Berry Adentures!

Every year I make up a summer to-do list. Just normal boring things that I swear I will do in a summer. Generally I don't knock many items off that list. But this year, this lazy wonderful year, I have done quite a few things on my summer list. You already know that I have a garden and we made jam; two things on the list. I've also visited people more. In the recent weeks I have also hit a couple of list highlights.
The sweet heart, me and my-almost-in-laws went into the hills to do some huckleberry picking. Ian's parents used to go berry picking all the time and knew where to hit; the ski area. The road didn't go all the way in so we had to do some hiking but that is part of the appeal to me. I like the hiking so much that I talked Ian into going all the way to the top.
The hillsides looked a little naked with no trees and no snow. We had a pretty good haul and I made huckleberry fruit leather, huckleberry jam and huckleberry pie. There are still some berries in the freezer despite my industry.
Cooking is another thing I have gotten to this summer. We've been trying to make good use of our zucchini. Mom suggested that I keep four plants. If she ever gives you this advice be prepared for loads and loads of zucchini. We made some crazy pizza thing with zucchini, egg and flour as the crust. This worked pretty well. I also made a quiche.


This is my first quiche. It took forever to make but was very pretty. I liked it well enough to make a second and maybe there are more to come. And I made challah, a Jewish celebration bread.

Jesse said it made the best french toast so I thought I'd give it a try. Braiding the bread was not as tricky as I anticipated. What the cookbook didn't tell me is that if the top braid is not centered properly it will slide down the side of the bottom braid giving me lopsided bread. Now I know and so do you.
I made some squash soup with squash, apples, thyme and onion all from my own garden. That was pleasing.
Lastly (I swear this post is almost over) we went to lentil fest this year. We drove down to Pullman to celebrate one of our favorite legumes. My favorite part was the cook-off. Everybody gets to be a judge. The give you a plate with six different lentil treats then you get to vote of your favorite. And it's free! As was the love.


Becky and Kelvin came along with us and man, did that kid love the lentil ice cream. I shared with him in part so that I could tease him about his limited eating ability. He got more ice cream on his face than I did.