Peachy Friend

PEACH PIE

Michelle Stewart brought me the best peach pie yesterday and I want to share it with you so you could enjoy it too. According to facebook they are a popular item and I was lucky enough to get in on the experience so I thought I would share the recipe so you could enjoy the bounty of peach season as well.

Doesn't it look so nummy.. it was still warm in this picture. (thanks again Michelle)

Heaven knows I can't make pies.

Ingredients

• pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie
• 6 cups fresh peaches, sliced
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1tablespoons butter
• 
  

Directions

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. 2

   Stir together flour, 1 cup sugar, and cinnamon and set aside.

3. 3

   Wash, peel, and slice fresh peaches.

4. 4

   Mix together peaches with the combined dry ingredients.

5. 5

   Turn into pastry-lined pie pan and dot with butter.

6. 6

   Cover with top crust, cut slits in it, seal the edges.

7. 7

   Sprinkle top with 2 tablespoons of sugar.

8. 8

   Cover the edges with foil to prevent over browning; remove foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.

9. 9

   Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust.

10. 10

    Pie may be frozen for future use.

Sunday Gourmet

Well I am not sure if you can call it gourmet but it sure was good. On Sunday, we came home after Hayze's hockey game ( they were defeated 6-4) and had brunch. I made a triple stack of pancakes made from my new pancake molds I got a Williams and Sonoma.

These molds make a hollow centre when stacked so that you are able to

fill them with whatever topping of filling that you desire. I put warmed up apple pie filling in ours and let it over flow on top. I then put grated old cheddar cheese on top, I loved the sharp taste with the sweet.. Kids didn't have the same feelings about the cheese.
A couple of things to consider when doing something like this. I think metal cookie cutters would work to make shapes. You would just need tongs to remove them prior to flipping.
Key tricks, batter has to be quite runny, molds have to be hot prior to pouring batter in to them and they need to be greased well in between each pancake. Pam works great.

I used one pan just to keep the molds hot in between.. I wish I had a large griddle so I could cook all three at once rather than one at a time. These ended up being a long process and my kitchen actually looked like a bomb went off before I was done.
It all ended well and they were excellent. We all loved them and they are on our list to try again.

We serve sausage with them.. got me thinking you could just put the sausage in the middle and pour your syrup right on top. Kind of gives new meaning to "pigs in a blanket"

My helper.. like I mentioned the kitchen took a beating this morning.. I was prepping for this

potato soup, and making brunch at the same time. Destiny was a great help at keeping us on top of the dishes because when we finished the soup, we started making her cupcakes for her birthday.. Which is tomorrow. I hope to send cupcakes to school for her and then bake a separate cake for her party on Friday. Please, please try the recipe for potato soup on Amy's blog. It is so good.. I called it "potato skin soup".. It tastes just like them and it is so nummy..

Destiny trying to beat the winter weather. I think we have all had enough of this cold.

She looks so cute in her Hawaiian outfit..

To bad we are going to Honduras for our vacation..!!..

I am sure they will let her were it if she wants to..

I realized today that I never shared with you the "Santa Hats" that I made for Destiny's Christmas ringette party. They turned out adorable and I wanted to show them off..

I got the idea from here

We had so much fun making them. I did however have the dilemma of how to make them stand up. We didn't have any styro foam and Jim couldn't find any in town so after the kids hands were full of sticks I got the bright idea to use a 2x4. Hayze drilled the holes for me and we were lucky enough to get the perfect size drill bit and they stood up nicely.. The girls loved them and ate every last one.

Christmas Journal

Well remember this post were I said I was going to be so ambitious and do a Christmas journal and document everyday on our way to Christmas 2008. Ya well that failed!. I ran out of time prior to surgery and I haven't had the ability in the last couple of weeks. But with all that said I have realized that we as a family have done some great things on our way to Christmas and I have documented with pictures and get to "journal" about them on my blog. So this.. has become my 2008 December journal.

We have done some great things together so I am going to hi light a couple for you

Poppy Cock

[december 7, 2008]

Caramel Popcorn with Nuts (Poppy Cock)

Ingredients
4 qt Fresh popped corn.

1/2 ts Salt.

2 c Peanuts; dry-roasted, (or any other nut you would like, I used cashews)
1/2 ts Baking soda
1 c Packed brown sugar
1/2 ts Vanilla extract
1/2 c Unsalted butter
lg 5 quart roasting pan.
1/2 c Corn syrup

Instructions for Caramel Popcorn with Nuts (Poppy Cock)Place popcorn in large roasting pan. Mix in nuts. Set aside. Preheat oven to 200F. In heavy sauce pan, mix sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt. Over medium heat, stir until boiling. Continue to boil, without stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, then baking soda (it will foam up). Pour over popped corn and nuts; mix well to coat. Place in oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes while baking. Cool, break apart and store in a tightly sealed container.

This recipe turned out great. Jim loved it. It makes two large zip lock bags full and is crunchy rather than gooey. We loved it.

Saturday Sunshine

Only one ice time on Saturday and after the game Hayze went to the Rycrofts to play and Destiny and her Dad went for a ride. It was a perfect December day for a ride.

[december 6,2008]

Sunday Snow Storm

This turned out to be a great day for the kids to get out and play in the snow. Ringette was cancelled so we stayed home and all three of my kids played out in the snow. [the third being Jim of course]

[december 7,2008]

Our little Lilly, she is so photogenic.


The Scenery in our yard was amazing. I took a ton of pictures but really none of them did the "winter wonder land" any justis.

In anticipation for the falling snow.

The back window of my Avalanche.

I thought it looked so cool with the falling snow and white trim of snow all around it.

Hope you enjoyed some of our December journal , check back for more entries.

2 batch

Well, as I said in my last post, Stacey brought projects on both days. This is what the second day project looked like.

[click on photo to see bigger, if you want the recipe]

I have to ask some of you bakers out there, have you ever added "parowax" to any of you recipes and if you have why.? I must admit I was a little nervous adding wax to a pot of perfectly good choc. My roll in this great tasting, great looking treat was unwrapping the camels (which were the soft Werthers) The camels were so nice and easy to open compared to the original style. I highly recommend this brand when making these.

I didn't give you the recipes for the cookies that we made in the last post but if you are wanting them just let me know and I will get them from Stacey.

I have received some really nice gifts in the last couple of weeks, a very large platter that looks great in my office on my round table, some fun cowboy boot shaped patio lites, Lasagna, chili, wine and wine glass, slippers, magazines and books, coffee and a sparkly room diffuser and flowers. How great is that. Funny how a gift can always make you feel better. Thanks everyone for the pick me ups.

[This is the coffee and room diffuser I received.]

[how cute is that?]

Letter to Santa

The children did their letters to Santa on Wednesday night. Destiny colored and decorated and erased and started again for about a hour. Hayze, wanted to use the computer, he typed a 3 line letter, ending in I think I have been good! Jim mailed them today.. I guess we will see what the old boy thinks.

Have a great Friday.

December Happenings

Well I continue to be at home recovering and feeling quite well. I have had a wealth of friends calling, writing and dropping in. I have found myself doing just a bit to much on days but have went back to relaxing and pain killers to ease the pain. I got my stitches out yesterday and that makes a world of difference in how I feel as well.

I am very lucky that my hobby is my pictures and computer. It feels good to do a few things today. I am going up date you on some of my pictures from the last two weeks.

This is the picture Maureen took for me after dad and Jim put the new hand rails up downstairs. It will be great for guests and us to have the new rails up. I actually haven't been down to see them yet, but thanks to the beauty of technology, I have seen them and so have you.

Maureen and Stacey were sweet hearts the other night and washed little lilly for me so that she could spend more time with me on our bed.. she doesn't like her bath at all.. Look at Mo, I don't think she likes lillies bath either.

This is a picture of my princesses. aren't they so cute.. Lilly is so fuzzy now that she is clean.

Lilly is wearing a build a bear crown for "jasmine" from Aladine. ahhhh!

Stacey visited both Monday and Tuesday, both days bringing stuff to do.

Monday she brought two double batches of cookie dough for us to make cookies.

Ginger bread cookies, and sugar cookies.

Ginger Bread Cookies

I helped roll balls.

A little tip: When the cookies come out they look like this.. tap the pan firmly to get the air out. This will make your cookies stay nice and chewy.Did you know that there is a difference between "ginger bread" and "ginger snaps"? I didn't understand the difference until Stacey explained that ginger snaps are the hard ones, the stuff you would make the houses of. These were ginger bread and nice and chewy.. so great.

Sugar Cookies

This is the cookie mix that Stacey had brought for the sugar cookies.

Cut the dough into Christmas shapes.

We froze these. We will decorate them before Christmas..I got sore before we finished.. Will share the completed cookies when we finish.

The rest of the pictures

Better late than never. More of the pictures I promised from the kids in the park this fall.

I thought I would use this post to catch up on sharing some photos and happenings that I was hoping to blog about in the past. As we all know time to quickly gets away from us and we don't get half of what we want done, let alone the "fun" stuff.

Ok.. now my computer is not allowing me to upload any more pictures so I will just answer a couple of questions that have been asked.

1. Why so many cow pictures.? ( click on the bull on the side to see thanksgiving pictures)

a: because that's what we do when we go home. We spend an afternoon out on the Saskatchewan prairie looking at cows and enjoying the scenery. I guess that has become a tradition.

2. What kind of camera do I use?

Keep in mind I am amateur with a lot of try, my equipment is with me were ever I go. ( the word out is that I am a little poparotsey) and I love my hobby of "pictures".. taking, editing, scrapping, displaying, making video's all of it .. I love it.

a: Canon Rebel XTi, Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300mm This camera also comes with a lens: Canon EFS 18-55mm. I also have a Kodak Easy share 10x zoom which gives me 38-380 mm (equiv.) I love it too, it is more of the one I can through in my purse..

3. Hysterectomy?

a: I know I just kind of threw that in there on my last post. I am having surgery Nov 24 and will be in the hospital for about 4-5 days. Why? A long list of girl related crap.. I (and my family) are looking forward to this all being behind us. Any info that anyone has would be greatly appreciated and any extra hands to help get my kids to the rink will be helpful during the weeks following. (just thought I would throw that in there)

I guess it is going to let me add more pictures now.

The harvest of fresh tomatoes at my dads

this is just 1/20 of what he had under every bed and under blankets.

I had thought I would learn how to can them, but simply ran out of time,

as I always do when I go home.

I did make some fresh Salsa

I used fresh tomatoes

white onion

one small hot pepper

a green pepper

cilantro
I don't like it hot so that was it..

I made some Brochette too..

I used fresh tomatoes

garlic, and more garlic

the whites of green onion

olive oil

cilantro

feta cheese

I served it on broiled sour dough bread and garnished with the greens of the green onion.

goodness!

Last picture to share with you. This is my cousins daughter Arlee. Isn't she as cute as a bug. I love this picture of her. It was taken at Uncle Norman and Auntie Phyllis 60th anv.