Fried Pies and Goodbyes....

 So this is one of our farm favorites that just wanted to get last day attention.... I first discovered Fried Pies in Deborah Smith's "Sweet Hush" and I thought... I must make those! Well I didn't have time for a lot of years, but then once I was doing daycare at home all day (and working nights/evenings and writing in the middle of the night until I finally convinced an editor to love me enough to pay me!!!) I started playing with them and honestly, if you don't mind making the fruit filling, you can use homemade pie crust or store bought to do these... and they're amazing!

I always use clean oil for these because I don't want a delicate pastry crust to take on an old taste from oil that's seen too much use. And I just bought a new big fryer ... I mean BIG FRYER for the farm because we're adding Fried Dough to the farm booths this summer/fall land I hope folks love it... and I hope we don't kill anyone.

Two important wishes, my friends! 

And maybe someday we'll add fry pies because folks would love, love, love them but there has to be someone else on hand to make them because I'm balancing a lot to keep up with our current baking schedule.... although Jon is the best kitchen trainee I've had in a long time. He's quick, effective and he doesn't get nervous.

Nervous people don't belong in my kitchen. They annoy me.

Wait.

That's not nice.

Okay, let's just say that I like calm, joyous people in the kitchen. :) 

That sounds better, doesn't it???

WHY AM I BEING MEAN ON MY LAST DAY???? 

Anyway, Jon is learning all the recipes and how to put things together and packaging. I think he's preparing in case I DIE.... so someone knows how to run the bake shop part of the farm in the fall, LOL! Well done, Jon!!!!

Anyway, you can sub in apple filling, blackberry filling, strawberry rhubarb, sour cherry, etc.... it's all about the ratio of tender fried crust to delicious filling, so don't make the crust too thin... and be generous with the glaze.

FRIED PIES!!!!!

Disclaimer:  

Nothing should taste this good and no one should eat these because I'm willing to bet they're about one jillion and two really bad calories for you.

Having said that:

They're amazing. And you can substitute any fruit filling for the cherry pie filling, just be sure to crimp the edges tightly with a fork.

Sweet cherry pie filling:

4 cups pitted frozen dark, sweet cherries (Or sour cherries and double the sugar)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 cup water
3 tablespoons butter

Heat frozen cherries and water in 4 quart saucepan on stove over medium heat. I cover them so they defrost and heat more quickly. Once cherries are thawed, mix sugar and flour together in one bowl and add to cherries. Stir, cooking over medium heat until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat. Stir in butter. Cool.

Dough:  Go HERE and follow the directions for my pie crust.

It is never a bad idea to have little kids help you with pie crust. It may take a little longer, but the memory may last forever. So that's worth it, right?  This is Mary Ruthy... How adorable is she????

 Cut it into thirds. Roll it out, 1/3 at a time on a floured surface.

I use a 5-6 inch bowl to cut the "rounds" but you can go smaller if you want. I like "hand" pies that are similar to the really bad-tasting ones they sell at the grocery store. It's like holding a folded piece of deliciousness-pie in your hand. How could that ever be wrong, right?

So roll out your piece of dough and cut as many circles that will fit:

Fill the circles about 1/3 full with pie filling. The recipe for my sweet cherry pie filling follows, and it's easy-peasy so DON'T BUY IT.... Those are mostly cornstarch sauce, I mean really, is it worth the ten minutes to buy the can?  I submit it is not!  ;)

Fold the top half of the mini-pie over and crimp edges with a fork. I crimp them twice because I'm paranoid.... Or thorough. Yeah. Let's go with the latter!

Now slip them into a deep fryer preheated to 375 degrees. My fryer has baskets and you can fry two of these babies in each basket but I usually do one at a time to avoid an all out pastry battle in the fryer. I have a chronic abhorrence to BIG MESSES IN THE FRYER!

Remove when golden brown, drain on paper towel, paint glaze on with pastry brush and let cool.

And here's how they look ready to serve for a luncheon or a party or a shower... and these babies freeze beautifully, they're sealed with glaze, so they stay fresh for days. What an awesome plus that is, right????

Finished product. When I have time I make a bunch of batches and freeze these babies. I double wrap them so they stay fresh, crisp and tender/flaky all at once.

So this is it.... we leave you with a treasure trove of delightful recipes and memories... and we'd all love for you to find us on Facebook or email us or chat with us in Seekerville...

And I love talking and answering questions, so please don't be a stranger to any of us. We are so blessed and glad to have had these years of you watching our careers bloom and blossom, our families grow, our ups and downs and kitchen fails. Oh how we love the Kitchen Fails! :)

God bless you... everyone of you... and we are so thankful that He blessed us with this time with you.

God is good!

And the blessing of life is a marvelous thing.

When it comes to goodbyes and farewells, one that I've always loved and treasured is Derek Jeter's farewell to New York in a Gatorade commercial done to Frank Sinatra's "My Way"... this one hits home because I tend to be a "my way" kind of person. I've always been that way, and it's kind of charming in a bossy old lady New Yorker kind of way, right? :) 

Here's the link... it's not just about Jeter. Or Baseball. Or New York. It's about how time goes on and things change... but if we live that time to our fullest, doing our best, we can move forward without regret because the Good Lord's always got another chapter waiting... Until we get to The End and He calls us home. And that's not another chapter...

That's a whole other book, my friends.

One worth reading.

Award-winning, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne is sorry to close the cafe doors but glad to have worked with so many wonderful ladies over the years... but especially with our current group of Jan, Mindy, Cate and Missy.... what started as a fun place to talk became a repository of great regional thoughts and recipes. Yay for all of us! Contact Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com, follow her on Facebook for the moment unless it gets too crazy for her to handle in which case she'll pop up somewhere else... And you can always stop by her website ruthloganherne.com. 

SINCERE THANKS TO ALL OF YOU.... 

Until we meet again, may the Good Lord hold you in the palm of His hand...

The Care and Feeding of Climbers: A Woman's Guide to Raising Monkey-like Sapiens

So this was my third post for Yankee-Belle Cafe... the first was a "Welcome" post... then pie crust because all o' youse and all y'all know what I think about store-bought pie crust so the first thing I had to do-- I WAS COMPELLED-- was show you how easy it is to make pie crust with a great recipe.

Far easier than keeping climbers alive. :)

Now, I'm a climber. I was up trees, scaling fences, on roofs... at age four a Flower City Park neighbor called my mother and wanted to know if I was supposed to be on the porch roof... :)

I still climb although I leave the third story of our heritage farmhouse to others, the first and second stories are fair game... And I did buy a Little Giant ladder last summer, and that thing is the best!!! I love it so much! 

But raising baby climbers can be a dauntless task! Look at these three on the new (then) shed! Taylor, Kyle and Casey, all grown up now, so they SURVIVED!!!!) And yes there were a great many things I did not share with parents... Better that they simply smile and nod. So below is the original post... and then a food post that followed. 

Life is more than food!


Here are three of the monsters I've helped raise.  Taylor, Kyle and Casey.


They're brats, yes. I mean WHAT ARE THEY DOING ON THE ROOF???

It starts here. In the kitchen. On the table.

This is 'Lijah. He is 18 months old.

WHAT IS HE DOING ON THE TABLE????


Oy vay. Who is watching these children????


Oops. No one!  ;)

Well, when a case of NEW BOOKS COMES IN,
WHO DOESN'T WANT TO JUMP ONTO
THE KITCHEN TABLE AND CHECK THEM OUT???
Especially with a cute hero like Matt Cavanaugh...

Oh my stars.Raising climbers...  The best thing to do is teach them how to FALL WITHOUT DYING.


Because they already know how to climb.

See, they start out like this. Now this looks nice, doesn't it?
Grandpa holding baby at a wedding.
Peaceful. Serene.
And then it morphs to THIS:

 On the roof.
In the dark. 
Because Emma wanted to be CLOSER to the moon.
So her Daddy took her up there because he's a climber.
And climbers beget climbers.
It's quite Biblical, don't you think?


So really, you can feed climbers anything.
Mostly they like chips and dip.
But who doesn't?

The point here is that it's okay to talk about lots of things in a cafe.
Up to and including dealing with children who are born with a death wish.

Sigh.



PAGE BREAK! This is funny because Blogger wasn't cooperating at all as I copied and pasted these... so this is an early post on Rice Pudding because my rice pudding is one of those awesome things that gets requested at pot lucks (remember when we could get together like normal folks?) and there was a great pic of it but it is missing... I'm going to go hunt for it right now! And I found a pic of current climbers! The Mighty Finn (notice the bucket which is how they send up supplies into the tree, quite ingenious!) And Morgan pulling herself up down below. There were two bird nests in this tree, nice and high, and no one got their faces pecked off, so that was good! :) 

AND THE RICE PUDDING!!!!!!

AND HERE IS THE ORIGINAL RICE PUDDING POST FROM 2011.

Rice pudding is famous.

Almost every culture has a form of sweet rice.

Sweet rice and custard????

Oh my stars, better yet!

I worked in a Greek Family restaurant for eleven years. They made Greek rice pudding...

It was good, but this way is better. I'm going to go out on a limb and say WAY BETTER.

But try it. Taste test. You be the judge.

Baked rice puddings can get dry. Pithy. 

YUCK.

Greek rice puddings lack depth of flavor. They're tasty and sweet, but it's basically rice and milk and sugar, slow simmered.

Ummm.... Not so much. 

But this????

Oh. This is GOOD STUFF!

This recipe is a mix of my old fashioned custard recipe from the Cream Corn Starch box, circa 1970-something. An older neighbor told me about it and I was always looking for great basic recipes. Why re-invent the wheel?

So this basic vanilla pudding rocks. It's done in about 10 minutes (including cooking time)

has no chemical or weird aftertaste and I use it as a filling for fancy cakes...

Boston Cream Pie

Cannolis

Cream puffs

And the base for rice pudding:

Here's the original recipe:

1/4 cup Butter (one-half stick)

1/2 cup Cream Corn Starch

1  1/2 Cups Sugar

4 Cups Milk

4 Egg Yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt butter in 3 quart saucepan. Remove from heat for a minute. Just long enough to add the sugar/corn starch mixture and not burn anything. Mix sugar and cornstarch in bowl. Add to butter.

Add in milk and egg yolks.
(the whites can be used for meringue kisses... or scrambled egg whites... or white cake...)

Whisk until combined.

Cook over medium to medium high heat (only if you STAND THERE AND STIR. Do not do what I do and think you can fold a load of laundry or check e-mails. Trust me. You cannot.)

If you mess up the above step and burn it, sigh...

I do that often. Then I realize I am not Super Mom or a Magic Fairy and pudding should be stirred.

So then I stand there and stir the next batch while reading a great ROMANCE NOVEL like this one:

See, then the time passes quickly. 

We Yanks are a strange breed. Yes. I know.

Okay, so stir until thick and mixture just comes to a boil.

Remove from heat, add vanilla.

DONE!!!!!

So there you have it, the base, the bottom line, the delicious, creamy custardy goodness.

Now:

Add cooked rice.

I use Basmati rice because I love the texture, but you can use any normal rice. Typically rice can be cooked like this:

4 cups water (I do measure this)

1 tablespoon salt (No, I don't measure, I just dump)

2 cups rice (this I measure)

Splash of olive oil

Bring water to a boil. Add in salt, oil and rice. Bring back to a boil. Cover lightly, reduce heat to simmer for twenty minutes. Turn off heat.

Now this is how I make rice all the time. And it works great. The hint of salt in the rice is AWESOME in the pudding.

Mix rice with custard. Put in bowl. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Enjoy.

Award-winning, multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves God, her country (she bleeds red white and blue... and Yankee blue in particular!)... her family, and she's particularly in love with kids because they keep her-- and her mindset-- young! Email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com. Visit her website ruthloganherne.com and/or visit her on Facebook.

Winter Wreath Fun at the Farm!

So this is how I see the Peaceable Kingdom at the farm... and how I'd like to imagine our country getting along.

Maggie and Milky Way, like Tod and Copper, friends for life.

They are so cute! 

And this kitten tries to nurse on Maggie... who has never had a puppy... and Maggie lets her. So we've got wonderful (and weird!) maternal instincts! 

So we've been making pretty things for the farm season because this is the time we can spend a few hours to do it... and I have some young buds who are between semesters. Sweet! 

So this is Lena (five years old) working with me on Sunday.... Train 'em young!

Spring theme....

Christmas wreaths!  This first rag wreath is 18" across, so extra large and look how cute with the sign in the middle!!!! LOVE IT!!!!  My two college gals are home for an extra couple of weeks because of Covid so they might as well stay busy, right? Taylor's been making wreaths and Christina's been doing rustic porch and yard decor in Patriotic themes.... Because we love the Red, White and Blue!  But here are Christmas wreaths waiting for bows... and then we'll wrap them and tuck them away until next fall.

We made a family project day last weekend and got a lot of things done and a lot of ideas for 2021 Farm Events...  Here's a rustic burlap ribbon wreath, waiting for a bow.... my ribbon order hasn't gotten here yet, so the bows are coming!  I've learned a lot with these first wreaths... and had a lot of fun. I love creating things that make folks happy. Their smiles make us smile!

Christina's rustic flags.... so popular last year! Amazing what one can do with old fencing!

We're getting together every few weeks to create as a group and doing what we can in between... and it's fun! A pot of chicken soup, some Swedish meatballs, Italian bread and pasta... and a cake to celebrate a precious life, gone too soon... our little Joseph who's waiting for us in heaven. No doubt being rocked by Lisa right now... She's got him in heaven... I've got her littles (and not so littles) down here. And we move on.... because that's what folks do when they love one another.

So that's our week... we did have one hour of sun one day... and maybe one hour of sun another day in December. Crazy cloudy and gray here, no snow, just icy mist and rain, very British!!!! 

But that's all right. We can't change the weather.

We can change our hearts... So from our farm to you, we're sending winter blessings as I work on finishing a Christmas mystery and busy hands create this, that and the other thing!

Oh, and then this... I swapped out Christmas lights for white lights to go through March because it is SO DARK AND GRAY up here.... But I do love this effect! Winter White!  #MustLoveTwinkleLights

There's just something heartening about seeing the white lights in the depths of winter. It brings a smile to people's faces, driving by...

Okay, that's it for now.... Until next week from the farm!

Multi-published award-winning USA Today Bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne is living her dream of writing beautiful stories of faith, hope and love... while running a busy and fun family-friendly pumpkin farm in Western New York with her husband and a whole crew of family and friends. You can pester Ruthy over on Facebook where her more conservative views are always stirring up some sort of conversation, email her at loganherne@gmail.com or stop by her website ruthloganherne.com. She'd love to see you and know more about you! 

Nothing Like Flowers To Balance Winter's Gray Days!

 

So all y'all know I'm a pumpkin farmer... and that I write wonderful books! 

SHAMELESS PLUG! AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW! 

"Faced with a decades-old mistake, can she find forgiveness?"

After a fire devastates her hometown, Dr. Jess Bristol returns to save her mother’s clinic—and comes face-to-face with her high school sweetheart. Over twenty years ago, Jess helped put Shane Stone in jail…and later learned he was innocent. Now they must work together to restore their town. Though Shane has put his past behind him, can the adoptive single father forgive the woman he once loved?

I LOVE A GREAT ROMANCE!!!!! SIGH..... Okay, back to what's going on here this week!

I also grow gorgeous chrysanthemums for our fall market and what started out as a fairly small number (800 the first year I tried it and I didn't kill anything. I was PSYCHED!) 

Yep, that's me in my summertime glory, watering 1400 mums by hand! :) As daunting as that sounds, by doing this, I (or my trusty helpers) can see if a plant is in distress, if I'm having a bug problem, if the leaves are tinging yellow or red.... and then I take Dr. Ruthy action to make them happy and healthy again! I have learned so much!!!!!

then grew to 1400...

Then 1600....

And for next year, we're looking at 2200 or so because we sold out in 2020 (so this was one amazing thing in 2020, right???? Happy farm????) and I want to do a special September promo for Breast Cancer Awareness to honor my beautiful friend Lisa...

And I need enough flowers to make it work and to last into late October.

So 600 more flowers is a lot of watering and feeding when you do it by hand. 

I may have heard a couple of minor complaints... and shocked looks.... and faces, aghast! (I love using words like "aghast"!!!!) But if my projections are anywhere near true, then we need to be ready, so I'm going all in like on a great poker hand!

Of course we want pinks for the Breast Cancer Awareness weekends: 

And all colors for a really big "splash" to make folks smile!

Look at those colors! We make people so happy because we grow hundreds of flowers in dozens of colors and blends and it just makes folks smile. And when they smile, I smile! 

And we have a "Farm Chic" section with all of the lighter colored mums and of course, a perennial favorite, our "Rustic" mum display!

So that's what's going on at the farm this week... it seems easy, right? 

This is where the math comes into play because mums bloom based on length of day so I have to know what week they're projected to bloom (from week 36 through week 42 and this is different down south because their day lengths are different from ours) and then order them to be planted enough ahead of time for them to be perfect for the weeks in question.

:)  

That smiley face is because this is easier said than done! One year the early ones blossomed two weeks ahead of schedule... and last year, they were all about 12 days behind schedule (which isn't as bad, folks will still buy them then... but if they're too early, then folks lose the blossom time at their house. And we want them to love, love, love the flowers!)

So it's always got a measure of risk, but everything worth doing comes with a measure of risk. No risk, no reward!

I still have Christmas things to pack away but I had other jobs that needed me this week, so I'm going to let lights linger a while.... because it's mighty dark at this latitude in January and February and I think our neighborhood, our town and our country could use some extra light.

Wishing you all the very best!

Ruth Logan Herne is a multi-published inspirational author with a somewhat bossy nature and a really great smile which she loves to flash because folks are way too grumpy sometimes and a shared smile is a wonderful thing. She manages a pumpkin farm in Western New York, has a flock of kids and grandkids and is absolutely loving life.... because God is good! And we are blessed... find Ruthy on Facebook where she likes to boss folks around, visit her website ruthloganherne.com or email Ruthy directly at loganherne@gmail.com. She'd love to chat with you! 

Antique Island for the Win!

 There are pros and cons to living in a 166 year-old house. 

The pros are the built-in charm of an old home. Solid hand-hewn timbers that frame the house, old red cedar floors that never hold their finish, and the blending of old with new, like when we put in a new first-floor full bathroom three years ago and left a corner of a support beam exposed. 

Just think of that, a home that's withstood winter's wrath, summer storms, spring floods and a couple of lightning strikes on the catalpa tree in the back yard.... and it stands still, a testament to workmanship and the love of owners. 

Now, raising six kids and Farmer Dave losing his job at the downturn of jobs in the Rochester market some thirty years ago put a dent on the wallet, so things went undone for a bit.... and now the kids are raised, I've got a fun mid-life career and we've got our wonderful pumpkin farm, but we still have to go bit by bit and the kitchen is a case in point. See the kitchen is underneath the upstairs bathroom... a bathroom that's managed to leach water into the kitchen ceiling multiple times over the years, and I can't remodel the kitchen (It's 70+ years old and yeah... needs a remodel!) until that bathroom is done because that's silly... but that bathroom couldn't get done until we had a bath on the first floor because weeks without a shower wasn't on my short list... so project one (downstairs bath) is done... project two (remodeling 70+ year old upstairs bath that is too awful to share on the World Wide Web) is this winter...

And then in a couple of years, we move to kitchen. 

But in the meantime, the most amazing thing happened. 

I bought an island from a wonderful woman on Facebook. Vera had posted a small, rustic painted hutch bottom months ago and I liked it but it was too small... well then in December she posted this:

It's just over five feet long and about 26" wide/deep. And it has cupboards! And drawers! It's the bottom to an old pecan hutch she refinished and I was so happy to get it... because it's big and it is a life-saver in this somewhat old and not well-laid-out kitchen... but don't get me wrong, this kitchen has served us well for over 30 years... it's just that we're a big family and the kitchen was designed for a family of four in the 1950's.... and I'm a baker. Bakers bake. It's what we do. So this is a huge help to me for organizing baking supplies!!! 

Pie pans in one side cupboard... and this is like half of them, the other ones are in use! 

Little cutting boards in this drawer... Off the counter top!!!!

Muffin pans and bread pans in other side cupboard... and my stash of chips because I guarantee you, Farmer Dave will never bend over and look into a baking cupboard! :) A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do and Farmer Dave loves potato chips! SHH... don't tell him where they are! 

The main cupboard... all of my big baking pans, cookie sheets (air bakes and a new variety I'm trying this winter) Pyrex casseroles (that used to be on the highest shelf and I needed a stool to get to them) and layer cake pans. And a sifter that doesn't fit in a drawer. So it's hanging out with the cake pans.

PHOTO BOMB of people playing Sequence, a fun tile game with a deck of cards.... Team Matt/Zach won this one. And the next. And maybe a third. #brats.

Look at this! :) BIG GRIN! These used to live in a big basket on my counter and now here they are, tucked into a drawer and not one bit crowded!  

The two BIG drawers! All my baking and canning utensils are tucked in here!

Scissors, tape, knife sharpeners and staplers.... all off my counter now. Oh, hallelujah! 

This is like the world's greatest organizer... and when the kitchen gets a facelift in a couple of years, this cool cabinet stays here, somewhere because it's awesome.

I am giddy!!!!! I have ten square feet of clear counter space. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!

So that's my major kitchen improvement... and I couldn't be happier.

Sometimes it's the little things (compared to kitchen remodel!) that make the biggest difference! 

What would you change in your kitchen if you could?

Multi-published, baked-goods lover Ruthy Logan Herne loves her life, loves writing beautiful stories of faith, hope, love and redemption and is totally gobsmacked by how amazingly generous God has been to her in so many ways, including adult children that like her most of the time! #BONUS! :) Friend Ruthy on Facebook for more of her free wisdom, visit her website ruthloganherne.com and/or email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com where she is proud to say she still answers her own email... because she kind of thinks that's how it should be done.