In loving memory of my mother, Ellen Semmelroth

May 29 , 1935 - August 4, 2013

Black Raspberry bread Pudding

 Remember those black raspberries that took up my whole day last week and gave me such fits in a tart recipe?  Well, this recipe finally came through for me.  This is the bomb. I don't think I have had bread pudding since my dear grandmother made it when I was little.  It's a recipe that has fallen off the radar and isn't made much anymore. Grandma's bread pudding always featured raisins and cinnamon. It was made mostly in the cold days of winter and eaten warm, and it was good!

I'm sorry grandma, this is better.

Fresh fruit sprinkled in between the layers of sweet, smooth, custardy bread. No spices but that means the vanilla custard and berries really shine. This is best eaten warm.

I have made it twice, once with the black raspberries and once with some fat, fresh blueberries. Delicious both times, and I am sure that whatever berry you prefer would be equally delicious.

I took this to church last week for our adult Sunday School class to sample and got raves and requests for the recipe:>)

 

Berry Bread Pudding

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups fresh berries (if using frozen, thaw and drain so they are as dry as possible)

12-14 slices white bread (don't use fresh, use bakery or home made, I used 2 loaves of Italian bread and sliced them myself)

6 eggs

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish. Trim crust from bread. If you are using Italian bread and have to slice it yourself, try to slice it as thinly as a regular bread slice or you will need more custard to cover the thick slices! Arrange half of the bread slices in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle berries on top of the first layer of bread, top with remaining bread slices making sure the berries are covered. In a large bowl with a beater attachment, beat eggs until light, beat in sugar and salt, add in milk and vanilla. Pour the mixture over the bread. The bread should be completely covered, if it isn't you can add a bit more milk to cover. Or do what I would do and make another 1/3 recipe of the custard to pour over (see below).  Bake for 50-55 minutes. The top of the pudding should be lightly brown and a knife inserted in the middle should come out clean. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream:>)

 

Since bread thicknesses vary, if you cut your slices very thick or for some reason the custard recipe doesn't cover the bread just whip up a little more custard.  1/3 of the recipe should be enough for any variances in bread. The following are the proportions I would use:

 

2 eggs

1/3 cup of sugar

a pinch of salt

1 cup milk

1/3 tsp vanilla

 

You probably wont need it, but just in case....:>)

 

We have a pretty fun weekend ahead, Our usual Saturday morning coffee date at Panera, a fun art fair to look at and then some work on the house. We will probably fit some grilling and relaxing in the garden in there somewhere too. What do you have planned?

 

Linking with From The Farm Blog Hop

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Twenty-three years ago today our youngest daughter came into the world:>)

She is so very loved, this morning we took her to breakfast for a little bit of special time together.

This masterpiece is the cake she requested, which her father so graciously labored to make last night.

It's Julia Child's and Alice Medrich's fabulous Raspberry Ruffle Genoise Cake , he filled it with chocolate Italian meringue and surrounded it in her favorite substance, chocolate.

Holy cow is it good! That man is the bomb.

And this apple doesn't fall far from the tree:>) She's the bomb too.

Happy Birthday Darling!

Blackberry Tarts

 I am going to begin this post by just admitting to the ridiculosity that it represents. I know, my spell check tells me ridiculosity is not a word. I kind of like it though so I'm keeping it. But just so you understand, the birds planted some gorgeous black raspberries on the edge of the woods and we were blessed with a beautiful crop of flawless, organic berries. So of course I had to make something out of them right? Something blog worthy.  Something spectacular!

 I have a ton of little tart pans that I have picked up here and there. How about Black raspberry tarts? How awesome would that be? How beautiful and impressive! Trouble is, I should have used a pastry recipe rather than a crumb recipe. The first crust I tried had ground walnuts, it sounded scrumptious.  The only problem? I couldn't get them out of the tart pans without breaking all the little scallops off the  tart shells.  Hmmmm. Plan B.

 Having learned apparently nothing by my failings with the walnut crust, I decided to try a graham cracker crust, because, darn it! I just didn't really feel like making a pastry crust today you know? Three of the six tart shells came out perfectly. The other three, I ate in bits and pieces because the little pieces that break off DO NOT COUNT as real food. You know it's true.

You've eaten the bits and pieces too.

Don't try to tell me you haven't.

Of course at that point I feel a bit queasy. The tarts have completely lost their magic for me. I complete one and the other two get piped with filling and set aside for the rest of the family who have not gorged on failure all day.

This is the tart.

It's lovely, the filling is delicious. Really it is. Made with a mixture of cream cheese, Earl's home made yogurt (an especially delightful batch I might add!), vanilla and sugar.

It is beautiful, and I got some great photos.

This one Black Raspberry Tart was clearly worth my entire day.

I have a lot of black raspberries left.

Tomorrow, I'm making black raspberry bread pudding.

Don't judge me, it's a compulsion.

And yes, I will blog the bread pudding....lets hope it's a good recipe:>)

On Keeping a Home and Vintage Linens

I have told you before that my grandmother was my muse when it came to teaching me the way to keep a house and how to keep my family comfortable. Grandma was a real farm wife. I loved Grandpa's farm and the beautiful red barns, fields of corn

and hay and green pastures with a singing stream and plenty of black and white cows.

I also loved the two story white farmhouse where Grandma cooked the most delicious meals.

She was the best cook ever. I mean ever. I remember watching her fry chicken that had been *ahem* dispatched by Grandpa that very morning. Veggies from the garden, home raised beef. Nothing was too good for her family.

I remember being tucked into bed at night in the big bed in the guest room where she did all her sewing.  Her heavy cotton sheets and pillowcases were crisp and smooth from being line dried and they were often embellished with handwork to make them as beautiful as they were comfortable.

Those memories are one reason I am always scouring yard sales and thrift stores for the beautiful old pillowcases that you can't find in the stores. I think they feel heavier and crisper than the ones made today and look how beautiful they are!

 (Poor Grandma would be scandalized by my ironing skills, lol)

I recently came across some beautiful vintage linens that I will be putting in my etsy shop. It's a win, win for me. If they sell, great! If they don't I get to keep them:>) These are unstained and in gorgeous condition, and if you  dry them on your clothesline, you get to experience the soft, cool, crispness that Grandma always insisted was the only thing good enough for the ones she loved ♥

Who was your home keeping inspiration?