Monday, October 13, 2008

Homemaker Monday: Blackberry Pie and Making Cookies With Your Toddler

Welcome to...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This weeks "YOURS" goes to Tamy over at 3 Sides of Crazy. And she must be crazy! Just wait 'til you see how she has ALREADY prepared for the coming holiday season. For her holiday visitors, she ALREADY has meal plans laid out for nineteen days and has at least TEN of these meals ALREADY made and stored in her freezer, awaiting her company! She is SUPER-WOMAN!

...and to top it off, her kitchen looked like THIS when she was finished with her two-day cooking spree!


For Tamy's meal plans and recipes, click HERE. You are amazing, Tamy! Thanks for joining up here and we hope you have a wonderful holiday season! I KNOW you will!

MINE: Today I'd like to share a couple of ideas with you. The first one is the idea of a blackberry pie. Check out these beautiful berries I bought from my neighbor...


She even threw in an extra crate for good measure. After freezing most of the blackberries on cookie sheets, then putting them in Ziploc bags back into the freezer, I used five cups of the leftover blackberries to make one of these...


For the recipe, click HERE.
For a healthy and great-tasting pie crust how-to, click HERE.

The second idea I'd like to share is an easy way to let your toddler help make cookies.

After making any type of pie crust, you will have leftover dough. Since I am always trying to find a TV-free way to keep Johnny occupied so as not to perform experiments on the twins, I thought he might enjoy making cookies with the leftover dough. Here's what we did. I simply left the dough where it fell on the pillow case (if you're confused about why I was using a pillow case for my dough, click HERE), handed Johnny a butter knife and told him to start cutting the dough into cookies, like so...


That's weird. I just looked at the picture closely and realized he was using his left hand. Wow! Anyways, then I had him place his cookies on a greased cookie sheet, like so...


See the little finger prints where he smushed them onto the pan? At least they will be baked in a 400 degree oven. Next, together, we sprinkled the cookies with sugar and cinnamon...


...and put them in the oven with the blackberry pie for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until golden brown.


This took about twenty minutes for Johnny to complete, and that was twenty minutes that I didn't have to explain to Johnny why it's not a good thing to try to pump the baby's back with a bicycle pump.

I hope this works for you as well as it did for me!

OURS: All righty then, let's see what all of you handsome homemakers have to say today. Remember to check out what others wrote and leave lots of considerate comments. We all love comments, right? Have a great Homemaker Monday!



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18 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks so yum! Great idea and using the leftover dough. Thanks for hosting! I love your blog. I just came upon it. I had come across it a long time ago and I am glad to find you again!

Kate @ A Simple Walk said...

That looks so good. I'm especially excited about what you do with the leftover pie crust. I am going to try that out next time I make a pie. I know it would get eaten in a second! Thanks!

Hesses Madhouse said...

Yum! That blackberry pie looks marvelous! I love that you do this weekly. I have so much to learn. Thanks for all who share here!

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious! I am definitely going to try this out today... it isn't even 9:00 am yet and I don't know what to do to keep my toddler out of everything :) Thank you - you saved my life today!

I love your blog.. you are a great writer and I love learning about you and your cute family!

Rhonda said...

That's so great Jen! I love finding new ways to entertain minus the TV!

So did the pie taste delish?

Globe Trotters said...

Yummy looking pies! Maybe after midterms I will make an apple pie...you may have inspired me! Do you by chance know how to remove the sticky stuff that builds up on the bottom of pans without ruining them?

Anonymous said...

Yummy Pie. Lefty looks like he is having a good time. Nice idea..

Bobbi said...

That looks really good! How nice that you let him help. I bet he was really proud of his cookies! How sweet!

Dusty (To the Moon and Back) said...

I'm late getting mine in today, but I made it! I love that idea for making cookies! I'm going to have to try that with my daughter, she loves to help!

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Yes, Rhondalue, the pie was great! I substituted the pie crust top for streussel topping. Love that!

Anonymous said...

That reminds me I still have some in my freezer from our bushes! That looks really delish!

Manuela

Rae said...

What a yummy looking pie!! I could go for a slice right now!

Sarah said...

I'm so hungry! I really need to go eat dinner........and I want a pie afterwards! Yours looks great!

Kelli said...

I totally would let you bake me a pie... Hey, where's my cool gift from Mexico? You said I could just have one! ;)~ MISS YOU!!!

Carla said...

I missed your Monday, but will be back next week! WONDERFUL post, as always!

JEWELGIRL said...

The left over pie crust idea is a good idea to keep Johnny busy.
The pie looks amazing!

threesidesofcrazy said...

I'm tuning in late this week - it's just one of those weeks. Imagine my pleasant surprise when you chose my holiday meal planning for "YOURS" this week. Thank you for all the kind words.

I love Johnny's cookies - what a great way to get him interested in cooking too. I remember when we were little grams would set us all at the kitchen table to cut out, bake and decorate sugar cookies for all the different seasons.

And blackberries are my favorite - I have to try this pie!

Unknown said...

I'm posting your piecrust cookie picture to share with my friends. I will tell them to visit your blog to see what else you have cooking! I hope that's ok... thank you.
MaryAnn