MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

I thought I would share with you all this super easy pie recipe.  I don’t know the name of it but years ago when I worked, one of the ladies I worked with used to make this a lot.   It uses simple ingredients and takes very little time.

  I used 1 store bought graham cracker pie crust.  For the filling use, 1 container cool whip, 1 pkg cream cheese-both at room temperature.  Add 1 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 cup powdered sugar.  Mix with your mixer until well blended.  Pour filling into pie crust.  Then for the topping I used fresh strawberries and a little strawberry glaze.  Set in fridge for a little while to chill, then enjoy.  You can make this with blueberries, peaches, almost any type of fruit.  If you do not want to use the store bought glaze you can always just add sugar to the fresh fruit and let it make its own glaze.  Its all up to your taste. 

Well, Julie ended up with strep throat.  She started running a fever yesterday.  I called the doctor’s office and he called us in a prescription.  Needless to say, we will not be going to church today.  Just staying home and recuperating. 

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and God bless.

Our forsynthia bush is in full bloom.  I love the bright yellow color, so cheerful.  Today is beautiful here in Floyd.  Temperature is mid 50′s, the sun is shining and the wind is not too aggressive.   Very nice.  I have one load of clothes on the line and another on the way.  We are busy with school and have plans for outside time this afternoon.  

Yesterday was a nice day too.  Church was very nice and our evening study went very well with lots of discussion.  Our menu last night was beef roast with potatoes and carrots, green beans, macaroni salad, cookies and peaches.  Very good.  We did hamburgers on the grill for lunch yesterday, with grilled onions and asparagus.  I love cooking on the grill.  I think it makes everything taste so good.   

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday was a fun day.  At the spur of the moment, we decided to travel down to Grundy and visit Hubby’s parents.  We took food for lunch.  We took canned beef, green beans, corn, and peaches.  We also dug some potatoes, gathered some tomatoes, cabbage and grapes.  This was a special treat for them as they are no longer able to raise a garden.  While we were there, she gave me some more empy canning jars.  This way hopefully we won’t have to buy any to finish up the canning.

She does have, though, growing on her hill a huge cushaw vine.  This is one of the hidden treasures it contains.  I really like cushaw, probably more than pumpkin.  I think it makes a better pie than pumpkin.  We really had a good visit.  We  took the scenic route home.  I’ll post some of those pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Today will be spent catching up and enjoying the day.  We will be starting school next Monday, so this is kinda our vacation week.  Take care and God bless.

Today we have been busy with peaches.  We had 11 qts of peaches.  After peeling them, I decided to try out my new helper.  I put the peelings into the steamer juicer and got 2 qts of juice.  From that juice, I made 6 pts of jelly.  I think they look really pretty in the jar.  It was  easy to do.  I think it was a wise investment.  Supper this evening was fried chicken, gravy, corn and biscuits.  Of course, peach jelly for dessert. 

A new visitor to our pond.  He (or she) arrived the other day for a short visit.  Hubby says he thinks it is an egret.  Of course, he stood out with his white color.  I think the geese were a little amazed.  We have been having rain lately.  It is raining now as I am doing this post.  I had hoped to go to the garden and check on things but I don’t think that will be happening.  Oh well, maybe I’ll just rest.  Take care and God bless.

Friday evening we went to our Pastor’s house.  As I mentioned earlier, he gave us some peaches.  He has a small orchard at his house.  All his trees were so full of fruit.  It was beautiful.

These are only a few of the trees.  Grace took lots of pictures.  I will try to post more of them tomorrow.

This is a view from his yard.  Very pretty.  We also ate supper at his house.  Almost everything we had was home grown.  I love to eat this way.  We had hamburgers on the grill, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes from the garden, fresh homemade applesauce, and fresh peaches.  Delicious!

The girls and I did not get to can our beets yesterday.  As it was raining most of the day, we decided to run a few errands in town instead.  Jess had given me some coupons she had for canning jars and lids.  We decided to go to Wal-Mart and get these.  They are a little cheaper there than there are at our local supermarket.  We will be canning the beets today. 

The sun is shining here nicely today.  Temperatures have cooled down some, thanks to the rain yesterday.  Outside temperature is about 80 degrees.  This is one of those weeks when things begin to start building up.  Much to do.  Beans are ready to pick, berries are ready, beets are ready and I think we might have enough tomatoes ripe to make a batch of salsa.  I love to can and put away food for my family however when I start getting behind, it is easy for me to allow that to become a stressor in my life.  I do not want this to happen.  God has given us this bounty and I thank Him for it.  When I was growing up,  the garden and canning controlled our summers.  I do not want that for my girls.  I want the garden and all it involves to be enjoyable and fun for my girls.  I want to keep a balance.  This is hard, as old habits are sometimes difficult to break.  Pray that I will do this well-that my girls will have a love for gardening and canning and not see it as just hard work. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We were very blessed to have these peaches given to us.  They are called Saturn peaches or donut peaches.  These are very small and I was not really sure how to best use them.

As you can see, we had quite a few.  We decided to make something like an applesauce from them.  We used the food strainer.   We made a pie from our peach sauce yesterday to see how it would taste.  It actually was very good.   Hubby was home yesterday and he helped.  Thanks, Babe. 

Temperatures here are hot.  We are getting a small shower here  this morning.  Much needed.  However the sun is already back so it probably will get hot fast.  We are headed into town for piano practice.  I also need a few spices for the beets.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yes, we have more snow.  It is snowing hard and we have gotten about 1 1/2″ already.  All our shoveled out places are covered again.  I think it is supposed to snow until about 8:00 tonight.  I just pray it doesn’t snow too much.  We plan on going to Jessica’s this weekend.   The last picture shows how hard it is snowing,  if you look really close, you can see the barn in the distance. 

Changing the subject, here is a picture of a peach pie I made today.  Instead of using a pie pan, I put it in one of my cast iron skillets.  The peaches were home canned.  I just thickened up the juice.  The pie crust is really simple.  1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup milk, 1/4 tsp. salt.  Stir this together, then add 2 1/3 cup sifted all purpose flour.  Mix together.  This will make top and bottom crust.  I used the entire dough for a bottom crust as this skillet is fairly large,  then I put a crumb topping on the top.  I think this need vanilla ice cream on the side.  What do you all think?  Well, enjoy your day and God bless.

Here is Julie’s wall hanging.  What do you all think?  I think maybe for a beginner it might not be too bad.  It really was a lot of fun.  There was a little more guilting involved than I first anticipated but I think it turned out okay.  I am going to start Grace’s hopefully this week.  More snow today.  We have had more snow this winter than we have had since we have lived here at the farm-6 yrs. now.  I hope this makes for an excellent garden year.  Hopefully lots of good veggies and fresh fruit.  Fruit trees in our area did not do well last year and we really missed all those good apples, pears, and peaches. 

Another project I worked on today.  Making our own hamburger buns.  This batch turned out much better than the first batch.  At least these look like buns.  We’ll find out this evening how they taste.  I think hamburgers and fries for supper.  School has been a little slow today, sometimes this happens when we take a day off.  Of course, the snow outside didn’t help any.  The forecast is calling for another storm to come in over the weekend.  I guess this will mean no MawMaw time.  Maybe the next weekend.  Well break time is over.  Time for school.   Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.  God Bless.