Olivebell

Cherry Pie

My parents have a cherry tree in their backyard, which I didn’t start actually taking advantage of until two years ago. I made a ton of cherry jelly the first year, the year after I made a ton of cherry preserves. All which are still in my basement, probably going mouldy as I write this. But really, you can only eat so much toast with cherry jelly. It’s delicious, but when I say I made a ton, I came up with 24 jars of jelly. So I got smart this year and picked all the cherries, hand pitted them ( I discovered I had patience while doing this), and froze them. Anyways, I discovered cherry pie is a bigger hit than making your husband eat cherry jelly for breakfast, lunch, and supper. He’s down to eat cherry pie for breakfast, lunch, and supper though. My brother in law had a piece of this pie and said it tasted like, and I quote…. “heaven.” And! He would pay $15 for a slice with a scoop of ice cream. Clearly, he’s a good liar, or has tons of money to drop on expensive slices of pie. Either way, this pie is delicious. So if you’d like to make $120 on a pie, selling each slice for $15, keep reading.

Cherry Pie

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Author: Butter Baked Goods

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

1 recipe for pie double crust
4 cups frozen or fresh tart cherries
1½ cups sugar
5 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp almond extract
butter to dot pie with

Instructions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook cherries until thawed out and the cherries have lost a good amount of juice.
Remove from heat. In a bowl, mix together the cornstarch and sugar, and mix into the cherries.
Add in the almond extract. Mix well.
Return the cherry mixture back to the stove and cook over low heat until the mixture has thickened, stirring it every so often. It sometimes takes more cornstarch than other times, so if it isn’t thickening as much as you would like, add more cornstarch. If it becomes too thick, add a few teaspoons of water.
Let the cherry mixture cool completely before using in your crust.
Once it has cooled, pour into prepared crust and dot with a few dots of butter.
Place your tip crust over top and brush with egg wash. Bake at 375* degrees F. Cut slits for the steam to escape. Bake for about 50 mins, but start checking on it at around 40 mins, sometimes it can be done early, or take longer, depending on your oven. Let pie cool completely.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipping cream. Enjoy!

November 9, 2015
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by Claudia

Personal, Series

Cabin Life

One of the views from the trails

Trestle Creek Golf Course

Have you ever heard of Entwistle? Me either. But that’s where Dane asked if I’d like to live this summer. The golf course he has been working at for the last four years is right by this tiny little town. It has 534 people. Anyways, this golf course. It has this cabin about a kilometre up the gravel road from the course. I was not too keen on living in the woods, in a cabin. And then I saw it. I went from being not to keen, too most definitely NOT keen AT ALL. It had wood panelling on the walls, orange tiles that were cool in 1974, and even then I’m pretty sure you had to be pretty stoned to think that it looked good. It had about 769 dead flies on the floor too, along with red cupboards. Long story short, Dane painted the walls, painted the cupboards, changed the flooring, and put in new white baseboards. And we CLEANED. With every chemical we could get our hands on. Dane built me garden boxes, where we planted vegetables. I even grew my own lavender in a small flower garden.I went from not wanting to live there at all, to not wanting to leave. It’s almost October, and because the cabin isn’t winterized we won’t be able to stay much longer. But I am grateful for this summer. I’m grateful I gave it chance, and I fell in love.

Things I will miss:

1. You’re completely alone

2. The rain sounds one hundred times more beautiful, and the thunder sounds like it’s meant only for you to hear

3. The little froggies that become your music in the evenings

4. The campfires and the warmth it gives you

5. The wind that blows the tree tops and you can’t help but feel that maybe it’s someone saying “hello” to you

6. The sunshine that creeps in through the blinds to greet you

7. The quietness that you hear

8. The trees that surround you

9. The crane, squirrels and grouse that are our neighbours

10. The infamous bear that lives in the trail I do my runs on that I’ve never met

11. Perfect mornings when there is still dew on every single blade of grass

12. The peace that you feel while being here

13. The cotton candy sunsets

14. The simplicity of life, the pace of nature

15. Not having reception or wifi

Things I will not miss:

1. Not having reception of wifi (it’s a double edged sword you see)

2. Running out of water

3. Limited space in the kitchen

4. All the flies

5. The rustling in the woods on the trails when you’re convinced its that old bear people talk about

I don’t want to leave the cabin, this little home I have. I want to stay forever and pretend that there is nothing bad that happens in real life, outside these walls. I want to pretend that I am Laura Ingalls, wild and free. I want to pretend that I am some serious hippy that can easily live off the land. But we all know that isn’t true. I like pinterest, and shopping, and I like water that doesn’t smell like sewer. Isn’t it funny how we realize how much we appreciate something once it’s gone? Well, I suppose that’s how I am feeling right now. I know that my days at the cabin are coming to an end, and it’s now that I’m regretting not having more campfires, it’s now I’m regretting not exploring more trails, it’s now I’m regretting not listening to the birds for a little bit longer.

September 29, 2015
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by Claudia

Beauty, Fashion

Sunbeams and Dresses

Summer is gone, leaving behind a trail of freckles and tan lines, with a countdown to our next summer beneath the sun. Autumn has officially begun, and I’m already missing the late nights and bright mornings where the sun creeps in through your window to greet you. Autumn has made it’s debut with frosty mornings, dewy nights, and crisp afternoons in between. Dear Autumn, please be kind to me.

And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.

Dress is from anthropologie

September 26, 2015
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by Claudia

Food, Sweets

Raspberry Custard Pie

I bought the Butter Cookbook two years ago. I became obsessed. It became my reading material before bed. I bought it for other people as gifts. I had it on display in my kitchen. I have two copies. One to use and abuse, the other to put it in my huge, beautiful library of cookbooks and novels. Imagine…. the library Beast gives to Belle as an apology for being a jerk and keeping her hostage and capturing her dad. Seems like a legitimate gift. Well that’s my library. I even have a fireplace with huge comfy chairs and a ladder to get to the top. This library exists in my dreams. But it’s still my library. One day. That’s where my other copy of Butter will go.

We were in Washington going back home to Edmonton, but I made my husband stay an extra day so we could go home through the city of Vancouver so I could go to this bakery. My husband is awesome and he clearly loves me, because he agreed. And so we drove through crazy streets of Vancouver getting lost, taking wrong turns, looking for 4907 Mackenzie street. We found it. It was a cold and rainy day, but I was so excited when I saw the cute BUTTER sign. I had brought my copy with me ALLLLL the way from Edmonton, just so I could get Rosie to sign it. It also made good reading material for the 14 hour drive. Ya, I know. I’m a nerd. But that’s OK! I saw Rosie sitting in her office, but I was too nervous to go talk to her, haha! We sat down and ate some goodies, and I was gonna leave without saying anything, but my husband told me to stop being a knob and go and talk to her. So I did, and she was super lovely and kind, and even signed my book! We spent over $80 there and took home two boxes of delicious, rich, yummy baked goodness.

“Don’t worry about protecting this book; the spills and notations that I hope one day mark it’s pages will tell a story. A story that I did my job; I inspired you to get into the kitchen, bake for your family and friends and always trust your cape.” – Rosie Daykin

I have made 41 recipes out of this cookbook. I have messed up, spilled cream, milk, eggs, and even raspberry juice on these pages. Some pages are crinkled, and the cover page is quite ratty. I think I can say Rosie did her job with me. She created a book that made me go “I want to make that.” She created a book that inspired me to make homemade marshmallows, for no other reason other than that I wanted to. And that’s pretty sweet, pun fully intended.

Raspberry Custard Pie

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour

My husband swears this is the best pie he has ever had, he eats more than half in one sitting!

Author: Butter Baked Goods

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 8

Ingredients

1 Butter's all Butters Pastry Single crust pie
2 cups fresh raspberries
¾ cup sugar, plus 2 tbls
2 tbls all purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
¼ tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375* F.
Put your raspberries in a bowl and add the two tablespoons of sugar. Gently toss together to incorporate the sugar throughout the berries.
In a large bowl whisk your eggs and cream, add in the flour, remaining sugar, and salt.
Pour into your prepared crust. Add in your raspberries. (I usually just dump them in, but for the pictures sake I placed them in one by one).
Bake for 45 to 50 mins, or until the centre has set and the pie is lightly golden.
Let cool completely.

Thanks Miss Rosie Daykin, I fully intend to.

You can purchase Butter here:

http://www.butterbakedgoods.com

September 22, 2015
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by Claudia

DIY, Things In Between

Flower Crown

What you’ll need:

brown twine covered wire (you can get at Michael’s)
floral tape
duct tape
tin snips (go look in your husbands tool box)
hot glue gun and glue sticks
flowers
fillers (greenery, leaves)

Step 1- Take the wire and loop it around your head, or whoever it is for. Double it so you have two loops. Have it so it isn’t too tight, but not too loose so that its falling in front of your eyes.

Step 2- Tape the two end together so that you have a circle with two circles of twine.

Step 3- Starting in the middle of the crown (like where the front of the crown will be on your head), begin adding your flowers through the gap between the two loops. I would only do 3 “feature” flowers, and the rest greenery with buds. But if you want a big and full crown, use more flowers.

Step 4- Once you are sure that is where you want the flowers, hot glue them down.

Step 5- Start filling it with greenery. Play around with it, add some, take some away, it takes awhile, but once you start playing it should come together.

Step 6- That’s basically it! Use your hot glue gun when you think you need it, use your floral tape when you think you need it. Just play with it and burn your fingers a bit!