by jphilo | Nov 4, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
November is such an awkward, unlovely child with it’s chilly days and long nights. Even so, here are ten reasons to love this hard-to-love month.
10. The chances of being bitten by a rattlesnake are low.
9. It’s a good time to rearrange the living room and sweep the insect corpses that have been hiding under the furniture since the Man of Steel discovered the bee hive in the AC unit a while back.
8. Turkey prices go way down. Good for humans. Bad for turkeys.
7. The trees that still have leaves look so courageous, hanging onto their foliage with all their woody might.
6. Morning walks are lighter for a few weeks once Daylight Savings Time kicks in.
5. Outdoor plants moved inside to winter over give the house a safely-tucked-in-bed feeling.
4. Every once in a while God offers up a gloriously warm, calm, and sunny day.
3. In case you haven’t yet heard, The Caregiver’s Notebook released this November. What’s not to love about that?
2. It’s time to make pie.
1. Thanksgiving with the family, eating great food, playing board games, and hugging our grandson!
What do you like best about November? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | May 14, 2014 | Recipes
Just like yesterday’s post, this one is an encore performance. Why? Because I need to work on page proofs of The Caregiver’s Notebook instead of testing new recipes and blogging about the results. And since the rhubarb in our little patch is almost ready to pick…and maybe at your house, too…here’s the recipe for strawberry-rhubarb pie that first appeared on this website in July of 2009.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
Filling:
2 cups sliced strawberries
2 cups sliced rhubarb
2 tablespoons Minute Tapioca
Topping:
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 – 1 cup brown sugar (depending on your taste)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine filling ingredients and pour into an unbaked, 9” pie shell. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of fruit mixture. Bake for 15 minute at 425, then turn heat to 400 and bake for 30-45 minutes more, until fruit is bubbly.
To make strawberry-rhubarb crisp, heat oven to 350 degrees. Omit the pie shell and put fruit mixture in a 9 x 9 Pyrex baking dish. Sprinkle on the topping and bake for 30-45 minutes. I usually double the recipe and bake it in a 9 x 13 Pyrex baking dish.
If you want more pie recipes, you can download the Philo Family Favorite Pie Recipes. Enjoy!
by jphilo | Nov 15, 2013 | Family
The call came last week. Lois Benson, Mom’s oldest sister, had died. She’d been failing for several months, so the news wasn’t unexpected. But it was unwanted by those of us left behind. But I suspect, as do others who loved her, that Lois was not sad to go. Not after enduring cruel losses in her immediate family.
The loss of her son Gary shortly after his high school graduation.
The loss of her son, Vernie, who was a young husband and the father of 3 little girls.
The loss of her husband Ivar in the 1990s.
The loss of her great-grandson Spencer a few years ago.
Gary died when I was five, and her sad smile laces my early memories of this dear woman. Her smile grew achingly, heart wrenchingly sad seven years later when Vernie died. But this is what I will always remember about Aunt Lois: though the smiles grew more fleeting and rare with each loss, she never stopped smiling.
When she talked about her faith, she smiled hopefully.
When she talked about her hobbies, handiwork and baking (if you never tasted one of Aunt Lois’s pies or traditional Norwegian baked treats, you are to be pitied), her smile was animated and bright.
When she talked about the accomplishments of her living children and her grandchildren, she positively beamed.
Today, as our family gathers together to say good-bye to Lois Benson, we will all be hoping and imagining the reunion:
Aunt Lois smiling without a hint of sadness.
Rejoicing to see Gary, Vernie, Ivar, and Spencer once again.
Her Savior leaning down to wipe her tears away.
Her faith fulfilled. Her hope secured.
Oh, Aunt Lois, we will miss you. But knowing you are home again makes us smile…but sadly.
And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.
Revelation 21: 4
by jphilo | Nov 23, 2012 | Daily Life
Happy day after Thanksgiving to everyone! How many of you are clutching your stomachs wondering why you ate an extra piece of pie yesterday?
Raise your hands high. I want an accurate count.
My family is still anticipating our day of gluttony as we gather together tomorrow at our house for a day of feasting and fun. Therefore, this morning I baked three pies–mincemeat, cherry, and strawberry-rhubarb–which could be overkill since our crowd will number 15, one of whom does not yet eat solid food. Plus my niece is bringing cupcakes. And my sister’s bringing tapioca fruit salad.
But I digress. Back to the pies.
The strawberry-rhubarb wasn’t on the menu. But when Hiram brought up the apple pie I made and popped in the freezer last spring, it turned out to be strawberry-rhubarb. The mincemeat pie and cherry were on the menu. But the cherry pie ran over and dripped onto the mincemeat.
So it’s not really mincemeat. It’s chincemeat.
Which I hope will be okay with the fam. And it probably will since Mom says a good pie always runs over. So these pies aren’t just gonna be good. They’re gonna be great. And on Sunday, everyone will be holding their stomachs and wondering why they ate that extra piece of pie.
My pie runneth over. And life is good.
by jphilo | Nov 21, 2012 | Recipes
Today’s mincemeat pie continues the week’s Thanksgiving theme that stared with Monday’s list of Thanksgiving faves. But don’t misunderstand. Mincemeat pie is not my fave–actually I hate the stuff. But because we’re hosting the extended family Thanksgiving feast on Saturday, I’m making a mincemeat pie for the misguided members of our family who love the disgusting traditional dessert.
Please forgive the lack of a picture of a completed dessert. Our big meal is Saturday, so the pies get made on Friday. That’s why you get a picture of the filling, which I purchase at the meat counter of our grocery store. Not that this mincemeat is the traditional filling which used to have meat in it. This filling is comprised of raisins, chopped apples, currents, sugar, corn starch, molasses, orange peel, undisclosed spices, and salt.
Mincemeat Pie
3 – 4 cups purchased mincemeat
2 apples, peeled and chopped
pie crust for a two crust, 9 inch pie
2 tablespoons butter
cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place purchased mincemeat (I get it from the meat market at our grocery store) in saucepan along with chopped apples. Heat over low to medium heat, stirring often, until the apples are getting soft.
Line bottom of pie pan with rolled crust. Pour in mincemeat/apple mixture. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust. Flute and seal edges. With a knife, cut off extra crust and cut slits into top crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Turn it down to 375 and bake for 30-45 more minutes, until crust is golden-brown and filling is bubbly.
