Peach Topped Shortbread

Following the theme as of late - Peaches - here's another good recipe I found over at Smitten Kitchen. It's not a sweet as regular crips, cobbler, or even cookies, and that's part of what makes it so appealing.

Peach Topped Shortbread

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg (or powdered in the spice isle)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter
1 large egg
2 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter or grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices with a whisk. Use a pastry blender (or fork) to blend the butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will be crumbly. Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile peach slices over the crumb base in a single layer. Scatter remaining crumbs evenly over peaches and bake in preheated over for 30 minutes, until top is slightly brown and you see a little color around the edges. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

Before:

After:

Peach Crisp

This lady (aka the Pioneer Woman) has WONDERFUL recipes to share, and they are all photographed step-by-step in beautiful color. The recipe used raspberries, but mentioned that any summer fruit would work. I had peaches that were getting rather soft... so this is the product. YUM!!!

Peach Crisp

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups fresh chopped peaches
1 Tablespoon (heaping) cornstarch
2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
dash of salt
3/4 stick butter, cut into small pieces
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine peaches, cornstarch, 2/3 cups sugar, and vanilla. Stir and set aside.

In a seperate bowl combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar, oats, pecans, salt, and butter pieces. Cut together with fork or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add peach mixture to a small baking dish or pie pan. Sprinkle topping mixture all over the top. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

Allow to sit for ten minutes before serving.

Doesn't this look so peachy, gooey good!?!? (And it was!) *smile*

Potholders for Mom

"From the Fabric Scraps Grow the Roses of Success" (See "Grow the Roses" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) Hee hee. :-)

Aren't they pretty! And just little strips of scraps...

This one is actually two 9 patches from my bigger project...

And this one is a mix from the past two projects. It's so nice to finally have little scraps to do cute things with! These are *almost* too cute to use...

This is my favorite with the straight line quilting...

Three Potholders in a Pod...

My First "Quilt Show"

We went to the Montana State Fair in Great Falls, MT for the day... there was so much to see, including the Quilt competition!

So much for inspiration! And the details... whew!

New Fabric, New Project

Oh the pretty colors! This is more what I had wanted to start learning with (rather than the blue and yellow), but I don't know if I would have had the guts to cut into such pretty fabrics!

Fat Quarters to 2 1/2 inch strips...

To 2 1/2 inch squares...

To 9 patches...

I'm not sure if I'll set them on point or just sash them in the white... the "on point" thing sounds intimidating at this point, but I KNOW it would be oh so beautiful.

We'll see what this quilt makes of itself...

And of course... my ipod and my sewing machine. I listen to quilt podcasts while I sew. It's quite motivating and inspirational to hear what other people are creating!

Quilt top complete

My first one is actually finished, borders and all. It's really exciting to see it nearing completion. I very much enjoy embroidery and have helped my grandma do some hand quilting before, so I look forward to the process!I wasn't sure about the outside diamond border, but I find I really like it now that it's finished.

It's sort of wrinkled at the moment - we don't have a big enough space to be able to fully lay it out. I'm going to have to take it home to Oregon at the end of this next month and borrow a big nice living room to pin the backing and batting on. Can't wait! It's going to be so nice when it's finished.

And I have to confess that I've already gotten material for a 2nd and 3rd project. But I'll keep that a suprise for now! Yay for new adventures!

It's coming together, and it's getting exciting!

These are the patterns that are making the audition for the quilting... I'm going to hand-quilt this... my first quilt... because I don't want to ruin it by "practicing" machine quilting. I've done hand stitching before, and this is what my grandmother does, so I know it will look nice. It will take longer for sure, but I won't have to worry about putting a hole in my quilt and wasting all the effort up to this point! I expecially like the daisy... will likely use that somehow. *smile*

All sewed together... with blue borders...

The corners on the triangles were such a challenge. They are by no means perfect, but it was my first try, so I'm not too down about it. I DO love the overall effect of the diamond patterns.

So excited to get this finished and be able to snuggle under it!!