Short And Sweets

A sign that I might be spending a little too much time blogging:

Oopsie-Doopsie! Tee-Hee!

Peach Pickin' Party

Every summer for the past 4 years my mom, the kidos, and I have gone to a peach orchard just 20 minutes from our home to pick the most amazingly sweet peaches. They give you baskets to take out among their hundreds of trees and you can fill them to your heart's content with yummy peaches. For only $.75 a pound we rack up on them and eat as many as possible within a few days. Then, I chop the rest up and freeze them for the coming months.

The kids really get into it and get up underneath the branches to get the big fat ones that are hiding there. I constantly have to remind Perri, however, that we want the biggest ones because she tends to feel sorry for the small ones and wants to pick those first. :)

This orchard also has strawberries in the early summer, blueberries, blackberries, plums, nectarines in mid-summer, and apples and pears in the fall. It really is a wonderful place to get really, really fresh, right off the vine produce and cheap, too! We are thankful it happens to be so close to home! Here we put the kids to work picking some blueberries. They are such willing and great helpers!

It was a bright day and...Oh my word!!! I just realized that bow is bigger than Perri's head!! I love BIG. BOWS and I can not lie!

I have a quick tip for ya if you are interested in canning or freezing peaches. If you have ever done either you would know what a PAIN in the uh-hum it is to peel them. If you use a paring knife you loose ALOT of the tasty flesh trying to take of the skin and the handle of the knife ends up sticky from the juiciness of the peach.

I have found that if you place the peaches in a pan of boiling water for 20 seconds and then quickly pull them out, the skin EASILY wipes away with a dish towel or can be peeled by hand without losing ANY of the flesh. Easy. Easy. Easy. (As much as you tends to get on my nerves, thanks Alton Brown for that time saving suggestion.)

And BTW, you will want to bleach the dishtowel out after this process as it will be very icky after you get done.

All I do after I peel the skin away is cut them into slices, put them into a quart size freezer safe baggies, and sprinkle a little sugar in. I shake the bag to melt the sugar and off they go into my freezer.

My kids love when I thaw out one of the bags and it's just the right serving size to put on top of vanilla ice cream or their pancakes in place of syrup.

There really is nothing like summer fruit!

More 4th Fabulousness!

I love the 4th of July for so many reasons. I am grateful for a beautiful and diverse country where pride for our nation is still prominent and where people willingly give their lives to keep it safe and free. The 4th is a great reminder of that!

I also love the 4th because it is a GREAT reason to to get the family together and have a party! We folks on the Perry side believe ANY holiday is a good reason to have a party.

There is also another reason I love the 4th, though. Technically, it really has nothing to do with my country's independence or it's birthday.

Oh, yes. That is a work of art, ladies and gentlemen. A work of art that only goes on display the 4th day of July every year. Here's some more eye candy fer ya...

My dear, sweet Hubby goes through a 2 day ritual preparing these babies just for me (OK - AND the family). He loves me I tell ya. And the sad thing is, he doesn't even like ribs and doesn't eat them. He cooks them for me because I ADORE them. His are THE BEST I have EVER tasted and I am way picky about baby-back ribs. Wish you could have smelled them on the grill. So divine! Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm. He has a God-given gift with pork.

The kids splashed around in the pool for awhile while daddy worked his magic.

Daylor decided he was too big for the pool and hung out with the adults for the better part of the day. (Why does he have to look so big?!?!? I have to say I am struggling with the fact that he will be 10 month after next. I'm not near old enough to have a 10 year old and he's not near old enough to be 10! )

Here is some of the other spread we had. We had so much to eat and it was so good! Notice those gorg. tomatoes compliments of my garden.

And everyone knows you can't celebrate the 4th without some of this:

My sweet, 93 year old Peepa enjoying a big plate of yumminess:

Mom always tops of the occasion with my Meema's homemade ice cream recipe. A perfect way to end the perfect day!

God Bless America!