Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Perfect Sunday

Sundays have always been one of my favorite days of the week. Sundays done right always feel like love. If I took a minute to describe the perfect Sunday, you'd hear the words family and home repeated often. I'd describe a dining room full of people I love, their smiling faces anticipating the delicious, mouth-watering home cooked meal spread out on the table before them. The table would be set with my colorful Fiesta dishes. The food would be placed on platters, in nice bowls, and serving dishes rather than the pots and pans. It'd be loud from conversation and laughter and you'd hear "pass me the mashed potatoes" or "does anyone want this last piece of bread?"

I blame my dad. My dad loves to cook and entertain and he loves big Sunday family dinners. I don't remember that growing up but I do remember it while I was in college. Sometimes it was the only real meal I ate all week. After spending my money on parties, I'd eat ramen noodles all week long. Or the manager at the Burger King would make me a "veggie whopper" for only 25 cents. . . it was everything on a whopper except the patty. Bun, mayo, mustard, ketchup, onion, tomato lettuce sandwich - and I wonder where my weight gain came from!

This past Sunday was darn near perfect! My dining room was filled with the sounds of people talking, laughing, and sharing their week. The table was loaded with homemade lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. The tink of silverware and glasses mingled amongst the rest of the sounds. "Pass me the bread, please." "Does anyone want this last piece?"

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend full of things I love. Here are a few photos from my weekend. . .

My youngest son Nate and I went to the local farmer's market and picked up tomatoes, green beans, and lemon cucumbers. Yum!

There is nothing like a tomato grown locally in a garden. The ones in the grocery store just aren't the same. I cut up 6 of these tomatoes and added 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, plus salt and pepper to taste. I had about 1 tbsp of sundried tomatoes in olive oil that I added to the mix. It made a delicious bruschetta that I added to some pasta for the best pasta salad I've had in a while.

And these lemon cucumbers are one of my favorite garden treats. Sprinkled with a little salt and pepper and it's delicious and refreshing. Of course, cucumbers are wonderful paired with the fresh tomatoes too, add a little feta cheese and yum!!

I also bought some fresh peaches with the thought of making fresh peach cobbler. I got the peaches home, bit into one, and decided they were too yummy fresh to put into a cobbler.

So I sliced up these peaches and added them to watermelon and grapes for a fresh fruit salad.

I had my heart set on peach cobbler though so I called my dad for his super-easy, best-ever recipe which I'll share with you now.

Papa Bill's Easy, Super Yummy Peach Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Take an 8x8 baking pan and put a 1/4 cup of melted butter in the pan.


Mix together 3/4 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flour, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a tsp of baking powder, and 1 cup milk. Pour this mixture into the pan with the butter.


Open one can of sliced canned peaches. Pour the peaches (including the syrup) on top of the batter in the pan. Do not stir. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Trust me when I say it's delicious and you should try it.





I also took Nate to get his own library card. He's my kid that shares my love for reading. We spent a good 45 minutes picking out his library books. We ended up with Diary of a Wimpy Kid and a couple of Roald Dahl's books. I tried to get him to choose BFG which was one of my favorites growing up but he set his eyes on a series with dragons and there was no turning back.

We went back to the house that afternoon and spent an hour on the couches reading next to eachother. I'm finishing up The Big Burn and he started Dragonblood.

All in all it was a great weekend.

No comments:

Post a Comment