World's best strawberry jam!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and this is how we've spent our first few days back from vacation.

A lot of unpacking, cleaning and this.... enjoying the lazy summer days.... and air conditioning.

"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." (Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus ) Here he is, enjoying the river that is just by our house. We don't get down there much since it's usually too swift for the kids to enjoy, but with all the heat, it's finally at a level they can paddle in without being swept downstream. When we were there yesterday, we also checked on the blackberries. Just a few months until blackberry season!
                                                       
You might remember we paid a visit to Klicker's Strawberry farm. My sweet and talented friend Mindy invited me over for a jam making party. (Really, it was a drink-coffee-and-watch-Mindy-make-jam party, but I took pictures so I could try it at home.) I'm sure everybody working in the cafe has made jam, but if any of our visitors wanted to see the step-by-step process, here you go! Believe me, the end result is worth the work!

Mash five cups of strawberries, 5 tsp of lemon juice.
                                                  
Add one pouch plus one more HALF pouch of pectin, plus a teaspoon of butter to cut the foam, and bring to a boil.
                                                            
Add in seven cups of sugar (you can add less if you like and there are some great low sugar recipes online) and boil for another minute. Skim off any foam.
                                           
Pour into sanitized jars to about 1/4 inch from the top. (Make sure the rings and lids have been boiled for a few minutes, too.)
                                            
This picture doesn't do it justice. They are the most gorgeous ruby red and the house smells amazing!
                                                      
Rest on the wire basket of a canning pot, lower carefully into boiling water. The water should cover 2 inches above the jars. Let them boil about ten minutes.

Remove carefully and set on a cloth to cool. The lids will start sealing and you
ll hear them pop. Sounds funny when you have a big batch! If you're not sure if a jar has sealed, press the middle of the lid. If it springs back, it hasn't sealed and you can either use it immediately, or boil again. I can't remember the final number of these little jars she made that day but it was dozens! She sent us home with quite a few, she'll share with family, and then come Christmas, they'll show up in little baskets with biscuits or a pretty mix and a card.
 I love this idea! I think it would be so cute to give couples an anniversary "breakfast basket", with matching mugs, several types of coffee, biscuits or English muffins, and this jam. Here's to the sweet life!

In celebration of my newest book (Only Through Love, releasing July 30th) the first in the Cane River Romance series,  The Pepper in the Gumbo, is only .99 this week!

Until next time!

Hot Dog Quesadillas

HOT DOG QUESADILLAS 

Guest Blogger Sandra Leesmith          

Do you want something quick and easy?

Hot Dog Quesadillas are one of my favorite quick meals.

I always keep packages of Hebrew National Fat Free hot dogs in the refrigerator. I always have corn tortillas in the freezer. So this is a stand-by for a quick snack or a meal when I’ve forgotten to take meat out of the freezer.

Today I used a package of blended shredded cheese called Mexican Blend. But you can use any shredded cheese.  Golly,  the cheese doesn’t even have to be shredded. You can place a slice on each tortilla also. And I always have on hand my favorite salsa.

First lay out the tortillas on a microwavable plate. You can use flour tortillas also.

Spread your favorite salsa on the tortillas.

Sprinkle shredded cheese on the tortillas.

Plop a hot dog on each tortilla. (I use Hebrew National Fat Free because I love them. You can use any brand of hot dog. It doesn’t matter. But if they aren’t pre-cooked, you will need to cook them first)

Pop the plate in the microwave oven. I allow 30 seconds for each corn tortilla quesadilla. (Adjust time if you are using flour tortillas).

Roll up and enjoy.

For those of you on the DUKAN plan (or any protein plan), I slice the hot dog down the middle and plop a fat free cheese stick on it. Then I spread my favorite salsa. I heat those for 30 seconds each also. You don’t really need the tortilla.

Makes a delicious snack or meal. And only takes minutes to fix.

Goats or no goats?

I'm arguing with myself. This is not an unusual state of affairs around here. Different day, different subject, same premise! I'm feeling urged to do something crazy and time-consuming.

WHY???? you ask?

Sigh. Me, too. I kind of blame Alaska and our daughter Sarah...

This was the drive back from the Yukon in Canada to Alaska... Stunning. Gorgeous. Inspirational... And we went to the coolest agritainment farm, Caribou Crossing Traders Post!

Sarah keeps talking about Agri-tainment, the industry of using agriculture for entertainment. We've got 50 acres, not huge, but plenty to have some fun with, right?

And she's got a valid point, with more small farms going under, there are fewer fun places to go for kids to learn about country life, rural living, animals, veggies, fruits and Ruthy's amazingly good baked goods.

The goats became our buds in the Yukon...

So that's what I'm contemplating.

I think I'd like to have little goats. Not in the house. In a pen. With a cute little house of their own so that the goat poop stays outside. That makes sense, right? And have baby goats.

I'm clearly meant to be a birther/mother/nurturer. I get this. I love nurturing and caring for kids and critters, but do I need more work?

Surely not.

Do I need goat fleece or milk?

No.

And yet, I'm still exploring this WONDERFUL IDEA about getting goats. I'm going to visit a goat farmer. I'm reading about their care. I'm thinking of how best to fence these fence climbing/hopping little critters in.... and fencing the resident coyotes and bears out.

Maybe Beansy and Daisy inspired me. Beansy was in "Falling for the Lawman"

And Daisy was in my most recent Kirkwood Lake book, "Healing the Lawman's Heart". She gave birth to TRIPLETS, a buckling and two doelings.... Can I hear an "aww...."????

So that's where I'm at.

THEY'RE SO CUTE!!!!!!

Sigh.

I might be doomed. It is okay to talk me out of this. Plead the common sense of the situation. Long, cold winters, tending farm critters.

I blame this place: Caribou Crossing in the Klondike.

LOOK AT THESE FRIED CAKES... SO PERFECT!!!!! SO DELICIOUS!!!!

INSPIRED!!!!!

All you can eat fried cakes after delicious chicken barbecue... and salt potatoes. And rolls. And cole slaw.

As I finish up these two summer book projects (second Grace Haven Love Inspired book, LOVE IT!) and a Christmas novella with a heaven-sent twist....

I have to spend some time outside working the veggies, caring for 50 chickens, gathering and washing eggs, meeting customers...

And contemplating how to build a boardwalk so folks can visit the goats!  :)

Your turn. Tell me I'm crazy. Remind me of how much work I already have, but gosh, life's to be lived, right? And I love being busy.

Which doesn't mean I'm not crazy!

I brought some cookies for you to eat while we mull this together.

While I'm at RWA - a Sweet Treat for You

I was going to do today's blog on my infernal sweet tooth.

Except that RWA15 starts today. They're not giving us lunch or dinner. They are giving us desserts.

The Death by Chocolate party is Thursday night.
Harlequin's Black & White Ball (always loaded with yummy desserts and chocolate) is Friday night.
The RITA/GH reception with it's dessert tray is Saturday night.

You see my dilemma?

I think I'll save the sweet tooth post for next week.

But to tide you over while I'm gone, I have a yummy dessert recipe that's actually healthy.

My local health food store distributes a free magazine called Delicious Living. This recipe was in an issue back in 2013. You can find the actual recipe in the magazine here, but I'll post a picture with it too.

So many delicious and healthy ingredients - dried sour cherries, dark chocolate, coconut, dates, walnuts. And so pretty too.

I hope you enjoy this sweet treat. I'm sure by the time the conference ends on Saturday night, I'll be craving healthy, clean food.

But help me get ready. Let's talk about that sweet tooth. Is it as big a problem for you as it is for me? Are you able to resist or is it not even a temptation?

New York City Bound - RWA 2015

This is it. The week I've been looking forward to since RWA ended last year and I learned the next conference would be in New York City. You'll have no trouble finding me. I'll be the one gawking at every turn.

Well, last week I mentioned that I was on deadline, but hoping to turn my manuscript in early.

I am pleased to say, that I was able to do just that. Though my target had originally been Friday, I didn't complete things until Saturday. You see, long about Wednesday night, I had gone through my first round of revisions/edits and was feeling very angsty. But I had to keep going, right?

Then this quiet voice inside of me said, "Step away from the story."

But, I--

"Step away from the story. Take a day to do all those things you need to catch up on and then come back to it."

So I did. And boy, what a difference. 

God is so good. He knows what we need even when we're too stubborn to recognize it. Knowing some of those things that had been hanging over me were finally off of my plate was such a relief. Then, when I went back for my final read-thru on Friday, the angst was gone, replaced with this wonderful sense of clarity. And I finished it Saturday morning.

I am curious about something, though. When y'all finish a manuscript, do you find yourself kind of twiddling your thumbs for a while, wondering, "What do I do now?" I mean, I've invested 3-4 months of my life into these people and suddenly I don't have to worry about them anymore.

So what did I do? 

Cleaned my kitchen and did laundry. Yeah, no rest for the weary.

But now, perhaps as you're reading this, I'm on my way to New York. Hopefully I'll remember to take lots of pictures so I can share them with you next week.

Until then...

Breakfast for dinner: Classy French Toast with Potatoes and Bacon

Some days it's just too hot to cook, but at the same time you want something filling.

Because too many days in a row of bologna sandwiches get pretty tiring.

The solution? Breakfast for dinner!

This meal takes a bit of planning, but not a lot of preparation time.

I'll skip the recipes for scrambled eggs and the bacon. Scrambled eggs are scrambled eggs, right? And we used Ruthy's Peppered Maple Bacon recipe. So delicious!

Now for the planning.

Start the potatoes first. I'm not sure this recipe has a name, so we're going to make one up: "Oven Bacon Potatoes." How does that sound?

Oven Bacon Potatoes

ingredients:
a pound or so of Golden Dutch Potatoes (or another baby potato variety)
4 or 5 garlic cloves, peeled
2-4 slices bacon
salt and pepper

Slice the itty bitty potatoes in half, or quarter them, and throw them in the skillet. Add the garlic, salt, and pepper.
Cut the bacon strips in half, then lay them on top of the potatoes.

Stick the skillet (or casserole dish) in the oven at 350° for about 30 minutes. You can put the bacon in at the same time. Recipe continued below....

Meanwhile, get ready to fix the Classy French Toast.

ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole milk (or 1 cup skim milk and 1/4 cup heavy cream)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each: ginger, nutmeg and cloves

Whisk the ingredients until everything is beaten together. When you stop whisking, the spices will float to the top, but that's all right.

Slice your bread of choice into 1" thick slices. We used Challah (such a rich, eggy bread - perfect for this French toast!), but you can use any bread you wish.

...now back to the potatoes!

After 30 minutes, stir your potatoes. Your Maple Pepper Bacon should be done. If it isn't, turn the slices and put them back in the oven.

Turn the oven heat up to 425° and bake the potatoes for an additional 15 minutes. (Don't forget to keep an eye on the Maple Pepper Bacon!!!

...and now back to the French Toast!

Pour the egg mixture into a dish big enough for your bread slices to fit in, but also has a flat bottom. I use a 9"x9" baking dish.

Lay the bread slices in the egg mixture, one or two pieces at a time, and let the bread soak up some of the liquid. Turn the slices over, wait for a bit, then put the slices on your griddle. Repeat until all the bread is gone.

The egg mixture above is enough is enough for 6-8 pieces of bread - big slices!

Cook on the griddle on medium heat (about 325° to 350°) until brown on both sides and cooked through - about 5 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, cook your eggs, check on the bacon, and stir the potatoes one more time.

Keep the potatoes in the oven until they're done - hopefully at the same time as your French toast and scrambled eggs!

Fruit is the perfect accompaniment to this meal. I had one of our fresh peaches, straight from Georgia!

What is your favorite hot weather meal?

Cast Iron Cooking (again), civilization and the Southern Oregon Coast

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have updates to my cast iron cooking post.  Let's just say nobody starved but we sure were glad to get back to civilization. I don't mean the picture below. That's where we live. 

Sort of civilized.

                                       
                                          Sort of not when it's 106 and above! (Someone asked me if this was real temp or heat index. I don't know what that means. It's the temperature. I guess in some areas the temperature isn't really the temperature but much hotter? Yuck. I'll stick with our 100-110F in the summer.)

 I love vacations. I really do. I like planning and plotting and packing and getting the kids all prepped with studying the sights we'll see. But then by the time we come home, we all feel like this.
                                                                     DONE.

 So, after a good twelve hours (no, it doesn't really take that long but we wandered a bit to get there  and small people have small bladders, so lots of stops) we made it to our first destination, a campground on the coast, way down south, nearly to California. (I love these shoes. My friend sent them to me from Texas because they're teal. ha! My favorite color.)
                                     
I already talked about the yurt, so here is our cast iron cooking action. Waffles, a sandwich, a pan heating for hashbrowns, and a hot dog. (Can't remember who was eating a hot dog for breakfast. Probably the picky eater of the bunch.) The kids loved cooking their own food but it did require a lot of supervision. We didn't want anyone branded.
                                                    
My mom has a home on the coast a few hours from there and she brought us this cast iron oven and these berries from their property. YUMMY. So glad they weren't in Arizona! But like us, with the summer heat you look for cooler climes. (This shot is of blueberries, marionberries, raspberries, strawberries, and a gold raspberry hybrid.)
                                                    
And that recipe worked! It was absolutely delicious! Berry buckle for the win.
                                         
We spent the first week in the camp, on Eel Lake, with the Dunes in the other direction. There's a whole long story about getting lost there at sunset but I won't bore you with that.

(stateparks.com I had my own pictures but... well... that story is coming up)

Let me just say... never separate! Even if a five year old is discovered to be holding only one of his shoes and you let the faster people walk ahead because the five year old holding your hand is slower and it's really lovely with the frogs croaking and the sun setting and the breeze on your sunburn. There's a reason people die in the Sahara and a reason you do not take three hours to stop wandering and start yelling.  Enough said. Moving on!
                                         
After that, I told my husband I needed a day to sit on the beach and drink coffee while the kids played in the tide pools. So I did. He, of course, scaled the cliffs and I pretended not to notice (and worry).
                                              
Living in the land of tumbleweeds and 100F temps, I forgot how normal it is to see rhododendrons and other water-loving plants just growing naturally. And moss. And ferns. It was a feast for the eyes. Ahhhh.
                                    
Our town has a few big trees in the main park. But in the forest they're everywhere. The kids get a kick out of them every time.
                                                      
Speaking of flora, we had to stop at the Darlingtonia Preserve. (That link is the wiki article. So interesting.) My kids think I'm crazy but I keep insisting these carnivorous cobra lilies are cool. I mean, giant pitcher plants that are only found in a few places in the world? YES, we have to stop and look! Also, they remind me of Little Shop of Horrors, so they make me smile.
                                                                  
We tried to throw in a few kids but they fought back.
                                      
So, we finally said good bye to the yurt (some of us were more happy than others) and headed up the coast to Florence. There's a seafood chain there called Mo's.

It's loud, crowded and full of tourists. And we love it.

Remember we'd been living off  s'mores and grilled cheese sandwiches...
                                                    
Slumgullion was like food from heaven. We were ALL SO HAPPY not to be camping. OK, maybe the little kids would have preferred marshmallows for lunch but the rest of us were thrilled.
                                    
There are a lot of commercial fisherman, right alongside some funny people who dock their pirate boats. I've never wanted a pirate ship, but it's apparently a thing. We met the sweetest older couple who sold their home after retirement and... built a pirate ship to sail up and down the coast. Funny!
                              
Once we made it to the beach house, we hit the farmer's markets. Wow, these onions are much bigger than ours. But not as sweet.
                                           
I was loving civilization but my hair wasn't loving the humidity. Good thing I brought my hairdressers! They're spendy, but worth it.

We met up with some friends and they took us crabbing. We caught lots of crabs... and none were big enough to keep. Which was probably good since I don't think my kids would have eaten them anyway. but it was super fun and ended with ice cream!

At low tide we walked down and gathered mussels for paella (recipe in the link, it's delicious!) We also found a purple starfish! The last few years there haven't been any starfish because of a virus that swept the coast so we were thrilled to see them on the rocks!

We also steamed at enjoyed them straight, but you can imagine a few of the kids preferred hot dogs. And that was fine as long as I didn't have to build a fire! (Unless it was on the beach. Then I was up for it.)

We also went clamming but I don't have any pictures of that because at this point, I fell into Yaquina Bay. It wasn't too bad. Nice and warm. I decided to go with it and swim toward the bank until I realized MY PHONE was in my pocket. Ah well... Luckily I'd been sending pictures to a private album on facebook so I had a few. 

We thought we might travel up north even farther after the week in the beach house but I was tired. Actually, I wanted to come home after two days. I missed my desk, my coffee just the way I like it, my kitchen. I've become a homebody. Even though the yurt was doable and the beach house (we've been there before) was lovely.... it's just not home. The kids are already planning the next trip (maybe to Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Calgary?) but I'm content in my little town... even if it is 90F at 8AM. 

 Until next time!

 BOOKS! 
My newest release, These Sheltering Walls!

Coming July 30th, Only Through Love!