Peachy Keen

Today was such a full day that it may take me several days to tell you about it. I took off early this morning for my mom's house in middle Georgia. The ultimate destination? Peaches. There's a farm with a packing house about thirty minutes from where she lives. The freestone peaches have just become available this week. They don't do any processing at this location -- just packing. Although I've lived in Georgia all my life, this is the first time I've gone to a peach farm to get peaches. I usually just buy them at the grocery store like everyone else.Here's a front view of the open-air building as we pulled up. We went around to the back because from there, you can pack your own box/bag/pail of rejected peaches at a dirt cheap price. They package only the perfect ones for (apparently) supermarket sales. Many of the rejected peaches are perfect albeit small. Others have small, surface imperfections. And then some come down the conveyor belt with their guts oozing out or even totally exploded. We passed on those. Here's the back view of the conveyor system sending the rejected peaches out to waiting hands. The ones that the customers also reject land in the large white pins you see in front.Here are the employees who are removing the imperfect peaches from the packing line and sending them down the belt to waiting people like Mama and me.
We were initially squeezed in toward the end of the conveyor belt, but as people loaded up their boxes and left, we were able to move up to the beginning of the line. Here I am with my box nearly full. Mama had already filled hers, which left her free to make the picture. (And then she helped fill my box.)
From the front part of the building, there are rocking chairs where you can enjoy homemade peach ice cream (for sale) and sit and watch the packing operations.


Here's a short video of the packing operation. You can see the peaches dropping through the size-sorter. The man riding the platform across the conveyor is freeing a peach that had become stuck.


Here's a little church birdhouse. This wasn't for sale, but in addition to peach ice cream (to be consumed on-site only), you can buy fried peach pies (yummy, yummy, but I refrained), peach taffy, peach salsa (I had a taste there, and had to buy a jar), t-shirts, and other peach-themed stuff.Here are the peaches I came home with (and gave some to Emily) for only $5. A box of perfect ones cost $18. They will require another 2-3 days of ripening to be just right. I've already bought my Fruit Fresh so I can get these into the freezer. Oh, yes.... one more peach. (I'm sorry I couldn't get my face in there any better, but the face hole was about waist-high on me, so I had a little trouble getting down there. And more trouble getting back up.)

Gifted on Someone Else's Birthday

Yesterday was Phillip's birthday, but I got a gift in the mail from him (and Lystra). Yep, all this yummy Cadbury chocolate. I'm an addict, and even if there were a 12-step recovery program out there, I wouldn't sign up. This is the real Cadbury deal, made in the U.K. Since Cadbury has recently been purchased by Kraft Foods, it's anyone's guess whether this chocolate will continue to be made in the U.K.

Also in the package was a PT Cruiser. I've been driving mine for almost eight years, and I still love it every bit as much as when I first got it. It's the only time in my life when I've wanted a particular kind of car. Here's a picture I made a couple of weeks ago when we had the big snowfall. The one in the package is this model, in exactly the same shade of navy blue, and complete with its own surfboard. (I must admit that I don't have any immediate plans to go surfing, though.)

So that you can appreciate my new little car better, here is another photo with a AAA battery for size reference. My new cruiser is a mere 2.75" long.Thank you Phillip and Lystra! Chocolate and PT Cruisers always make me smile.

Christmas Event # 1

Angi and I take every opportunity to celebrate virtually anything with lunch and sometimes another activity, usually shopping. We didn't have much of a shopping list yesterday, but we did try a new place for lunch: Douceur De France. It is a local French bakery/cafe, and I had heard really good things about it, all well-deserved as we experienced first-hand. In addition to the quiche and chocolate-filled eclair consumed on site, I brought home a dessert for James and one for me. His was the cute, little snowman, and mine was a chocolate tart. Yummy! The snowman had sponge cake, coconut, and strawberries inside his belly. Now it's inside James' belly.

The Harvest is Plentiful

It may be the middle of November, but I'm still getting a ton of these sweet, orange peppers. We've only had frost a couple of nights, and I covered the plant with a sheet those nights. There are probably still 10-15 immature peppers left, and they're sure to ripen with the 70 degree days we've been having.

Highlight of the Week

This week's highlight was a yummy seafood dinner celebrating my dad's 74th birthday. You may be able to guess the menu item that he chose. Daddy just retired at the beginning of October, so now he has more time for his favorite pursuit: bike riding. He regularly makes a round trip circuit of sixty-five miles! I have trouble driving that far! Four or five years ago he took a two-day bike ride of some 200 miles. That's not my idea of a good time by any means, but I'm sure I'd be in as great a shape as he is, if it were. And I might have made the same menu selection that he did.

When You Can't Decide

If you can't decide between cookies and candy, have them both. I've been taking Caleb and Alexa to the local library for story time each week. A nice surprise is that they also have a small craft for the children to complete. This week, instead of a craft, they had sugar cookies to decorate. These aren't very good pictures of the kids, but I wanted pictures of the cookies because I thought they'd be devoured, and I wanted Emily to be able to see what they did at the library. Both kids opted to eat all the candy and leave the cookie behind, though. Maybe they ate the cookies later at home.

Tonight's the Night

A few weeks ago I wrote about the taping of the 10th Anniversary of Good Eats, a Food Network program, that we attended. Reminder: Tonight at 10 p.m. is when the show airs.

And the Winner Is...

I showed you this purse several weeks ago. This is what it has looked like for the past week or so.It has earned a red, second place ribbon at the North Georgia State Fair. The ribbon comes with a monetary prize of $3.00!

They don't display the entries in the culinary division because some of them would be pretty gross by the end of the fair's ten-day run! But I found this list posted by the door.

I'm not sure if it will turn out to be legible on the blog, but I have a blue ribbon awaiting for the pralines I entered! The premium for that is $5.00! I'm rich!

Twenty-ish years ago, I entered "party pants" that I made for Emily. Actually, I made us both matching ones, but I didn't keep the ones I made for myself. (Party pants have gone away like big hair and other fashion trends of the late 80s/early 90s. Let us be thankful.) This garment won a third place ribbon back then.

Nothing Prosaic

I have worked a ton this past week, so I'm short of time. I'll have to give pictures and more details later, but here are the week's highlights.

• The quilt show was marvelous, as usual.
• I entered the selvage purse in the North Georgia State Fair, and I happen to know that it won a ribbon, but I'm not telling which one just yet.
• We opted out of the Braves game last Saturday because of so much rain in the area. A few years ago, I would have gone anyway, but I'm way over the desire to sit out in the rain and watch a baseball game.
• Speaking of rain, we had over 11" at our house over six days. Much of our county had it far worse, with some places getting over 20" in a day or two. Atlanta saw flooding of historic proportions. Thankfully, we had no water in the house nor in the basement.
• I made pralines and entered them in the fair as well. I don't know yet how they fared, ribbon-wise.
• The only sewing I did was to make valences and a patchwork pillow for Caleb's room. I'll show those later.
• I'm hoping that by this time next week I will have all my bookkeeping work caught up and I can resume a normal schedule. But it'll be a long shot.

Good Eats, Good Fun

Last week I forgot to give you an update on the event we attended -- the 10th birthday party for the Food Network show, Good Eats. James and I agreed that it was one of the most fun thing we'd been to in years. We laughed through the whole afternoon. They were taping this show and occasionally the camera would pan the crowd, but don't expect to see us on television as our seats were high up in the balcony. Still, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center is not that large, and we could see everything perfectly. The show will air on Saturday, October 10th at 10 p.m. (10/10 at 10 for their 10th anniversary. Get it?)

Fudge and Pralines

No, I haven't been making candy, although it's not a bad idea. We are going to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center this afternoon to see the live taping of the 10th Anniversary of Good Eats, a Food Network program featuring Alton Brown. I don't watch much of the Food Network, but Alton Brown is a local guy who often explains the science behind cooking, always in a humorous way. (Like why you stir pralines -- or was it divinity? -- while it is cooling, but you don't stir fudge. It has to do with the size of the sugar crystals. Hence, the title of this post.) His shows sometimes include visits to local food markets or kitchen supply stores, and that's fun to see, too. I'll give you a report of the show next week.

Sewing This Week?

Back in 2002 I bought an entire bolt of bridal tulle. Not only did I make Emily's veil, we also used some of it decoratively for the reception and dinner. Did I sew something else with it this week? Not exactly. I kept finding half-eaten green tomatoes near my garden, so here's my solution. Now my yard looks like it has off-season Halloween decor.But I hope to eventually have some tomatoes, and maybe even a pepper or two.

What Happens When You Go on Vacation

I should have gotten Angi to come and help herself to some squash. The one on the right is a nice, tender size. The one on the left could be drilled out to make a home for a house wren.

Garden Bounty

I don't supposed you can call three squashes bountiful, but we did enjoy them one night this week. At least they grew up a little more than their pepper friend did.

Monday - Good Shopping Day

I rarely hit this level, but I saved 78% at Publix this week. Here's what I got and what I paid:

• $2.45 - two rolls of aluminum foil
• $1.00 - two tubs of French onion dip (going to the beach)
• $3.99 - two bags of chips (beach)
• $0.40 - two ears of corn (not nearly enough for the beach)
• $0.01 - bag of Publix chips (going for a "dip" at the beach)
• $0.29 - three bottles of A-1 sauce

Total - $8.14; savings $29.07. I got the two bags of Lay's chips so that I would hit the $10 mark required for the penny item, but I still didn't get there. But the nice cashier gave it to me anyway.

I'm not sure I can even figure out what happened at CVS, but it was good! There was free scotch tape after Extra Bucks, and I picked up two rolls that were with the EB sign. After I paid and got to my car, I looked at everything and realized that I had gotten no EB for that item because I had picked up the wrong tape. It was supposed to be 700" and I got 1200". Bottom line: the manager who had also rung me up the first time refunded the difference in price, let me keep the 1200" rolls, and when she went to manually print the EB, instead of $1.49 each, they printed at $2.00 each! So, I made $1.02 bringing home 70% more free tape than I was supposed to.

Garden Update

My small garden is coming along. We had to put up a bunny fence after it was apparent that something larger than an insect had been eating the pepper leaves. The plant didn't look well, but it is now starting to put out some new leaves, so hopefully it will recover. I didn't intend to pick this pepper (not planning to pickle it either) so soon, but when I touched it, it fell off, so here it is... my first fruit of the garden. The next picture will give you an idea of the actual size.




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Impressive, huh?

Lime? Jello

I'm making a jello recipe that will be for tonight's dessert. It uses four different colors of jello, so I checked my pantry to see what I might already have on hand. Since I already had green, I bought red, blue, and purple. If the recipe turns out well, I'll share. Otherwise, you'll just have to wonder.

When I began to make the jello, I took a closer look at what I thought was lime jello. Limited Edition? Jello?

Here's what it actually is.

Gee, the kids are coming. Can I legally serve margarita jello to preschoolers? And maybe I should have kept the package intact. After all, most Limited Edition things tend to increase in value as time goes by. There went my kids' inheritance.

Children & Chinese

I spent the better part of today watching Caleb and Alexa. They both have colds, but Caleb's is on the downside whereas Alexa's is still full-blown. If only she could. Here's how most of our day was spent, poor baby.The children got this gift for Christmas. If, at first glance, you conclude that it is a simple easel, you would be wrong. It is actually an indoor jungle gym.

Alexa felt a little bit better after I gave her some cold medicine, so she had to get in on the gymnastics as well. This is about the only five minutes I wasn't holding her.

There's only one problem with crawling through, around, and over plastic in wintertime.Not to worry -- her hair did calm down a bit later.Sort of.GOODY: We thought that our very favorite Chinese restaurant was gone. It had been in operation nearly thirty years, but their sign disappeared from the strip mall where they're located. Today, James discovered that they'd merely moved to the other end of the mall where they drastically cut the number of dine-in tables. Few tables were ever occupied at the old location because, after all, Chinese is the quintessential take-out food.

Surprise in the Oven

I just realized that the post title could be construed in all sorts of ways, but I am refering to a literal oven used for baking. I'm not prone to pulling surprises out of my oven, since I don't use it very much these days, and I'm not an imaginative or creative cook. Generally the smoke detector notifies me of any surprises incurred while cooking.

One of the first things I did in my retirement was to recruit Phillip to help me finish cleaning up the in-laws' house and disposing of stuff that was left after the children and grandchilden had taken what they wanted. When they moved into the assisted living facility a year ago, I went to their vacated house within a couple of days and cleaned out all the perishible food that had been left. Later (giving the in-laws' time to determine if there was anything they had forgotten that they still wanted), Emily helped me take everything out of cabinets, closets, and drawers so that family members could see exactly what was available. After a couple of months, just about all the usable stuff was gone, and we were left with just stuff, not even enough for a decent yard sale. There the stuff sat for months, until I had time to finish what I'd begun.

Phillip & I went armed with a good stash of boxes (History of the Reformation, if you need to know). We boxed up all the loose stuff, and moved everything that was left to the front room for pick up.

At one point during the morning, Phillip said, "I bet you didn't look here," here being inside the oven. He reminded me that his grandparents usually had leftover food in the oven. Sure enough, this is what we saw:We don't know what it was in its former life.