Author: Julia

I am a retired software solutions architect. I have been married to my husband, Bruce, for over forty years. We went full-time RVing for 3.5 years and saw much of the United States. After deciding to stop RVing, we bought a ranch house halfway up a hill on five acres. After Bruce and I talked about names for our five acres, we settled on Blackberry Homestead as a homage to the wild blackberries on the hill. We are working on creating our homestead. I love cooking and enjoy sharing recipes. I am also an artist, and I’ll share my current projects. Gardening and reading are my favorite hobbies.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie

I bought strawberries at Costco and they were sweet and delicious. I have rhubarb growing in my garden and I introduced the strawberries to the rhubarb in a pie. Strawberry rhubarb pie is one of Bruce’s favorite pies. Makes a 9 inch pie

Happy 4th of July

July 4, 2020 Happy Independence Day! I was waiting until the afternoon to take a picture of our flag, and it started raining. I got these shots of our flag with a rainbow!

Malaysian Chicken Satay

This is based on a “Cook’s Illustrated” recipe. I didn’t have several of the ingredients on hand, so this is what I used. It came out beautifully and so good. Bruce did the actual skewering and grilling. This meant dinner was ready when I finished work. Serves 4 to 6

No Sugar Banana “Ice Cream”

I was wondering what to do with a couple of overripe bananas and didn’t feel like heating up the house to make banana bread. I found the inspiration for this recipe in the “Cuisinart Recipe Booklet”. Bruce loves cow dairy cheese and milk, but they don’t love him. I thought it would be worth it […]

Early Evening Visitors

July 2, 2020 Last night, Nox started jumping on the fence and barking. Shinning the flashlight up into the pine tree on the other side of the fence revealed four baby raccoons. I didn’t get a picture of all four raccoons. We did not see the mother raccoon, so maybe she left her babies in […]

Caveman Roast Pepper Salad

Having watched a Steven Raichlen’s “Project Fire” show, where he cooked peppers and onions directly on coals of a wood fire for a salsa, I thought it would be fun to try it cooking vegetables directly on coals. I made a salad using Caveman cooked vegetables. I was very pleased with how the salad came […]

Cultured Butter and Real Buttermilk

When I was a child, I remember making butter with my mother and sisters. My mom would fill up jugs with fresh milk and skim of the cream. The cream was put into a butter churn. The churn was a very large glass jar, maybe 3 gallons, with a lid with a crank attached to […]

Cheese Steak Sandwich

I’ve been wanting a cheese steak sandwich for a while, so I decided to make cheese steak sandwiches for supper recently. Serves 2-4

Watching the Grapes Grow

June 25, 2020