Sylvia's Scenario

We picked twelve cups of blackberries the other day while we had visitors here and turned it into blackberry coffee cake.  This recipe used 3-1/2 cups of blackberries so I also made two loaves of  blackberry bread   and the most popular  blackberry cobbler  that got eaten so fast I never got a photo of it.  And I still have blackberries leftover.  All these recipes are from a very old cookbook of mine called Wild & Free Blackberries that I've had since around the mid-1990's.    And this is definitely the time of year that this little cookbook is sitting out on my kitchen counter.  We picked them at our local golf course because Bruce sees how plentiful they are when he plays golf and he has been eager to get us out there to pick and we finally did. Our visitors have returned home now but they had three children who LOVED picking blackberries and also LOVED eating them.  They were children of Bruce's nephew who was here with his ...

Well, so far I am surviving the busiest month of the year of multiple birthdays and all the various celebrations of July.   When the kids were little, I would basically collapse when August came and say “I survived July!!” because it truly was an accomplishment.  We have my birthday in July, Nick’s birthday, Lauren’s birthday, (and Hana and Keaton’s birthdays but they aren’t here right now), our anniversary and then the Fourth of July all in one month.  It’s basically nonstop around here. Also, my sister came to visit this month from Colorado to see her newborn grandson (another celebration!) who lives just a few miles from our house so it was perfect for her to stay with us, plus I love having her here for lots of sister-time.  Of course, we had a family barbecue during her visit so we could all welcome the new addition to our family.  It was also good timing that my sister was here for my birthday, too.  We all went to dinner at a local neighborhood favor...