The Blueberry season started last week and every couple of days I go out and pick. Last years crop was incredibly heavy. This year's crop is not. Out of 9 bushes, 3 of one type are loaded. The other 6 have very few. I have two theories. One is because last year's crop was so heavy they are taking a rest this year. The other is that the intense month + of rain prevented flowers from being pollinated. I'm leaning toward the first theory because I was checking flowers early and didn't see that many. I'm sure the rain didn't help matters, however.
My friend, Christie, sent me a recipe for Blueberry Gingerbread and Blueberry Sauce to go over top. Sounded awesome, so I had to try it.
Here's the blueberry sauce cooking down. Sugar, cornstarch and water with blueberries. After it cooks, add in lemon zest and lemon juice.
And here is the blueberry gingerbread. It looks a little overcooked around the edges but it's really moist and not dry at all.
In the blueberry mood I decided to make a pitcher of this as iced tea. It's one of the few I can drink without sweetener. Very refreshing. One of the best things I ever bought was an ice tea maker. Sounds weird but a friend said she loved hers so I decided about 6 years ago to get one. She's right! Makes awesome tea and never gets cloudy. I use it constantly in the summer.
And here's the resulting goodness. Wow it's good. When I was in college, my Mom used to make gingerbread with warm lemon sauce over top when I came home. This reminds me of that.
So, I found the pictures of my stitching! They were still on my camera! Duh....... Gotta down load them if you want to find them. Anyway, a sweet lady at work is expecting her first child after lots of trying and medical tests etc. Everyone is soo excited for her. Quite a few women cross stitch or have in the past so an afghan was selected with all the letters of the alphabet. It's going to be cute all finished. I selected 'P' just 'cause it's so cute and reminded me of Cincinnati's flying pig marathon that my husband has run in a few times. I also selected the 'Z' because my maiden name was Zimmerman and most people aren't attracted to the letter Z. But I love it.
This past Saturday I spent in a class with Ellen Chester. She taught a group of us her 'Long May She Wave' project. It is adorable and fun to stitch with lots of different stitches to learn and practice. I'm enjoying the little extra time that I have putting in a stripe of specialty stitches. Jump over to Ellen's With My Needle to see us in action.
