Old Fashioned Peach Dumplings

Okay, my grandmother makes the BEST apple dumplings. Resolved to figure this out, I looked up a few recipes and decided to give it a whirl. She, ofcourse, has no recipe. I decided to try some peach dumplings. I love, love, love peach. Anyway, I started this process on Monday and finally got them made tonight for dinner. It is an understatement to say that they were FANTASTIC. Here is the recipe and I had to take a pic because they turned out pretty too. The recipe is a combo of my mother-in-law's pastry recipe and an internet assembly & sauce recipe.

Yvonne Martin Pastry Recipe

1 cup flour

1/3 cup crisco shortening

1/2 teaspoon salt

For Pie Crust: 1 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup shortening, 3/4 teaspoon salt

Cut up w/pastry blender into peasize. Make a well in center of mixture. Add tablespoons of ice water, mix gently from the center, shape into ball. (approx. 8 Tblsp water) Chill. Roll out on foured surface.

Old Fashioned Apple Dumplings

INGREDIENTS
1 recipe pastry for double-crust pie
6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored

or any type of fruit that sounds good! peaches...yummy
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups water
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch pan.
On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into a large rectangle, about 24 by 16 inches. Cut into 6 square pieces. Place an apple on each pastry square with the cored opening facing upward. Cut butter into 8 pieces. Place 1 piece of butter in the opening of each apple; reserve remaining butter for sauce. Divide brown sugar between apples, poking some inside each cored opening and the rest around the base of each apple. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples.
With slightly wet fingertips, bring one corner of pastry square up to the top of the apple, then bring the opposite corner to the top and press together. Bring up the two remaining corners, and seal. Slightly pinch the dough at the sides to completely seal in the apple. Repeat with the remaining apples. Place in prepared baking dish.

In a saucepan, combine water, white sugar, vanilla extract and reserved butter. Place over medium heat, and bring to a boil in a large saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved. Carefully pour over dumplings.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Place each apple dumpling in a dessert bowl, and spoon some sauce over the top.

Swim Class

Thanks to Jane Anne and her wonderful ideas, I enrolled Ryan in Swimming Lessons. He is not real, shall we say, comfortable in the water. But I thought it would be a good learning experience. The first 3 lessons his little voice resonated across the huge swim class building, "I want my Momma". His teacher assessed that he is indeed not afraid of the water AT ALL, he just doesn't want to leave me. Not sure how that is suppose to make me feel, but anyway. On the 4th lesson, in desperation, I did something I would never do... I bribed him with a treat. It went something like this, "if you are very brave and don't scream and cry, you can have a treat." Worked like a champ! I hope to not make this a habit but it just absolutely amazed me to see what motivates him. He was so brave and had a great time in class and was so proud of himself. I too was very proud. So much in fact that as I was watching him from the bleachers, I saw him go under water for the first time, I felt myself lift off the bleachers to my feet, I was clapping and crying like a crazed Mom. I came to my senses to look around and see all of the other parents amused by my display of proudness. I don't know a single one of them and I didn't care to much. For we are making great strides. Thank you Lord, I love being a parent.

The moral of this story...never underestimate the power of a treat. Just make sure to use it only when it is absolutely necessary.

Did I mention....

I love, love, love this new schedule!!!

Auntie Kristi

It's a girl!! I just found out that I am going to be a aunt again and it is a GIRL!!! I am so blessed to have 3 neices and 1 nephew through Darryl's family and one nephew on my side. And now, my sis is pregnant again with a girl. AND, the best part. She will be born in the US!!! Yea! Lord willing, I will get to be there. I think the due date is or was Christmas Eve. What a gift? I cannot wait to meet her. My boys are so lucky to have so many cousins. And I am lucky that I will have someone to go shopping with. I hope she is blond and blue-eyed like Terese!!

Catch Up!

I've got a lot of explaining to do. It has been a while. First of all, I have lost the distinquished title of Word Girl. Currently, Ryan has no super-hero name for me. I like to call myself back to work girl though. Bummer. Darryl put my booty back to work. I have been off for 2 weeks and it is un understatement to say that I have been having a lot of fun. (Will write about that later.) As for this week....I'm back to work. I am really liking this part-time gig though. 20 Hours a week in the same job I left in June. It is wonderful. I will be at home with the boys tomorrow. Yipee! No more word up. I gotta come up with a new salutation.

As to all my new/old friends on Facebook, howdy and welcome to my blog. Facebook has been tearing me away from my blog. It is both addictive and fun. However, I am ready to get back to blogging. Stay tuned....

The Big D's Surprise 40th Birthday

Darryl cleaning up from doing yard work for his own surprise Birthday party that he thought was a party for Jimmy whose Birthday is also this week. Poor guy.


Chasey chowing down at the party. He only lasted about an hour and then he snoozed through the rest of the party.


The really old geezers.


The Darryl roast.


Ryan and Evan laughing because everyone else was. ha


The poo-poo cake that Ryan and I made Dad. Caption read "Happy Birthday You Ole' Turd". He loved it! All of the little boys were mesmerized by it's loveliness.


The Premier Party Planners!!! Thanks so much. I could not have pulled it off without you!!


Darryl had several friends from college, some co-workers, some family, and a few new friends at the party. Overall I think he was surprised and had a good time. My only regret was that we forgot to ask a blessing when it was time to eat. The Lord has blessed me with an amazing husband and father to our kids. He also blessed us with amazing weather that I had been praying for all week and I should have acknowledged HIM. I'll probably have to go to study hall for that when I get to heaven. Anyway, I also wish I had taken some photos after dark because Jimmy and I had strung up colored lights and lanterns across the backyard and around the porch, and it looked great. (Actually we are going to leave them up until Labor Day...redneck, I know, but I don't care. They are bootiful.) The kids really enjoyed lighting sparklers which also added to the fun. Thanks to everyone who was able to come. The people really made it special. Here is story that Darryl's brother wrote about him and it is absolutely hilarious. It really sums up Darryl as a child.

"Many of you may be surprised to learn that Darryl Martin wasn’t always the caring, responsible, upstanding man that we’ve all come to know. In fact, as a child, Darryl was nothing like that description.

Believe it or not, the following words and phrases were often used by others in reference my little brother:

Problem-child, mean-as-a-rattlesnake, rotten-to-the-core, spawn of satan, hell-on-wheels, future inmate and devil-boy.

It’s a well-known fact in Piedmont, Alabama that Darryl single-handedly accounted for the early retirements of seven Piedmont City schoolteachers, three counselors, two principals, one Superintendent, four janitors and a lunch-lady.

The following incident is a prime example of the type of kid Darryl Martin was. It occurred during the fall of 1979, when I was a Senior in high school and Darryl was about 10-years-old.

One Sunday, he invited two of his best friends — of similar low character — to spend the day messing around the woods outside our parent’s house. They were twin hellions, named Ricky and Randy — or as I called them — “Dickie and Dandy.”

The boys had entertained themselves Piedmont-style that afternoon, mostly in Charlie Miller’s pasture, pouring salt on slugs, catching black widow spiders in Mom’s good Mason jars, shooting lizards and torturing snakes, when a sudden thunderstorm drove them inside.

Normally, Dickie and Dandy weren’t even allowed indoors, but since there was a strong chance they’d be struck by lightning, Mom reluctantly unlocked the door and let them in.

They remained suspiciously quiet for the rest of the afternoon, leaving me with an uneasy feeling. But since they’d been relegated to one back-bedroom, no fires had been set and the cat was still alive at the time Mom took Dickie and Dandy home, I figured that maybe they were too worn out to have done evil. Oh, how wrong I was.

As I was showering and shampooing for school the next morning, I was still scratching my head about the lack of destruction from the previous day.

Then I began to notice that no matter how hard I scrubbed, or how much I used, the shampoo just wasn’t lathering very well.

That’s when the odor hit me. To this day, I still remember my thought process as reality set in. It went something like this: “Man, what is wrong with this shampoo? … Gee, something smells like pee ... … oh no … NO … it can’t be … DARRYL!!!!”

After sterilizing my whiz-ridden hair with scalding water for the next 30 minutes, I rushed from the bathroom and scoured the house for Darryl. But he had mysteriously disappeared. In fact, I think he vanished for the next four days.

Years later, after I cooled off, he offered an explanation. It seems that during the storm, he, Dickie and Dandy all needed to go to the bathroom simultaneously, but were afraid that lightning would strike the house, run through the toilet, shoot up their tee tee streams and into their goo goos.

So logically, they found an alternate vessel — Mom’s shampoo bottle — to relieve themselves. Somehow, they’d forgot to mention it to anyone.

To this day, I’ve never fully forgiven my youngest brother, but I must admit that several girls commented on how shiny my hair looked that day.

And — although I can’t prove it — I have reason to believe that Darryl is at least partially responsible for the hairline that I have today.

Happy Birthday D!"

Tomorrow, the 19th is the big day!!!

Guntersville, Alabama 2008

We went to Guntersville, Alabama the weekend of Jun 1st. My family goes every year for a week of fishing and sunning. Oh, and eating! The boys were excited and Darryl was ecstatic. The drive over there is really nice. Lake Guntersville is absolutely huge and incredibly beautiful. I have often said that I am bummed that we really don't have any family in town near us, however when we do get together we always have some nice quality time and this weekend was no exception. Time I think we may take for granted if we did live closer. We ate my grandmother's homemade lasagna, apple dumplins, fresh fried fish, blackberry clobbler, just to name a few of the mouth-watering, delish meals we had. We won't even talk about the breakfasts, umm. We caught lots of fish and lots of rays. LB and I, I mean the boys had fun playing out on the dock in there inflatable turtle swimming pool. But mostly I just loved hanging out on the screened-in back porch with the fam.

One thing I took great notice of over the course of the weekend is how relaxed everyone seemed compared to me. Everyone seemed to know how to laugh at themselves and at each other. My grandmother is the quintessential fun maker. And who ever thought that blowing up an air mattress with a car battery at midnight could be so hilarious? I suppose that my revelation should come as no surprise given that I have had chronic hives now for about 2 months. But it was just nice to be around people that aren't so serious all the time. I don't know if it is city life or work life or what, but it so easy to be serious about something all the time. I am serious about my schedule, my work, my commute, I can even make a trip to the grocery store an intensely serious affair with lists, coupons, have the route planned out at the optimal time of day, etc. etc. People say that with kids you must be more structured and with that comes some level of seriousness. But seriously, have I gone overboard and totally lost sight of how to have fun? Occasionally. Something I am going to be working on in my near retirement. 12 days and counting. Here's some pics.... more to come later. Check out those white legs!! That 45 SPF really works.