A Baker??......I am NOT!!!

But I can make a Texas sheet cake with the best of 'em.....and give me some tube icing?  and I can go to town!!  Never looks like much but that oldest boy of mine and all those grandkids????  They will eat it gone, gone!!!!

Waiting on first bunch to arrive with more coming tomorrow.....Smoked ribs, chicken and pork roast!  Potato salad, barbequed beans, boudin, hot links, hot dogs, margaritas!!!!!]

Oh yeah babee.......FOURTH OF JULY 2017!!!!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun filled holiday!!!!

40 years ago today, we said I DO!!!!!!

Once upon a time, 40 yrs. ago today, a young, hopeful girl stood, arm in arm, beside her daddy 

as the organ bells chimed.

At the other end of the aisle stood a cute, cute boy with a very big smile.

She kissed her daddy

the boy shook his hand.

And they joined together with the dreams of a happy, forever life in front of them.

As I sit here today...that girl completely fulfilled...remembering and cherishing all these years together 

and realizing just how lucky I am!!!

They continue to live happily ever after!!!

My children will laugh and laugh about this...it's well known that there is nothing you can buy my husband and their dad.  If he wants anything, he just gets it.

But because he eats ice cream VERY OFTEN and his scooper gets very used, I surprised him with two new ice cream scoopers for our special day!!!

HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY!!

YOU'VE BEEN THE BEST BOYFRIEND/HUSBAND

 A GIRL COULD HAVE EVER HOPED FOR!!!

Red, Ripe Tomato Relish???

When you come home and find this on your counter.....

Yep, it's time for red tomato relish!!!  My mom used to make this and man, oh man.....does it ever remind me of days gone by.  The whole house will smell like this oh, so wonderful memory of my mom and I couldn't wait to get started!!  It's time consuming because you have to scald and peel each tomato, and because the breed of mater that my boyfriend likes to grow makes smaller ones, it took me a while to complete that part of the process.  But ya know what??  All the while, I was remembering different summers when I sat in that old 1955 styled home and did the exact same thing with my mother!!  What a hoot she was!!!

19 pints of Mommy Boo's red tomato relish.....tomatoes grown by sweet boyfriend at our house!
This is a great flavor enhancer to pork and chicken dishes!  I'm putting the recipe here mostly for my own benefit......took me forever to find her recipe yesterday!  Always safe keeping on the blog!

FRESH TOMATO RELISH
1 bucket tomatoes (2 gallons)
1 cup vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp allspice
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp chili powder
4 green peppers, chopped
4 onions, chopped
Scald tomatoes.  Peel them and cut into small pieces. (I just mashed them with both hands) Add all other ingredients and boil until thickened.  I cooked about 2 1/2 hours  Put into hot jars and process in hot water bath.

Of course, there are always some left on the counter for this:

Even supper tonight will include one of these!!

Fresh Tomato Pie!!

 

Hey Cap'n!!!!! It's YOUR Day!!

It's all agreed upon around here that we have a pretty special DAD!!  We sure hope we show him on lots of days, not JUST Father's Day, how much we love him and sure couldn't live without him!

We had a pretty special weekend around here too.  Two of my three sons and their families came for the weekend and we had such a fun time.  So much laughing. So much eating and drinking. A little baseball.....LSU is in the college world series and won their first game!  So much playing with the  grand babies.  So much appreciation of our times together!

(middle boy and his girls had to go out of town to a wedding AND his 6 month check-up after his heart surgery)  We missed them!

We had a fun day in the pool and an even more fun boat ride...

Cap'n lets EVERBODY drive the boat!!!

My sons are great DADS too.....they took all the kids fishing and both caught lil bitty bream...but to those boys, they were trophy fish!!

cap'n and his boys cooked crawfish for all of us Saturday afternoon with all the trimmings of 

a good ol' summertime crawfish boil!

watching the world go by ...

every meal at the lake house is a glorious picnic outside on the deck!

Brothers!!

Even the little girls that missed this weekend got some pool time last week

their cap'n was sad when they got ice cream but he didn't.....until later!

From the time my boys were little tots until now, when they have tots of their own, this special man has been a wonderful father.  He taught them to be independent, responsible men who are raising precious children of their own.   The Circle of Life at its finest.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY CAP'N!!!

"Borrowing" our Friend's Cobbler Recipe!!

A lot of you are fans of Estelle's blog......you know....Betsy!!!  And I'm sure a lot of you know what a fabulous cook she is!  And if you're like me, you sneak recipes from her wonderful blog all the time! I've been asking her to please write a cookbook so I could have ALL of her recipes in one place!!  So, last week, I couldn't resist her peach cobbler!!  And in typical fashion, I added an ingredient (fresh cherries) and I should have added a bit more sugar to take the tartness out of the cherries.  But still???
Delicious!!

peaches cooked down into a thick syrup...

with fresh cherries added...

baked and cooling....

topped with whipped cream drizzled with the syrup and ready to EAT!!  YUMMO!

Here is her recipe and ya'll be sure to go visit her blog. Estelle's  She will definitely entertain you!!

SOUTHERN PEACH COBBLER

1 (29 ounce) can of sliced peaches 

2 T. sugar

2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1 t. vanilla

Bring all of these ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan.

Allow to simmer for 5 minutes.

This makes a beautiful syrup.

For the batter.........

In a separate mixing bowl.

mix together

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 t. baking powder

1 cup milk

1 T. melted butter

Blend all these ingredients together
and set aside until ready to
pour over melted butter.

In a baking dish, melt 1 stick of butter 

in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Remove from the oven,

and spoon peaches and most of syrup over melted butter. 

pour batter over the peaches. Do not stir.

Reserve remaining syrup.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream

and spoon some of your reserved peach syrup over all. 

Magical Marvelous Memories Made!!!!

I kept telling my grandbabies before our trip that we were going to build sand castles. So the first morning on the beach, they had me out there with buckets and shovels building castles with them....until they realized that YaYa ain't so good at building sand castles!!!!!  hahahahaha....but "I" sure had fun!

and the kids talked uncle matt into letting them bury him in the sand!  Always a treat!

Put small children in the sand and give them a net???  They stay busy, busy for hours!

Give the big kid his phone and he carries on with business as usual.  Hey! Somebody had to!!!

I'm chuckling about this next pic...it's so typical of how our family is right now with all these small ones!  A little crazy. A little out of focus. And falling apart a bit (icing)

We celebrated Rachel's birthday one afternoon!

And to celebrate that, all the mamas and daddies went out to dinner and then dancin'! while Cap'n and I kept all 6 of the grandbabies.  They were all good but when the 2am hour rolled around, I had to text one of them to make sure everyone was ok. Once a mom, always a mom...roll eyes!

They started coming in around 2:45 and I hit the sack.

They were not happy campers the next morning around 6 when all the munchkins started getting up ready to go to the beach!!!!!

Sweet times spent with my babyboy!

I loved watching them even play by themselves on the beach!

Most days we had the entire beach to ourselves!

These cousins became best friends during our week together!

Baby Lane was much happier in his daddy's lap....for he DID NOT like the sand....

Josey said...baby Lane, will you come swim with me??

and baby Lane said....No Way Jose!!!!

He was hilarious....every time we'd try to put him in the sand, he would coil his feet up and refuse to touch it....SO funny!!

They may not all be smiling....and they certainly aren't staying in pose...but we wouldn't have it any other way!!

Beach views from our house!

SIGH......WHAT A WONDERFUL TRIP WE HAD...

OUR MEMORIES ARE PRICELESS!!

and I am forever grateful that we are able to have so much fun together as FAMILY!!