Blueberry Pie and The Honor System

My Husband and I both had to work this past Saturday morning.  Luckily, we were both done by lunchtime and when I got home, he said he had a surprise for me!  Yay! I can usually figure out what his surprises are, but this one really had me stumped.  We got in the car and headed to wherever the surprise was.  We ended up in the next town over, Pilot Mountain.  He was taking me blueberry picking!  There was this cute little blueberry farm that he had driven by on his milk truck route and he thought I would like it.  Of course I would!  I love doing stuff like that!  So, we pull in and there are 2 people there, none of whom work there.  We just grab a little bucket and start picking.  It was hot, but we had a lot of fun eating berries and throwing them at each other!.  When our bucket is full, we head back, but there is still not anyone in sight that works there.  Well, there is a table set up with scales, plastic bags, a metal box, and a piece of paper.  The paper says “The Honor System:  You pick them, weigh them, put them in a bag, and leave your money in the box.”  So we did!  I thought that was pretty cool!

Apparently, I was tricked because, little did I know, Johnny had been wanting a blueberry pie, which I have never made before.  Of course, I wasn’t going to tell him that.  And it turned out freaking fabulous!  So, here is my recipe.  I apologize for the measurements.  I tend to not measure things.  I just guess and add and pour, but I will try to get as close as possible.

4 pounds of blueberries!

These were some big berries!

 

So to start, if you are using fresh berries, you need to wash them of course.  I assume everyone knows this, but I also forget that not everyone has blueberry farms 15 minutes from their house.  If you buy them from the store, I would recommend washing them anyway!  Now, I’m not going to get into the pie/sonker/cobbler thing (that’s a whole other blog) but, I had just bought a deep dish pie crust and I really wanted to use it, while I really felt like the blueberries would work best in a sonker/cobbler setting.  I filled the pie crust with blueberries.  I really don’t know how many it was, but if I had to guess, I would say 6 cups.  Next, you mix together 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup light brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.  I just poured that over the berries inside of the pie crust and kind of tossed it around until all the berries were coated.

 

Next step is the topping.  This is just a crust, you could use another pie crust if you wanted, I just didn’t want to go that route with this one.  I melted 6 tablespoons of butter a mixed in 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar.  I also added some cinnamon and quick cooking oats to it, just to be fancy.  (Reminder:  I don’t measure, so what I am writing on here is just a guess of what I used.)  Mix everything together until it is pasty.  It shouldn’t be runny.  More like a cookie dough.  You kind of have to drop it onto the top of the blueberries in the pie crust as evenly as you can.

That’s what it looked like before it was cooked.

 

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  You can’t cut it immediately, it needs time to set up.  This pie is so good!

Finished Product!

 

 

 

Sometimes I let him do what he wants.

 

That’s why you shouldn’t cut it immediately.  But, he was going to terrorize it anyways!  It was a great Saturday!  I also got a new planter from my Dad and got my chicks and hens planted (This is what I call that plant, although I have heard several other names.  I do know it is one of the only plants that I can successfully multiply!!!)

So cool looking!

 

 

 

 

 

Never Underestimate the Older Generations

I work in the Insurance industry.  I’m an Agent for the Good Hands people.  I write auto, home, life, and business insurance.  When I write a Homeowner’s policy, Allstate will send out a property inspector to check out the house and make sure it’s in good shape and doesn’t need any repairs.  If it’s good, then we continue the policy.  But if there are any problems, they let us know, then we contact the customer.  The customer will usually make the repairs, we will go out and take pictures, submit then to the Property Department, then the policy is good to go!  Sometimes the customer won’t fix the problems and their policy will terminate, but that’s a whole other story.

So, I wrote a home policy for this very nice couple.  They are in their 50s, have 3 teenage girls, just a normal family.  Our property inspector went out to look at the property and they had a few issues.  The lady was very understanding and fixed the problems promptly.  So, I told her I would come out to take pictures and get everything taken care of so we could continue the policy.  Well, the day I was going to go out to her house, it ended up raining all day.  So, I called her and asked if she texted.  She said yes, so I asked if she could just text the pictures to me.  She agreed.  The next day she comes in my office.  I told her I never got the pictures.  She said she just sent them a second ago.  I said ok and we waited and waited, but I never got them.  So, I asked if she could email them to me.  She said yes, and did it as she sat there at my desk.  I never got the email.  So we sat there wondering how to get those pictures off of her phone and onto  mine or at least onto my computer somehow!  Then, she asks me if I Bluetooth.  Now, keep in mind, this is a woman almost the same age as my mom (no offense Mama) and my immediate reaction to her cell phone use is that she doesn’t really know how.  So, I turn on my Bluetooth and wait.  She says she doesn’t see me on her phone.  But, I had turned it on.  She asks me what kind of phone I have and I told her it was a HTC (she had an iphone.)  After I try for a good 5 minutes, she finally says “Julie, just give me your phone and let me do it.”  I, red-faced, hand her my phone and within 20 seconds, she has downloaded the pictures from her iphone onto my phone.  She hands my phone back to me and says “there.”  I was a little embarrassed that a lady 30 years older than me knew more about technology than I did, but happy I finally got the dern pictures after trying for 30 minutes!  Needless to say, I will never underestimate an older generation again!

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

**There’s a party I’m hosting, and weenies for roasting, and sandwiches fresh from the stove.

There’ll be funny commercials, some plays controversial, and beer will be surely a flow!**

That’s right, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Superbowl time! You may be thinking “wow, this girl is one football fan.” No, not at all!  I am celebrating the end of the season!  The end of Saturday and Sunday long, listening to my husband yell at the tv, don’t you dare change that channel, torture.  It’s a glorious time and requires lots of planning on my part.  This year is going to be a little different because we will actually have guests so, I’ve got to start my party planning!  The menu this season will be as follows:

Ham Delights

It’s real easy, you buy a tin of those little dinner rolls that they sell in the bread isle.  Cut it in half, so you have a top and bottom.  Layer with ham and swiss cheese.  Place top half back on (or as some people call it, “the lid.”) Melt 1/3 cup butter.  Mix in 1 tbs mustard, 1 tbs poppy seeds, 1/3 tsp Worcestershire sauce.  Now spread that junk all over the top of them rolls, cover it up in some foil, and bake that stuff for 20 minutes at 350.  Mmmmm.

Mini Pigs in a Blanket

I don’t feel like I really need to explain this recipe, but for those that absolutely have no idea, here it is.  Cheap red hotdogs, crescent rolls.  Cut em, roll em up, bake em.  Yum.

Slut Brownies

This is an easy one too.  Pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough.  Layer it on the bottom of a baking dish or pan.  Drop in a layer of oreo cookies, Then you get some brownie mix (the cheap kind), make it according to the directions on the box, and pour that goop all over those oreos.  350, bake it for 30-35 minutes, and mmmm.  I suggest waiting a while to cut them because they will crumble and not be pretty if you do it while they are hot.

(Just a note:  These are not pictures of the food that I have actually made, but it will look exactly like it.  I will post pics of mine in my follow-up blog about how great life is post-football)

We will probably have some chips and dip and I may throw in something fruity, but this is the easiest, best tasting Superbowl menu by far! After all my food is cooked, I like to pull out the nice Wilton Armetale silver platters to serve it on.  Gotta keep it classy!

There’s a good side to every situation…most of the time

So, I’m Julie, the third part of Mommy in Bonlee.  I call myself “Childless in Mayberry.”  I’ve been thinking about what to write for some time now.  This is what I finally decided on.  I don’t complain a lot (I don’t think…) and I am generally a happy person.  For the past few months I have grown more and more frustrated with my current situation.  My husband and I have been trying to conceive for almost two years now.  We haven’t gone to any doctor’s or taken any fancy fertility medicine yet, we’ve just been trying the good old-fashioned way.  I have to admit that the more time passes, the more pissed I get.  It seems like every single time I check my Facebook, another person is pregnant.  It’s like oh, you only had sex once?  Congratulations on being so fertile!  I’m not saying that I’m mad at you personally for getting pregnant, but I am saying that I don’t care about your weekly baby updates.  Now that I’m done venting (for the most part), here is a list of things that I can do, that all you pregnant people and ones with babies can’t.

1.  What’s that Johnny?  Want to go to the beach this weekend?  I believe I will.  Why’s that?  No baby=more money=go to the beach whenever you want.

2.  I’m bored.  I think I will build a jewelry wall.  It doesn’t matter if it takes all day because I can do whatever I want.

3.  Let’s go gem mining this weekend!  It will be fun because we won’t have any kids to chase around!  Plus, if we find anything that’s worth something, we can spend the money on ourselves!

4.  You don’t need kids to make cool Christmas Cards!  Pets are easier and more fun!

Other things that are more enjoyable without being pregnant or having kids are going to football games and tailgating, fire pits and beer on the weekends, not having to buy diapers, not having stretch marks (for the most part), not having morning sickness, getting great sleep at night (and sometimes during the day too!), never having to get a babysitter, and playing with the dogs (because everyone knows that if you have kids, the pets get put on the back burner.)

So, that is a list of the good side of my situation.  I feel better already!