Nobody should be baking during the summer…especially me! 

I saw a recipe for the “best pie crust ,” using lard and butter.  Following the directions very closely, I used exactly five tablespoons of chilled water.  Obviously, it wasn’t enough, but since I hadn’t made a pie crust in about 15 years, why would I have known any differently?  So, I mashed (but not kneaded!) each half into a flat pile, wrapped it in waxed paper, and waited until today to roll it out.

 I planned on baking an apple pie.  How hard could that be?  I’ll tell you.  Slicing, peeling, and coring ten apples was almost as mind-numbing as visiting a family member’s church on Fast and Testimony Sunday!  And what a mess!  And hurry…you don’t want those apple slices turning brown!  

After unwrapping the packages of dough, they crumbled in  heaps.  That’s when I started sprinkling more water, reaching for flour, and grabbing  the rolling pin now that I had gunky hands.  In the middle of that, I tried to tear off more waxed paper…not a good idea.  I should have taken a picture at that point, but the camera would have been ruined….glued shut.  Did I mention it felt like 110 degrees in the kitchen? 

Here is the finished, patchworked apple pie, which looks more like a cobbler.  Its new name is Apple Cobbler Pie!

The kitchen is now tidy, the counters scraped off, and the dishes put away.  I will try this again during the winter.

Are these ladies elegant, or what?  Adding to their beauty are the necklaces (also the earrings!), which were made by the lady on the left, Gretchen Schields.  What  beautiful creations!

The “man in the middle” is gourd artist, Booker Preston.  You won’t believe what fabulous purses he carves out of gourds!  Fantastic!

I contributed some cookies to the  2009 Art-A-Fair opening night.   I don’t know who these two gals are, but they loved these sugar cookies!  I love these cookies, too.  I picked up the recipe from another blog, so  thanks, Lorie!  Another fabulous recipe (also linked from Lorie’s blog) is for peanut butter sandwich cookies, which is from Martha Stewart.  Both of these cookies freeze and store very well.  They were a hit on opening night.

Here’s a plate of the yummy butter lemon cookies on a visit outdoors!  These are so incredibly easy, I’ll probably make some more real soon….to eat by myself….in secret…..

 These are the best, easiest butter lemon cookies!  The only extra I added to the recipe was lemon zest.  Also, rather than dipping the dough in granulated sugar, I used turbinado sugar, which makes them especially sparkly!  They are so delicious! 

T

Isn’t this a pretty picture?  Some cacti are prickly, but they have their place.   These are in my front yard.   They have nothing to do with my hoarding adult daughter other than she’s also prickly. 

Maybe that’s why she’s a hoarder.  She forms emotional attachments to anything and everything rather than taking the time and energy to form healthy relationships with others.  But, she’s an adult.  It’s now up to her to figure things out…or not.  ”Let her grow,” a friend of mine said.  “Let the ‘balloon’ go,” another friend suggested.  Let her go?

It especially upsets me because she accepts no responsibility for where she is now…..cluttered, unemployed, mostly friendless… except to acknowledge that she’s a hoarder, which is just another excuse for her.      

This is one of the reasons I lose sleep.  I know that it could be worse (what if she had children?), and there are worse things going on with people other than a hoarding, unemployed adult daughter.  But this is my blog, and Gracie Says So!  Did I mention she’s my only child, too?  Good job, huh?

There’s nothing like wandering through an old, old cemetery on a stormy day in June!  What interesting gravestones!  Here’s a site which gives more information -  http://tinyurl.com/mnyh74