…some recent “makes”

Life whizzes by at lightning speed sometimes. I’ve been wanting to show some projects, but never really have time to sit down & write a blog post…

So, I’m just going to throw a bunch of pictures out here:

 

Quilts made for my friend’s grandtwins born the first of the year.

 

A headband andladybug tutu for a newborn(with hand-sewn yo-yo “spots”)

 

A tray for vintage letterpress blocks (plus a few “faux” blocks)

 

Some magnetic owl Post-it® note holders for teacher appreciation week

 

Assisted in applying htv to a canvas for a Mother’s Day gift

 

Etched a cookie jar

 

Helped with a GCU grad cap

 

A few graduation money holders

I shamelessly copied Sara @spinningwheelantiques #windchimes today! #secretgarden #addictedtocobaltglass #musictomyears

A video posted by mshing (@4mshing) on Jun 17, 2016 at 3:09pm PDT

And a windchime for my garden

 

 

 

Fresh Peach Caramels

July’s ingredients for the Improv Cooking Challenge are PEACHES & CREAM. Initially, I was quite excited for this challenge because I have a lovely white peach tree in my garden. Sadly, however, the fruit never set on after it blossomed early Spring, & now it looks like this:
Never fear… a #10 of Del Monte canned diced peaches is available at Costco any time of year… So that’s what I used for the Peach Caramel Rum Sauce.Darn heat/humidity! The “caramels” refused to set up overnight… But it did make a lovely sauce to spoon over vanilla bean ice cream!

Determined to fix caramels with fresh peaches, I bought a few pounds at Sprouts. After peeling/pitting four of them, the halves were tossed into the blender to make the purée. The (nearly 2 1/2 cups) purée was slowly cooked down to 1/2 cup (took almost 2 hours over medium-low heat on a humid day…)This is the recipe I used, and the following pics will illustrate the steps:
Stir the sugar & corn syrup into the peach reduction. Cook over medium-low heat until thermometer reaches 234°.Without breaking the boil, stir in 1/2 cup of cream. Return to 234°.Again, stir in the last 1/2 cup of cream, but this time let the thermometer reach 244°. Pour into buttered 8x8 pan.Allow to cool & slice into caramels.
As you can see, these caramels remained a little soft in our desert heat, but they tasted soooooooo good!
…and now, here are some more PEACHES & CREAM recipes from my fellow bloggers:

An InLinkz Link-up