Rainy Day in June = Cobbler Time!

There's something so special about rainy weather in summer.  You get to combine the best baking weather with fresh fruit!

There are very few people from my childhood that I still keep in touch with.  Maybe three.  And of those three only one is someone who I actively keep up with.  My wonderful Kristi.  I met this girl in 3rd grade, and as of this day she is one of my absolute favorite people to hang out with.

Freshman year of high school we were really into cobbler for some reason; I can't even remember why.  We tried a number of recipes, and we found this delightful one at her house.  I think her mom had it in a cookbook, and after trying it, I made sure to write it down!  It's super easy, and super delicious!  This recipe has been in the very middle of one of my many random notebooks of terribly embarrassing angsty teenage poetry.  And being the clever girl that I am, I knew exactly which box and closet it was hiding in in my house.

  Now it's time to immortalize this recipe on the interweb! 

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients - 

1.5 cups of flour 
1 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon of oil (I use vegetable)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 quart of peaches (or other random mixture of fruit that sounds yummy!)
A little bit of corn starch

Totally forgot to put the oil and starch in the pic.....

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  My oven takes forever to get up to temp, so I ALWAYS do this way in advance.

First mix all of your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Then toss your wet ingredients right on top.

Then mix it all up!  You can use an electric mixer or Kitchenaid, but I just used a whisk; it's a pretty runny batter, so it's super easy to mix.

Now for the fruit!

Growing up I used to use canned peaches, but we have a wonderful farmer's market where I live now, and summertime = lots of fresh, local, organic fruit!

If you use canned fruit, separate the fruit and juice, and save the juice.

If you use fresh, then you'll need to cook the fruit to get some juice.  Just throw it all in a big enough pot with 2 cups of water and cook it down a bit.  Then separate out the fruit and save the juice for later.  

I cut my fruit up pretty small, but feel free to cut it to whatever size you like.  I used a mixture of peaches, plums, and apricots.  LOVE summer fruit!


Now take a greased 9x13 inch pan and pour your batter into it.  Then spread your fruit on top of it.  Don't worry, the batter with rise through!

Now pop that bad boy in the oven for 45 minutes.  

Remember that fruit juice we set aside earlier?  Now's when that comes into play!  You'll need a little bowl with some cold water, then mix in some corn starch.  I always kind of wing it, and the exact amount isn't in my little book.  Anyway, take that little bit of mixture and stir it into your fruit juice.  Heat it up until it just starts to bubble, and stir stir stir! And then take it off the heat.  It'll thicken up as it cools.  If you are unsatisfied with the level of thickness, add a little more cornstarch mixture.  But don't add too much!  It'll taste weird...

Mine is super red from the plums :)

Now I just watch the rain until....

Beeeeeeeeep!  45 minutes is up!  Try not to burn your thumb on the pan getting it out like I did......  I was maybe a tad too excited.......

Isn't it just beautiful?

Let it cool a bit so that your mouth doesn't end up like my thumb, maybe 10 minutes?  

You now have two options: dump that amazing fruit sauce all over the top, and then scoop a huge portion into your bowl.  OR scoop a huge portion into your bowl and then pour some sauce into your bowl.  Either way you're in for a treat! 

YUM!!!!!  Feel free to throw some vanilla ice cream in there.  The hubby likes to pour cream on it.  Enjoy!

DIY ruffled curtain - let the cuteness begin!

I've been on the hunt for a new shower curtain forever.  The one we have now is from my husband's old apartment - forest green....  It's nice, but very... manly... I guess.

Anyway, not my favorite, and I want something pretty, and frilly!  I've seen really nice ruffled shower curtains for buko bucks like this one at Kohl's. Nice, right?  Not for $100 though!

Fortunately there are lots of tutorial examples on Pinterest!  I used this one from See Kate Sew.  

I went to a local thrift store and found a white shower curtain for the backing, and some bed curtains that were awesome and frilly.  The pest part?  Everything was half off!  I bought 5 items and spent $6!!  Now that's more like it.

A good pair of scissors later, and I had some wonderful ruffled bits for sewing.  I pinned and sewed each row one at a time.  I had a few mishaps with the material getting folded up under the sewing needle.  Seam rippers are my friend.....

I love my colorful heart pins!  Let me tell you, though, I need TONS more pins!  On the second-from-the-top row, I made really small ruffles so I needed a lot of pins.  I ended up using a bunch of needles to make up for the lack of pins.

Doesn't it make a gorgeous table cloth?!  I think I need to make a bedspread like this!

And the finished project!

Now I just need to hang it in the bathroom :)  I worked on this over a period of 3 days, and it took me maybe 12 hours (the first day took forever since I didn't really know what I was doing).

The hubster even loves it!  He said I should make another one for the french door.  I love him <3

Let good things happen! Happy New Year!

Happy new year!  I have officially written 2013 TWICE so far this year, and didn't mess up either time (smug pat on back).  That's probably the only time for the next six months that I won't it up, though, hah!

I have never been a big fan of "New Year Resolutions" as they always seem to be things that are too far out of reach.  It's as if we only continue to make a resolution to keep up the tradition of setting ridiculous goals just to watch them fail.

This year, I plan on making smaller goals that are attainable, and that will improve my life.

1. Clean something.  

I can't say that I really dislike cleaning.  It's just, at the end of a work day, I really don't have the energy to clean, or the energy to care!  I used to be a huge stickler on keeping living space clean, but I had a series of horribly messy roommates who pretty much ruined that habit for me (who wants to clean someone else's pile of dirty dishes when you didn't even get to eat any of it?!).  Long story short, I'm ok with my house looking like 5 children live here, even though there are zero children living here.  =)  Cleaning ONE thing up a day is pretty darn attainable, I think, and it will go a long way in helping me feel happier about letting people inside my house.

2. Put something away.

I'm TERRIBLE about putting things away.  If I'm just going to use it later, why bother?  I'll tell you why: suddenly there's a mountain of STUFF on the coffee table, end table, couch, dining table, papasan chair, counter!  Why did I bring the tweezers out here again?

3. Organize something.

Going along with the putting something away - I need to organize the places that I put those things.  My spare room (also craft supply storage room) was once an adorable room with my things neatly put away, the bed made, the bed skirt sweetly hiding the junk I've stuffed under the bed.  Eight projects later, and it looks like we just moved and stuffed everything we owned in there.  Part of this organization requires more of those cute plastic cubbies from Ikea.  Yes.... Ikea.... drool....

4. MAKE SOMETHING PRETTY!!

This is the fun goal (obviously).  I love crafting, and I love Pinterest!  I also categorize my gardening under this one - because a garden brings so much beauty to the world!

UPDATE (1/6/13):




5.  Do one exercise!


I'm great at working out!  When I get around to it...... I want to make sure that I do at least one type of exercise (arms, squats, something) every day, especially if it's a day I don't make it to the gym!

Photo Card

Bright Color Blocks New Year's

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Hair cut

I've been growing out my hair for the last three and a half years.  I was going to cut it last summer, but then now-husband proposed, and I wanted long hair for the wedding.  So I left it to continue growing.  And boy did it grow!

(And it's even curled and waterfall braided here; so long!)

I finally chopped it off a few weeks ago!

Hellooooo new hair cut!

Definitely cut off 14 inches, definitely did not cry for once!  I was so excited as my hair lady cut through it all!

As soon as I'm brave enough to venture to the post office (probably my least favorite place to go EVER), I will be donating it to Locks for Love! This will be my third time donating, and it's super exciting =)

Box covers

I've mentioned before that I have a problem with squirrels tearing up my garden.  Well, now that it's fall, this problem is getting even worse.  I came home from work on Tuesday to find that the boxes with lettuce and arugula seeds, and little snow pea plants were TOTALLY DUG UP.  There were holes everywhere, and more than one snow pea plant was throw askew.  Those squirrels make me so angry!

Today is the day we begin to remedy the problem.  Covers for the boxes!

We built a square frame from some cheapy wood from Home Depot.

Done frame!  56"x56"

Husband's dad bought us a roll of chicken wire.  (How sweet!)

The dog was supervising, and barking at strangers, squirrels, and cats.  Good Dog!

Done!  (There aren't any pics in between because it's hard to take photos while making the frame =])

It's kinda lumpy, but that's chicken wire for ya.  I'm sure we can make a nicer one.  For now, this one is functional, and will keep those stupid squirrels out!

There's only one made so far; it took a lot longer that we thought it would, plus we're out of wood...  The covered box has snow peas and lettuces.

Baby lettuces!

Snow peas are getting tall =]

Presents in the Mail

My new seeds arrived!!!!

I mentioned in a previous post that I ordered seeds from Heirloom Solutions.  Three and a half weeks later...

Ta Da!

I can't plant the broccoli yet, but the carrots and greens will go in this weekend.  I am SO excited, especially since the greens will grow super fast and will tide me over until my carrots and snow peas are ready to harvest.  Yay!

Here are some more photos of my growing things: