My View...

I have spent the last three days in the kitchen.
Baking and making and packaging...busy, busy, busy.
But it's a good busy for me this year.
Usually by this time every year I am in more of freak-out mode.
I am a little better organized and prepared than I normally am, which is a huge relief.
This whole getting my life semi-organized thing is good.
I said semi.

I made Ritz cracker thin mints, sugar cookies, covered pretzels and this pretzel crack.
Lots and lots of it.
I'm not sure if I should curse Shannan or thank her for this recipe.
I have to confess though,  I can't even look at it now.
Too much "testing" the finished product.
{ughhhhhh}
But it is stomach-ache-inducing-good and I love that you only need five ingredients for it.
Oh, and the thin mints are so easy and good, too. Love those.

I have been listening to Christmas music in the kitchen, trading off a new cute apron
every day, and the kids have been really helpful and cooperative.
Which is always a good thing.
The treats are all packaged up and ready to go.
Our first Christmas celebration is tomorrow with Eric's family.
At noon I might add. Yikes.
I still have lots of wrapping--wait, all of it actually-to do but tomorrow night Eric and I
will have a chance to finish the rest while the kids are at the annual Christmas Eve-Eve
sleep-over at my uncle's house.
I am looking so forward to tomorrow night, you  have no idea.

Hope you are not in complete freak-out mode yet, either.
Time to pick up this house that I let the kids pretty much have free reign with today.
A definite drawback of spending the day confined to the kitchen.
Oh well, it was worth it and I am so glad to be finished.
Have a great night, y'all.

On Recipes & Life and Being Connected....

Around Thanksgiving last year I mentioned that I inherited a few of
 my grandma's handwritten recipes from her recipe box.

Not the whole recipe box, that belongs to one of my aunts, but she let me choose

 two recipe cards to keep and then my mom copied the rest for me.

The two recipes I chose were her peach cobbler and pie crust.

There were others in the box that I remember her making or have heard many

 stories of her making but they were not in her handwriting.

And I really wanted it to be in her handwriting.

Peach cobbler is not something I remember her making, but to me peach pie 

is the one thing she is probably the most famous for making.

She made the best peach pie I have ever tasted.
Seriously.

And I figured peach cobbler was the next best thing.

Her pie crust was to die for.

So flaky. Heavenly, really.

Many of my aunts, including my mom, make delicious pie crust and
 a few are pretty similar to my grandma's crust.

My grandma and grandpa had apple trees and peach trees and a garden. 

I remember apple pies, peach pies, mincemeat pies and rhubarb pies.

My grandpa loved mincemeat and everyone joked that he probably favored it 

because no one else liked it too much and he got it to himself.

They were probably right.

This week I decided I would make peach cobbler using my grandma's recipe.

Apron on, Tom Petty playing in the kitchen.

I got down to work.

Reading the recipe, in my grandma's writing.

Thinking that this used to be a daily activity when my grandma had all of her kids (15) at home.

Cooking big family meals and baking pies for dessert is just what you did.

My aunt saved me peaches from her peach tree and
 brought them to me a couple of weeks ago.

Cut up and frozen, ready for baking.

The peaches were so good.
Nothing like canned, or store bought.

So I made the cobbler. 

And it turned out.
And it was actually good...even though the very outer edge got just a little burnt.

And I thought of family traditions and passing down recipes 

and memories and how I want my kids to have all of that.

My family and our traditions and cousins and aunts and uncles have shaped my life.

Taught me what is important, what family means and how there is nothing

 on earth like a family's bond.

 What real power growing up and creating memories together creates in your life.

Passing on stories and recipes and traditions and not spending time together

 or celebrating Holidays together because it is what you
  have to do 

but because you love to do it
and wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

*******

Wow, all of this from a recipe card.

A little too deep for a Wednesday evening? 

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope you all are having a good week so far!