Friday, August 29, 2014

Random 5 on Friday: Ramblings From a Hot Kitchen

The Pebble Pond

1. Does your grocery store wrap up over-ripe fruit and veggies for "quick, reduced sales"? You should cash in on those, especially if you're a baker! I picked up 2 bunches of bananas for $1.90 and made 6 DELISH loaves of chocolate chip banana bread, 5 to freeze for quick snacks and breakfasts. Well, at least that's the plan until the kids get hungry...

2. And just because the oven was already on, the house all hot, and my Mom had just delivered 5 quarts on wild Maine blueberries, I made a blueberry pie using this simple recipe. I even made the crusts from scratch! (But Pillsbury makes some ready-dones that are awesome...) I struggled with them though; I don't think a 85 degree kitchen helped keep the dough cool...The pie was yummy topped with vanilla bean ice cream.

Photo Credit (Yeah, not my photo. The pie didn't last long enough for a photo...)

3. Summer returned to Maine. Not that it REALLY left as temperatures have been in the 70s and that's still summer around these parts, but we were in the mid-80s for a couple of days this week. ::melt:: But it's great for my itty-bitty zucchinis and ripening pumpkins!

4. And a perfect time for the flock to get out for long afternoons of free ranging while the kids read in the hammock. Unfortunately the ducks spied my ripening cherry tomatoes and filled their crops. I'm sure they enjoyed them...

5. But I am ready for fall! Nothing like the vibrant fall colors of the trees, the warm days, but cool evenings, the turning of the seasons. (Winter and snow can wait a while though...)


7 comments:

  1. Everything looks and sounds so yummy! The autumn photo is lovely, but I am not looking forward to fall! Is is already like that pic in Maine? We just saw a very large flock of geese flying south tonight. I have never ever seen them do that until October!

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    1. No, not yet, Sylvia, but we do have some trees starting to color already, and nights are cool enough for a Hoodie! There's definitely some fall in the air!

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  2. Oh that is so lovely. It's still definitely summer in Missouri with heat warnings this week. But we often go straight from a week of heat warnings to clearly autumn temps. I hope you have a good week.

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    1. Thanks, Christy! Enjoy the rest of those, er, HOT days! LOL

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  3. I have never put chocolate chips in banana bread before, but it sounds delicious. This time of year I make a lot of pumpkin bread and I do put chocolate chips in it sometimes. My family loves it!

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    1. It IS almost time for pumpkin "everything"! I'm waiting for my sugar pie pumpkins to ripen though! Yummy!

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