The Charm of Home

Blueberry Jam with a Breadmaker

2026-11-01T17:16:14.851-06:00

It has been very busy here. The fall harvest was fantastic, and food preservation has been a time-consuming hobby. I have made several jams in the breadmaker this year, and the most popular by far was the blueberry jam. As soon as I made it, it was gone, so I am just now getting a picture of it.

I also have been continuing to perfect the sourdough bread. Here is a slice I toasted for the picture.

I found these canning lids online and was so smitten with the lightning bug. They are no longer blinking in the night with summer over, but love using the lids in my fall canning to remind me of the precious early summer months.

Here is the blueberry jam. I made this in the breadmaker, and I didn't crush the berries, but you could to get a more jam-like consistency.

Blueberry Jam in the Breadmaker

1 lb. blueberries (frozen or fresh)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Works best if you defrost the frozen blueberries first. Place all in breadmaker. Select the jam cycle. Once jam is finished transfer to sterilized jar and let it cool. Then it may be stored in the refrigerator for three weeks or the freezer for a year.

Recipe resource: culinaryshades.com

Here is my favorite sourdough success.

I made it again in a loaf pan instead of a dutch oven, but I liked the first loaf better. I am still working out the options and techniques.

Took a fall drive and zooming along in the car I got a good picture of a round barn. It was even decorated for fall!

In Victory,
Sherry

The Fall Garden

2026-10-18T14:44:20.931-05:00

The fall garden is winding down. Today it is 92 degrees outside, and I can hear a chorus of cicadas singing on the next street. It will possibly be the last time I hear them this year because it is getting cooler tomorrow.

The garden has been dry and hot for months now, and I am very glad I planted native flowers and plants that can survive the heat.

I still see monarchs; they have begun their migration, but some still linger in my garden. The same is to be said of the hummingbirds.

We got a much-needed rain and everything in the garden seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

I went to plant a pansy I brought home last week, and I had been watering it faithfully so I could transplant, and this frog had taken us residence in my pot and seemed to not be bothered that I found him.

I had another pansy I did transplant, and it had a happy home in this thrift store planter. There are a few gardening chores left to do, and it is just about time to put the garden to bed. I will putter about inside and keep the kitchen buzzing much of the fall and winter. Do you enjoy the change in seasons? Do your hobbies change with them?

In Victory,
Sherry

Browned Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

2026-10-11T14:19:46.196-05:00

I was watching a YouTuber the other day that was talking about making sourdough starter, and her t-shirt said, "currently hyper-focusing on sourdough." I thought, 'yah', that about sums up how it feels when you are trying to learn to make a decent loaf of this bread. I have never been very gifted with making bread anyway, so this is a new frontier in the kitchen. I have got a really active starter after almost a month of tending it everyday, and I also have several successful sourdough discard recipes.

This is one of my favorite, the browned butter sourdough chocolate chip cookies.

I feed my starter, and it goes to the top of the jar. This should be when I bake a loaf with it, but I am just learning that.

Then the next morning the starter has fallen, like this, and it is ready to be fed again. Why would I want to make sourdough anyway? It is really labor-intensive. The last time this country had a crisis we couldn't get yeast anywhere or bread. If I learned this skill, this would solve that problem. Not to mention that the kitchen has turned into a bakery with all of the discard recipes.

I tried several sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipes, and I wasn't convinced they were the cookie I was looking for till I tried this one. This is the Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Simplicity and a Starter. I am no expert with sourdough at all, but if I can make it, you could make it. This cookie was perfect, but I made the cookie with a normal cookie-size scoop and baked it for 8 minutes instead of what the recipe suggested. The author used a 2-inch scoop and made large bakery-style cookies. In the beginning I did that, but my family likes a normal size cookie better than a giant one.

Have you ever tried baking sourdough bread or baking with the discard? I hope to keep expanding my skills and make some decent food in the process.

In Victory,
Sherry