First stop (after picking her up from the airport) was Sam's Club. Tim and I don't have a membership to Sam's or Costco, so I was wanting to check out the prices on a few things and see if it was worth it. While they have lower prices on some things, I think it we would just end up buying a lot more stuff that we don't need.
The real reason I wanted to go to Sam's is that their snack bar has REALLY good pizza. So that's what we had for dinner :)
Saturday we had french toast for breakfast, then got pedicures (Mom and I did... Tim stayed home). I decided to try a crazy color, so I went with purple sparkles. (Crazy nail colors for Stephanie = something that's not pink or red...yes, I am a very boring person).
Then we went SHOPPING. There is an outlet mall not to far away that we love (we= me and mom...I think all other members of our family hate it). Growing up, we drove by it every time we went to Grandma & Grandpa's and if they were open, Mom insisted we stop. Everybody would groan and moan because it was SO boring.
My feelings have changed.
We shopped til we dropped. Seriously, we were so tired. But we got some awesome deals! The highlights for me were 4 shirts that were $0.97 each, a casserole dish with a plastic lid for $4.99, and this skirt for $4.48!
It looks much cuter in real life, I promise.
Since I knew we would be shopping all day, I planned ahead and put together a version of this concept for dinner. It was good, but wasn't at all what I thought it would be like. I think it is very, very important to use a good, crusty bread. My bread was too soft and it got soggy. Also, it came sliced (all the way through) so everything sunk to the bottom.
Moral of the story: follow the directions. Even if it means going to another grocery store to get the right kind of bread.
But the tastiest part of the weekend was the raspberries. My mom LOVES rapsberries, and I had a huge bag of frozen raspberries from her. When she gave them to me, I told her that if she came to visit I would make her a raspberry pie. And I made good on that promise.
I'm not gonna lie... it was really, really good. Even my crust turned out! Thanks largely to the canvas rolling mat and knit "sock" for my rolling pin that I bought at the outlet mall. It made the rolling process MUCH easier. Maybe I will show you sometime. For now, here is the recipe I used for the pie.
FRESH BERRY PIE
(use blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc)
4 c fresh berries
1 c sugar
1 c water
1 tsp lemon juice
3 T Clearjel or cornstarch
Combine in saucepan, and cook just until thickened, stirring constantly. Pour into unbaked 9" pie shell and top with crumbs.
Bake at 350 for approximately 25 minutes. Delicious served warm with ice cream.
Stephanie's notes: I didn't mess with crumbs... I just left my pie naked on top. Also, be sure to let the pie cool A LOT. Just because it says "serve warm" doesn't mean that 15-20 minutes after you pull it out of the oven you can slice it into nice, neat wedges. We may or may not have eaten our pie with a spoon the night I made it. But I may or may not have done that regardless of the runny-ness of the pie.
Dessert just tastes better when eaten with a spoon.
Also, I figured homemade raspberry pie was worthy of homemade vanilla ice cream.
It was the right choice.
And (you know me), it makes a great addition to your Monday morning oatmeal :)
With the remaining raspberries (and juice!) I used this recipe and made sherbet. I used some of the actual berries and made a puree then strained out the seeds, etc. but if you have a large amount of juice sitting around, I would highly recommend just using that. Straining is WAY too much work. But it was delicious! Tart, but delicious. (If you use rapsberries, I would leave out the lemon juice).
Thanks for coming, Mom! It was so nice to see you and have you meet the dogs and see what my life is like! I love you a lot... come again soon!
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