Sometimes, when my husband picks 10 pounds of fruit, 2 pounds of which were bland, tasteless raspberries, I have to think quickly on how to use them in the best way possible.

Did I mention he came home with 10 pounds of fruit?

It’s not his fault he has grabby hands at the fruit farm. Next time I think I’ll go with him…

By the way, this was the day family and friends came over to eat before our official camping trip. I’ll just list what I cooked the night before and the day of:

1. Nectarine and Raspberry Galette
2. Cherry Ice Cream
3. Strawberry Ice Cream
4. Raspberry Sauce
5. Pork and Chive Potstickers (pre-frozen for emergencies like these)
6. Stuffed Mushrooms with bacon, green onions, mushrooms, breadcrumbs and cheese
7. Olive Cheese Bread (recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman)
8. Pajun (Korean seafood pancake)

I WENT OVERBOARD. Can you tell? But I had to. I didn’t even have a theme. I just made everything I could think of with all the ingredients I had. 

Excuse the hand thrown into the shot, but someone REALLY wanted to get their hand onto my blog. :P

And if YOU would like to be a Soupbelly Hand Model……

Anyway, since the raspberries didn’t taste their best fresh, turning them into a sauce with some sugar would fix that problem. And get rid of all the raspberries.

Raspberry Sauce (makes 1 cup)

Ingredients:

• 1 pint raspberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. lemon juice

Thickening agent:

• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• 2 tbsp. water

Directions:

1) Cook all ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir and mash right up before the boiling point, then remove from heat.

2) Pour sauce through a fine sieve or mesh strainer. Pour liquid back into saucepan, heat on medium, stir in thickening agent slowly. Remove from heat, refrigerate until ready to use.

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Add sugar to raspberries.

 

Add lemon juice.

 

Don’t worry…the bottle of Triple Sec does not belong in the ingredients. It is just used to document my frustrations.

I had no intention on making all these fruit recipes on that very busy day. And I was getting a little stressed that my husband thought we could just whip up a bunch of fruity desserts on top of all the actual food we were making. That’s where the Triple Sec came in. Don’t judge me for drinking before noon!

And I don’t usually drink Triple Sec. That was the only bottle of alcohol we had.

And I didn’t drink the whole bottle in case you were wondering.

Heat saucepan on medium, mashing and stirring up to the boiling point.

Once it looks like this, remove from heat.

Remove seeds/pulp by pouring through a fine sieve or mesh strainer.

    

Pour liquid back into saucepan, heat on medium.

Slowly pour in thickening agent, stirring consistently.

Remove from heat, let cool and pour into container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Coming soon: Homemade Cherry Ice Cream (NO EGGS!!) and Stuffed Mushrooms.