Friday, October 29, 2010

Peach Cobbler

I've done a pretty horrible job of keeping up with the blog lately. Honestly, I've just lost interest in it. I think I've gotten lazy. I still enjoy cooking, but I've gotten to where I don't want to upload pictures to my computer, then fight with Blogger to get them inserted into the posts. But I'm going to try to keep it up a little better (I know, I know...how many times have I said that lately?). I was looking through my pictures, and I've got a pretty serious backlog of food pictures, which is good, because these days by the time I get dinner ready, all of the natural light is gone. I found this picture of a peach crisp I made this summer, and it reminded me of just how delicious it was:
This summer, my mother-in-law brought me some fresh peaches from the Henry County Harvest Showcase. My father-in-law really wanted some more peach shortcakes, but I was more interested in a peach cobbler. Besides, I had a new cookbook that I wanted to use! This recipe comes from the Cooking for a Cure cookbook that was created by the Dillsburg (PA) Relay for Life, Team Lollipop. David's aunt and two cousins have tons of recipes in the cookbook, but this wasn't one of their recipes. (Sorry Aunt Mary! We'll try more soon!) Anyway, the peaches were perfect, and this crisp was delicious. I'm certainly aware that there are probably very few (if any) people who can get a fresh peach this time of year, but I don't see why frozen peaches wouldn't work.
Peach Crisp
Kim Walden
4 cups sliced peaches
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup butter, softened
whipped topping or ice ream
Spray an 8x8 square baking pan with cooking spray. Arrange peaches in pan. Mix together brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter; sprinkle over peaches. Bake in 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Serve warm with whipped topping or ice cream.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Four Years

I can distinctly remember sitting in one of my Marriage & Family classes in my graduate program several years ago. One of my favorite (and best) instructors, Dr. Brenda Dew, was telling us about recent research that revealed that couples were more likely to hit serious rough patches and/or file for divorce in odd years of their marriage than in even years. At the time, I thought it was a load of crap. Now that we're celebrating our fourth year of marriage, I have to wonder if maybe there's more than a little truth in that.
Please don't get me wrong...David and I have a very happy marriage and we're devoted to one another, but this year has been tough! Over the course of our third year of marriage, we built a house, moved in, lost our first baby to a miscarriage, watched close family members struggle with some tough stuff, and made it through our September "due date" with the baby that we didn't get to have. And through all of that, there have been some really tough, dark times. Thankfully, somehow, during all of that, I recognized that the way we handle those situations together would make us or break us. There were times when for some reason, my first instinct was to snap at him or take out my frustrations, anger, and fears on him (and I probably did, to some degree), but I did my best to choose not do those things. Instead, we leaned on each other, our families, friends, and our God, and we've made it through. Things are looking great for our fouth year of marriage...in fact, we just got back from a week-long cruise vacation (which was much needed!) in order to kind of hit the "reset" button. Through it all, I can truly say that life is good, and I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone besides David. He is an amazing husband, and I look forward to sharing the rest of life's ups and downs with him. Love you, David!