Raspberry Custard Pie

This is one of my favorite recipes from when I was a kid - though more when I was a teenager. My family would go 'up north' to a cabin for a week every summer, and one of our traditions was to pick wild blueberries and raspberries. The blueberries we'd mostly just eat fresh. But the raspberries would be made into jam and this custard pie, a recipe of my grandma's. I don't remember having this very frequently at home, but every year we'd try making it up at the cabin even though every year we forgot the recipe at home. One year we finally remembered it, so we stuck it behind a picture frame - and it was there every year after!

It's really not that complicated of a recipe :)
Raspberry Custard Pie
crust for 9in pan
1 1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1/4 c sugar plus 1-2T for berries
1t vanilla

Cover the unbaked crust with raspberries. Sprinkle 1-2T sugar over the berries. Whisk well the milk, sugar and eggs and vanilla. Pour over berries. Bake in a 450 over for 15 min, reduce heat to 350 and bake another 30 min or til custard is set.

Vanilla Ice Cream

We love our ice cream here, so I knew this would be a favorite. For mine, I added some of my attempt at Ferber's Bing Cherry, Honey and Mint jam that didn't set, but still makes a pretty tasty sauce :)

This is the very last scoop of ice cream out of the container, so it's looking a little icey, but I am loving RLB's Fresh Blueberry Pie. Her flaky crust is the first recipe I've actually been able to made a decent crust with, and even though I have never really liked blueberry pie - I'm really liking this one. (This pie's a day old here, too - so in all it might not be the most convincing recommendation, but I really wanted to share my enthusiasm for it before blueberry season's over!).


Thanks to Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu for this week's pick!

Strawberry Jam

I'm really slow with this post, the pictures have been sitting here a few weeks already. The strawberries are done now, but here's my first try with a cooked strawberry jam without added pectin.

I tried using this epicurious recipe that cooks a portion of the strawberries and then adds the rest fresh at the end. It turned out ok, the kids loved it. It was all gone by the end of the week (along with about four loaves of bread!). I think I still prefer freezer jam, it tastes fresher to me. It was a really good first experience though to walk through the process!

Blanc-Manger

I was so excited to try this one! The summer raspberries haven't done very well here, but I'd found red currants for the first time ever here at a farm stand. (I had to get a picture of the currants - I think they're the prettiest fruit possible!) So I subbed the currants for the raspberries. The only other change was I only made a half batch.

For the blanc-manger, I ground slivered almonds in our little coffee grinder and sifted it. It got fine enough, I think, but it looks less pretty with the speckles of skin. Maybe if I try this to serve, I'll try ordering almond flour. I also lined the pan with waxed paper, so it looks a little wrinkly, so I'd get the chair to reach the parchment if I were going to make this for anyone :)

We really liked this. The currants worked really well, I thought their tartness was balanced well with the base. I'd like to try a mix of raspberry and currant, too.

Thanks to Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy for this great pick!

Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread

It was pretty cold yesterday, so I tried a bread recipe that could involve the kids, too. I used the Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread from Apple Pie, Patis and Pate, an adaptation of a Peter Reinhart recipe.

It was my first time trying to use a soaker, and it seemed to go pretty well. We just finished it up today, and though it got left a little too long and got pretty dark, it still ended up tasting pretty nice!

ICE: Lemonana Cupcakes

We have tons of mint in our garden, and even though I've never tried an authentic lemonana made by anyone who would know, after finding a recipe online, I've been stuck on it. My second ICE: Herb submission is a Lemonana cupcake: lemon cupcake with lemon-mint buttercream.


Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5335273
  
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
  
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Voting will begin no later than Tuesday, July 28 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Wednesday, August 5 at 12 noon. You still have time to join the fun! Visit IronCupcake:Earth at http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com

ICE: Lemon Verbena Cupcakes

The Iron Cupcake Earth challenge for July is herbs. I just got some lemon verbena, and I can't wait to use it all summer! It smells incredible.

My first submission for the ICE challenge is a lemon verbena cupcake. I hadn't gotten to the Perfect Party Cake for TWD, so I used it for this and added some lemon verbena. The mini cuppies are frosted with a lemon swiss meringue buttercream and garnished with a raspberry (the first and only from our garden!).

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5335273
  
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
  
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Voting will begin no later than Tuesday, July 28 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Wednesday, August 5 at 12 noon. You still have time to join the fun! Visit IronCupcake:Earth at http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com

Tribute-to-Katherine Hepburn Brownies

I loved these brownies. Growing up, our family's brownies were a Katherine Hepburn version (the same as these on epicurious), but they were called Saucepan Brownies. I think I even liked these better - how can you go wrong adding chunks of bittersweet chocolate to a great brownie :)

I used a pyrex 7x11 since that's what was free at the time, and I didn't make any adjustments for baking . I also halved the espresso powder and left out the cinnamon, and no nuts. Just chocolate in my brownies :) These weren't even cool yet, so the melted chocolate looks a little messy, but I don't think I had the challenges of over-gooey-ness, or maybe I just have a really high tolerance for gooey chocolate desserts.

Thanks Lisa of Surviving Oz for the great pick!