I love the fresh vegetables of summer, and when I can get them locally grown, its even better. I finally went to a small farmer’s market that is a couple of miles from my house and now I’m going every Saturday. Valleydale Farmers Market (Facebook page)  is a small market in a church parking lot and all of the vegetables and fruit are locally grown – none of that stuff imported from foreign countries that deteriorate in the transit time. I don’t have to look any further as the assortment is so varied, I can get everything I want. I buy okra, cucumbers, green tomatoes, red tomatoes, peaches, peas, butter beans, peppers, squash and corn. One of the vendors has fresh catfish that I want to try.

Kim, a friend of mine who used to live close by, moved about 40 miles away to a farm a couple of years ago. I went to her stand first to visit with her and her children and bought a bunch.  She’s known for her homemade preserves and relishes and its well deserved.

Boozer Farms has the most colorful stand with all the various types of eggplant.  I’m going to try the different varieties of eggplant as well as the squash.

Here are some of the other stalls. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to.  I guess it was because I was getting tired from carrying all my purchases. I had a market basket with me and it was quickly filled and very heavy.

I will have to miss attending this coming Saturday as I’m leaving tomorrow for the Atlanta Gift Market. But you can be sure that I will be there the following Saturday and each one afterwards until it closes at the end of the summer. The peaches are the absolute best and I buy some each week. I’m going to miss having them to munch on after I return home from Atlanta as the ones I bought this week have been eaten already. Bummer, but I will look forward to my next veggie trip!

I am growing some tomatoes and peppers myself in a tiny garden, but it won’t be enough to prevent me from buying more.

Phyllis

Isn’t this cake gorgeous as well as delicious looking?  And it was delicious – every bite.  I hosted our book club this week.  Our club has a very wide assortment of ages and the youngest member, Alyssa, is leaving for college.  Andrea, her mother, wanted to surprise her with a cake at our meeting.  In order to surprise Alyssa, the components for the cake arrived early with another member, Jan, who assembled it.  The cake looked like it was quite an effort, but was very quick and easy to put together.  Maybe because Jan is a photo stylist for a cooking magazine, Cooking Light.

Starting with a purchased angel food cake,  Jan quickly spread a can of whipped cream over the cake then arranged strawberries around the top edge of the cake.  The hole in the center of the cake was filled with blueberries, then the remaining strawberries and blueberries were piled around the bottom of the cake.  Easy – yes! Quick - yes! Delicious – yes, yes!

This cake would be equally delicious made with various cakes – a pound cake or even chocolate, but of course a few calories would be added as well.

Have a sweet day!

Phyllis

I love this site.  On Tipnuts.com you can find tips on everything you need on this one site – recipes, cleaning, instructions, patterns……… This site has links for cooking, DIY and craft, sewing, quilting, household tips, etc.  Its a great site to put in your favorites, or do like I did and sign up to receive their latest tips, projects and creative ideas.

Hummm, I just watched a video on this site that tells how to make dusting easier.  I hate dusting so I’m going to try some of these tips as they will save the time I spend on doing something I dislike.  Now, I just have to pencil in some dusting time on my calendar.

And I want to thank Tipnuts.com for posting a link to my free apron pattern here on my blog.

I know you will love Tipnuts.com as much as I do.

Phyllis

Last night was my turn to host my girls’ poker group. Its a fun, chatty night, and we do manage to play a few rounds of poker between eating and talking.  My husband says that for refreshments, we should do like guys – beer and chips.  But we consider food an important part of our socializing and go way beyond chips!  For my dessert last night, I made this blackberry trifle.  It was very easy and you’ve probably seen similiar recipes in magazines with cherries.

As I was grocery shopping for the ingredients, I had a can of cherry pie filling in my hand when I spotted blackberry pie filling.  For some reason,  I was in a blackberry kind of mood so I switched the cherries for blackberries. Good decision!

This recipe is so easy and simple and very high in the YUM factor.

Brownies

Cool whip (I used the lite version)

Blackberry pie filling

Nuts (optional)

I used a turtle brownie mix to make the brownies (it had nuts in it so I didn’t add more).  Crumble some brownies in the bottom of your dish.  Layer on top with the blackberry pie filling and then cool whip.  Sprinkle nuts (optional).  Repeat layers until you run out or the bowl is full. 

I had brownies left over and donated these to my husband who was standing by drooling.  I used one can of pie filling, and had some of the large size Cool Whip left over to enjoy later.  Since it has no calories, I can splurge. The blackberry triffle was a hit at poker and some even went back for seconds!

A BIG thanks to my friend Debba Haupert for her blog post on our poker night!  Check her Girlfriendology blog out.  Its dedicated to all you girlfriends out there! 

(By the way, I did win a little – up 60 cents at the end of the evening!)

Home made ice cream – what can be better?  Hummm, home made peach ice cream.  We decided to pull out the ice cream maker that had been gathering dust and churn it out while celebrating the 4th. My friend Denise Clason had just sent her “Mothers Best Ice Cream” recipe last week, so we decided to give it a try.  Yum – really good.  We had our friends and neighbors, Billy and Shirley, over to help eat it. 

Here is Denise’ recipe – I added 8 peaches cut into small pieces.  Delicious! 

My Mother’s Best Ice Cream recipe

8 C Lt cream

4 eggs

1 pkg powered sugar

2 T vanilla

¼ t. salt

2 C milk or whipping cream, or 1 C milk and 1 C whipping cream

10-12 pounds crushed ice

1 box rock salt

1.  Heat 4 C lt. cream until scalded (not burned) in heavy sauce pan.

2.  In medium bowl with wire whisk, mix eggs and powdered sugar until blended.

3.  Gradually stir in 1 C of the hot cream.  Gradually pour egg mixture back into cream.  Heat for approximately 15 minutes or until the liquid becomes slightly thick – it does not need to boil.

4.  Add remaining 4 C lt. cream, 2 C milk or whipping cream, vanilla and salt and mix.

5.  Pour into the freezer container and chill in the refrigerator until cool.

6.  Follow manufacturer’s directions for freezing

20 minutes prep time and about 25-30 minutes freezing.

***Add these ingredients to get a flavor like Cold Stone:  1 C raspberry jam, 1 C cut up blackberries, ¼ C raspberry syrup, ½ C baby chocolate chips.  Stir together and freeze longer.

We started the 4th off with breakfast at Billy and Shirley’s house, with breakfast cooked outside on a huge grill. 

Billy, Shirley and hubby Danny (white shirt) chat after breakfast. 

Then there’s me relaxing in the hammock.  Actually Danny didn’t think I could get in it without flipping.  Piece of cake!

I hope each of you enjoyed the 4th in your own special way.