Peach Season!

We are in Colorado Peach Season.

Favorite!

Kevin and I both love peaches and want to enjoy them year round. Last week we went to Sunflower Market and bought 5 lbs of peaches because they were only 0.49/lb! I have been busy preparing them to keep for later use. A friend asked me the other day what I was going to do with all of them... well here we go:

First I peel them: it is pretty easy here are the steps -

1. bring a BIG pan of water to boil

2. cut an X with a knife in the bottom of the peach

3. place the peaches in the boiling water and let sit fully emerged for 3-5 minutes

4. prepare a cold bath for the peaches to go into, I place 3 cups of ice cubes and 3 cups of water in a metal bowl

5. use a slotted spoon to remove the peaches from the hot water to the cold, let peaches sit in the ice water for 2 minutes

6. pick up the peaches and rub your hand against them and the peel should come right off

THEN...

* dehydrate them: i sliced two of them up for dried peaches to put in our dried fruit mix

* freeze them: sliced three of them and put in 1 cup portions in ziplocks for our freezer

* eat them of course, we love them in the morning with yogurt or for an afternoon snack

* make PEACH COBBLER!!!

I have several Peach Cobbler recipes that I love but here is by far the simplest and best on

e.

Serves 6Hands-On Time: 10mTotal Time: 1hr 10m

Ingredients

• 8 peaches (about 2 1/2 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F. In a bowl, toss the peaches with ¼ cup of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the flour; transfer to an 8-inch square baking dish.
2. In a food processor, combine the remaining 1¼ cups flour and ¼ cup sugar with the butter, baking powder, and salt. Pulse until coarse crumbs form. Add the cream and pulse just until moistened (the dough will be slightly shaggy). Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto the peaches.
3. Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden brown and bubbly, 40 - 50 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Friday.

If you have been following me on facebook you will know that I have had bronchitis for 14 days now. I first started with a cold and slight symptoms on Saturday July 3rd while we were in Florida. It was a rough weekend with lots going on, little sleep, and the start of a horrible cough. All very well worth it though being able to celebrate with Matt and Kay on their wedding day!

I am not much into doctors. They are some of my least favorite people to go visit to deal with my health. I would much rather walk into Whole Foods and have them help me and take a natural organic route than to be given antibiotics. However on day 11, tuesday, I caved and went. It was confirmed I had bronchitis. (i already knew this! thanks!)

It is now day 14 and since day 11 I have been on 10 different medications and been to the doctor twice in a 24 hour period. I have been taken off all 10 of those medications because I had an allergic reaction to most of them. My body broke out in hives and my throat began to swell shut, on top of everything else I was already dealing with! Now in order to treat my bronchitis I am using an inhaler every four hours. For 48 hours I couldn't be further than 5 miles from an Urgent Care and Kevin or someone couldn't be more than 5 miles from me either so they could take me. Good think he works close to our home!

This is not working! I am not going to give up on it but my cough and the tightness in my lungs is not going away. I feel fine, other than this pesky cough. Now i'm going back to my own route since I can't have any antibiotics.

Thank You Doctors for well basically nothing... other than now you have $300.00 of our paycheck and I have missed 2 days of work. My sickness was escalated with a rash and my time was wasted in your office. Thank You for releasing me to go back to work as of Monday and allowing me to go White Water Rafting with my husband on Saturday, because I was going to go ANYWAYS!!!

There.

That is my soapbox. Because I have set at home for 3 days now.

Oh and as far as being in the kitchen. Not happening today, again. I am supposed to be "resting" anyways!

AND I just want to say my husband is the BEST EVER! He has taken care of the garden for me, went grocery shopping, taken me to the doctor, lived on less than minimal sleep because I lay in bed coughing, and so much more! Thank You Honey!!!

Garden Update: July 11, 2010

sorry the pictures are so tiny! I just can't get this to work today, check my facebook page for a better look!

I finally took some pictures of our garden for a little update on how it is growing. Now I just need to get out and pull some weeds! Below is broc and squash.

We have enjoyed several strawberries already this year and although they are growing slowly they are totally worth the wait! I also picked our first tomato this afternoon. The plant itself is not looking so great so it might be our only one :(

Friday: What's Cooking In The Kitchen...

Back to being in the kitchen and couldn't be more excited! We have been gone for the past week visiting Kevin's little brother Bradley in Orlando, FL and also traveled up to Jacksonville for Kay and Matt's Wedding. Many pictures to come and more about our trip later!

I came back to a very full and beautiful garden, thanks to our neighbors who watered it daily for us! We have an almost ripe roma tomato and some broccoli sprouting. The squash plants are huge but no sign of of them yet an the strawberries are doing great! Pictures to come later this week for the garden as well!

I have been feeling a little under the weather since we returned home on Tuesday so other than going to work I have been sleeping and relaxing a lot. Trying to get more rest in today as this weekend we are helping friends move and celebrating the WORLD CUP!!!

While we were gone we preordered from Door to Door Organics so that we could come home to a box of fresh fruits and veggies. It arrived Tuesday afternoon and contained the most wonderful organic produce! Time to get creative because I have never cooked turnips, beets, or collard greens!

In the Kitchen:

1. Crockpot Cheese Enchiladas: for dinner tonight - click on the name for the recipe, so easy to make and all things I randomly had in my kitchen! love that.

2. Collard Greens: these were actually made last night (thursday) for dinner - I used an onion (from the box) and the collard greens we received and sauted the onion with garlic in a little EVOO then added the greens. turned out GREAT! I served it with homemade pesto pasta and garlic cheese bread! YUM! We are having this for lunch today as well, can't wait!~

Well back to researching these yummy veggies and relaxing. Watch for some posts this week on our FL trip and the garden!

Friday: What's Cooking In The Kitchen...

This week has been so busy! Kevin has been traveling for work this week down to the Castle Rock area so it has made for busy and very long days for him! Our Honda Civic, that he drives, doesn't have air conditioning and it has been in the upper 80's this week. Last night we went to Dairy Queen, it was a much deserved cool treat for him!

Also this past week in Indiana my parents were hit by a big storm. From talking to my dad this morning he said there were 100 mile and hour winds and several tornados in one night that hit my hometown of Goshen, IN. Everyone is safe but a lot of people are out of power and there is tons of cleanup to be done. Check out the article and pictures from my hometown newspaper.

THE ELKHART TRUTH

This week we leave for vacation. Can't wait to get away for a while and enjoy being together, seeing family, and celebrating a dear friend as she gets married! We will post more about our trip including pictures when we return!

I am making some fruit in our dehydrator to make a dried fruit mix on the plane; it will include:

* apples

* strawberries

* kiwi

* peaches

I also have onion onion croutons going in the oven and getting ready to make some hamburger tator-tot casserole for lunch with Kevin.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

For Moose...

I got this through email today from the Only Natural Pet Store in Boulder, one of our favorite places. They have helped us so much in moving towards an all natural holistic diet for Moose. Check out this article!

click here (Healthy Products You Can Share with Your Furry Friends)

Friday: What's Cooking In The Kitchen...

This weekend we are out camping again. Between camping and our season tickets to the Rapids AND 16 weddings all out of state; this summer is going to be a busy one.

I love it!

This week in the kitchen I ran my dehydrator ALL week! I think it is one of the most used and most loved appliances in my kitchen. Here is what it was filled with:

1. Blueberries (took about 15 hours)

2. Garlic (took over 48, only because I didn't slice them thin enough)

3. Apples (15 hours)

4. Mango (8 hours)

5. Onion (12 hours)

I used the Garlic and Onion to help refill some spices in my cabinet. I plan on doing red pepper at sometime too and making a steak seasoning/rub for grilling!

The fruit is always great by itself but we also love to mix it into trail mix for camping and traveling.

For camping this weekend we are eating the usual. Hobo Dinners, Hotdogs, Smores, etc. I am excited about some homemade baked beans I have been testing out. I made some earlier in the week and decided to do another batch for our weekend in the woods.

BAKED BEANS:

* 2 cups dried beans (rinse well)

* 4 tsp chicken or beef broth (optional)

* 1 large onion: diced finely

* 3 cloves garlic: diced finely

* 6 cups water

Place the above ingredients in crockpot on high for 6 hours or low for 10-12. When beans are soft enough to eat add the following:

* 1/4 cup brown sugar

* 1/4 cup ketchup

* 1/3 cup mustard

* salt and pepper to taste

I make them ahead of time and then just reheat them over the open fire while we are grilling hotdogs!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the beautiful weather!