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.

Hiking and Falling on My Butt

February 26, 2024 Yesterday, the weather was lovely here, so we decided to take advantage of the hiking trails in the campground. The Flat Creek Family Campground has several hiking trails throughout the woods next to the campground. The trails are cleared and marked with blazes. We walked Nox and took her back to the […]

Instant Pot Preserved Lemon, Mushrooms and Peas Risotto with Chicken Tenders

The other day I was looking in my pantry when I saw Arborio rice. I also was thinking about other dishes for using my preserved lemons. Between them, they sparked an idea and I came up with the following recipe. It has a lovely lemony flavor that goes well with the peas. It makes a […]

Poor Little Nox

February 23, 2024 Last week, I noticed Nox was licking her left front foot. I thought she might have a burr stuck to her foot, so I turned her over to take a look. Her poor foot! She didn’t have a burr or anything I could see, but she had licked one pad raw. She […]

Instant Pot Moroccan Style Chicken

When I posted about making preserved lemons, I got many comments wondering what I was going to do with the preserved lemons. With the preserved lemons being ready, I decided to make a Moroccan style chicken in my Instant Pot. I started out by making the recipe for the Moroccan spice blend (Ras el Hanout) […]

A Visit to Blountstown in Florida

February 19, 2024 Last Tuesday (February 13), being Mardi Gras, I wanted fried oysters. In looking at the restaurants in the area, Fiddler’s Steamhouse & Oyster Bar in Blountstown, FL got great reviews. We decided to ride there and give them a try. We arrived at 2:00 pm, so they weren’t very busy. They did […]

Roasting Hotdogs in the Campfire

February 16, 2024 Flat Creek Family Campground and RV Park has nice fire rings and picnic tables at the camp sites. Since we had a nice fire ring and pleasant weather, we decided to have a campfire. On February 7, we bought hotdogs in anticipation of roasting them over a campfire. Bruce started to put […]

Hotdog and Hamburger Buns

This recipe is a modification of the recipe on the King Arthur Banking site for Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns. These buns turned out great and the size fit the hotdogs perfectly. Lots of goodies fit easily into these hotdog buns with the hotdog. Makes 18 Buns

Regular Living Task – Washing Nox and Her Bedding

February 13, 2024 The other day, the weather warmed up enough to wash Nox. She had been needing a bath for a while, but we don’t like wash her when it is cold. We don’t like her to be wet in the cold. Seeing her shivering from the cold worries us. I first washed Nox’s […]

Beignets

I was craving donuts, so I decided to make beignets as they are an easy donut to make. I made a modification to the Classic Beignets recipe from the King Arthur Baking site. I was pleased with how the beignets turned out. The beignets satisfied my donut craving. Makes about 30 beignets

Torreya State Park in Florida

February 6, 2024 On Saturday (February 3), we rode the motorcycle to a nearby Florida state park, Torreya State Park. As we rode into the park, we passed a trailhead warning the pay station was ahead. So we continued to the pay station. They had pull offs for vehicles to stop at to be out […]