Entirely Too Many Sour Cherries= Almond Cherry Crumble.

My mother has a fascination with farming/gardening. The older I get the more I do too. So when a farmer said he had too many sour cherries that needed picking, my mom jumped on the opportunity to glean. Now sour cherries are pouring out of our fridge. Sadly, plain ol' sour cherries are simply too sour for human consumption (in my opinion at least). So naturally I scanned all kinds of dessert recipes and mixed a couple ideas to formulate a sweet concoction.

However, it turns out cherries from a farm are full of pits (shocking, right?). So I got all Colonial and pit them myself. 45 minutes later I decided I qausi-love the Industrial Revolution and every kind of crop machinery in the world.


What You Need
Filling
4 cups of sour cherries
3/4 cups of sugar (if you have sweet cherry's cut this sugar amount in half)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cornstarch
Topping
1 cup flour
1/2cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup chilled butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp milk
3/4 tsp almond extract

What To Do
-Preheat that oven to 350
-In mixing bowl combine sour cherries, sugar, and cornstarch. Gently stir until cornstarch and sugar dissolve. Pour cherry mix into a 8X8 baking pan.
-In seperate bowl combine flour, sugar, and almonds. Cut butter in cubes and put in the mix. Should be all loose and crumbly.
-Add in milk and almond extract. Stir it all up.
-Toss crumbles all over the top of the mix. Spread it out so it covers all of the cherries. Some small holes are fine.
-Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cherries should be all bubbly and crust should be almost golden. Let cool. Enjoy!

My dad's new book. All kinds of awesome.

The picture above is the author's copy of my dad's new book! The book is due out in August. I have already started reading through it this morning and I love it so far. He discusses the religiously pluralistic culture that Jesus lived in & the many ways it resembles the culture we live in today. Then he points out the different ways Jesus loved, interacted with, and taught people from all different backgrounds and religious viewpoints. All throughout he examines our modern culture and the way that Jesus would interact with each one of us. He challenges us to love and interact with people in real and unique ways. So far super practical and incredibly enlightening.

My dad just so happens to live it. He loves people in ways that are unique to their values and background. He talks about deer & elk with the hunters (even though he has only shot one deer ever, and it was in the leg). He performs weddings and funerals (at no cost) for people that have never stepped into a church. He spends time with the Boy Scout dad's, the talented & gifted, the societal "odd-balls", the socially awkward, the CEO's, the churched, the unchurched. He listens really well; so well that it is hard to get him to leave any get-together. He asks excellent questions that get to the core. He is genuinely intrigued by every single person that he encounters. And he knows how to love people well. I am an incredibly lucky lady to have such a father.

Gift Bag Tags. Or something like that.

Grown-ups still do arts and crafts. We just rename the activity so it becomes entirely too sophisticated to be associated with our memories from fourth grade art class. We call it "knitting," "card-making," and "Creative Memories." But, really it all still centers around glue, paper, yarn, and glitter.

I never have grown out of arts and crafts, in fact I keep growing into them. I used to do a made-up craft show called the "Whatchamackalite Show" with my little brother. Being the awesome little brother that he is, he kept participating to humor his dorky older sister (8 years his senior) until he got much too old for a made up TV show. I had an audience and a song and I made crafts. Lots of crafts. I tried to make more grown up crafts but always defaulted to using clay made of flour & salt and painting with acrylic paint and 29 cent paint brushes.

With all my weddings this summer I decided to make little gift tags. This dough is also perfect for Christmas ornaments. The recipes for such is super easy:

MIX:
4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of salt
1 1/2 cup water

Once you have got a grainy & doughy consistency start making the shapes you want. I made heart-shaped bag tags so I used a heart shaped cookie cutter. Lay creations out on a cookie sheet and bake for 4-5 hours at 300 degrees. (check on periodically for firmness). After baking, let creations sit on a wire-cooling rack for a while. When it comes to painting, I use acrylic. I am sure lots of other kinds of paint would work. Once the paint is dry I cover with mod podge or sealant to give a glossy finish.

Enjoy! Let the inner 10-year old emerge. Nothing like flour and salt and paint to accomplish such a mission.

An LBK Vacay!

Sitting in the Lubbock International Airport about to board my flight to Albuquerque then to Denver. Somehow this airport got the name "International" but only sends planes around TX and to Vegas. Maybe El Paso counts?

Anyways, it was a Texas ten star weekend visiting Marshall and friends in Lubbock. Driving range, drive-in movie, pool, tennis, winery tour, Bar-b-que, Las Brisas (not to be confused with La Diosa's), Fourth of July (minus fireworks...due to flooding), Sheri's and Sheri's cute puppies, The Moore's, the McMahan's, and the Buschman's incredible hospitality.

I wanted the weekend to be relaxing and fulfilling. Check yes on both. I am an incredibly blessed lady with a cute boyfriend who humors my ability to use words that don't exist (even when I think they do) and encourages me to take risks, work hard, and love Jesus more & more. Plus, he is super fun to hang out with.

To end an incredible weekend with a bang I made chicken parmigiana. I have recently fallen in love with "The Pioneer Woman's" recipes. She puts together killer meals and the instructions are super easy to follow...simple enough that I don't screw up and forego a necessary ingredient (ie. brownies without eggs)

Here is the link: I suggest you try it...especially if you want to impress a real Italian and you're just a Norwegian.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chicken-parmigiana/