Animals

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like.....Winter!

Winter arrived this weekend,

and we plunged headlong into the holiday season.

Despite the calendar claiming it still to be Autumn,

our world was a frosty wonderland Sunday morning.

Nighttime fog had enveloped every bare surface and frozen there by morning...

making the farm look as though it had been sprinkled with crystal sugar!

Cold and crisp outside, but warm beneath our work clothes,

we tended to our critters with rosy cheeks and frosty breath.

I do love this time of year and find the cold exhilarating!

The cold is made even more tolerable, when knowing that this awaits us at home...

Hubbs' work party was Saturday night...

a chance to shed our farm clothes and dress up for an evening of merriment.

The party was well attended and great fun...

just what we needed to put us in the holiday spirit.

Sunday I finished decorating our two live trees.

In the family room... our Snowy Wonderland tree...

decorated with silver and white...balls,

snowflakes

and all sorts of glittery ornaments.

In the living room...

our Woodlands tree...

and mantle...

I have so much left to do before Christmas...

knitting projects, baking, wrapping!

December is always such a flurry of activity.

I am hoping to get done as early as possible,

so that the rest of the month can just be enjoyed.

Listening to a Christmas station, I find myself feeling quite nostalgic

about Christmases past...

those wonderfully sweet days when I was a child and how magical the Christmas season

always was.... so many fond memories that I take out and cherish these days.

And then I remember the fun of Christmases when my own children were young...

all of the preparations done to make their holidays magical as well.

I suppose there is a child in each of us that cannot help but feel a wee bit nostalgic

at this time of year!

For those of you who asked about our over-the-top fabulous peach crumble pie....

I did not have a recipe, but here is what I did:

I partially thawed frozen peaches from last summer in the microwave...

enough to be able to break them apart, but the peach slices themselves were still very frosty.

I mixed them with about a half cup of tapioca (this keeps the pie from getting runny) and about a quarter cup of sugar (we don't like our pies too sweet, but prefer the taste of the fruit.

After placing the peaches into the crust, I sprinkled the crumbles....

½ cup of flour, ¼ cup of brown sugar, ½ stick of butter (cut the butter into the flour and sugar

until you have crumbles) and add about a half cup (or more) course-chopped pecans and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Now here is where I have to tell you....

I make an all butter crust (see tutorial here)...starting with frozen (yes frozen) butter

which I chop into tiny pieces and then add to the flour and salt with a pastry blender.

(For those of you who are afraid of butter, I will tell you...

vegetable shortening will kill you. Yes, you heard me...

do not eat hydrogenated vegetable fats...seriously)

(stay away from those pre-fab pie crusts...your heart will thank you!)

And for goodness sake, don't overwork your dough... just get it to somewhat stick together

before rolling out with a rolling pin.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn oven back to 350 and

bake until your pie crust is golden brown.... (yes, I forgot to time the pie) and the peaches are bubbly.

Do not over-bake, as this pie is especially good if your peaches are not cooked to death.

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