Book releases, deadlines and the creeping crud

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I'm going to stand way back while I type this so I don't get anybody sick.
    Everybody gets sick. It's a fact of life. Seasons of life and all that. But you know what makes it worse? When someone rolls their eyes and utters the words "man flu". THEN they get REALLY sick. See, my husband had a cold. After making him tea, soup, and giving lots of sympathy I may just possibly have mentioned how men act like they're dying when they get sick.
  Oooooh. Fatal error. Just like Lady MacBeth. Oh, wait, that was ambition. Hamlet? No, that was his inability to act. Hmmm... not sure who tempted the fates by mocking a sick man, but if there wasn't one, then Shakespeare missed a good morality play.

Now, a bad cold that keeps me huddling under the covers might not matter except I've been waiting impatiently for this coming week because The Pepper in the Gumbo is going free with a Bookbub ad on the 26th!

Just in time because I've been working really hard on a special book called These Sheltering Walls and it's finally ready to be released, so everything is coming together nicely...

... even as the third book, Only Through Love,  emerges as a preorder, too! The only problem is... this COLD. So, while I had plans to make a trifle that I saw on Pinterest (isn't that where all good recipes reside?) I've mostly been in bed. My sweet friend Mindy brought me a honey and cinnamon mix that I added to hot milk and that was lovely. Then she brought wild rice chicken soup and that probably kept me from wasting away to nothingness... but other than that, I've just been huddling under my quilts, clutching the heating pad until today.
  The kids had a great week off from school. We won't talk about the time they had chocolate cake for breakfast (not even kidding), or the time the little guys went to bed without a bath, or how many movies they watched in the past seven days. We'll just be happy we all survived!

Since I have no food to share (except for the recipes in the books), I'll share the poem that I used for the title for the second book.

It's called A Prayer For This House by Louis Untermeyer.

May nothing evil cross this door,
And may ill-fortune never pry
About these windows; may the roar
And rains go by.

Strengthened by faith, the rafters will
Withstand the battering of the storm.
This hearth, though all the world grow chill,
Will keep you warm.

Peace shall walk softly through these rooms,
Touching your lips with holy wine,
Till every casual corner blooms
Into a shrine.

Laughter shall drown the raucous shout
And, though the sheltering walls are thin,
May they be strong to keep hate out
And hold love in.

--Louis Untermeyer

Until next time, friends!

Lemon Blueberry muffins! And some pretty pictures.

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back with a delicious blueberry muffin recipe. I've been sick as a dog with a terrible cold, but it's gradually getting better. I now have a voice, although my kids really preferred the silent me, I'm sure.
  Anyway, does anyone remember that show, "Frasier"? Before I got married, I didn't have a TV for a long time, and then someone gave me an old, tiny set. I was never a TV watcher, but suddenly, living alone, I started turning it on, just to see what was happening in the world. Frasier was always on when I got off work and I fell in love with the comedic writing. One of my favorite characters was Daphne, the Cockney-accented maid. And some of the funniest lines I ever heard her utter had to do with MUFFINS.

 "Now me, I could eat a muffin a day, some days even two knowing they'd be free. So that'd be... ten a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for at least another... forty years, which works out to... Twenty thousand muffins![pause] My life suddenly seems long, measured in muffins." 

 That scene never fails to make me laugh!

 Well, we had gone blueberry picking earlier in the week  and got about 18 lbs so we made some pies, gave some away, ate a lot, and decided to make muffins. We'll pick more this Monday, but it's a short season this year, and we're not sure we'll get many for the freezer. We'll enjoy them while we have them, though!
                                         
                               ( Pie my husband ate by himself. WHY DO I NOT HAVE HIS METABOLISM?   )
 Preheat oven to 425F
Ingredients:
 4 TBS unsalted butter
2 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
 grated lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
 2.5 cups blueberries

 Sift the flour, baking powder and salt, stir all sugar but 2 tbs into mix and make a well in the center. Then beat the egg, add the melted butter, lemon zest, vanilla and milk. Beat again until foamy. Pour into the well you just made in the dry mix.

 Mmmmmm.......

 Stir the mix until smooth, then gently fold in all the blueberries.

 Pour into muffin papers until about 3/4 full, bake 12-15 minutes. Take the lemon juice and sugar and mix together, an then brush the tops of the muffins.

 Taaaasty....

 I like my muffins with a little bit of cold butter, so it melts as they come right out of the oven.

And here are a few pictures from our beach trip. Our whole week was bright and sunny, perfect weather for the coast!

 Multnomah Falls, along the Columbia Gorge. Great rest stop, but tons of people The crowds made it hard to hike to the top.

Mo's, the famous seafood restaurant. Scattered up and down the coast, it's not a fancy place but the food is delicious! 

My five year old is entranced at the idea that local kids can catch their own dinner. I was less entranced, but I did take pictures.

 The crabs you keep have to meet with certain size, gender, etc standards. Behold, the keepers.

 At Newport, about an hour from Lincoln City, where we stayed... one of the many little candy shops. My kids all picked one item. Some picked jelly bellies, some picked a sucker, I got fresh caramels, the girls picked chocolate. My husband just shook his head. He's not a candy eater. Crazy, huh?

 The Devil's Punchbowl, south of Lincoln City. At high tide and especially during storms, this cauldron is filled and the show is spectacular. We went at low tide...

 Pelican sighting!

 The Oregon coast does have some beautiful beaches. You just have to make your way down to the sand. :)

 A rainbow seen from the bottom. A fun little science lesson happened while we were whale watching. The spray from the rocks made a rainbow we saw from far away, but when we got close, it was a perfect circle above us (because rainbows seen from below or above are circles).

 We saw this little family down in one of the coves. See the mom and baby to the right? Now, look left. All the way left...

Yup, two little kids had clambered all the way up the rock face. Made me smile. Brave mom! I never would have survived watching that.

 We had a great time! We also got together with my college roommate who is from Mississippi, and visiting her home state when we were in college was the inspiration for a lot of Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits. Anyway, here are all our kids together. In ten years, we won't have this stair case!

And one last picture in case Mary Curry decides to stop by. :) The lighthouse at Heceta Head!

Until next time, my friends! Meanwhile, back to my Monday deadline! Happy muffin-making!

Summer Rerun: Jan's Pico de Gallo

Jan here, under the weather with a summer cold. It's been a family affair, passed from one to another, with varying degrees of feeling lousy.

So I'm eating this:

And meanwhile, you can enjoy a rerun recipe from 2012.

Believe me, when I feel like eating again, I'll be making some!



Jan's Pico de Gallo

(original posting August 6, 2012)

We’ve been talking about cilantro quite a bit the past few weeks, and it made me start craving Pico de Gallo. There are tons of recipes for Pico, but one thing all of them have in common is cilantro.

*Rabbit trail warning: Did you know that when the cilantro goes to seed in your garden, the seeds are called coriander? Another delicious spice, and it’s mentioned in the Bible: “Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” Exodus 16:31 – now doesn’t that sound delicious?

A couple things about the ingredients – 

I use Roma tomatoes because they have more flesh and are firmer when you chop them. I always get rid of the tomato guts when I make Pico – just slice the tomato in half and hollow it out. The flesh that’s left is firm and will hold its shape in the mixture.

If you aren’t familiar with tomatillos, they’re like little green tomatoes wearing jackets. You know a tomatillo is ready to use when its papery jacket is dry and starting to split. To use the tomatillo, take it out of its jacket, wash it, and remove the stem with the point of a knife. Then just slice and chop it.

I used Anaheim chilies in this batch of Pico, because that’s what I had in the freezer. You could use any hot pepper – jalapeno, Serrano, habanero – as long as it isn’t so hot you don’t want to eat it. The Anaheims are a bit milder than the others. Oh, and make sure you wear gloves when handling hot peppers (I keep disposable latex gloves on hand), and remove ALL the seeds.

And the final hint – when I’m chopping veggies like tomatoes (firm skins, tender flesh), I always use a serrated knife – actually an old steak knife from who knows where (I had it before we were married thirty years ago). The serrated knife cuts through the outer skin without crushing the more tender flesh of the fruit or veggie.

Ingredients (makes about 4 cups of Pico de Gallo):

3 Roma tomatoes

2 Tomatillos

1 Jalapeno pepper, Anaheim Chile or other hot pepper to taste

¼ Bell pepper (green, yellow or red)

¼ onion – yellow will be stronger than white

¼ cup chopped Cilantro, or more – I tend to use more like ½ cup

1 Tablespoon lime juice

Salt to taste

Chop the tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and onions to uniform sizes – I like anywhere between ¼” to ½”.  Stir together. Isn’t it pretty? Like Christmas, or the Mexican flag!

Stir in the chopped cilantro, and then the lime juice. Taste it, and salt it if needed.

Cover the bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving to let the flavors blend.

Serve with chips, or on tacos, or as a garnish for enchiladas, or as a topping for salad …

What’s your favorite way to use Pico de Gallo?