I love Christmas tree lights. I don’t know as that one can ever have enough. In fact, my parents finally set a rule for me when I was growing up that I couldn’t have light strands totaling more than 1,000 lights in my bedroom. I’d take a staple gun & weave them across my ceiling, around the walls, on multiple small trees in my room, etc. Dad called it a fire hazard; I called him Scrooge. Potayto-Potahto.
At any rate, lights can be a royal pain in the butt to get on a tree—and pre-lit trees never have enough for my liking. So, I came up with an alternative to this dilemma a few years back. My solution: icicle lights. Yes, those very same lights you can put outside of your house also make for a quick fix to an under-lit tree. (Make sure you get the ones with the green cords & the same light color as those already on your tree.) While I do love clear Christmas lights, I do make the exception to do solid-colored lights when it matches the tree’s décor. For instance, I have blue lights that I put in the center of the tree (so that it glows on the inside) when I put my blue-themed ornament set on it. Then I put the clear icicle lights on it, so as to not overdo it with the colored kind.
How does this work, you ask? I shall tell you, kind reader. Fret not. First, you can eliminate any visions you may have of these strands of lights just dangling willy-nilly to and fro from the tree. That’s not what we’re going for here. Refer to my Christmas Décor blog entry for a picture of my tree. That should give you a picture of what we’re going for:
http://kadertot.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-tip-decor-purchasingdecoratin.html
What you’re going to do is, starting at the bottom, somewhat loosely wind the icicle lights around the tree, using the back of the tree to hide plugs, transitions to other branch rows, etc. Then, you start at the bottom and work the lights into the tree. Slide the cord back in, working the dangling strands into the branches, so that you get more lighting from the inside out. Don’t let them drop down or dangle or anything—just weave the cords into the branches. You may find that, when you get to the top, you have extra length. That’s just fine—work it back down the tree, making sure to stretch it out as much as possible so that it doesn’t look like a huge cluster of lights on one section and not on the other. It’s a super easy solution to adding hundreds of lights to the tree while only using a couple of strands. (If it helps in determining how many you need, I have two strands—not sure of length, but whatever’s standard—for a 7.5’ tree.)
The other part of Christmas lights that can be frustrating is when it comes to storing them. Many end up with globs of lights that are knotted together and just total messes. There’s no need for it when there’s a free solution. Get a cardboard box and cut the lids flaps off of it. (The bigger, the better.) You can cut a small inlet on the edge of it, in which you would slide the end of the cord that has an open plug, giving it an anchor point. If you don’t cut the inlet, no biggie. The cord will stay in place when you get it wrapped around the flap enough. Pull the cord as tight as possible while you’re wrapping it—and wrapping the long-way on the flap works the easiest. Be absolutely sure that you start with the open socket, as you want to end with the actual plug. That way, when you go to use them the next time, you’ll have the end that you need right off the bat, without having to unravel them to get to the other end.
To secure the end of it, take a couple of feet of the cord and wrap it around the flap from side-to-side so that it pulls the wrapped lights that went on end-to-end towards the flap and keeps them more secure. Then, tuck the end into one of the loops. When you go to put the lights on the next time, you simple have to untuck that end, unravel those couple of feet and then you can unravel the rest of the lights as you work your way around the tree. It works the same when you go to take them off—ravel them onto the flap as you undecorate. You are saving yourself a bunch of time and headache by doing so!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Christmas Tip: Tinsel Alternatives
Growing up, my parents had this shaggy metallic tinsel (that most likely was NOT fire resistant, now that I think about it) that somehow lasted years and years. And by years and years, I mean I think my mom still has some of it in her Christmas boxes even today. When the tinsel rope broke, we taped it. (Not only were we poor, but we had no shame either. Sometimes this can also be a lethal combination, as evidenced by 95% of Wal-Mart’s customers…) The tinsel was in gold, silver, a gold and silver combo, red and blue. And we used it all. On the same tree, no less. (I prefer to call that look “traditional”.) At the time, it was probably quite stylish. In case you missed it, it isn’t stylish today. (Neither are those “icicle” metal strands you fling on tree branches. Nor is flocking…though I do have a good story about that from my high school days. I’ll save it for another day.) And, unless you have a five-year-old, popcorn strands are also out.
So then, you wonder, what can you use instead?! Many things. Many, many things. A naked tree, even, is more preferable than to use that shaggy tinsel. But, here are a few alternatives that have worked for me or others I know:
1) Ribbon. You’ll most likely need to get the wired ribbon, which admittedly can get a bit pricey (again, buy post-Christmas and save it for the next year). That tends to create the best look. And, if you’re handy at tying big, beautiful bows (I’m not; gratefully, Artis is), then you can buy lots of it and also make a tree topper out of it so that you have a more coordinated look & not some freaky glowing angel with a plastic skirt looking back at you from the top of the tree until you take the tree down. Be sure to buy very neutral colors on this (golds, silvers—red or green if you’ve got a more traditional look) so that you can use it for some time without it looking out-of-style. (To store it, keep the rolls it came on & re-roll it on that. Alternatively, you can cut a flap off of a cardboard box and use that as the core around which you wrap the ribbon.) You can either do ribbon in circles around each row of branches, or you can do ribbon cascading down the sides of the tree from the top—which is another great time to use a bow tree topper with the same ribbon.
2) Bows. I suppose you could do bows in addition to ribbon strands, but that could go bad very, very quickly. So, it’s best to do one over the other. The nice thing about bows is that they’re usually a little easier to store (though they do require re-fluffing from having been flattened) and you can vary bow sizes on the same tree (just don’t get too crazy with it). You can also use more patterned ribbons on this & it won’t look as insane as if you were to use the same patterned ribbon in rows around the tree or cascading from the top. Be sure to get the floral wire for this, as you will need to be able to secure the bows to the tree itself. (Plus, floral wire is really thin & isn’t noticeable against a green tree.)
3) Picks. When I bought my first grown-up tree décor a few years back, I came across some decorative picks at the store. There were really long sticks with silver pinecones affixed to the ends of them, along with picks of silver tree branches and also long, coiled decorative silver sticks. I imagine that each of these items was originally intended to be used in large floral arrangements, but I found that they work great on trees too! They add a fun dimension to it. The sticks tend to be hidden at the center of the tree by the time you put on all the other ornaments. With the ornament set I bought last year, I bought cranberry picks that were designed to be used on gift boxes. They have much shorter sticks on them, so it was a lot easier to work with & yet accomplished the same goal. You see the cranberry groups sticking out of the tree here and there, giving it a fun look while not being nearly as glaring as silver tinsel that’s been taped together. Another good type of “pick” you could use would be peacock feathers. (Again, it’d be for a very specific look. But, it would add another dimension and some fun color.)
4) Bead strands. I’m not talking about Mardi Gras-style bead strands here. You’ll need to find ones that are specifically designed to go around Christmas trees, but when done correctly this can be a really elegant touch.
5) Feather boas. Now, before you think I’ve lost my mind, hear me out. How, you ask, is a feather boa any more stylish than taped-together tinsel? It is when it’s part of a very specific look & when done well. I would not recommend doing a feather boa on a regular pine tree. You need a colored tree—silver, white, black, purple, pink, blue, etc., to pull this one off. You’re also going to have to go with a really elegant look or a really playful look. Anything in-between would be disastrous. You’d probably end up looking like a psychotic hooker attacked your tree. And that’s never a good look. Instead, consider doing a white tree with black feather boas, clear lights and gold & silver ornaments. Or, do a purple tree with pink feather boas, lime green and bright blue ornaments, and solid-colored lights that match. (I’m not a fan of multi-color lights, so I’m a strong advocate for solid colors.)
Remember, regardless of which method you use, put it on the tree before putting on the ornaments. Tinsel, or tinsel alternatives at least, can really make a tree’s overall look come together. I can’t wait to see what I find at the post-Christmas sales this year!
So then, you wonder, what can you use instead?! Many things. Many, many things. A naked tree, even, is more preferable than to use that shaggy tinsel. But, here are a few alternatives that have worked for me or others I know:
1) Ribbon. You’ll most likely need to get the wired ribbon, which admittedly can get a bit pricey (again, buy post-Christmas and save it for the next year). That tends to create the best look. And, if you’re handy at tying big, beautiful bows (I’m not; gratefully, Artis is), then you can buy lots of it and also make a tree topper out of it so that you have a more coordinated look & not some freaky glowing angel with a plastic skirt looking back at you from the top of the tree until you take the tree down. Be sure to buy very neutral colors on this (golds, silvers—red or green if you’ve got a more traditional look) so that you can use it for some time without it looking out-of-style. (To store it, keep the rolls it came on & re-roll it on that. Alternatively, you can cut a flap off of a cardboard box and use that as the core around which you wrap the ribbon.) You can either do ribbon in circles around each row of branches, or you can do ribbon cascading down the sides of the tree from the top—which is another great time to use a bow tree topper with the same ribbon.
2) Bows. I suppose you could do bows in addition to ribbon strands, but that could go bad very, very quickly. So, it’s best to do one over the other. The nice thing about bows is that they’re usually a little easier to store (though they do require re-fluffing from having been flattened) and you can vary bow sizes on the same tree (just don’t get too crazy with it). You can also use more patterned ribbons on this & it won’t look as insane as if you were to use the same patterned ribbon in rows around the tree or cascading from the top. Be sure to get the floral wire for this, as you will need to be able to secure the bows to the tree itself. (Plus, floral wire is really thin & isn’t noticeable against a green tree.)
3) Picks. When I bought my first grown-up tree décor a few years back, I came across some decorative picks at the store. There were really long sticks with silver pinecones affixed to the ends of them, along with picks of silver tree branches and also long, coiled decorative silver sticks. I imagine that each of these items was originally intended to be used in large floral arrangements, but I found that they work great on trees too! They add a fun dimension to it. The sticks tend to be hidden at the center of the tree by the time you put on all the other ornaments. With the ornament set I bought last year, I bought cranberry picks that were designed to be used on gift boxes. They have much shorter sticks on them, so it was a lot easier to work with & yet accomplished the same goal. You see the cranberry groups sticking out of the tree here and there, giving it a fun look while not being nearly as glaring as silver tinsel that’s been taped together. Another good type of “pick” you could use would be peacock feathers. (Again, it’d be for a very specific look. But, it would add another dimension and some fun color.)
4) Bead strands. I’m not talking about Mardi Gras-style bead strands here. You’ll need to find ones that are specifically designed to go around Christmas trees, but when done correctly this can be a really elegant touch.
5) Feather boas. Now, before you think I’ve lost my mind, hear me out. How, you ask, is a feather boa any more stylish than taped-together tinsel? It is when it’s part of a very specific look & when done well. I would not recommend doing a feather boa on a regular pine tree. You need a colored tree—silver, white, black, purple, pink, blue, etc., to pull this one off. You’re also going to have to go with a really elegant look or a really playful look. Anything in-between would be disastrous. You’d probably end up looking like a psychotic hooker attacked your tree. And that’s never a good look. Instead, consider doing a white tree with black feather boas, clear lights and gold & silver ornaments. Or, do a purple tree with pink feather boas, lime green and bright blue ornaments, and solid-colored lights that match. (I’m not a fan of multi-color lights, so I’m a strong advocate for solid colors.)
Remember, regardless of which method you use, put it on the tree before putting on the ornaments. Tinsel, or tinsel alternatives at least, can really make a tree’s overall look come together. I can’t wait to see what I find at the post-Christmas sales this year!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Christmas Tip: Decor Purchasing/Decorating
Greetings!
So, I was a busy little bee this weekend & got one of our Christmas trees put up and decorated. I know, I know…it’s not even Thanksgiving. But, here’s the deal—if I didn’t do it this weekend, it wouldn’t have happened. And I’m not about to skip putting up my Christmas tree. The next several weeks are jam-packed, so it was a necessity—and a fun necessity at that!
In putting up said tree, I was reminding myself of little tricks and tips here and there that I’ve either learned the hard way or acquired from various people over the years. (For those who don’t know me, Christmas is totally my holiday. Well, mine and Jesus’. I just lease the bulk of my share to Santa.) It was while thinking these things over that I realized it’d be good to write them down, which lead to the thought I should share them with others too, which lead to the thought that I’m a slacker at blogging & this would be the perfect thing to write about…as long as I can remember to do so. So, I shall share tips & tricks as they come to me. Some may come across as no-brainers, but hopefully something useful will be shared.
I should also warn you that, while I love to do things over-the-top, I am also quite frugal and always on the lookout for a good deal. Which leads me to one of the two tips I’m sharing today:
1) Buy your Christmas supplies a year in advance. I know it can be a pain to store things like wrapping paper & that it takes up space (under-bed sweater boxes work well for this purpose), but it’s well worth it to save. How? By hitting up the post-Christmas sales, of course. Target is my personal favorite for after Christmas sales & I usually buy once it gets to 75% off. Three years ago, I bought my first Christmas tree & all the decorations. I was out on my own & wanted to have a tree, of course, but I wasn’t going to pay through the nose for it. So, I waited out Christmas without my own tree & then loaded up. I spent about $250-300 total. What did I get? $1000-$1200 in ornaments, lights and a tree. You can imagine how much stuff I got. It’s ridiculous. My logic at the time was that if an ornament ever broke (they are a unique design), I’d never find a replacement. So, I bought out the leftovers of the entire line from two different Targets. Everything from tree skirts, area rugs, wall hangings, table runners, ornaments—all of it. In there, I got a 7.5” pre-lit tree that is quite nice and was normally $200. I paid $50 for it. Well worth every penny.
Last year, I decided that I may get sick of the ornament styles I bought & so I wanted to get an alternate style with which I could interchange the overall look. I spent about $125 (since I already had the tree and lights) and still loaded up plenty on a beautiful Swiss chalet-style set. That’s the look I went with this year. Since Artis & I combined households and we each had a tree, we put mine upstairs and positioned it such that you can see it from the entryway too. It looks great, if I do say so myself! I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.
Anyway, I know we’re all very much a “want it now” society. But, if you can wait it out and buy post-Christmas—and not just intend to, but actually do so—it’s so worth it. I have $1600-$1800 of Christmas décor for one particular tree & my out-of-pocket cost in a three-year period totaled $400-450. Not too shabby, I say!
2) Tree decorating tip: Start big, end small. This may seem like one of those no-brainers I mentioned, but it surprises me by how many people clearly get it wrong—and you can tell this just by looking at a tree. When decorating, after putting on your lights and tinsel (or tinsel alternative—I’ll save that topic for another day), put your largest ornaments on first. Do not go astray and start putting little ones on too. Sort them out by size & get those large ones on there. Once you have all of those positioned, then you can fill in the empty spaces with the small ornaments. If you have small ones you want to make sure go on the tree, put those to the side and make sure you position those first, after placing the larger ones. If you have too many small ones you want on there, you can always go back and remove larger ornaments you feel like you can ultimately do without. It can be likened to a haircut—you can always take away, but you can never put back. In this case, you can never give the tree back some open space if you didn’t plan for it in the first place. It looks ridiculous & you can totally tell when someone first put on all the small ornaments & then later tried to cram on the big ones. Avoid this visual disaster.
And here, dear friends, is a picture (using my phone’s camera, so it’s not exactly brilliantly done) of the upstairs tree I did yesterday:
So, I was a busy little bee this weekend & got one of our Christmas trees put up and decorated. I know, I know…it’s not even Thanksgiving. But, here’s the deal—if I didn’t do it this weekend, it wouldn’t have happened. And I’m not about to skip putting up my Christmas tree. The next several weeks are jam-packed, so it was a necessity—and a fun necessity at that!
In putting up said tree, I was reminding myself of little tricks and tips here and there that I’ve either learned the hard way or acquired from various people over the years. (For those who don’t know me, Christmas is totally my holiday. Well, mine and Jesus’. I just lease the bulk of my share to Santa.) It was while thinking these things over that I realized it’d be good to write them down, which lead to the thought I should share them with others too, which lead to the thought that I’m a slacker at blogging & this would be the perfect thing to write about…as long as I can remember to do so. So, I shall share tips & tricks as they come to me. Some may come across as no-brainers, but hopefully something useful will be shared.
I should also warn you that, while I love to do things over-the-top, I am also quite frugal and always on the lookout for a good deal. Which leads me to one of the two tips I’m sharing today:
1) Buy your Christmas supplies a year in advance. I know it can be a pain to store things like wrapping paper & that it takes up space (under-bed sweater boxes work well for this purpose), but it’s well worth it to save. How? By hitting up the post-Christmas sales, of course. Target is my personal favorite for after Christmas sales & I usually buy once it gets to 75% off. Three years ago, I bought my first Christmas tree & all the decorations. I was out on my own & wanted to have a tree, of course, but I wasn’t going to pay through the nose for it. So, I waited out Christmas without my own tree & then loaded up. I spent about $250-300 total. What did I get? $1000-$1200 in ornaments, lights and a tree. You can imagine how much stuff I got. It’s ridiculous. My logic at the time was that if an ornament ever broke (they are a unique design), I’d never find a replacement. So, I bought out the leftovers of the entire line from two different Targets. Everything from tree skirts, area rugs, wall hangings, table runners, ornaments—all of it. In there, I got a 7.5” pre-lit tree that is quite nice and was normally $200. I paid $50 for it. Well worth every penny.
Last year, I decided that I may get sick of the ornament styles I bought & so I wanted to get an alternate style with which I could interchange the overall look. I spent about $125 (since I already had the tree and lights) and still loaded up plenty on a beautiful Swiss chalet-style set. That’s the look I went with this year. Since Artis & I combined households and we each had a tree, we put mine upstairs and positioned it such that you can see it from the entryway too. It looks great, if I do say so myself! I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.
Anyway, I know we’re all very much a “want it now” society. But, if you can wait it out and buy post-Christmas—and not just intend to, but actually do so—it’s so worth it. I have $1600-$1800 of Christmas décor for one particular tree & my out-of-pocket cost in a three-year period totaled $400-450. Not too shabby, I say!
2) Tree decorating tip: Start big, end small. This may seem like one of those no-brainers I mentioned, but it surprises me by how many people clearly get it wrong—and you can tell this just by looking at a tree. When decorating, after putting on your lights and tinsel (or tinsel alternative—I’ll save that topic for another day), put your largest ornaments on first. Do not go astray and start putting little ones on too. Sort them out by size & get those large ones on there. Once you have all of those positioned, then you can fill in the empty spaces with the small ornaments. If you have small ones you want to make sure go on the tree, put those to the side and make sure you position those first, after placing the larger ones. If you have too many small ones you want on there, you can always go back and remove larger ornaments you feel like you can ultimately do without. It can be likened to a haircut—you can always take away, but you can never put back. In this case, you can never give the tree back some open space if you didn’t plan for it in the first place. It looks ridiculous & you can totally tell when someone first put on all the small ornaments & then later tried to cram on the big ones. Avoid this visual disaster.
And here, dear friends, is a picture (using my phone’s camera, so it’s not exactly brilliantly done) of the upstairs tree I did yesterday:
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Sickening.
(Warning: This is not a happy blog entry & deals with a very sad crime involving a child. I have so many emotions going through my head right now that I have to get them out somehow if I ever hope to be able to fall asleep tonight. Thus, this entry...)
Back in college, I volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to help ensure that the needs of abused children were being brought to the attention of the court as the various proceedings took place. The volume of training for this included some heart-wrenching information & statistics that to this day, I cannot fathom. All of those feelings of shock, profound sorrow for the abused innocent children and utter rage for those who would heap such abuses upon them all has come back to me each time I read an update on a local news story that involves ten-year-old Zahra Baker.
Zahra, who looks as sweet as can be, had bone cancer & as a result of this, she ended up with a prosthetic leg and hearing aids in both ears. Her biological mother lives in Australia & hasn't seen her since relinquishing custody when Zahra was a baby, due to post-natal depression. Her father & step-mother, meanwhile, live here in NC. The step-mother seems to be straight from Hell--to the point that multiple neighbors and family members have said in various articles that they told her to not beat Zahra, but she wouldn't listen to them. (At one point, the step-mother beat the poor child so hard that her own hand became injured.) Because the step-mom kept them moving around so much, Child Protective Services was not able to investigate...nor did anyone physically remove her from the situation.
In these moves, it apparently allowed for her step-mom (and possibly her dad) to kill her & no one would be missing her or notice she was gone. Her prosthetic leg had been found a week or two ago, her mattress was located in a landfill not too long ago and her remains were found today. Initially, they tried to stage it as a kidnapping--the step-mom wrote a ransom note trying to make it appear like someone had meant to go to her husband's boss's house, rather than theirs. (It was a ridiculous plot and only went downhill from there.) Instead, Zahra had apparently been long dead & no one can confirm having seen her for the last few months.
The abuse heaped upon this poor girl, who had already endured so much with just her health issues alone, is almost too much for my brain & heart to handle. What makes it all the worse is that this beautiful little human being went missing and no one besides her parents even noticed--for months! I understand logistically, given their frequent moves & no family close by, how this could be--but it still just doesn't make sense. Maybe it's not that it makes sense so much as it is that I wish that were not the case. I wish she had been noticed, not just when she went missing, but when she was alive & living under the same roof as a monster. I can only pray that she went quickly & did not suffer anymore than she already did in her far-too-few years.
I don't really know that I typically have strong feelings about the death penalty, but if I don't normally, I definitely do now. And even that does not feel like it's sufficient punishment for these two "parents". I know that Zahra's earthly troubles are over & that she is finally at peace--I just wish she'd known great happiness and peace in this life too. Meanwhile, I hope that justice is dealt swiftly & severely to those who were involved in this senseless murder. I just don't get it. I don't get how anyone can abuse another--let alone murder them--and particularly a child! It just makes me sick.
Anyway, I apologize for the depressing rant, but I needed to purge myself of some of these thoughts & feelings. Just reading the latest news article, announcing the discovery of her remains, has put me in such an upset state that I know I will have a hard time falling asleep & that my dreams will be horror-filled. Yet, I know that I'm fortunate, because for me it's just one night--for poor Zahra, it was every day and every night.
Bless her little heart; may she rest in peace!
Back in college, I volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to help ensure that the needs of abused children were being brought to the attention of the court as the various proceedings took place. The volume of training for this included some heart-wrenching information & statistics that to this day, I cannot fathom. All of those feelings of shock, profound sorrow for the abused innocent children and utter rage for those who would heap such abuses upon them all has come back to me each time I read an update on a local news story that involves ten-year-old Zahra Baker.
Zahra, who looks as sweet as can be, had bone cancer & as a result of this, she ended up with a prosthetic leg and hearing aids in both ears. Her biological mother lives in Australia & hasn't seen her since relinquishing custody when Zahra was a baby, due to post-natal depression. Her father & step-mother, meanwhile, live here in NC. The step-mother seems to be straight from Hell--to the point that multiple neighbors and family members have said in various articles that they told her to not beat Zahra, but she wouldn't listen to them. (At one point, the step-mother beat the poor child so hard that her own hand became injured.) Because the step-mom kept them moving around so much, Child Protective Services was not able to investigate...nor did anyone physically remove her from the situation.
In these moves, it apparently allowed for her step-mom (and possibly her dad) to kill her & no one would be missing her or notice she was gone. Her prosthetic leg had been found a week or two ago, her mattress was located in a landfill not too long ago and her remains were found today. Initially, they tried to stage it as a kidnapping--the step-mom wrote a ransom note trying to make it appear like someone had meant to go to her husband's boss's house, rather than theirs. (It was a ridiculous plot and only went downhill from there.) Instead, Zahra had apparently been long dead & no one can confirm having seen her for the last few months.
The abuse heaped upon this poor girl, who had already endured so much with just her health issues alone, is almost too much for my brain & heart to handle. What makes it all the worse is that this beautiful little human being went missing and no one besides her parents even noticed--for months! I understand logistically, given their frequent moves & no family close by, how this could be--but it still just doesn't make sense. Maybe it's not that it makes sense so much as it is that I wish that were not the case. I wish she had been noticed, not just when she went missing, but when she was alive & living under the same roof as a monster. I can only pray that she went quickly & did not suffer anymore than she already did in her far-too-few years.
I don't really know that I typically have strong feelings about the death penalty, but if I don't normally, I definitely do now. And even that does not feel like it's sufficient punishment for these two "parents". I know that Zahra's earthly troubles are over & that she is finally at peace--I just wish she'd known great happiness and peace in this life too. Meanwhile, I hope that justice is dealt swiftly & severely to those who were involved in this senseless murder. I just don't get it. I don't get how anyone can abuse another--let alone murder them--and particularly a child! It just makes me sick.
Anyway, I apologize for the depressing rant, but I needed to purge myself of some of these thoughts & feelings. Just reading the latest news article, announcing the discovery of her remains, has put me in such an upset state that I know I will have a hard time falling asleep & that my dreams will be horror-filled. Yet, I know that I'm fortunate, because for me it's just one night--for poor Zahra, it was every day and every night.
Bless her little heart; may she rest in peace!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Easiest From-Scratch Peach Cobbler EVER
Greetings!
I know there's a peach cobbler recipe out there somewhere that involves a yellow cake mix, butter, and peaches, but I came across an even tastier & super easy recipe while trying to find the cake mix one. And, what's even better is that this one is made from scratch, so it sounds like you worked much harder than you actually did. That's always nice, of course.
So, I made the cobbler the other night and it was indeed really tasty--particularly the cake part of it. Yesterday, I went to the fridge to get some more of it (and was going to primarily make sure I got more cake than peaches) but then I opened the container to find that Artis had beat me to the punch & had eaten the bulk of the cake, leaving me peach slices. I was not amused. After lecturing him (and then later admitting I was going to do the same thing to him that he did to me), "we" (read: Artis) decided I needed to make another cobbler...but without the fruit. And I did. And it was amazing. And I discovered a cake that I'll now use for my strawberry shortcake recipe, in place of the butter biscuits I currently use.
You're going to laugh when you realize how easy this recipe is, so without further adieu here it is:
1 stick butter
1 C self-rising flour (important that it's self-rising)
1 C sugar
1 C milk
2 C sliced peaches, drained if using canned (though I'm thinking any fruit would be good in it)
Steps:
1) Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2) Melt the butter in a square baking dish. (I just put it on the stove and melted it directly in the baking dish so as to not dirty another pan)
3) Mix the milk, flour and sugar together until it's mostly incorporated. (it'll be a little lumpy)
4) Pour the batter over the top of the melted butter. Don't stir. (some of the butter will come up the sides and over the top of the batter; that's just fine)
5) Spoon the peaches on top of the batter.
6) Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is lightly browned; the edges may brown a little more than the top, but you don't want the middle to be doughy so make sure it really has started to brown on top.
That's it. No, I'm not kidding. The thing about using the self-rising flour is that as it bakes, the batter rises and the peaches sink down. So, it turns into a tasty buttery peach cobbler. And, if you skip the peach part of it, just bake it a few minutes less and you've got yourself one tremendously easy and tasty cake. As previously mentioned, I plan to use this as strawberry shortcake cake, with sugared strawberries and my should-be-famous cream cheese whipped cream all piled on top of it. Mmmmmm.
I'm off to find a towel to dry off my keyboard, now that I've salivated all over the poor thing...
I know there's a peach cobbler recipe out there somewhere that involves a yellow cake mix, butter, and peaches, but I came across an even tastier & super easy recipe while trying to find the cake mix one. And, what's even better is that this one is made from scratch, so it sounds like you worked much harder than you actually did. That's always nice, of course.
So, I made the cobbler the other night and it was indeed really tasty--particularly the cake part of it. Yesterday, I went to the fridge to get some more of it (and was going to primarily make sure I got more cake than peaches) but then I opened the container to find that Artis had beat me to the punch & had eaten the bulk of the cake, leaving me peach slices. I was not amused. After lecturing him (and then later admitting I was going to do the same thing to him that he did to me), "we" (read: Artis) decided I needed to make another cobbler...but without the fruit. And I did. And it was amazing. And I discovered a cake that I'll now use for my strawberry shortcake recipe, in place of the butter biscuits I currently use.
You're going to laugh when you realize how easy this recipe is, so without further adieu here it is:
1 stick butter
1 C self-rising flour (important that it's self-rising)
1 C sugar
1 C milk
2 C sliced peaches, drained if using canned (though I'm thinking any fruit would be good in it)
Steps:
1) Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2) Melt the butter in a square baking dish. (I just put it on the stove and melted it directly in the baking dish so as to not dirty another pan)
3) Mix the milk, flour and sugar together until it's mostly incorporated. (it'll be a little lumpy)
4) Pour the batter over the top of the melted butter. Don't stir. (some of the butter will come up the sides and over the top of the batter; that's just fine)
5) Spoon the peaches on top of the batter.
6) Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is lightly browned; the edges may brown a little more than the top, but you don't want the middle to be doughy so make sure it really has started to brown on top.
That's it. No, I'm not kidding. The thing about using the self-rising flour is that as it bakes, the batter rises and the peaches sink down. So, it turns into a tasty buttery peach cobbler. And, if you skip the peach part of it, just bake it a few minutes less and you've got yourself one tremendously easy and tasty cake. As previously mentioned, I plan to use this as strawberry shortcake cake, with sugared strawberries and my should-be-famous cream cheese whipped cream all piled on top of it. Mmmmmm.
I'm off to find a towel to dry off my keyboard, now that I've salivated all over the poor thing...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)