On a diet? Look away now!

Earlier this week some girls of my bee came over for a day of sewing and trading holiday stories.

I thought I’d make them a real American treat,

Peach Cobbler!

I found some recipes on the internet and made my own recipe by mixing them up into one recipe and doing what was simplest (simplify, simplify, that is my attitude towards cooking), so here is my Peach Cobbler recipe.

I used American cup sizes, but if you don’t own these, I weighed the items,  the Dutch/European equivalent is in brackets.

Ladies on a post-holiday diet, look away now!

100 gr of butter
1 cup of sugar (190 gr), I used fine sugar
1 cup of self-rising flour (125 gr)
1 cup of milk (200 ml), I used low fat, because that’s what I had in the fridge
1 large tin of halved pieces in syrup (822 gr)
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 190C/375F (I have a fan oven, if you do not you should probably heat your oven to 200C). Drain and slice up the peach halves. Put the butter in a glass casserole (the one I used is 18 x 28 x 5 cm) and put it in the oven for the butter to melt. Make sure it does not bubble or burn.

Mix the sugar, salt and the self-rising flour in a bowl with a (wooden) spoon, then slowly blend in the milk and the vanilla. Keep stirring until the lumps have gone, then pour this mixture over the melted butter, do not stir anymore! I know it looks really strange at this point, but it will turn out fine (also at this point you can see why you should stay well clear of this when you’re on a diet, allllll that butter & sugar!).

Divide the peach slices evenly over/in this mixture, sprinkle a  little bit of cinnamon on top and put it in the oven for about 30-40 mins. As this will be different with each oven so start checking after 30 mins how your cobbler looks. When it looks like the picture above take it out, leave to cool for a few minutes and spoon it out to serve in small bowls. It should be served warm and if you want to live really dangerously, some vanilla ice cream slowly melting on top of your piece of cobbler will be just the thing!

Enjoy!

With the weather being nice to us, we had a lovely day working on our projects, in Anita’s case, showing the projects done during the holidays, honestly, the speed at which she is turning out quilts, she puts us all to shame, and her quilts are time and time again so original and colourful!

 

See who is trying to get everyone’s attention?!

Jantine talked about her trip to the Birmingham Quilt Festival, Hubertine worked feverishly on a  s e c r e t  project, Sandra stopped by with cute, cute Charlie, who has grown so much over the summertime! And Irma, Lilou and myself just chatted the day away….

It was great seeing each other all again, a nice kick-off for a new quilting season!

 Phyllis

All over the place

That is where we were the last few weeks, which is why it was a little quiet here on my blog. To give you an idea of just some of the things we were up to:

We were on top of the ‘world’:

Had a hotel with a great view:

Went cycling in Central Park:

Ate all sorts in Chinatown:

‘Did’ Memphis, where we…

visited Graceland:

were educated at the Civil Rights Museum:

saw where some of DH’s favourite things are ‘born:

got into the blues on Beale Street:

Then we were educated some more at the impressive Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas:

To find out in the end that it is still Texas we l♥ve most.

The people, the space, the excellent food, the old-fashioned civility and the hospitality.

We fell in love with east Texas (first time in that part of the state, but certainly not the last time), the beautiful village of Jefferson,

the lovely B&B we stayed at, the Hale House Inn  http://www.thehalehouseinn.com/:

Breakfast on the porch, courtesy of our gracious host Timm, who gets up before 6 a.m. each morning to make everything fresh from scratch:

Antiquing:

Cowboy churches:

And of course, city life in wonderful Houston!

Visiting our usual haunts, among others:

And a fantastic concert in 70.000 seater Reliant Stadium with country greats Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney!

In true Houston style, because it was such a warm day, the roof of the stadium was closed ……..   so they could put the airco on!  Soooooo comfortable J !

Mr. Tim McGraw, if you please, ladies! I thought I had died and gone to Country heaven!

… and I like his music too  …. J

Record breaking temperatures everywhere we went:

Occasional rain, but then an awful lot at once….

And I admit … I gave in to my only vice now and then…  a Texas steak or crawfish with a margarita (made with Patron tequila, on the rocks and with salt on the rim) … can’t beat it!

Back home now, with lots and lots of wonderful memories…

Hope y’all ( J )  had a great holiday too!

 Phyllis