Education Implementation!

First there were the berries...

And now for the recipe!  I found this sublime cake at Italian Food Forever. I didn't have everything the recipe called for so I made some modifications.  Yummy, yummy modifications.  I was looking for a recipe to use up some left-over ricotta cheese.  A lot of these recipes call for tons of butter and eggs, but this one was just right in that department.  I didn't have any lemon or lemon extract so I made some substitutions.  Here is my version.

Ricotta Cake
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Large Eggs, separated
1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1/2 Cup Plus 2 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
Dash of salt
1 pint mixture of blackberries and black raspberries

Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour an 8 inch spring-form pan.  Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the extracts, egg yolks and ricotta cheese and beat until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.  Wash your beaters well (if there is any fat from the butter left on them, the whites won't form properly), then beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff (you'll know it's stiff when you can hold the bowl upside down without it pouring out).  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.   Pour the batter into your prepared pan.  Float the berries on top of the batter (they may sink to the bottom during baking depending on the type).

Bake 30-45 minutes, or until a cake tester stuck into the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool as long as you can stand it before removing form.  Room temp is best, but it's great warm, too!

Variations:

• If you can't get your hands on wild berries, regular raspberries from the market are fabulous, too.
• If you have it, 1 Tbs of lemon zest (about 1 lemon worth) is great in this.

Review:
This is my kind of recipe.  It's a snap to throw together, bakes quickly, everybody loves it.  It's fancy enough to make for a nice occasion yet simple enough to bring to a pot luck.  It's the least fussy cake I've ever made.  It's relatively low in calories, too!  And oh yeah, you're gunna love it!

Unsolicited Education...

In my Huckleberry Jam post, I mentioned a few other Pacific Northwest native berries in my yard that have begun to ripen, so I thought I'd share a little about them, too.  No recipe with this one, just pictures of berries.  Why?  Meh.  I just find it interesting. =)

This is the native Trailing Blackberry, Rubus ursinus.  When I first moved here, I wanted to be sure I was protecting the native plants when I weeded my garden but didn't know the first thing about how to tell the difference between the native and non-native blackberries.  Now I know the native berry hugs the ground on tiny, fairy like vines and produces beautiful, superior tasting, if less prolific, berries whereas the non-native Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) forms giant troll-thickets that will eat you alive and taunt your Happy Fun Ball.  There is nothing subtle about the Himalayan bush.  The berries come on the trailing blackberry first, as you can see, mine are already nearly done, while my Himalayans are still in bloom.  I find the flavor of the native berries far superior, more concentrated and "blackberry" tasting. The Himalayans are much larger, but always let me down in the flavor department.  They are great for cooking with because they are just so darn prolific, so I like to eat the natives plain and save the big boys for adulteration with sugar and pie crust.

Now, on to another black berry but this one is the native black raspberry, Rubus leucodermis.  Again, I was afraid at first that I might confuse this plant with those darn Himalayans, but even though this plant is upright, the canes are much thinner than the Himalayan and also have a slightly powdery looking stem in the Spring.  These berries are a very dark red when completely ripe and will fall off in your hand when ready to be eaten.  These have a very light raspberry flavor, but it is still delicious.  Mine don't produce as prolifically as the Himalayans, but then, what does?

Here is an unripe berry.

 And this is what they look like when green.

 

And here's what they look like right before I toss them into my mouth!  Nom!

This little lovely is an unripe thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus.  They might well be one of my favorite native plants.  I can't get over the huge, maple-like leaves and the sweet flowers.  I love how the unripe berries are nearly white before turning bright red.  (PS, see that malicious-looking, light green, spike-covered cane to the left of those berries?  That's a new, 1st year cane of a Himalayan blackberry.  They get easily twice that big.  Nasty boogers.)

This one is about a day away from being truly ripe.  They are very delicate.  When you pick them, it's all you can do not to have them crumble in your fingers.  They're called "thimbleberry" because the opening in the top is so big you can easily put your finger in it!  Flavor-wise they are very interesting.  When you put them in your mouth, the first thing you'll notice is how furry they are.  It's a little like peach fuzz in texture.  And then the little thing will just disintegrate into a small, sweet, vaguely raspberry flavored, whisper and be gone.  There's no use trying to use these in any recipe as the plants aren't prolific at all (maybe as many as 10 or 15 berries per bush if you're lucky) and they're so darn fragile you'll never get one home intact, but they are fun to forage!

 

The evilly attractive flower of the accursed Himalayan blackberry.  (hiss, boo...)  She's Delilah, I tell you.  Lures you in with her promises of pie and jam and then sneaks into your room at night and cuts your hair.  When you wake up, she'll have eaten half your garden and climbed up your trees and the only way to get rid of her is to drop a house on her.

And finally, just because I went on and on about how pretty the plant was in my previous post, here is the foliage of the red huckleberry.  I just love how the little berries hide underneath the leaves like a peek-a-boo game.  Peek-a-boo!  I eat you!  BWAHAHAHAHAAAA!  Uh... *ahem...*  yeah...

As always, if you're not positive what a berry is, don't eat it.  Still, these are all a fairly safe bet since they are so distinctive.

Later on in the year, I'll have some Low Oregon grapes producing, some Salal berries, and hopefully some Evergreen Huckleberries, too.  Very late in the year, I will hopefully have another of my favorite berries, the (inedible) Snowberry.  I'll post pictures of them when they're ripe, too.  Why?  I just find it interesting!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

...make honey mustard chicken!  I got this recipe years ago from my friend Susan who, knowing I was hopeless at cooking meat, kindly suggested this recipe to feed some friends we had coming for dinner.  Now that we have kids, I don't just save it for friends because my family loves it!  I usually leave the curry powder out for the kids, though...  I made a single breast for the kids to share last night, so that's what I photographed for all you lovely people.

Honey Mustard Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp paprika
8 thin lemon slices
1/4 C honey
1/4 C spicy brown mustard
1 tsp dried onion (1/4 C onion)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp curry powder

Sprinkle chicken with paprika and top with two lemon slices per breast.  Bake chicken in 13X9 inch pan lined with foil for 30 minutes at 375°. 

Microwave remaining ingredients for 2 minutes on High.  Drain breasts and discard juice.  Spoon sauce over chicken.  Continue baking at 375° for 10-15 minutes or until done.

Review:
Super simple, quick and my family really likes it.  I love using the stone-ground mustard on this because when it all cooks down, the whole mustard seeds make it look super special, like it's got sprinkles!   I served this with fried green tomatoes and a mixed green salad.

A Tale of Two Jams...

We've been foraging in the woods for wild berries lately.  A couple of days ago, we found salmon berries (in 2 colors), Indian plums, and lots and lots of red huckleberries.  That green thing is a native beaked hazelnut.  They are edible, and presumably very good, but nobody's ever eaten one in the history of the State because the squirrels just go crazy over them!  I picked this one so the boys could see what the pod looked like.

Hazelnut and two different colors (both ripe) of salmon berry.

Salmon berries, despite their orange color, taste a lot like tart, loose blackberries.  You won't find these in any store because when they're ripe they just fall apart in your hand.  There's no transporting these babies!  They are great for jams too, or just eating as fast as you can, snuffling like a foraging bear in the woods, like we do at this house.  Pick them as you would a blackberry.  It needs to practically fall off in your hand.  If it gives any resistance at all, it's not ready.

Indian plums (the blueberry looking fruit in the first picture) have large seeds and taste not unlike a cucumber.  It's an interesting taste experience and if you were starving, I suppose they'd do, but I can't say I'd put these on my every day list.  But it's definitely worth a try just to say you had one.  Only the female trees produce fruit (which doesn't have anything to do with anything, but us ladies gotta stick together...).  Pick the fruit when it's pretty soft, and easy to pull off the tree, otherwise they're bitter and downright awful. 

We're eagerly awaiting the native blackberries, thimble berries, and raspberries that are forming as we speak, to be followed at the end of Summer by the invasive, yet so terribly tasty Himalayan blackberries that spread like prickly, brambly wildfire here in the Pacific Northwest.  If nothing untoward happens, it looks like we're in for a great haul of those bad boys this year.

We are fortunate that our property is dotted with a plethora of wild red huckleberry bushes.  Red huckleberries are one of the very few wild red berries that are safe for human consumption.  *DISCLAIMER!!* Do not eat wild berries (espeically red ones) if you don't know exactly what the are! *END DISCLAIMER!!*  The boys love them because they're so pretty and easy to pick.  No thorns, berries at kid level, tart, crisp little balls of yum that burst in your mouth.  As a plant, they are one of my favorites, too.  They are beautiful in the Winter with green stems that sport little pink buds as Spring arrives.  Darling little mouse-ear leaves cover it for a while before pink berries about the size of a lentil arrive in the early Summer. 

I debated for a while what to do with these little yummies.  Raw, with a dollop of ice cream was a big contender for a while, but I figured since this is a cooking blog, I couldn't very well let these little guys go without being cooked.  So I settled on jam.  This is an old-fashioned jam recipe.  No pectin needed.  Just berries, sugar, and water.  I burned the first batch.  Beyond all reason and recognition.  I was sad.  But if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have gone berry picking this morning.  Early dawn.  Just me, the slugs, a few annoyed birds, and the bleary-eyed dog walkers (you know who you are) all joined together greeting the day in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

 A little photo tutorial for those who've never made jam before.

Pick some berries. (Pay no attention to the ghostly pale arm floating in mid-air.)

Pull off any stems and clean out any leaves or dirt.

Admire your work.  Preeeeeetty...

Wash the berries.

Weigh out your berries and your sugar.

Stir up berries and sugar.  Doesn't it look like Christmas?
Then add water and turn on the heat.

Bring it to a rolling boil.  Keep an eye on it once it reaches this stage.  It's liable to boil over on you at a moment's notice.

Skim off the scum. (PS, it's called scum because it doesn't look pretty in the jars, it's not dirty.  You can totally eat it while you're waiting for your jam to cook if you want!  Watch out, it's hot!)

Check for gel.  Use a cold plate, place a dollop of jam onto it.  If it forms a gel in a few seconds and not a soup, you've got jam, baby!  (Take the rest of your jam off the heat while you're checking for gel.  If it's ready, you don't want to burn it while the test sets up!  It should take less than 30 seconds...)

And then, before you know it, you've got jam!

Easy-Peasy Red Huckleberry Jam
Equal parts berries and sugar
2 Tbs water for every 5 oz of berries

Boil the berries, sugar, and water until it reaches the gel stage, stirring very frequently.  Be sure not to over-cook it which will cause scorching and make it taste like a mixture of popcorn and fruit as Mr. CotC kindly suggested while trying to soothe me as I was bemoaning the fate of my first batch... =)  Oh, and then it'll turn into rock hard popcorn and fruit flavored candy, not exactly what you want to spread on your toast in the am...

I boiled mine for 20 minutes.  Yours might cook faster or slower depending on how much you have.  I had 5 oz of berries.

To preserve:
Sanitize your jam jar.  I filled mine with boiling water, but you can also use your dishwasher or the old "boiling the jar in a pot of water" trick.  If you plan to save your jam for a while instead of eating it right away (really though, why would you?) make sure your jam comes close to the top of the jar.  It is safe to use a water bath canning method on jams.  Boil the submerged jar in a covered pot with a rack on the bottom for 10 minutes.  This is assuming you don't have a huge batch of jam.  If you somehow manage to collect enough berries to make a huge batch, good for you!!  You obviously managed to keep the bear snuffling to a minimum!  For more information on water bath canning, visit the Virginia Cooperative Extension site here. 

A little butter, a little jam... bliss...

Review:
The slight tang makes this jam a little like cranberry sauce.  It's much sweeter, though.  Maybe a little like ligonberry jam, if you've ever tried that.  It's definitely worth the time you'll spend on it.  Though, raw on ice cream is a really safe bet, too!

You're Invited...

I was going to invite one family over for the 4th.  Then I went all crazy and invited three more.  I have been posting some snooty fruity recipes lately.  Most of which reflect how we eat on a fairly regular basis.  Today, though, I'm going to post some honest-to-goodness-shut-yo'-mouth-awesome mostly Southern recipes that reflect our roots and make for one w00tastic spread. 

I plan on posting menus here from time to time.  I like to plan big meals out in advance and if I like it, I do it again. I've got a few.  For the Fourth, I decided to go All-American.  It didn't hurt that most of my guests were Southern (or at least knew a good slaw when they saw it.)  The best party food can be served hot, room temp, or cold, and made in advance.  So, without further ado, here it is, a giant photo/recipe dumpapalooza.  Recipes to make any outdoor party!

Our menu was as follows: Fried Chicken, hot dogs, Baked Beans, Coleslaw, Red-White-&-Blue Potato Salad, Lavender Lemonade,Pecan Pie, juice pouches, chips, watermelon, cherries, and plenty of water to keep everyone hydrated.

I had this recipe in the box, but it originally came from one of my cookbooks.  It's a sentimental favorite of mine for no other reason than it's full of recipes for 'possum and chitlins and (I'm not kidding) pig tails.  As well as a hundred or so recipes for various versions of deep fried love.  It's called The Treasury of White Trash Cooking.  It has not one, but two, (you heard me,honey), two fried chicken recipes!  This one is on page 181.

 

Countrified Fried Chicken

Cut 1 fryer into pieces.  Salt and pepper each piece.  Combine 3/4 C of flour, 2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp of pepper in a plastic bag.  Shake each one until they are coated will with the flour mixture.  You can fry chicken in a deep-fat fryer, covered for 5 minutes, then uncovered, until coating is golden brown.  Turn chicken occasionally.  You can also fry chicken in a skillet on your stove.  My grandma always fried her chicken in fried meat's grease and a pinch of garlic salt.

My substitutions/additions:

I cooked mine in an improvised frier.  A dutch oven with a bottle of oil poured in it.  Try to have about 3 inches of oil in your pan.  I could fit 4-6 pieces of chicken in at a time.  It took 10 minutes per batch.  I had my oven set to 350° to finish off any pieces that didn't quite get done.  For this, it wouldn't hurt to have had two thermometers, which I don't.  (One to read the oil temp and one to check the meat temp.)  Ah well, it didn't waste that much time.  Keep the oil between 310° and 375°.  A deep fryer is probably better at regulating the temperature, I had to keep fiddling with the heat, but it seemed to work and nobody got salmonella.

Review:

Nothing but thumbs up on this one!

Next up? Baked Beans.

I found this recipe at beanbible.com in 2003.  The website is still operating, but this recipe is no longer available.

Dr Pepper Baked Beans
 yield 6 servings

1 28 oz can pork and beans (or two regular-sized 14-oz cans)
1 onion, chopped fine
1 green pepper, chopped fine
1 tomato, chopped fine
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1/3 C Dr. Pepper
1/8 tsp ground cloves (I left these out)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Drain liquid from the pork and beans.  Pour beans into a bean pot, if you have one, or a baking dish if you don't.  Gently mix in onion, green pepper, and tomato into the beans.
Combine sugar, Dr. Pepper, and cloves (if you use them) until sugar is dissolved.  Pour evenly over the bean mixture.  Bake, covered, for an hour.  Check on the beans; they might need a little more time than that.  but don't overcook them.

You could successfully substitute ginger ale for the Dr. Pepper for a different flavor.

My substitutions/additions:

I used Bush's Vegetarian baked beans and doubled the recipe.

Review:

One of these days I want to attempt this with my own white beans instead of canned, but this recipe is so easy and quick to put together using canned!  Oh, and it tastes awesome! 

Now, I have lived all over this beautiful country of ours.  And let me tell you something: they only make coleslaw right in the South.  And at KFC.  My Grandmother used to make coleslaw with just cabbage and vinegar and onions, sort of a fresh kraut.  I'd give anything if I could find that recipe.  This particular recipe is based on the KFC coleslaw.  I found it at topsecretrecipes.com.

Just Like KFC Coleslaw
(Serves 6-8)

8 C finely chopped cabbage
1/4 C carrot, shredded
2 T minced white onion
1/3 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1/4 C milk
1/2 C mayo
1/4 C buttermilk
1 1/2 T white vinegar
2 1/2 T lemon juice

Cut cabbage and carrots into pieces about the size of rice and put into a large bowl.  Combine sugar, salt, pepper, milks, mayo, vinegar, and lemon.  Beat until smooth.  Pour over carrots, cabbage, and onion.  Mix well.  Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. 

Notes:

• I use a  salad shooter with the shredder cone in to cut all the veggies for this. 
• This may serve 6-8 in the South, but it's much, much more than that in the rest of the world where people don't know what good is.
• Mixing this up the night before makes it a great recipe for picnics and it tastes better the second day.

Review:

This slaw is great on hotdogs (called a slaw dog in the South).  People think they don't like slaw but it's only because they've never had it made the right way!

What picnic is complete without potato salad?  Unlike my other recipes, this one was flat refused when I made this for a get-together in the South.  But what can I say?  I lived in California for 8 years.  Some of that granola rubbed off on me.  This one has a vinaigrette base instead of a mayo base.

Look at that.  Isn't that beautiful?  I love these red, white, and blue potato mixes that I see around the 4th.  I'm sure they're available all season long, but they just shout my name around the 4th.  The blue ones are a purple color inside and these particular reds were actually a little pink inside!  I got this recipe online years ago and made it for my church picnics so often, they started asking for it specifically.  I didn't write down the URL when I found this salad, so I've re-named it:

Pot Bless Potato Salad 

(serves 6)

14 red potatoes
3 T parsley
2 T dill
6 T green onion
4 T red onion

1/3 C red wine vinegar

3/4 C olive oil

2 t dijon mustard
1 clove garlic
black pepper

Boil potatoes until just cooked.  Meanwhile, chop herbs and onions.  Combine vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic and pepper in a small bowl and whisk.  When potatoes have boiled and cooled slightly, gently stir in herbs and onions.  Pour vinegarette over potato mixture and gently stir to combine.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours, but overnight is best.

Notes: 

I used Beaver brand hot dijon when I made it this year.  It gave it a surprising kick on the 4th and took it out of the range of the small kid zone.  I liked it.  By today (after two nights in the fridge) the kick was pretty well gone and the kids chowed. 

We washed all this nomminess down with lavender lemonade!  The dispenser says it all:

This was another recipe in my box that I have the original cookbook for.  Actually, in this case, it's a magazine.  Herb Companion June/July 2004, p 27

Lavender Lemonade

(Makes 8 servings)

6 C water
1 3/4 C sugar
3 T fresh lavender blossoms
2 1/2 C fresh lemon juice
8 fresh lavender sprigs

Bring water to boil in saucepan.  Add sugar, reduce heat and stir till dissolved.  Remove from heat and stir in lavender blossoms.  Cover and allow to steep for 30-60 minutes.  Strain lavender mixture into a serving pitcher and stir in lemon juice.  Cool and serve with crushed ice.  Garnish with lavender sprigs.

My substitutions/additions:

I didn't have enough blossoms as lavender isn't quite in season here yet, so I used some leaves to cook with and saved the blossoms for the pretty.  Make sure you use lavender that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides if you can.

I was expecting 22, so I wanted to make a little extra.  I used 8 c water, added an extra 1/2 C sugar, 1/2 C leaves, and just to make it extra lemony, as I was boiling the water, I floated halves of 5 lemons on top to release the oils from the peels.  Make sure to scrub your lemons well if you're going to do this.  Using organic is that much better.

Review:

Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln!  Make this.  Make this right now!

'Cuz then you get to drink it!

For dessert, I made Pecan Pie and used that cream cheese crust recipe I promised you a while ago...  So let's get to that crust, shall we?

This recipe came from the now defunct recipecard.com. Can I just say how glad I am I got this recipe before the site disappeared?

Cream Cheese Pie Crust

12 T unsalted butter, divided
1 2/3 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
4.5 oz cream cheese
2 T ice water

Divide butter in 1/2 and cut into small cubes.  Wrap each 1/2 separately and chill 30 min.  Process or sift flour and salt for a few seconds to combine.  Add 1/2 butter cubes and all the cream cheese and process (cut together) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add the rest of the butter and cut together until mixture resembles small peas.  Be careful not to over-process.  Add the water and pulse (stir w/ cold spoon) twice.  The dough will look dry, but should hold together when processed.  Pour crumbs into plastic bag and gently knead dough until it holds together and can form a ball.  DO NOT OVER KNEAD!  Remove dough and divide in 1/2. Wrap each 1/2 in plastic and flatten into a disk.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.  Roll crust on cold surface w/ cold rolling pin.  Crust freezes well.  To freeze pie, don't bake first, put in freezer raw.

My substitutions/additions:

Because I'm a giant dork and totally forgot the first rule of pastry (always work cold) I softened the butter and cream cheese on the counter.  Not to be deterred, I forged ahead anyway.  I did refrigerate the butter after cutting it into cubes, but only for as long as it took me to measure and combine the flour and salt.  I don't have a food processor big enough to do a whole batch of dough, and I actually like to make pastry by hand, so I cut it together with a fork as quickly as I could.  I also forgot the ice water.  And I kneaded the dough on my counter instead of the baggie kneading thing.  The result was quite possibly the most tender, delicious crust I've ever made.  So there you go.  I don't suggest you try this method unless you're stupid, and/or a Pastry Rawkstar like me!  Oh, wait, maybe I'm the stupid one...  God helps the little children and the idiots.

Review:

Oh.  My.  Laws.  And then, you can use one of the crusts to make this:

Oh.  My.  Laws.  Again.

This little beauty also came from The Treasury of White Trash Cooking.  Page 253.

Nellie Gray's Pecan Pie

1 T butter
1 C brown sugar
3 eggs
1 C Karo syrup
1/4 t cinnamon
1 C pecans
pinch salt
1 unbaked pie shell

Cream butter and sugar.  Beat eggs lightly and throw in the rest of your ingredients.  Mix the ingredients well and pour them into an unbaked pie shell.  Bake at 450° for 10 minutes.  Then reduce heat to 350° and keep baking for another 35 minutes.

My substitutions/additions:

• I wanted the nuts to be whole, so I didn't chop them, and I used 1 1/2 C (one whole bag) if pecans.
• 1 tsp vanilla

Notes:

It really makes just enough to fill a packaged pie shell.  If you 're going to use my dough recipe, keep an eye on the crust during baking.  If it gets too brown, cover the pie with aluminum foil.  Also, when done, this pie will not be firm.  Don't worry if it's a little jiggly when you take it out of the oven.  It should be jiggly like firm jello, though, not jiggly like soup... Jiggly's a fun word.  hehehehe... ~jiggle~jiggle~...

Review:

I was afraid this would be too eggy the first time I made it, but it's fantastic!

And now, your reward for sticking with me through this marathon post.  A recipe I made up that didn't make it to the party.  Because we ate it.  Totally gone.  Not even a crumb.  You know how that pie recipe makes 2 crusts, right?  Well, I couldn't let that other crust go to waste, right?  No... of course not...

The first time I ever saw a rustic pie like this, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.  So simple.

Rustic Three Berry Pie

1 pt strawberries, hulled, whole
1 pt blueberries
1 pt cherries, pitted
4 Tbs sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 pie crust recipe

Mix berries with sugar and lemon zest.  Let rest and sweat while you're making and/or rolling out the dough.
Roll out the pie crust to about 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.  Place dough on baking sheet.  Fill the crust with the filling and fold over the edges until they meet, pressing lightly to secure.  Bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes, checking the dough for doneness.

Serve with a sprinkle of sugar, drizzle of cream, or dollop of ice cream.

Review:

Mr. CotC said it was the best pie I ever made.  He loved the lemon zest.  The boys were too busy shoving it into their faces to say much of anything.

I'll take that as a compliment...

A super huge "Thank You!" to all our friends who came and were gracious enough to help out trucking all the food and dishes up and down the mountain and help with the washing up.  We're so glad you all came!  We had so much fun!  Let's do it again next year, 'K?