Karen's Dangling Conversation

Our thanksgiving would not be complete without Blackberry Pie.  Preferably with berries picked with our own hands in Seattle!  Seattle is where I grew up and it is the land of wild blackberries.  Everywhere!  I never appreciated it until I moved to Utah which is NOT the land of wild blackberries.  This was my latest foray into blackberry picking and it was so fun!  So this year I am so excited to know that I will have real Seattle blackberries in my favorite Thanksgiving Pie!  Thank you God for blackberries, they are so amazing and sticky and sweet! Mom's Blackberry Pie Makes 1 pie Crust: 2 cups flour (can use part whole wheat) 1/2 tsp Salt 2/3 cup butter Mix flour and salt, then cut in butter with pastry cutter.  Add 2-4 Tablespoons ice water and mix with fork until a ball forms.  Form into two balls and flatten.  Roll out two pie crusts.  Line pie pan with one and cut slashes or decorations in the other. Berry Fillin...

I have bought almond milk from the store for quite a while now.  The other day I needed some and I thought, DARN, I have to run to the store and then the light bulb went on!  I have almonds, I have water, I have this really fancy KTech blender!  So why not make my own almond milk!  So I did and it is amazing...so much better than from the store!  Give it a try, you will love the results!  For a very informative article about knowing where your almonds come from hop on over to Whole New Mom. Almond Milk Recipe 1 cup raw almonds, soaked over night 3-4 cups filtered water 1/2 a vanilla bean (scrape out the seeds, that's what you want) 4 dates (any kind) soaked for 1 hour Place all the ingredients in a good high speed blender and blender for about 3 minutes. Now comes the fun!  It's almost as good as milking a cow!   So there are two ways to use the almond milk.  You can use it just as it is with the pulp or you can strain it. ...

I had always heard about my friend Jennifer’s amazing eggplant sandwiches.  She said that her kids loved them and ate them up for dinner no problem!  So one day when all my purple eggplant stars aligned I texted her for the recipe.  I had an eggplant in the crisper drawer and I had just gone to Costco and for some reason could not resist the amazing crusty mini breads they had that day.  Mmmm, they smelled so good and were so fresh they were still warm.  She quickly responded and before I knew it I had made this most amazing dinner.  And guess what!  She was right my kids ate them up...every bite! Grilled Eggplant Sandwiches by Jennifer Cragun You will need: 1 Medium Eggplant 2 red peppers (or any other colors you like) 1 large sweet onion Olive oil Balsamic Vinegar Goat Cheese Cilantro Salt and Pepper 4 Amazing crusty mini loafs (at Costco) or any kind of sprouted bread Slice the eggplant length-wise in thin slices...

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies......yes you read that right! Have you thrown out any zucchini this summer?  Come on, you can confess to me!  I won’t tell.  Well, the other day I was supposed to make a big plate of cookies for my friend who was getting ready to send her first born out into the big wide world via a mission!  In Mormondom we have this really lame tradition of calling up all our relatives and close friends and inviting them to come and hear our cute missionary child speak in church on the Sunday before they leave to go into the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and then we invite all of them plus half the ward over to our house to meet and greet that same cute missionary child and since we have invited them all over then we feel obliged to feed them something.  (Like we’re not already stressed enough about having to send our kid half way around the world!)  Well, my friend had the good sense to just serve cookies and milk (thank heavens)! ...