Buttermilk Pie W/Fresh Strawberries, Make Buttermilk & Sour Cream, How To Wash No-Wash Wool Rugs, "The Stand" Movie Kitchen

Buttermilk Pie W/Fresh Strawberries-
I found this recipe going thru some food preservation recipes and gave it a try. It's wonderful! Almost a cross between cheesecake and custard. Very cheesy and almost chewy filling. Not too sweet either. The berries were great with it. When our blackberries ripen I may try that instead. It's a fast recipe too- just mix everything together, whisk and pour. With the hot weather I put it in the fridge to cool, after a bit, to finish it off. I used a 1 lb. of berries on the top.

Baked in a deep dish pie dish

Buttermilk Pie with Fresh Strawberries 
(from Vegetarian Times)

3 large eggs
1 cup minus 2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp AP flour
1 ¾ cups buttermilk
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp grated or ground nutmeg (I used a bit more)
1 9-inch store-bought crust
2 pints strawberries, hulled and halved

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Whisk together eggs, sugar and flour in large bowl.  Add buttermilk and butter, whisk until combined.  Stir in vanilla extract and nutmeg.  Pour buttermilk mixture into crust, and bake 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool completely.
3. Place strawberry halves in concentric circles on top of pie, with wide stem ends facing outward, and serve.

I found some other useful info. I'm tired of buying buttermilk (it's really "clabbered milk"), and I found I can make my own, as needed! Much cheaper too :) You can do the same for sour cream. Since I don't have my own dairy you can use store bought milks. Recipes are here, from a class I took-

Buttermilk:
Buttermilk is made with a 1-to-3 ratio of cultured buttermilk to regular milk.  So, if you want a cup of buttermilk, mix ¼ cup buttermilk with ¾ cup milk; for a quart, mix 1 cup buttermilk with 3 cups milk.  Cover the container and let sit at room temperature (preferably between 70°F and 75°F) for about 24 hours. When finished, the cultured milk should coat the container (or back of a spoon).  Refrigerate.  Buttermilk can be perpetuated indefinitely—just remember to make new buttermilk with your old supply within about 2-3 weeks, and you should be fine.

Sour Cream:
Sour cream is made with cultured buttermilk and cream, at a rate of about 1-2 tbsp buttermilk per cup of cream (you can experiment here to achieve your preferred tartness and firmness).  Mix the desired amounts together, cover the container and let sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours, checking after 24 hours, and then refrigerate.  Deciding when sour cream is done takes a bit of experience, as sour cream mellows considerably (as well as firms up quite a bit) once it’s been refrigerated.  So, a sour cream that tastes very tart indeed on the counter might give you a very nice, subtle sour cream once cooled.  Experiment to see what you like.

How To Wash No-Wash Woven Wool Rugs-
I have  nice Nate Berkus Target wool runner rug. I bought it at Goodwill for $10.00. It's perfect in our heavy traffic entry way. I vacuum it every week, but I knew it was just dirty. With chocolate brown, it didn't show. I did some research on how to wash it without damaging it. I took a risk and it worked! Here's how I did it-

vacuum rug, both sides. Take outside o hot day, and lay out on your deck. You could do this on a clean sidewalk also. Spray down both sides with a cold hose on the blast setting. Do both sides. Then I sprayed on some 7th Generation all purpose cleaner. I wanted something mild, no dish detergent to strip the wool. Spray all over, then blast again til all the bubbles are gone. Flip over do again. Leave overnight in the shade. I moved it and flipped it several times when it started drying. Total dry time was about a day and 1/2, and it was 100 here. It's MUCH cleaner and no shrinkage!!! I think the trick was- handle as little as possible, use cold water, and leave flat to dry.

rug weave

All clean and dry!!!

        Mother Abigail's Home

"The Stand" Movie Kitchen-
I was watching "The Stand" lats night and I love Mother Abigail's character. Old, feisty and loving. Her most famous line is I'm 106 years old and still make my own bread. I loved the old kitchen and was able to grab some screen shots. It's near the end of episode 2. Here's a few-

Cooking fried chicken on a wood cook stove

Preparing for the guests, she has the sun tea!

 Note old shelves on the wall, old tools, no cabinets. I wish they would have shown the other angles of the entire kitchen, but I don't think they did the rest of the full kitchen for the set.