"I'm wishing (I'm wishing), for a slice of pie..."

One of my all-time favorite Disney movies is Snow White.  It is from a simpler time, when the women weren't drawn like swimsuit models, the songs weren't written with a soundtrack in mind, and the movies weren't filled with gross-out humor.  They were still cute and pretty innocent (well, all except the part where the step-mother wants to murder her step-daughter, but hey - blame that on the Grimm Brothers - it's their story).

But I digress.  Do you remember the scene where she is making gooseberry pies for the seven dwarfs?  I always wondered what exactly a gooseberry was.  Was it a real fruit, or just a made-up fairy tale thing?  If it really was a fruit, what did it taste like?

Well, by dumb luck, I got to find out.  About a month ago the girls and I went strawberry picking.  I saw a sign for gooseberries when we were about to leave, and curiosity got the better of me.  I HAD to go try some. 

 Here's what they look like:

 Weird, right?  Well, we tried them, and the taste was actually quite delightful.  They had a firm skin, like a grape, and when you bit into them, the texture inside was also grape-like (maybe a little softer), but the flavor was nothing like them.  They were a sweet-tart taste - really interesting.  I had never had anything like them.  Very yummy. 

So I got it into my head that, upon finding gooseberries, the only logical thing to do was to make a gooseberry pie.  I just had to - in honor of Snow White and all.

I went home, googled a bunch of recipes, took some ideas from a few of them, combined them, and came up with this:

 It turned out perfect!  So...what did it taste like?  To be honest, it was almost a dead ringer for strawberry rhubarb pie.  Seriously, almost exactly the same.  I'm not quite sure how that happened, but when I think about it, gooseberries have a sweet-tart taste, and so does the combo of strawberry and rhubarb.

So, the mystery is over.  Gooseberries do exist, and they are delicious, and they make a yummy pie.
   

And we all ate happily ever after.

THE END

Blessing the babe :)

Thomas was blessed on June 17th.  Born on Mother's Day, blessed on Father's Day - kinda cute, right?

Here's our crew (minus a couple of sisters).  My sister Dana and her husband Aleks (holding their daughter, Ivy), and my sister Adria and her husband Jason (holding their kids, Jane and Henry), and well, you know the rest of us.  Adria and her family drove in from Ohio for the event and we were so happy that they were here for our special day.

I love the way Thomas is barely even visible.  Oh well - we were so busy trying to get everyone else to look at the camera at the same time that we didn't notice.  With four kids, you can't have it all!

 Lou and his boys

 I put this picture in because it strikes me as funny - do I always look that tiny standing next to Lou?!

This is the same blessing gown that all of my babies have been blessed in (made by my mother).  What can I say?  I'm a traditionalist. ;)

I know - lots of pictures of Mama and baby - well, I'm not usually in any of our pictures because I am almost always the one taking them, so it seemed only fair.

I love the sparkle in his eyes in this picture.  Sweet baby. 

Lou gave a beautiful blessing, as always.  

Sweet baby.

Beautiful blessing.

Gorgeous sunny day.

Surrounded by loving family.

Okay, so I guess with four kids, sometimes you CAN have it all... :)