Blackberry Crisp Recipe

I need to make a dessert to take to the church dessert auction tonight. I decided on blackberry crisp. I prefer to make it from fresh berries, but I have to settle on frozen. After they're thawed, they are kinda small and puny. And a lot of the juice is in the freezer bag instead of in the berries. The last time I made it with frozen berries, juice sloshed out all over me as I was going out the door with the finished dessert. So I'm making a few changes to my original recipe.

Blackberry Crisp

4 c fresh or frozen blackberries, thawed

1 1/2 c sugar

1 c flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c melted butter or margarine

Put berries in large casserole dish or 9x9 pan. Pour 1/2 c sugar over berries. Combine flour, 1 c sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter or margarine. Cover the berries with this dough. Bake at 400 F for 30-45 minutes or until brown on top.

Note: When using thawed fruit, drain the juice and add 2 Tbsp. cornstarch and add back to the berries. This should help thicken the juice.

I just discarded the extra juice this time. Last time I did the cornstarch thing and it sloshed out all over me anyway. But it was still very warm and it might help to let it cool.

I used a bag of frozen berries that originally had 8 cups worth. I did not measure it after the thaw, but it was way less than 8 cups.

I tasted a thawed berry and was surprised how tart it was. The original recipe calls for 2 cups sugar, that seems like too much to me. I like to pick my berries when they're very ripe, so I don't usually use the extra sugar. I think you need to taste it and decide for yourself if it needs more sweetening.

When I make this recipe with fresh berries, it is amazing. Served warm with some vanilla ice cream.

Daniel C. Peterson Article

Nori, my mom-in-law, always brings me her Church News and Mormon Times after she's read them. I like everything in them so much that my stack of papers keeps growing and growing. I had decided to whittle it down today. And what do you know, I wanted to save every article that I read. More than one even brought tears to my eyes. I think these writers are some of the best.

Daniel C. Peterson, I'll admit it, writes a little over my head. Okay, a lot over my head. But even I was able to enjoy this. He says in an article published in Mormon Times on February 19, 2011:

I'm reminded of a warped version of Jesus' exchange with his disciples on the road to Caesarea Philippi: "Whom do men say that I am?" he asked. And Peter replied, "Thou are the second hypostasis of the incomprehensible metaphysical Trinity, a hypostatic union of unconfused but coexisting deity and humanity, consubstantial with the Father, a separate person but, onto-logically speaking, the same transtemporal being." And Jesus said unto him, "What?"

This made me laugh out loud. And even better, it made me feel smarter to type it into a computer that also didn't understand or recognize many of these words. You should see the red underlines I'm looking at!

Senior Pictures

The pictures with the black/white top were the first we took.  Each day we shot, the pictures got better.  This is the only one from the first day that I really like.  Because her personality really comes through here.

I love the light and the shadows of this shot. It would probably be my favorite, if she had been really smiling. We were suffereing a little "America's Next Top Model" damage.   

We tried some using a prop.

I suppose these are my favorites of the pictures we took. Yes, we did it ourselves. Pictures from a professional studio cost so much! They charge like $150 just for the sitting. Granted they do give you an hour of their time. I only have a point and shoot digital camera, but I figure if you take enough shots, you'll end up with some good ones. We took a lot we didn't like. We tried some without a smile. That was a mistake. We tried some not realizing that her shirt blended with the grass. Those were okay, but the darker shirt was better. I don't think we'll agree on what to print to give out, but I think that should be her decision. I can always print some to keep for myself. And I actually had a wonderful time pretending I was a real photographer. Now I have to keep it a secret as my teenage daughter is embarrassed of the fact that her pictures were taken by her mother. So if you're one of my Facebook friends, don't write anything on there that her friends can see!

Tomatoes and Marigolds

This tomato crop is probably the best we ever had. And we plant tomatoes every year. We usually have a lot of blossom end rot and cracking. Two years ago, we had a truckload of topsoil dumped on top of our garden. Seems like good soil is the key.

I don't usually do a lot of spring time gardening because of my allergies. I sleep through the spring. But not this year. I think because we had so much rain. These marigolds were some of the seedlings I started in egg cartons. All I paid for was potting soil because the seeds were a few years old. And I love them. I especially love that it's so bushy and green. Now if they were just perennials that I didn't have keep planting every year. I'm going for low maintenance!