peach recipes

Lots of peachy goodness around my house these days! Thought I'd post a couple of recipes:

Peach Cobbler (southern)

Filling:

8 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced into thin wedges

1/4 c. white sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

2 tsp. corn starch

Crust:

1 c. flour

1/4 c. white sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 TBSP unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

1/4 c. boiling water

Topping:

3 TBSP white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix peaches, and the rest of the filling ingredients together and gently toss. Pour into a 2 qt baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the peaches are baking - In a large bowl, mix flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. Blend in butter (I use my hands to do this, but if that bothers you use a couple of table knifes or a pastry knife to "cut in" the butter) to make a coarse meal. Stir in the boiling water until just combined.

Remove the peaches from the oven and drop spoonfuls of the crust dough over them. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mix to your taste. I prefer a light cinnamon sugar topping, so I only use about half of the mixture.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Serve warm with a bit of homemade vanilla ice cream on top!

Peach Bread

3 eggs

2 c white sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 c canola oil

2 c fresh peaches, diced

3 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

a sprinkle or two of allspice

1/2 c. chopped pecans (or walnuts, whatever you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour 2 - 8 X 4 loaf pans.

Beat eggs lightly. Blend in sugar, oil, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.

Gently fold in the peaches and nuts.

Pour into the pans.

Cook for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.

MmmmHmmmm....good stuff...

peaches

We went peach picking on Saturday.

Here we are getting ready to pick. Virgil, me, Katrina, Carla, Stephen and Jill

The peaches were gorgeous.

And tasty too!

They even smelled delicious!

Lots of picking!

And peek-a-booing

And discussing the finer points of the peach

We enjoyed the beauty of nature

And being together

Despite the look on her face, she really DOES love me. Honest!

Mr. Miner, the orchard proprietor, offered to unbutton a few buttons on his shirt for my picture.

He will be Mr. July in my upcoming calendar - Men of the Orchards

(**Sidenote** See how he's dressed - blue jeans, long sleeved shirt, suspenders - that could be my Daddy. I just wanted to load him up and take him home with me.)

What did we do with the bounty?

Peach butter

peach jam, peach butter, canned peaches, and peach juice (this photo just shows a few jars)

peach cobbler

peach bread

And, yes, I still have peaches left!

Makin' me feel special again!

Two of my awesome blog friends have bestowed awards upon me! Kristen and Carol - y'all are so cool! Thank you!


So here they are:

This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to six bloggers who must choose six more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

and this one:




You're over the top too, Ace! Here’s how it works: USE ONLY ONE WORD!It’s not as easy as you might think. Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s really hard to use only one-word answers.
1. Where is your cell phone? close
2. Your hair? messy
3. Your mother? dear
4. Your father? peace
5. Your favorite food? mexican
6. Your dream last night? forgettable
7. Your favorite drink? rootbeer (ok, I cheated!)
8. Your dream/goal? selfless
9. What room are you in? craft
10. Your hobby? many
11. Your fear? loss
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? progressing
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren’t? famous
15. Muffins? malt-o-meal (did I cheat again?) :)
16. Wish list item? paint
17. Where did you grow up? Texas
18. Last thing you did? Joann's
19. What are you wearing? pajamas
20. Your TV? big
21. Your pets? precious
22. Friends? true
23. Your life? fulfilling
24. Your mood? content
25. Missing someone? Daddy
26. Vehicle? Ford
27. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
28. Your favorite store? Joann's
29. Your favorite color? greens
30. When was the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? weeks
32. Your best friend? twins
33. One place that I go to over and over? prayer
34. One person who emails me regularly? Jill
35. Favorite place to eat? Mariachis
Passing it on! I know they gave it to me and I don't expect them to re-post, but I still gotta give back to my gals, Kristen and Carol and
3. Jimi
4. Jenny
5. Kristen C
6. Cathy (because she's brand new to the blog world and she's my niece!)

Lovin' it!

Do you see this forecast? I'm lovin' it! No 100 degree days. In July. In Texas. Wha..?

And Rain. In July. In Texas! YEEHAW!! (picture me whipping off my cowgirl hat and throwing it up in the air!)

Jalapeno Pepper Jelly

I'm excited! I made my first batch of Jalapeno Pepper Jelly. At first I thought it was too sweet and not spicy enough. BUT, Virgil tasted it and says he thinks it's great and I shouldn't go messing with the recipe. :) It is really pretty too...would make a neat Christmas gift.

Here's the recipe I used:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/canning/jalapeno-pepper-jelly/

Free Car Wash

Yep, lovin' this Sports Free Saturday!

Friday...I love you!

Don’t you just love Fridays? Friday means the weekend lays ahead of you – full of potential. No commuting! No 8 hours filled with paper work or phone calls or emails. Unless the paper work means you are scrapbooking or making cards, and the phone calls/emails are from people you WANT to communicate with! Of course, I’m particularly giddy about Saturdays at the moment because our last summer track meet was last Saturday and Football games won’t start for at least a month. So, yeah, I’ve got at least 4 (possibly 5) sporting event-free Saturdays ahead of me. Ahhhh…the potential!

Can't sleep

For some reason, at 4:13 a.m., I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I'm a good sleeper. This doesn't normally happen to me. Especially since Stephen passed the age of 2 1/2 and rarely gets sick. So, what does one do with oneself at this time of the morning? Should I go ahead and get ready for work? Make coffee? Read a book? Unload the dishwasher or maybe wash a load of clothes? There is always something to be done. But...I don't want to do ANY of that! I want to go back to sleep! This is messing with my routine!! The alarm goes off at 6:11 a.m., I snooze it until 6:20 a.m. I shower and put on make up, then wake up my hubby and so on and so forth.

Oh, wait...I just yawned. Maybe I can get back to sleep!! Good night!

Happy 4th of July!

A few photos from our fireworks celebration (I wasn't quick enough to catch the ones up in the sky! HA!)











And a recipe:

Mike's Hard Limeade "Ice Cream" (so easy, and OH SO GOOD, and refreshing!)

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 6 pk Mike's Hard Limeade


Combine condensed milk and Mike's (all 6 bottles) in your ice cream cylinder. Mix according to factory directions.

I use a simple Rival ice cream maker. In my experience the maker never shuts off (I guess because alchohol doesn't freeze.) Just listen for it to slow down and your "ice cream" is ready.
~ @my

Selecting fireworks

Selecting fireworks is a yearly tradition for us on July 3rd. We stand at the fireworks stand sweating, slapping mosquitoes, and dodging June Bugs and asking questions like, "What's that blue and red one with the wings do?"

"How much does it cost?"
"Ok, what's our subtotal now?"

And the folks who are running the stand smile, and politely answer our questions and say, "Now you can't get a better show than this artillery shell. It's a double shot, triple break, flip turnin' wizzer! AND, it's only $125!"

Then, we smile and politely ask, "How about that smaller one over there? In the green package?"



And the result?




See that smile?

And when we get home, he goes through his fireworks and says, "Thank y'all so much!"

That makes the sweat and mosquitoes worth it!

FiNaLlY!!!

My dear son is very reserved and risk averted. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, many times it keeps him from "jumping" in and having fun. Teaching him to ride a bicycle? I thought sure we would pull our hair completely out before we would ever see him pedal off down the road!

Public swimming lessons? No way! So we did private swimming lessons...1 session (6 visits)and he refused to sign up for the next level because you had to go in water over your head!

Fortunately, he is at the lake, pool or ocean enough that he has learned to swim.

On Wednesday evening, after our baptismal service, the kids were all invited to go swimming at the Graves pool. Stephen jumped right in...the shallow end...and was having a great time playing. After a bit, he comes over to his Dad and me and says, "You want me to jump off the diving board?" Now, it never even crossed my mind because, well, I know my kid! But, I said, "Sure!" and Virgil said, "Ummhmmm." Stephen walked away and Virgil and I looked at one another and agreed, "He'll never do it!"

Stephen s l o w l y made his way around the pool and stepped into line at the diving board. As his turn came closer his face showed more and more concern. Some of the boys around him were encouraging him, "Come on Stephen, do a cannonball!" Stephen's head shook, "NO!"

and then it was his turn! He slowly shuffled to the end of the board and - He - JUMPED!



And then he did it again, and again, and again!

Ah....finally!

~@my

Baptized!

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

Last evening Stephen and I were baptized. What a joy to be obedient to the Lord! And sharing the event with my son...wow I don't have words to express that feeling. Virgil was there supporting us and two of my dearest friends surprised me and were in attendance. As were my SIL, Melissa, my niece Megan, and my nephews Cole and Sam. I am indeed blessed!


Stephen's Baptism:







My Baptism:


Baptized!



Our Family



Me with my dear friends, Lena and Robbie: