Last Tuesday I had the cataracts in my left eye removed. Today I went back for my one-week post op appointment. Next Tuesday I will have surgery on my right eye. I have to say before I started this process of removing the cataracts from my eyes I had mixed emotions. I really wanted my vision to be better as it has gotten worse with the cataracts and the halos around lights at nights were really annoying. My eyes have always been sensitive to bright lights, but these halos were something new and extremely bothersome. BUT when you start thinking about surgery on your eyes, that is really scary.
Having gone through the surgery on the left eye, I can truthfully say, I wish I could have had it done earlier. I am hopeful that the surgery on my right eye will be just as successful. The mono lens put in my left eye is for distance and my right eye will be for close work. Since I do so much close up work, this one is really important to me. I know lots of people who say they have to wear "readers" after the surgery. I hope I won't have to, but if I do, that will be okay.
When I went this morning, I got a very good report. Hearing "20/20 vision" sounded really good. I told my doctor when he came in that it sounded like he had done good. He responded, "Well, sometimes I do things right." My husband laughed and asked him if he had stayed in a Holiday Inn Express that night. He surprised me when he told me I could still not do any housework. I may have to find a maid since it sounds like it will be a month before I can do any cleaning (since I am doing the other eye next week).
I made this Peach Pie for my husband the Sunday before I had the first surgery but didn't get it shared before the surgery. I had made an Amish Streusel Cream Peach Pie that I loved and decided I would try to find a more traditional peach pie for my husband. He loves peach pie and peach crisp. He grew up in Georgia and was called "Peach" by his fraternity brothers at TCU.
The peaches I used in the Amish peach pie were super ripe and super sweet. We had bought some more fresh peaches that I planned to use in the more traditional peach pie, but they were terrible. Not wanting to disappoint Wayne, I decided to use some frozen fresh peach slices I had bought for the pie. They weren't as good as the fresh peaches in the Amish pie so we were disappointed in that. But saying that, it was still a good recipe. (This recipe came from Annette Ficker from Potomac, MD in a Crisco American Pie Celebration cookbook.)
PEACH PIE
Unbaked 9 - inch double crusts
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
6 cups sliced fresh peaches (I used 2 - 16 ounce bags fresh frozen peaches)
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Prepare a 9 - inch pie plate with one of the crusts. (I used an 8-1/2 - inch pie plate.)
Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
In a large bowl holding about half of the peach slices, sprinkle about half of the sugar mixture over the peaches and
toss them to cover.
Add the rest of the peaches and the rest of the sugar mixture and toss to cover.
Spoon the mixture in the pie shell. If you have any sugar mixture left, just dump it on the peaches.
Dot the peaches with the butter.
Moisten the edges of the pie crust with water.
Cover with the other crust.
Fold the top edge under the bottom crust.
Flute with fingers or fork.
Cut slits or design in the top crust for the steam to escape.
Cover the edge with foil.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 more minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Cool on wire rack until barely warm or to room temperature before serving.
We liked ours with a scoop of peaches and cream ice cream.
Friend Patricia treated the Tasty Bunch to this awesome Strawberry Angel Dessert. The only problem I had was I ate too much at dinner and then ate my whole piece she served me. It was delicious though.
Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.
STRAWBERRY ANGEL DESSERT
1 8 - ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 8 - ounce carton of whipped topping, thawed
1 prepared angel food cake (8 to 10 ounces) cut into 1 - inch cubes
1 can (21 ounces) strawberry pie filling
1/2 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in the whipped topping and the cake cubes.
Spread evening in an ungreased 9 x 13 - inch dish.
Combine the pie filling and the chopped fresh strawberries in a large bowl and spread evenly over the top of the cream cheese/cake mixture.
Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours before serving. ( I didn't ask Patricia but it looks like she placed sliced strawberries around the edge and carefully placed some strawberries cut in half on the top.)
Serve plain or
sprinkle some mini-chocolate chips on top.
Friend Ellen shared this delightful Key Lime Yogurt Pie to us last Thursday at canasta. She kept saying I should have done this or I should not have done this. We wholeheartedly told her we wouldn't change a thing. It was perfect just the way she made it.
Click here for a printable version of just the recipe
KEY LIME YOGURT PIE
1 pre-made graham cracker crust
1-1/2 teaspoons gelatin (unflavored)
1/2 cup key lime juice (fresh squeezed or bottled - Ellen actually squeezed those little limes to make 1/2 cup)
6 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated lime zest (1 lime)
key lime slices (optional for garnish)
whipped cream (optional for garnish)
In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the lime juice with the gelatin and stir.
Warm the remaining lime juice for 30 to 45 seconds in the microwave, don't let it boil. Pour into bowl with the lime juice/gelatin mixture and quickly stir with a whisk to dissolve the gelatin.
In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, and lime zest. Mix well til smooth. Add in the lime juice mixture and mix well, until fully incorporated.
Pour mixture into crust.
Chill pie thoroughly, at least one hour before serving.
Garnish slices with a little whipped topping and a key lime slice.
For my birthday card, Grandchildren Madison and Tyler helped their mother Lori pick out my birthday card. It was about cooking and making me a cake. Madison told me they chose it because they knew I liked to cook. I loved the card. Well, this post is about having fun and playing around in the kitchen.
I'm sure if you love banana pudding, you have taken the easy way out and made some using instant banana or instant vanilla pudding. Well, I love chocolate! One day recently I decided to play around a little and have some fun and make it using an instant chocolate pudding mix since I didn't have any vanilla or banana.
We really loved the results. I actually made it twice because the first time I didn't use enough banana slices and vanilla wafers. (We just added more in our bowl the first time.)
I could almost stop this post now but I will go on and give you my recipe and show you my pictures.
CHOCOLATE BANANA PUDDING
1 (4 - servings) box of instant chocolate pudding (I used sugar-free)
2 cups skim milk
Vanilla wafers
1 - 2 ripe bananas, sliced
whipped topping (optional)
Add the milk to a mixing bowl and slowly add the pudding mix whisking the mixture together.
Whisk it for about 2 minutes or until thick.
In a quart or 1-1/2 quarts size bowl, line the bottom and up the sides with vanilla wafers.
Peel and slice a banana and place the slices over the cookies.
Spoon about half of the pudding mixture over the banana slices.
If you are like us and like lots of cookies, place another layer of cookies over the pudding.
Then slices enough banana to cover the cookies.
Now cover the banana slices with the other half of the pudding.
Lastly crush a couple of cookies and sprinkle on top OR you can spread a layer of whipped topping on top. I just thought of that and it sounds simply delightful!
The main reason I shared this post with you is to show you what you can create if you just let your mind be free. So often I don't have all of the ingredients I need for a recipe (or in this case the "right" ingredients), don't let that keep you from experimenting with what you have. You might be surprised at what you come up with.
Friend Carol treated the Tasty Bunch group to an Ice Cream Pie for dessert when we gathered at Keith and Carol's earlier this month. She doubled the recipe to make it in a 9 x 13 - inch pan, but I will give you the recipe for a pie. If you want to make a large dessert, just double the ingredients. You will have extra "crust" made up, but Carol just put the extra in a ziplock bag and put it in her refrigerator to use for something else.
The next morning she sent me an email telling me about several variations you can do. Her daughter Kelly made it with strawberry ice cream and cut up fresh berries and then lightly mashed some berries to drizzle on top. They have also made it with chocolate ice cream and miniature marshmallows and called it S'mores Pie. (That sounds fantastic!) Clearly you can do all kinds of mix and match flavors.
Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.
ICE CREAM PIE
Crust:
18 graham crackers, crushed
1/3 cup melted butter
Filling:
2 pints ice cream (Carol used butter pecan ice cream)
4 peanut butter cups, chopped (Carol used a bag of minis and cut them into 4ths)
2 large chocolate-covered candy bars, chopped (Carol used Almond Butter Snickers - regular size candy bars)
Caramel Sauce:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 stick butter
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine crackers and butter and press into pie pan and bake at 350 degrees F. for about 5 minutes, until golden and set. Cool completely.
Remove ice cream from freezer to soften. Mix in the chopped candy bars. Pour into pie crust, cover with foil, and freeze for at least 2 hours.
For the caramel sauce, mix the brown sugar, half-and-half, butter, and salt in saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, while whisking until thicker, 5 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla and cook another minutes. Pour in jar to refrigerate. (You will have leftover sauce. Store in refrigerator.)
Remove pie for about 15 minutes before ready to serve.
Serve pie pieces with drizzled caramel sauce and
sprinkle with chopped pecans.
It is Sunday evening as I am writing this. I had planned to write up a recipe shared by Friend Carol for an ice cream dessert that we had last weekend. "I had planned", but you will have to wait until Wednesday for that post. Instead I just have to share this awesome Streusel Cream Peach Pie with you.
I bought about 8 beautiful peaches earlier last week because they were on sale for 88 cents/lb. They looked ripe, but they never are. If farmers waited to pick them when they were ripe, they would never make it to market. I bring them home and put them in a single layer in a paper sack, fold down the top, put the sack in a dark corner in my dinning room, and wait for them to ripen. I checked them about three days later and they smelled like peaches so I knew they were ripe. The problem was I was busy doing something else so I just closed the sack and almost forgot about them. Yesterday while taking a break from preparing the Sunday school lesson for this morning, I remembered them and put them in the refrigerator to deal with later. Let's just say they were really ripe now.
Well, I survived teaching my Sunday school class even though we couldn't get any sound for the DVD so I had to go with plan B. When I got home after eating lunch with Friend Janice and her husband, (Wayne was skipping lunch and went to workout at the gym.) I checked out recipes to make a pie or crunch, and then went to my sewing room to sew the squares together for another Blanket of Hope. By this time Wayne was mowing the yard so I thought it was a good time to make the pie and surprise him.
I took one bite of the pie and I was swooning. The ripe peaches are so flavorful. The nutmeg offers a surprising treat. The whole pie is just different; doesn't taste like any peach pie I have ever eaten. I generally followed the recipe (from Tasteful Treasures from the Horse and Buggy Country of Copewango Valley, New York cookbook) except for a couple of things. I used 1/4 cup stevia/sugar baking blend for the 1/2 cup of sugar because my sugar bowl was empty. I also used skim milk for the cream because I didn't have any cream. I added 1/4 cup of finely chopped pecans to the streusel mixture I put on top. The size of the pie plate was not specified but I used an 8-1/2 inch pie plate that was one of my mother's. I wanted the four cup of peaches to be piled in the pie.
Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.
STREUSEL CREAM PEACH PIE
1 unbaked pie shell
4 cups peaches, quartered (I did just slice my peaches)
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup stevia/sugar baking blend)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
2 tablespoons cream (milk will work)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup soft butter (butter at room temperature)
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans (my addition)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
To keep the fresh peaches from turning dark, add some lemon juice to cold water in a deep bowl and add the peach slices to the mixture as you peel and cut them. (You want the peaches to be pretty, so go on and
prepare the streusel mixture for the top,
combine the sugar and nutmeg in a small bowl, and
beat the egg and the milk and set aside.) When everything is ready to make the pie, drain the peaches before you put them in the pie shell.
Put peaches in pie crust.
Sprinkle over top of peaches with the sugar/nutmeg mixture.
Pour the egg and cream that you have beaten together evenly over the peaches and sugar.
Crumble the streusel mixture over the top.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until browned.
Cool on wire rack.
Here is a picture of the Blanket of Hope quilt top I sewed before I made the pie. I just love all of the pretty colors and prints.
Prepare a 9 - inch pie plate with one of the crusts. (I used an 8-1/2 - inch pie plate.)
Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. 
In a large bowl holding about half of the peach slices, sprinkle about half of the sugar mixture over the peaches and 
toss them to cover. 
Add the rest of the peaches and the rest of the sugar mixture and toss to cover. 
Spoon the mixture in the pie shell. If you have any sugar mixture left, just dump it on the peaches.
Dot the peaches with the butter. 
Moisten the edges of the pie crust with water.
Cover with the other crust. 
Fold the top edge under the bottom crust.
Flute with fingers or fork. 
Cut slits or design in the top crust for the steam to escape. 
Cover the edge with foil.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 more minutes or until crust is golden brown. 
Cool on wire rack until barely warm or to room temperature before serving.
