Does this make you hungry? It was gone about two seconds after I took this shot, and, it was good! This plant is left over from ones I had planted along the path in my garden when our grandsons were small. They loved to pick berries and even managed to get a few into the house. I washed the berry off with the hose before I ate it, but they didn’t bother with washing them at all.

The boys are big now, and the strawberries have been gone from the garden a couple of years. This plant is one of the runners from the original twenty five plants I bought. I found it growing under a lily, and moved it to the sun this spring. This morning, I noticed that five more berries are almost ready to eat.

Rhubarb Pecan Muffins

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs or 1/2 cup eggbeaters
1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups finely chopped rhubarb
1/2 chopped pecans
21/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of cinnamon

1. Mix together brown sugar, oil, eggs. Add buttermilk rhubarb and pecans.

2. Add dry ingredients and mix.

3. Spoon batter into muffin tins, bake 20 minutes at 425 ºF (220º C)

Just tried this new recipe. I like it and will use it again

A great bread to serve with soup, and it makes good toast!

Taos Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or homemade
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup fine cornmeal, or masa harina
5 1/2 to 6 cups flour
3 tablespoons each cornmeal and unbleached flour for sprinkling

1. Dissolve yeast in water, let set a few minutes until foamy.
2. Add sugar, eggs, pumpkin, salt, cornmeal and 2 cups of the flour. Mix.
3. Slowly add the rest of the flour, and turn out onto a bread board.
4. Knead until smooth and elastic. You may have to add a bit more flour.
5. Let rise in a greased container, then form two large round loaves or 4 small ones.
6. Let rise until double in size, then slash the top of the loaves and dust on the cornmeal and flour.
7. Bake in a 450º oven for 20 minutes.

The loaves in the photo are one half of this recipe, which came from a book called Breads of the Southwest, by Beth Hensperger.

Lemon Bread
1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
rind of 1 lemon, grated
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Add lemon rind and eggs, beat well. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture along with the milk and stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Bake in greased 9 inch loaf pan 50 to 60 minutes. When done, remove from oven, and top with a mixture of the juice of one lemon and the remaining sugar. Let set in pan to cool.
Good served with cream cheese.
Recipe from the Yankee Bread Cookbook.

Just after adding the sugar and lemon juice topping.

Nicole, over at Pinch My Salt, has gotten me interested in making sourdough bread, again. I set the starter on Sunday, and today made my first loaf of what I call Maine Sourdough. It is a very simple loaf. The starter consists of one cup flour, and one cup water. This batch soured up quick, it was ready to use this morning. I took one cup for my bread recipe, added one more cup of flour and water, and let that set until this afternoon. Next I added a pinch of sugar and salt, a one half teaspoon yeast, and a tablespoon of olive oil. I mixed that all together and kneaded it for about fifteen minutes. After that, I rolled the dough into a loaf, and let it rise a bit. Finally, baked it for 15 minutes, in a 425º oven.
When it was cool, I did a taste test. Then I did another one, this time with some of my friend Carol’s rhubarb-ginger marmalade. It passed. The house smells really good, too!