Peach Picking

As I mentioned in my previous post about strawberry picking, we were planning on making a trip back out to Marburger's Orchard to do some peach picking and last week we did so. It was a hot day (like most days have been lately), so I was anxious to leave as early as possible. Unfortunately, my cohort (Aunt Roar) is not such an early riser, so we didn't get on the road until around 9:30, putting us there at 10:30. I know it's still in the morning, but that hot Texas sun is already in full force at that hour. Luckily we were given some reprieve from the sun using the shade of the peach trees. As I expected, James loved picking peaches just as much as any other fruit.

Since he couldn't reach most of the fruit on his own and he weighs a solid 30 pounds, we decided to give him the job of looking for the fruit that was ready to pick and pointing it out for us. So if you ask him how to properly pick a peach, he will tell you that "they have to be all yellow with some red and orange coloring, no green."

He did an awesome job and in only 30 minutes our box was overflowing. We ended up with 12 pounds of peaches to split between Aunt Roar and I. Since that is such a large amount of peaches, I have been making new recipes with peaches. Here is a recipe for peach cake that turned out wonderfully. It works great for a breakfast cake or a dessert cake with ice cream.

Peach Cake

Ingredients:
3 egg, beaten
1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice or peach juice if you have it
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, juice, flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, peaches and pecans. Mix thoroughly by hand.
3. Pour into prepared 9x13 inch pan (or bundt pan) and bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 50 minutes or until done.

1st Dentist Appointment

So yesterday we had James' first visit to the dentist and I was thrilled at how well he did. I have actually been putting it off for a while just because I was afraid he wouldn't cooperate at all. Much to my surprise he did exceptionally well and we were even able to get some x-rays of his teeth. The dental assistant told me that they rarely can get x-rays with children his age, but he was all for it. I loved the Pediatric Dentist we went to (Alamo Heights Pediatric Dentistry). They are definitely geared towards children, with a video gaming room, tv's tuned to children's programming, and a large fish tank to mesmorize the children. Here's a picture of James playing in the video game room:

It's a large structure that looks like a big coral reef with tv screens inset in it with touch screen games. The kids can even crawl under the strucutre, which James loved. It was the coolest thing I've seen. After playing here for a while, we were called back to the room where James was able to brush the big yellow dog's teeth:

This allowed him to get comforable with the idea of letting the dentist look in his mouth and it worked like a charm...

Here he is waiting for the dentist to take a peek in his mouth, with the cool shades on and everything :-). The dentist said his teeth look great, although they could tell he had fallen a couple of times and hit his teeth, which is very commom among boys his age. They also said that he grinds his teeth, which I guess I shouldn't be surprised by since both myself and my husband do the same. Once his permanent teeth come in, I see a night guard in our future. They told me that I should be flossing his teeth as well as brushing them twice a day. All I have to say is, I have a hard enough time brushing his teeth and now you want me to get him to sit still long enough to floss...HA! Well, I guess I'll try, but I don't see it becoming an every day thing until he's a little older.

All in all, I was very happy with how his first visit went. Fingers crossed it goes just as well the second time around in 6 months.

Father's Day

So another Father's Day has come and gone. We had a really nice one and I was especially happy to be able to spend the day with not only the father of my child, but my father as well. Since we were living in Northern VA and just recently moved back to SA, it has been about 6 years since I was able to spend Father's Day with the one father that matters the most to me, my dad. I know it's just another "Hallmark" holiday, created by the evil capitalist to make us spend more money, but I rather enjoy celebrating it and spending it with the important people in my life. Yesterday was really nice. It started by James and I preparing a nice breakfast in bed meal for my husband. French toast, scrambled eggs a la James, and turkey sausage. Here's a photo of chef James cooking his eggs:

It's a very common thing for James to help cook weekend morning breakfasts, but he was very excited on this particular occasion since it was for Daddy. If I had more patience in the kitchen with James, I would have him help with every meal because he did a great job. The meal turned out great and Mike really enjoyed it.

Mike will probably kill me for posting this picture, but I couldn't resist. James was also very excited about the card we made for Daddy, which turned out great:

After breakfast we headed to church with the family and then to my parents for a day of swimming and relaxing. We ended up making a pitcher of Mojitos to enjoy in the pool and they turned out great. They were super easy and very refreshing. Here's the recipe for anyone who is interested:

Danielle's Mojitos
Ingredients:
· 8 sprigs (large) fresh mint
· 1/2 cups sugar
· 1/4 cups fresh lime juice
· 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lime peel
· 4 cups ice cubes
· 1 cups white rum
· 3 cups club soda, chilled
· Mint sprigs for garnish
 
Directions:
1. Remove leaves from mint sprigs. In blender, combine mint leaves, sugar, lime juice, and peel. Pulse until mint is chopped.
2. Fill pitcher with ice and add mint mixture. Pour in rum; stir. Fill with club soda. Pour into 6 glasses. Garnish with mint sprigs.
 
At the beginning of the summer, James was slightly apprehensive about swimming even though he thoroughly enjoyed it last year. We have since been making an effort to take him to my parents a few times a week to swim so that he can get more comfortable with it. He is really starting to warm up to it more and more. My hope is that he will be swimming like a fish by the end fo the summer.
 

 
After enjoying a day of swimming, I made a wonderful steak dinner for the whole family. It was a great Father's Day and I am looking forward to spending many more with my entire family.

Strawberry-Banana Yogurt Pops

In reading some various different foodie blogs, I have been inspired to try some new recipes. I thought it would be fun to include some of those every once in a while in my own blog. Since we received some popsicle molds as a party favor at a birthday party recently, I thought it would be fun to make homemade popsicles for James to enjoy. They went over extremely well so I wanted to share the simple recipe. This is a recipe adapted from one I recieved with the molds. Enjoy!

Strawberry-Banana Yogurt Pops
1 pint strawberries, cored & quartered
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup yogurt (strawberry or vanilla)
1 ripe smashed banana

Bring the strawberries, water and sugar to a simmer in a medium sauce pan. Simmer for five minutes, or until strawberries are very soft. Pour into a food processor, add the lemon juice, and pulse a few times, until fruit is almost pureed but not liquified. Chill in the refigerator until cool.
Stir the yogurt and smashed banana into the strawberry mixture until combined. Pour into molds and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight. To remove, run some warm water over the outside of the mold until you can gently pull the pops out. Yeilds 4-6 pops depending on the size of your molds.

Ofcourse, I have to include some pictures of James and his friend partaking in these pops...

 James and his friend Logan enjoying their popsicles

It took nearly a half of an hour, but James finished that whole pop...I guess he liked them :-)

Strawberry picking

As we did last year, we made a trip out to Marburger Orchard to do some strawberry picking. This has become something that James really enjoys doing so I have a feeling we will continue to do it in the future. It is something that his Aunt Roar (AKA my best friend Margaret) is incredibly enthusiastic about as well and they have a great time picking the strawberries together. Here are some photos from our trip.

 James is ready to start picking those strawberries

 Helping Aunt Roar pick out the perfect one

 Helping mommy

Me and my little man

I am looking forward to making this a yearly tradition. We're hoping to go pick peaches soon!