though, that's when the messy part really starts happening!), then spoon some onto one side of the matched pair and top with the second cookie, press lightly to spread the ice cream. I then take a small knife and fill in ice cream around the edges of the cookies so the ice cream fills up the entire space between them - since it's July 4th I rolled the edges in patriotic sprinkles but any other time of year I just leave them plain. Put in the freezer until they are solid, then wrap each sandwich individually in wax or freezer paper and tape shut with a piece of masking tape (or you could be really cute and use patterned washi tape!) - I actually like how old fashioned it looks to have them folded up in white paper and sealed with masking tape, it's cute.

Patriotic Donut Pops

I haven't tried to make cake pops - I know I know, I'm very behind in the cake pop game...doesn't it seem like they are everywhere? Well I saw this shortcut (click here for source) of dipping donut holes in candy coating with red white and blue sprinkles and said to myself "now there's a genius idea" and wanted to make them.

Side note: having donut holes in the house is a very dangerous thing for me because I have a hard rule that I can only eat donuts on my birthday. I established this rule for myself years ago when I was working in an office and I swear every day someone would bring in donuts and I'd eat one. Every day. So making this rule is the only way I don't go crazy and eat donuts to my hearts content -  I've stuck to this rule for years only breaking it if I'm with someone on their birthday and their treat is donuts. That would be just rude of me to say no ;) Now back to making the donut pops!

The hardest thing about making these was trying to find plain donut holes! I gave up and bought the ones rolled in powdered sugar and it worked just fine, might make them a little bit sweeter but it's already a donut rolled in candy coating so what's a little more sugar?

As sometimes happens, I didn't read thru the entire directions before starting and this is what happened:

So I read how I was supposed to do it and then - surprise - they worked perfectly and were quite easy to do. The key is to dip the stick in a little melted candy coating and poke it into a donut hole and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. After that they dipped very easily, didn't break apart or fall off the stick into the coating so I had to fish it out and then have Dave eat the broken ones so I wouldn't...

Directions are simple (especially if you actually read thru them before starting!):

1. In a small microwave-safe dish heat 1 ounce of the candy coating, about 1/4 cup, on medium for 60 seconds until melted and smooth, stirring once. Dip one end of each lollipop stick into melted candy coating and poke sticks into doughnut holes. This helps the doughnut holes to stay on the sticks. Freeze for 30 minutes. 
2. Place remaining candy coating in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until melted and smooth, stirring frequently. Dip doughnut holes, one at a time, into melted candy coating. Allow excess to drip off; sprinkle with assorted sprinkles. Let coating set before serving. Store in covered container.
3. 
   

I couldn't find anything to stand the pops in while they were drying (hmmm, I'm wondering if I missed that part in the directions?) so I fashioned my own stand using the holes in my colander, worked like a charm.

My sister is going to a party and needs a dish to pass so I'm sending these with her. She's gonna have to come up with her own way to stand them up or display them tho...I think I'd put them in a glass, vase, or bowl wide and deep enough to stand them up.