My oh my... peach pie!

Last weekend, I endeavored on my first peach pie. Lovebug is a big fan of any type of fruit dessert, but he especially loves pies. We'd recently been getting some excellent peaches from the store, so I figured what better time to make peach pie than ate their peak?

I started out by making my go-to pie crust, Pioneer Woman's. This time, instead of mixing it by hand, i mixed it together in the Kitchenaid. I didn't feel like taking extra time doing it by hand. I feel that it still turned out ok, but I think it was a little less flaky because of the lack of hand mixing.

When I was searching for a recipe for peach pie, I was surprised by the lack thereof on the blogs that I frequent. The few that did have peach pies featured some type of custard pie and Lovebug can't have that. I needed something traditional that required no dairy. I ended up finding one to try from the blog Bake at 350. Not only did it look good, I thought it had a fitting name: Texas-Style Peach Pie.


The pie came together relatively easy. After making the crust, I peeled and sliced the peaches. The peaches were combined with flour, sugar, lemon juice, and a few other ingredients. I dumped this delicious combo (yes, it was good just like this -- I thought about eating the middle and making more!) and then took my first stab at creating a lattice top. It was pretty easy, in my opinion, although I'm not sure that it was as perfect as other lattice pies I have seen, it still had the look of a braid/weave and I was pretty happy with the result.




After it baked, we let it set up for a bit before cutting and serving. We served the pie warm with vanilla frozen yogurt and I feel it was a giant success!


To life... full of summertime peach pies!

There's a Bun in the Oven!

Most of you already know our news, but for the few that might not - we are expecting! And as many of the other food bloggers out there who are pregnant, I went through the stereotypical "drought" of baking when I was feeling nauseated and absolutely NOTHING sounded appealing. Thankfully I have Lovebug who was willing to forge on and do the cooking for us (or take me to taco bueno when I most needed it!) I am going to attempt to create a "ticker" for the blog so you can follow along with the progress of our little one. I've just been excited to finally announce our news to everyone! I will be starting Week 15 in just two days!

And I have been baking... I made a peach pie on Sunday and hope to share it with you soon. As well as the ice cream recipes that were made for July!

To life... full of new life!

Where is her Sweet Tooth?

It may seem like I've dropped off the face of the baking world, but indeed I haven't. I even have photographic evidence to prove it! This isn't a complete listing of what I've made, but it will give you a sampling of what's been going down in my kitchen :o)

Using my new processor to make Strawberry Blueberry Jam!

I made it on the 4th of July so I thought it fitting to have a red, white, and blue shot.

Ready for the freezer!

I also endeavored into the homemade ice cream world for July's theme! I made blueberry cheesecake ice cream. Cooking the berries...

And baking the graham cracker crust

Delightful!

For an easy night, I made brownies with Peanut Butter M&Ms.

My friend had found the idea on a blog and I jumped at the recipe! They were good and my friend was glad I shared :o)

I'm working on baking something else too... something brand new. But I may take another post to share all about it.

To life... full of a seeming summer baking hiatus.

August's Theme

It's August 3rd and I haven't even announced what August's theme will be. After several suggestions - including those thrown out by several people while we were waiting hungrily at a Mexican restaurant - I am going to go with... COOKIE DOUGH! One of the girls at work sent me a whole page of recipes that were based around cookie dough, another of my friends and I share quite the love of all things cookie dough, and my sister recently made cookie dough topped cheesecake bars. Those were enough reasons to convince me it was time to feature the wonderful, lip-licking, sugar-induced-can't-stop-eating cookie dough theme.

Previous cookie dough recipes that I have made and would love to repeat:

The Cookie Dough Cheesecake I made for my most recent birthday.

Cookie Dough Balls - Tara keeps asking to make these again!

Cookie Dough Dip - Several varieties, every single one is great!

Recently I've seen some recipes that my friends and I are considering trying for our upcoming bake day. One of them that jumps out to me are these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies.

What will you make?

To life... full of cookie dough!

Today... in bullet points

• I have completed 275 miles in my challenge for the year. I have exactly 300 miles to go! I know, that's still more than halfway, but I am encouraged!


• I bought new walking shoes on Saturday. LOVE THEM! They are pink and gray Aasics. Now I want to walk all the time-- can't wait for the cooler weather.


• Our anniversary is in two days -- this year we bought new pillows as our gift for each other. Hooray!


• We leave in two days to visit my family in NE and MO. I'm so excited! It's been 7 months since we've been there-- so long!


• It rained for like 2 minutes this morning-- I hadn't heard rain in weeks!! I'm guessing at least 8 weeks! It was loverly :o)


• I made brownies with Peanut Butter M&Ms on Sunday night. My friend saw it on a blog, I checked it out, they were made -- DELICIOUS!

To life... full of bullet points.

Anniversary Thoughts

Lovebug and I are less than a week away from celebrating our 4-Year Wedding Anniversary! In some ways I feel like that was such a long ago day... still in college, naive about the effort that goes into building a solid marriage, just plain young. On the other hand, it feels like just days ago. Where have the past 4 years gone? Not to say they have been wasted - at all - but how does life just pick up and fly by and you hardly seem to notice until you look back and reflect? It's been an awesome, exciting, frustrating, hilarious, tough, prayerful, self-reflecting journey and I look forward to many, MANY more years! I love you, Lovebug!

To life... full of our love's journey!

Ice Cream Recipe Ideas

Guess what?!? I've already made my recipe for this month! At least one of them. Aren't you proud? I made Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream from Brown Eyed Baker. It was absolutely wonderful! Very creamy and dreamy and fairly easy to make! It has inspired me to make more! I'll post more pictures and comments when I do the wrap-up at the end of the month.

Today, I want to share some ice cream ideas for you as you start looking for recipes for this month.

I'm just going to go ahead and recommend her entire archive of Ice Cream recipes. Check out her variety of flavors and she even explains how to make ice cream without a maker! I think any of these ideas from Brown Eyed Baker would be excellent choices! I haven't gone wrong with any of her recipes yet.

Here's a cake from Picky Palate that looks wonderful! It's been on my must-try list for a long time.

I believe I bookmarked this one for Lovebug. He could totally eat this Strawberry Yogurt Sherbert. I should probably try to remember this one!

This Butterfinger Ice Cream Cake looks... beyond words. Does someone want to make this FOR me?!?

Finally, I thought I'd add in an ice cream pie. And to stay consistent from month to month, why not PW's Ice Cream Pie with Easy Caramel Sauce?

Hope these give you some ideas and/or starting off points for your creations this month. Enjoy!

To life... full of so many ice cream options!