The Easy Way of Freezing Fresh Peaches

We love fresh peaches! In fact, we had just gotten two cases of fresh peaches from Cunningham Peaches out of Colorado (Look them up.  They will be making OK and TX deliveries again soon!) and was planning to freeze a lot of them to enjoy for several months.  I wasn't looking forward to working them all up. I'm not really good about things like that and knew I had to get it done and not allow any time to get rotten.  Thankfully in my Facebook newsfeed, a brilliant tip came into view by Heavenly Homemakers!  It was about freezing peaches WHOLE, then just being able to get out one, two, or more...for anything we wanted to use them for! Wow! What a GREAT idea!

Lay washed and dried peaches out on a pan.

Freeze several hours.

Freeze in freezer bags.  Pull out of bag as needed.  Peaches will take a while to thaw. I haven't thawed out any, yet, but Heavenly Homemakers also says that when it begins to thaw, the skins will peel off easily if desired.

After telling my mom about this tip, she talked to some friends and they've done it this way for years, so it's not a new idea; however, it's new to me, and I'm excited! Maybe it's new to you, too :).

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Corn Shucking the Easy Way!

Blog reader, Marsha, sent this wonderful tip for shucking corn:

1.  Cut the stem end off about 1 ½ inches and leave husk ON.
2.  Put one ear of corn in the microwave and cook for 4 minutes.
3.  Take corn out and hold by the top (I call it the furry end) and shake and the corn will fall out almost 100% free of the silk.
4.  Adjust if cooking more than one ear at a time.
5.  Enjoy!

Thanks, Marsha!
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"You Say It, You Pay It" Jar

Last week a friend had a great idea for reminding one of her children to not say some of her favorite overused words.  Because the mom grew tired of hearing those favorite phrases, she intervened with this wonderful solution!

Having a consequence for using those words made the child think more about the words that came out of her mouth.  Twenty-five cents per use raked in a few dollars soon, but I'm thinking it didn't take long for the young girl to stop those favorite phrases!

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Ladies' Day Salad Luncheon

Click HERE for my post about speaking at the Waynoka, OK church ladies' day this past Saturday.  It talks about the theme and my lesson points. This post is more about the food :).

For the salad luncheon, the ladies has three of these serving jars.  One had raspberry tea and another had peach tea.  This one was just plain ice water, but look how pretty they made "plain water"!!  I love the addition of the cranberries and ice in layers.  BEAUTIFUL!

Trifles are one of the prettiest desserts to serve, in my opinion.  This one was delicious, as well.  I have a few trifles posted on this blog, if you're interested.

Fruit pizza is always a hit and these individual fruit salads are a great way to serve desserts.  Spring time fruit is in season and so pretty right now!

Have you notices the little cards by each dish?  One of the Waynoka ladies goes to great lengths to make sure each dish is labeled.  However, she goes above and beyond by making the cards "pretty", in the theme colors, and also makes the cards double-sided, so that it is visible from both sides of the table.  Both lines of people can see the name of the dish.  BRILLIANT!

More delishness!! (My spell check says this isn't a word, but it's a new word.  I made it up! :)

....and even more!

....and more!....

My plate.  Isn't it pretty?  Tasted absolutely wonderful, too!

Great job, Waynoka church ladies!!

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Recipe for Stinky Shoes

Photo from http://health.kaboose.com/kids-health/older-kids-deodorant-skin-feet.html.

Posted by Lori:
This is a very different type of "recipe" but has become a favorite in our house (unfortunately!) lately.  I will not humiliate the offendant in the family, but I will say that it's not me this time.  This is a recipe to get rid of stinky shoes! My husband heard this idea on the radio recently and it has really helped with our "stinky shoe" problem.  YAY!

Directions:
1. Remove stinky shoes from the offendant's feet - your own, your spouses', or your child's.
2. Instruct offendant to wash their feet with soap and water to remove odor.  Towel dry and maybe apply some freshly scented lotion.
3. Place stinky shoes in  plastic zip bag to lock in freshness odor.  
4. Place zip-top bag inside a grocery bag.
5. Tie up bag.
6. Place bag in the freezer overnight or 24 hours if extremely rank!
7. Remove fresh-smelling shoes. Discard bag or recycle, if desired.
8.  If you are a child, thank your parent for remedying your smelly shoe situation.

And there you go! A recipe for stinky shoes that is guaranteed to work!
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A TIP FOR WASHING SPUDS

Are you baking potatoes for a large group? Instead of washing them one by one, wash them in the dishwasher. Place potatoes in the top rack and wash - without detergent, of course. Some sites suggest the top rack only, but at church fellowship meals, we use the bottom rack as well, without a problem. If you have a quick rinse feature, that would be best.

Here's a funny story about dishwasher-washed potatoes:
Several years ago my niece was in charge of a college retreat to be held at the church's college building. She washed the potatoes and wrapped them in foil a few days before the event. When she got ready to begin baking them, she happened to unwrap one of them and saw that it had molded!

So....the moral of this story is if you don't intend to use your potatoes immediately, do not wrap them in foil, but allow them to dry completely. My niece had to make a flying trip to the grocery store, then hand wash all of the newly purchased potatoes and get them into the ovens quickly.  But she and her college friends had a good laugh about their predicament!
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