New Holiday Traditions + Pie Crust

Today I am going to attempt a pumpkin pie.
A pumpkin pie and my grandma's homemade crust.
I'm nervous.
I'm pretty sure I'll fail... but I'm trying it anyway.


My grandma made the BEST pies and my mom does, too.
I want to learn how to make them with made-from-scratch crust, and for Charlotte to learn to make them one day as well.
I want to make this a new tradition, me and the kids making a pie the week of Thanksgiving...
Maybe getting good enough one day down the road to make a few and deliver them to some of our favorite people.
Maybe? Like way down the road?

This is what I will be attempting this afternoon...
Wish me luck! 

Do you have any favorite holiday traditions?
Or read about any neat ones you'd like to share?
Or just want to begin yourself?

Happy Monday, friends.

{will beg for peaches}

Oh, peaches.

I want peaches.

I have been craving and dreaming of my grandma's peach pie.

Today I am really wishing that I would have had the foresight to have her teach me how to
 make it along with her famous pie crust years ago.

But I didn't.  

I really hate that since it is too late now.

One of my aunt's makes a wonderful peach pie too and I'm thinking
of maybe asking her to teach me.

Anyway, in search of peaches we headed to an apple orchard about a half hour
away today that also sells peaches.

And they were gone.
Blah.

I called another aunt that has peach trees but their's are already gone, too.

A day late and a dollar short.

She did say she could spare enough frozen peaches for me to make a pie though.

So all was not lost because it was a beautiful day for  a drive through 

the country and a morning at the orchard.

It is still just a couple more weeks until the apples are ready to pick so in the mean
 time we had to pick up a jar of apple butter and apple donuts.

They said we could pick a few apples so we did and Charlotte picked some that had
 already fallen off the trees, too.
Next trip we will get enough for pies, muffins and all that good stuff.

And next time we go I hope to be wearing a little sweater and boots and to be drinking apple cider.
Okay, that might be pushing it but a girl can dream.

*     *     *

I'm hoping to attempt my peach pie next week after I get the peaches.

Wish me luck.

Pie making does not come natural to me by any means but I figure
 I've got to start somewhere...

Right? 

Yum.

 

Thanksgiving is my favorite meal. Pumpkin pie, which I really only eat this time of year, homemade noodles, rolls made from scratch, mashed potatoes, devilled eggs.....YUM. These are an apple pie and a pumpkin pie made by my mom, she makes the *most delicious* pies using my grandma's crust recipe, as do several of her sisters. YUM. Looks like I had better do some marathon shopping the next day in order to burn off at least a few of those calories.

What is your favorite thing(s) to eat on Thanksgiving?

Favorite tradition? 

The thing you are looking most forward to about Thanksgiving this year?

Time Travellin'

This morning we had errands to run so I rushed around, got everyone ready, brought a snack for the kids to have on the way, locked up the dogs and we were out the door in pretty good time. Well, not bad anyway. Get to the car, Charlotte climbs in her seat and just as I am about to buckle her in she asks me why I didn't make her wear underwear today. So I take a look and yep, no underwear under her dress. Back inside for Snow White underwear and we are off. I often stop and wonder how things can seem so crazy sometimes with just 2 kids when my Grandma had 15 kids. Fifteen kids. How on earth did she do it?

If I could time travel for just one day I would go back to talk to my Grandma and see how she ran her household when my mom was little and she had so many kids in the house to take care of. Cleaning, laundry, meals, baths, shopping, getting everyone ready for school, church, etc. It had to have been complete chaos, how could it not have been? I would love to be able to go back as my adult self, a mom now myself, and get to see a tiny glimpse of how she did it. Some of my aunts and uncles say that she never yelled and some say they rarely heard her raise her voice at all. She was always so calm and laid back and I am amazed that she made it through all of that with her sanity. Amazing.