Giveaway Time! Arizona Doors Set- Three 8 x 10 prints

Our Anniversary is coming up! Peachtree Park will be One Year Old on April 4th and to celebrate, we are doing a Giveaway of one of our most popular prints, taken by Bradley, here at Peachtree.

All you have to do is visit our Facebook page here, like and comment on the Giveaway status, and you will be entered into the drawing for this photography set.  There are two sets being given away! This is the link to this listing in our shop if you want more details on the photographs. Thanks for checking us out!

Cooking with Kids Series: Cheesy Cornbread

I’m obviously a frets and spurts kind of a gal when it comes to blogging- I have oh so many excuses (good ones!), but instead of getting into those, I will just get on with this fun recipe I did with the kids! With Spring finally looking like it’s closing in, I am ready to start heading to the farmers market and making tons of fresh fruit and veggie dishes.  But we aren’t quite there yet, and another just cool enough, just damp enough day called for a little comfort food.  So I decided to combine a few favorite cornbread recipes to get a kid friendly (less messy when eaten) cornbread.  This one is great because there was plenty of pouring and stirring for my kids to do, and they really couldn’t get enough of the outcome!

CHEESY CORNBREAD

INGREDIENTS:

• Butter or Crisco for greasing the pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (or read my note on the milk/vinegar alternative that works great)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup shredded extra-sharp or sharp cheddar cheese

– I have bought buttermilk in the past when making different recipes that called for it, and the extra always sits for ages after, while I try to think of another recipe with buttermilk.  And it always gets tossed. So, instead of buying it this time, I decided to try the milk/vinegar trick.  Just mix a scant cup of milk with a Tbsp. of white vinegar, stir well, and then let it sit for about 5-10 minutes.  This replaces buttermilk well enough, in my opinion (but I can’t claim to be a huge buttermilk fan! – see this link from the Kitchn for more details).

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the pie dish, bottom and sides.
2. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Stir until blended well.
3. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, honey, and egg.  Mix well.
4. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredient mixture.  Stir together gently until almost blended.  Add the shredded cheese and stir until just blended.
5. Using a spoon or spatula, pour the mixture into a pie dish and smooth down.
6. Place in the middle of your oven for aprox. 25 minutes, until top is golden-brown.   Check doneness by inserting a toothpick on the middle of the dish.  It is done if the toothpick comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for about 10-15 minutes before serving.

Leftovers can pack up nicely in lunches, or for snack the next day.  This is fantastic with soup.  Although, honestly, I will be happy to see the cozy soup days go for awhile!

Great Internet Finds: Market Tote Tutorial from Bijou Lovely

I have had this Market Tote from Bijou Lovely tutorial bookmarked for probably a year.  And I’ve had an adorable Cloud 9 cotton canvas waiting for months and months to be turned into a bag.  It was only a week ago I put one and one together and realized they are MADE for each other!  I’ve been wanting to make a catch all bag (library trips, farmers market, kids stuff at church, swimming lessons, etc.) for awhile, but never really committed until I figured out this combo.  Now I am so happy to replace the ugly green Winco bag I often used  for such outings!

This feels much better!

This tutorial is great – seriously! I have tried many a tutorial as I’ve learned to sew, and some are complete and easy to understand, and great pictures that fill in any questions, but in my opinion, it’s rare that I don’t have to fill in a single blank on my own.  This tutorial is that rare gem- oh, and with a fabulous outcome to boot!  Thank you, Bijou Lovely! You will be my tutorial inspiration when I finally attempt one!

So, the fabric I used was the Cloud 9 Bark & Branch canvas in blue and a Robert Kaufman cotton/linen blend in a natural.  I was trying to make this a very quick project, so I skipped the interfacing step.  I was using a canvas and a hardy linen/cotton, so I felt like it would have enough weight.  And it did.  If I’d wanted to spend a bit more time on the project, it probably would have made a good addition- a bit more stability.  I don’t think it’s missed too much, though, with a decently thick home decor weight fabric.  With anything lighter though, I wouldn’t recommend skipping the interfacing.

One other variation on the tutorial I did was to make the lining pieces just a bit bigger in height (about a half inch or less) bigger than the outside fabric.  I wanted a little trim of the linen on the top of the bag, so when I got to the second to the last step, top stitching the top edge- I just made sure the linen poked up out a bit.  If you do this, just make sure the lining is fitting in nicely (I pinned at the bottom before pinning the top for top stitching), and I top stitched on the outer fabric and the lining.

Oh, and if I hadn’t been trying to keep it to a couple hour project, I would have added a pocket into the lining.  I am sure I will make this same bag again, with different fabric, so I’ll do it next time.  I’ll update any tips on here when I do.  Anyway, try out this Bijou Lovely’s fantastic tutorial if you are looking for a great market bag- with spring right around the corner, I think we could all use one of these!

Cooking With Kids Series: Fruity Breakfast Shakes

Around our home, food is a big deal. It has always been a major priority to introduce our children (and ourselves) to the delicious, healthy, fantastic foods that the earth has to offer. We’ve also tried to involve them in the preparation, as age permits, and they are SO excited when we do – in fact, as a side note, I have noticed this is a fantastic way to get them more interested in trying new foods.  However, with so many things on our plate, and now our little baby starting to eat her own new foods, I find I have been less and less motivated to involve the kids.  And, even worse, I am falling into the rut of the same food repertoire week in and week out.  With the shelves and shelves of cookbooks in our home, I decided I needed to shake it up.

So, I pulled out a few of our kid friendly cookbooks and let the kids thumb through them.  We decided each week, we would mark on a calender what foods we would make together, new recipes we hadn’t tried before.  Of course, children of mine came back with all desserts, so we changed it up a bit- one dessert and one other for each kid per week.  We will be doing so week by week.

It has been fun so far.  Good for giving me ideas on quick, healthy, and kid friendly things I can put together, and great for teaching my children the basics of the kitchen.  The husband and I both have a goal that we would love to see our children leave our home with some real cooking skills.  We believe it will benefit their health, their self-sufficiency, their finances, maybe even their social life (Brad didn’t have to try too hard, but his cooking definitely helped win me over!).

I decided to incorporate this as a series on the blog: The Cooking with Kids Series, where I will share one or two of the recipes we did the week before.  Last week, with a lot going on for Valentine’s, I wasn’t too quick with the camera while we did it, so I’m sharing the simplest recipe we did (and the only one I took any pictures of!).  However, it is a super one to add to your little recipe book in your brain, because it is super quick, healthy, and my kids went gaga for it.  It’s kind of a no-brainer, but one I hadn’t done yet, so maybe it will benefit someone else as well.

This one we adapted from Williams-Sonoma The Kid’s Cookbook: A great book for kids who love to cook:

Fruity Breakfast Shake:

1 cup vanilla yogurt (I used Greek, organic)

1 cup strawberries, or peaches, or blueberries (Since it’s winter, we did frozen and left them about half frozen, blueberries leave completely frozen).

1 Tbsp. honey (Blueberries will not need this sweetness, but it can be added if desired anyway).

A handfull of ice if using fresh fruit.

Put ingredients into a blender and blend well.  We have a stick blender and use it daily- I highly recommend one. We used that for this (so clean up is about ten seconds!).

Pour into cups and enjoy!

I know, kind of a duh! recipe, but the kids loved it, it was a great way to get some different fruit in at breakfast in the middle of Winter, and since we did strawberries, it was a perfect Valentine’s week treat.My daughter was so inspired, she spent the morning “baking cake” from the recipe book!

Last Minute Valentine’s Day Card – FREE PRINTABLE

Since I just posted on here, I was planning on holding off a day to post this, but I love the quote so much, I thought I’d put it out there right now, in case anyone finds it to be just the right thing for their Valentine’s Day (and maybe it can go with your own handmade gift – see our previous post).

We have been reading Winnie-the-Pooh to our kids lately. I grew up on the Disney Winnie, and never knew the absolute charm in the original book itself until my dad gave my daughter The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh for Christmas. It is enchanting, entertaining even for adults (yeah, I really like that in a kid’s book), and offers awesome little gems from time to time. I came across this one, and decided it is my new favorite Valentine’s Day quote. I had to make it into a little card. So, our first Free Printable is up. Just right click on the image and save or click the Print & PDF button below, grab some card stock, and give this to someone you don’t want to live without!

Warm Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies on a Snow Day

Aside from a couple of one day or less dusts of snow, we have had nil until this weekend.  I was, on one hand, mad, because part way into February means I might even start running outside, the kids can hit the parks (in coats), and Spring is not so far away.  I am a Spring girl.  But the kids hadn’t really got a chance to play in the snow, and really, what good is seriously cold weather with no snow at all!

It really hit here in Washington, finally.  It was a fun shake up for February, which, though short, always seems to drag for me.

So the kids got out and played.  We haven’t bought a sled yet, and Brad was seriously wishing he could head to Target to grab one.  We decided it was a bit too nasty out to justify, so he made a make shift sled to pull the kids around our hill-less backyard.  It’s a big Rubbermaid storage container lid inside a big black trash bag.  My MacGyver!

The baby didn’t last too long, so she and I went indoors and whipped up some peanut butter cookies to warm the kids’ bellies when they came in.

I haven’t done a recipe on the blog in awhile, so here it is:

Quick & Easy Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies:

Ingredients

½ cup butter (I’m dairy free for now, for babies sake,  and used a dairy free butter substitute stick, which worked perfectly)

½ cup peanut butter

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup honey (or brown sugar)

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 ¼ cup whole wheat (feel free to use white flour if you like, but it turns out awesome with whole wheat, so why not?!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix butter & peanut butter  (I prefer in a mixer if you have one- mix for about 30 seconds.)

Add sugar, honey, baking powder and baking soda and mix until combined.

Add egg and vanilla, beat in, then add flour and mix just till all ingredients are combined well.

Ball up about a Tbsp. of dough, and place on a cookie sheet ( I always add parchment paper to the sheet before laying down dough.  I find this makes for very even baking).

Continue with enough balls to fill sheet, with about two inches in between each ball of dough.

Gently and barely push down each ball by making an X with a fork (or whatever you prefer on you peanut butter cookies).

Bake in the center of the oven for 7 minutes.

When it’s done, immediately put onto a cooling rack.  I gently pull the parchment paper off of the sheet and onto the rack with the cookies still on the paper.  I find this made for the perfect chewiness when cooled a bit (Who doesn’t love a perfectly chewy cookie!). If you don’t use parchment, give the cookies a couple minutes on the cookie sheet (on the rack), then remove with a spatula to the cooling rack. I find letting them sit too long on a sheet cooks the cookies too much. Let cool about ten minutes total then Enjoy (unless you’re me- I waited about one).

With a mixer this takes about 10-15 minutes to put together and bakes quick.  Easy, quick, not too dirty! Perfect for a snowy day! Sorry no pictures- I was trying to hurry, and it didn’t cross my mind (and they were gone before it did!).

What are you doing on your snow days? We love great ideas, because it’s looking like Spring is a ways away!