I Do So Like Peaches

Ok, so we used to have this magnificent peach tree in our back yard.  If I thinned the fruit in the summer, it was not uncommon for the peaches to be softball sized when they were ripe. The peaches were so sweet, you could eat them in a bowl with milk (or 1/2 & 1/2) without adding any additional sugar.

This was the traditional tree that I would always have the kids stand in front of on the first day of school, because it made such a great backdrop:

Emilie-starting 8th grade, 2001

Kimball-starting 5th grade, 2001

ok, I nearly always used the tree as a back drop!

Brad - beginning of Senior year, 2001

I was sad about 4 years ago when the peach tree up & died.  Since the tree was already growing in our yard when we moved into our house in 1988, I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that most likely, it was a "O Henry" variety.  We bought another one, and planted it in the same place.  This is it's second summer of growing:

There are a handful of peaches on it this year, that I am watching with much anticipation.  A fresh peach is my favorite fruit.  The most exotic thing we had growing up in Idaho was an apple tree.  I remember as a child visiting our cousins who lived in Ogden, UT.  They had a peach tree in their back yard.  That seemed almost tropical to me!

Well, about a week ago, a  neighbor of ours brought over a sack of peaches.  Last night I finally had all the ingredients I needed to make this fabulous peach pie!  It is a recipe I got last year from my sister-in-law Jenny.  She is the Martha Stewart of our family, so anything she makes you know will be a mouth-watering treat!

 This is an amazing pie!  I used store bought pie shells, and since the pie crusts were a little smaller, I split the recipe into the two shells.  It worked out good!

Terrell finished off the last piece of pie #1 for breakfast this morning.  I think I will cut into pie #2 for my breakfast.

Fresh Peach Pie
1 pie crust, baked
1 3-oz. package cream cheese- softened
1/2 pint whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Use a small amount of whipping cream to blend cream cheese.  Whip remaining cream and add powdered sugar and vanilla, then blend into cream cheese mixture.  Pour into the baked pie shell and let it set in fridge for 1 hour.

1 1/2 cups mashed peaches
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup sugar
Additional diced fresh peaches
Blend together and cook over medium heat until thick.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Add fresh sliced peaches and pour over cheese mixture.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

The Garden Post

Here's what our garden looked like on May 24th of this year:

Here's what our garden looked like on May 31st!  Yea, it's getting roto-tilled!

Here's what our garden looked like on June 10th, not long after I planted it:

Now we can fast forward a couple months to the end of July.  Here's what we saw a lot of:

It's the longest wait in the world, waiting for those tomatoes to turn red!  But the wait is finally over, and we are now foundering on tomatoes at our house!  This is what the kitchen cabinet looked like last Monday nite:

We finally ate & gave away most of these, now this is what it looks like right now:

Last Sunday, I made gazpacho, using an Alton Brown recipe from foodnetwork.com.

It was AWESOME!  Sorry, no picture.  But I will make this again!

The other night I made bruschetta chicken - I posted about how good this was a couple years ago.

We also bought a loaf of artisan bread and have had bruschetta with that a couple of times.

Some of our other favorite seasonal things to have with our bounty of tomatoes are:  BLT sandwiches, and fresh salsa.  Terrell is in the kitchen as I do this post, making salsa.  He is the self-appointed salsa maker of the family.  He tells me this batch will be chunky, that's good, because I don't care for his salsa that is practically puree.

Last Monday nite we took a couple of sacks of tomatoes over to a lady who just moved into our ward with her 7 kids.  She was overjoyed to get them, and said the first thing she was going to have was cottage cheese & tomatoes.  That reminded me how much I love warm tomatoes fresh from the garden, heaped with cottage cheese.  So I had to come home and have some myself!  I've enjoyed this tasty treat several times this week.

Another fun thing in our garden this year has been our sunflowers.  I planted a row of them along the fence at the back of the garden.  They are now in full bloom, and they are TALL!

Here's Terrell with the Grands, out in the garden Thursday morning:

This next picture really gives you an idea of how tall everything has grown this year.  Must be that turkey manure (Nutra-mulch) that we added to the soil before roto-tilling.

Here I am with two of my favorite little people

Next, I walked around the block with Cailyn & Gavin and took a picture of our garden from a different view:

Our back fence is 6 feet tall, so it gives you an idea how massive the sunflowers are!

I did get to grow something else in my garden this year that has been fun to watch:

OKRA!  I've only tried to grow it once before, and that year all I got was one lowly pod.  This year I have been much more successful. I really don't know what to do with it, other than saute it in a pan.  My favorite okra dish is the okra side dish you can get at Cracker Barrel!  YUM!  If you have any great okra recipes, let me know.

Covert Operation

We received word first this this morning via e-mail from the MTC in Provo, UT, that a certain Elder would be boarding a bus at 6:45 pm to leave for the SLC airport.

At approximately 6:30 pm, Terrell and I left Pleasant Grove, Utah in a mysterious looking '91 maroon Mazda 626.  As luck would have it, we hit mostly green lights all the way to the MTC, arriving at approximately 6:55 pm. The parking lot of the mail services building looks right into the side of the MTC where we saw a blue Coach bus waiting for departure.

Since we were in our mysterious looking '91, we didn't think anyone would notice us as the bus drove past.

It was fun to follow the bus to the freeway, and then on up the road to Pleasant Grove where we took the exit to return back home.

Update:  Just finished talking with Kimball - he called from the SLC airport.  It was fun to hear his voice again, and hear him recite the first vision to us in Tagalog.  His flight tonite takes him, Elder Fairbanks, (companion) and a Sister Carlson to LAX, then after a 4 hour lay-over they will depart for Taipei, Taiwan.  In Taipei, they join up with the rest of their group of missionaries (who flew SLC-SFO-Taipei) for the last leg of their journey to Manilla.

I asked Kimball if he knew how he would get to Angeles once they arrived in Manilla, he just laughed and said "no".  Hopefully there will be someone from the mission that will meet them in Manilla and get them headed the right way!

He said he has been packing all day long, and after sending some stuff home & giving other things away,  his bags finally weighed in at 48 lbs each (yea! I was worried about that one).  It's going to be a little different knowing he is in the Philippines.  I have gotten used to using dearelder.com, and shooting an e-mail off to him in the morning,  knowing that he will be able to read it that same nite.

It's all good!

The tomatoes are on in the garden, that's what we are having for supper tonite.  I need to do a garden post.  Many fun things are coming out of it these days!