Berry Pie filling

When I was looking for my recipe for Blueberry Pie Filling I came across a Berry Pie Filling recipe and thought that, that was the one for blueberries too.  So after I have added the sugar, clear jel A, and water I remember that they are NOT the same recipe.  Totally annoying, I didn’t want to waste all of that sugar and clear jel A so I decided to make Bumble Berry Pie filling too.  What’s bumble berry pie??? It’s just a lot of different berries mixed together. This recipe works for all other berries that are not blueberries.

The Recipe

For 7 quarts

6 quarts of fresh or frozen berries*

7 cups of sugar

1 3/4 cups of Clear Jel A (don’t substitute cornstarch it really isn’t suitable for canning)

9 1/3 cups of water

1/2 cup of lemon juice

The Directions

Rinse berries. Combine sugar and clear jel A in a large pot.  Stir.  Add water Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Fold in Berries and process immediately for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.  35 min for 1000-3000 feet & 40 minutes for 3000-6000 feet.

Bumble Berry Pie

What I used

2 quarts of Strawberries, 2 quarts of blackberries, 1 quart of raspberries and 1 quart of blueberries.  You can use whatever mixture of berries you want, or use all the same type.  Blackberries aren’t really ready yet, so yesterday the kids and I got on our bikes and road all around the neighborhood picking wild blackberries.  I was really surprised we got 2 quarts.

* if using frozen berries, thaw and drain them before use.

For 1 Quart of Berry Pie Filling

3 1/2 cups of berries

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of clear jel A

1 1/3 cups of water

1 TBS + 1 TSP of lemon juice

Blueberry Pie Filling

We finally got a chance to go blueberry picking!  The blueberries are on  late this year, but as they say better late than never. My absolute favorite thing about where we live is all of the U-Pick berry places. It’s awesome!  I try and pick between 60 –70 lbs. of blueberries every summer and that will last us about a year. Mostly I freeze them, but I also make blueberry jam, syrup and pie filling.  Today I’m sharing the pie filling recipe because it’s a really great one and you can’t find canned pie filling recipes in most canning books.  Interested in other types of berry pie filling? Checkout  this post HERE.

This recipe comes from the Oregon State University Extension Service.

Blueberry Pie Filling

For 7 Quarts (I give the measurements for 1 quart at the end)

6 quarts of fresh blueberries

6 cups of sugar

2 1/4 cups of Clear Jel A (don’t substitute cornstarch, it really isn’t suitable for canning)

7 cups of cold water

1/2 cup of lemon juice

20 drops of blue food coloring (optional)

7 drops of red food coloring (optional)

Directions

Wash and drain blueberries.  Combine sugar and clear Jel A in a large pot.  Stir.  Add water and if desired, food coloring.  Cook on medium high heat until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Fold in berries, fill jars immediately with mixture, and process immediately,  30 minutes in a boiling water bath (sea level). 1001-3000 ft. 35 min and 3000-6000 ft. 40 min.

Wash and drain 6 quarts of blueberries.

Gather you canning supplies, if you’re canning 7 quarts you’re going to need a large pot and some upper body strength. 

Add your sugar, clear jel A and water and cook until really thick and begins to bubble.

Thickened filling.

Get out your big girl muscles and start gently folding in the blueberries. I know it looks a little weird, I was really concerned the first time I made this, don’t worry though it turns out beautifully.

  Fill your jars with the gelatinous mass and process.

So after it comes out of the canner it’s magically turns into this beautiful pie filling.  It gorgeous coming out of the can too.  Love it!

Hope you enjoy it!

Measurements for 1 quart of pie filling.  The directions remain the same.

3 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries

3/4 cup+ 2 TBS. of Sugar

1/4 cup + 1 TBS. of Clear Jel A

1 cup of cold water

3 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice

3 drops of blue food coloring (optional)

1 drop of red food coloring (optional)

Kettle Corn

We love popcorn around our house and one of our favorites is homemade kettle corn.  It taste exactly like the real deal and it’s super easy to make.

The Recipe

1/4 cup of un-popped popcorn

1/4  cup of oil

1/4  cup of sugar

1/4 tsp. of salt

Directions

Place all of the ingredients in a stove top popper and cook until popcorn is popped. Pretty simple, pretty yummy!

Artisan Bread

If you have read my blog very much you will know that I have a small obsession with bread baking.  I’m not sure why, but I do. I love trying new bread recipes! (if you have one to share please do!!!) So when I saw this super simple artisan bread recipe HERE I knew I had to make it.  It really is as easy as it looks. And the directions are really easy to follow. 

Its nice and crusty on the outside and perfectly chewy in the middle it’s a gorgeously perfect loaf of bread.

In other words you shouldn’t make it if you allergic to yumminess.  P.S.  You can print the recipe off of their blog HERE you have to scroll down a bit but it’s there.  Here are some picture directions for you to follow.  They say it only cost 40 cents a loaf but I figured out that mine was only like 10 cents a loaf possible less. (because I buy everything for bread in bulk.)

FYI- Since this was my first time making this bread and I wanted to make sure we liked it.  I only made half a batch and I just used my kitchen-aid bowl with plastic wrap over the top. 

So after your bread rises it should start to look flat on the top, then you know you’re ready for the next step.

Form you loaf into whatever shape you want just make sure it’s nice and smooth/ tight on top. Let it rise again about 40 min.

After its risen a second time, dust it with flour and add some slits on the top.  I did a cross and two horizontal slits.  I liked the crossed better in the end.

Bake with a steam bath (what’s a steam bath? they have directions you can follow on the recipe)  at 450 for 25-30 min on a hot pizza stone.  Mine took 30.  Commence drooling.

Seriously how many pictures of a loaf of bread can you take???

apparently a lot.

It really is lovely I can’t wait to have it with dinner tonight!  Good thing I’m doing the Warrior Dash tomorrow, cause I might be tempted to keep an entire loaf to myself. Just me a loaf of crusty bread and a bottle of balsamic vinegar…ahhh paradise.

Family Carnival

We recently spent 2 weeks in UT for some family reunions. The first family reunion was my family and the second was my hubby’s family. We had a blast, plus I got to go somewhere the sun shines and it’s warmer than 70 degrees. A BIG PLUS IN MY BOOK!!! Anyway I digress, onward and upward.  My extended family is pretty young; the oldest grandchild is only 9 (she happens to be mine, the next oldest happens to be mine also) When my mom & sister were trying to think of ways to entertain the kiddos, they came up with a great idea.  They decided to have a family carnival.  Each family was in charge of one of the carnival booths.  Since there are 6 kids + my parents in our family we had 7 different stations.  My parents were also in charge of the food.  They even got a snow cone machine AND a cotton candy machine.  It was a ton of fun, super easy and kept the kids really entertained. 

The booths we had were

• Fortune Teller/Kissing Booth (I’ll explain)
• Ring Toss
• Dunk Tank
• Whack-a-mole/ water squirt
• Picture taking (strongman, trapeze lady)
• Donuts on a string
• Knock down the bottles.

This little game you hook up to your hose and it sprays water at you as you jump on the little whack-a-mole guys.

Take your picture as a circus performer.

My sister did and awesome job with this one. The kissing booth was guessing how many Hershey’s kisses there were in different sized bottles.  BUT the fortune teller was by far my favorite, my sister dressed up and told peoples fortunes, she used one of those paper fortune teller things you use to make back in 3rd grade (remember those?). Every kids got to keep one as a souvenir from her booth.  Plus the fortunes were hilarious.

This wasn’t a true dunk tank, but it was still really wet and fun.  A person (mostly my husband) sat on the stool while other people got to throw wet sponges at them (him).

Ring toss.

I usually don’t share family pictures, but here are some from the carnival, some of them are my kids, some of them aren’t.

My parents also brought foot racers and stilts for the kids to play with.

We were coming from so many different states that our booths weren’t super elaborate or involved but you could really go all out, or just keep it simple like we did.  It was a great time.