Beautiful Blackberries

It's that time of year again where blackberries are everywhere so time to indulge.

We had blackberries on our waffles at Nick's house where we are staying during a visit to Seattle this weekend. I forget about blackberries until we come back to visit and see how abundant they are here. They grow wild in all of the 400 parks in Seattle so how can you not be tempted to pick them! And they show up everywhere to remind you it's the season again for blackberries…

like at bakeries

and restaurants

and the market

where I had to go yesterday to check out the scene

The market is overflowing this time of year with everyone's delicious harvest.

They even had tents overflowing into the streets to accommodate the abundance.

But where ever you look, you will always see more and more beautiful blackberries.

Our favorite picking spot was Magneson Park and my favorite thing to make was blackberry pie. I made several during the late summer-time from our blackberry picking. We'd come home with black-stained fingers and black tongues from eating so many blackberries. Nick and Lauren had a babysitter who would walk down to the park and pick blackberries and come home and make cobbler with them. (I loved coming home from work to that!) During long walks with our dog, we would quench our thirst by taking a break and pick some blackberries. Our dog would patiently wait for any to fall to the ground and gobble them up. They grow like weeds here. When guests would come visit from out-of-town, we'd go for evening walks but then we'd have to stop and pick blackberries. People were always amazed with how many were growing everywhere. I had my blackberry cookbook

so there was never any problem coming up with ideas on ways to use up blackberries. This time of year in Seattle, it's everything blackberries!

Comments

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...

Top Pot Doughnuts

I just returned from another weekend in Seattle and for the first time, I actually went to a Top Pot Doughnut shop. I've had their doughnuts before because they serve them at Starbuck's and I've seen their shops in Seattle when I visit because there is now one right across the street from our old house in Wedgwood. Now, our daughter, lives in another old neighborhood of mine on Capitol Hill and right around the corner from her house is a Top Pot. There were not eateries like this in my old neighborhoods when I lived in Seattle. And our daughter literally lives steps away from my old house on Capitol Hill where I lived when I was her age. There are so many more luxuries and temptations lurking around the corner in Seattle neighborhoods more so than when I lived there but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Being that I'm one that mostly gives in to temptation, it's probably a good thing they didn't exist when I lived there. ...

Sylvia's Scenario

Search This Blog