Berry Picking

Today I took the kids raspberry picking.  

Every summer we go strawberry picking.  Every spring I ask the kids "what do you want to do this summer?" And, every year they say "we have to go strawberry picking."  When I called last week to arrange our visit, I learned that strawberry season was ending THAT DAY!  An early strawberry season ends July 1, but apparently the storms we have had most of June wiped out the crop. My kids whined with disappointment when I told them "no strawberry picking this year."  Fortunately, I found a spot that opened today for raspberry picking so we did that instead.

Honestly, they don't care what we pick.  They just like the adventure out to the country.  They like the challenge of finding the perfect berry.  The boys like the competition of getting the most of something. Molly likes anything she can do with her friends.  So today we picked almost 3 lbs of raspberries with 3 other moms and their 7 kids.

time with friends

all three picking

our group (minus Cecila and Everett)

We headed home with our berries and put half o f them in the freezer.  Then we made a pound cake to have some of the berries for dessert.  I love pound cake!  Those are one of of those things that I miss in my gluten-free diet.  So I took my favorite pound cake recipe from Penzey's and converted it to a gluten-free version.  It isn't perfect, but it is darn close.

POUND CAKE RECIPE

3 cups sugar (3 generous cups for gluten free)

3 cups flour (no need to sift)...gluten free version use 3 cups of Bob's Red Mill

1 cup margarine (needs to be margarine...butter will not work)

1/2 cup Crisco

1 TB baking powder

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract (2 tsp for gluten free)

1 tsp Almond Extract (2 tsp for gluten free)

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease a large tube pan.  Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 1/2 minutes (you may need to start on low to combine the ingredients if your bowl isn't very large).  Pour into the prepared tube pan and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes (add 5 to 10 minutes for gluten free).

Cool slightly then turn over and remove from pan.  Use a thin, sharp knife to help remove the cake from the pan.  Cool completely before cutting.  ENJOY!