The Debut - The Pioneer Women on The Food Network!

Most of us have never met her, many of us wish we could just spend a day with her and all of us will get a little closer this Saturday morning when the Food Network premiere's Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman! I even invited a wonderful girlfriend over for the early morning West Coast premiere; I know Amy Gore is just as excited as me about this day!

So one of my "Rural Women Rock" soul sisters Katie Pinke is hosting a link-up party on her blog the Pink Post to celebrate the big premiere. So of course I had to join in on the fun. Katie asked us to each offer up our favorite Pioneer Women recipe. Well so far I have two.

The first is the Perfect Iced Coffee. This is more than a recipe, its a necessity! Trust me, if you try any recipe from Ree's website, let it be this one.



Perfect Iced Coffee, picture from http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/


My next favorite recipe is yet another staple and I only discovered it last week. Short story. I was on a mission to find the perfect Homemade Ranch Dressing, you know the one you get at the restaurant that you wish you could bottle up and take home? Well I have never found it in a bottle so I decided I was going to make my own. I, like any other, went straight to Google and low and behold the first one to pop up was The PioneerWoman's version. I'm sure this luck had everything to do with my browsing history but who cares! I found it, tried it and I am sold. I may never buy ranch dressing in bottle very again if I don't have to. Sorry no picture; I'm obviously not smart enough to steal it from Ree's site.

I can't wait to see what other recipes my "Rural Women Rock" sisters will be sharing on their blogs? I'll be linking up will you?

Enjoy the premiere and thanks for reading! ~ mrs. c

Wordless Wednesday - Weeknight Jam Fest

Most people come home on a weeknight after a day at the office, make dinner and relax in preparation for the next day. After all it is only Tuesday, there is still more than half the week left to go. But the Cecil's are not most people. I was privileged to be given these luscious local grown peaches by one of my Farm Bureau Board members. I immediately knew the fate of these peaches - JAM!



These little beauties have been perched on our counter for the last five days getting to the perfect ripeness.



 Now here is where I could have shown you pictures of all of the ingredients that went into our peach jam. The fact is the two main ingredients are peaches and sugar. The recipe also calls for a little lemon juice and some pectin.  I have shown you the peaches but I refuse to show you the amount of sugar that went into this recipe. It is obnoxious! So I will just show you the finished product.

Ta Da!

No you are not seeing a speck of peach peel in this jar. That is actually cinnamon! I love peaches and cinnamon and thought this little addition would make a great ice cream topping. YUM!

So there they are, eighteen jars of peach jam made in a span of 90 minutes on a random Tuesday night.

Do you have a favorite jam or canning recipe? Please share! ~mrs. c

p.s. - I'm linking up with the Pinke Post for Wordless Wednesday.

Thankful Thursday - Husband and Son

I have so much to be thankful for. More than I could ever put into one blog post. I am pretty sure that the top things I am thankful for are in the the picture below. A husband who is my best friend, my partner in life, my partner in parenting and who loves me unconditionally and a little boy who calls me "mom." Life doesn't get any better than this.



Jake and Clayton in the backyard enjoying freshly picked sweet corn.



Isn't it pretty? And it's so sweet it does not even need better or salt!

Clayton prefers it raw.

He's telling daddy how great it is in is own little language.

Dad has been coaching on proper corn on the cob eating technique.
Looks like the kid has it mastered at 18 months old.

  



This is my happiness!



What are you thankful for today? Thanks for reading. ~mrs. c