Christmas Day @ the Farm

Christmas day we went to the farm for dinner and so the kids could open presents from Bill & I and Grammy and Papa...

My mom wrote out notes and hid the kids stockings - all the adults thought the clues were pretty hard but apparently they were not because Cole & Lexi found the stockings in record time...

  They also got quite a few cool gifts like these sleds that Linda picked out and the awesome Under Armor hoodies that you can write on with chalk...

Lexi got a working singer seweing machine toy and we wished that Grandma Helen could be here to see it and show her how to use it... although Trevor did a pretty good job without even looking at the directions, he must remember what Grandma taught him..

It was a great Christmas!

Peck Christmas Eve

This year we carrried on the tradition of Christmas eve brunch - of course we had enough food for an army and what's a PeckontheWeb blog without some pics of our cooking - no immersion blender disasters this time (Smoked Turkey and Smoked Chuck Roast)

Bill picked out new dresses for the girls and they loved them so much that they put them on right away!

Serie is walking and talking all over the place these days

 

Rilley got the coolest GI Joe I've ever seen in my life complete with fully functional parachute

Santa Claus is coming to Town

Each year for Christmas Santa comes to visit the kids at Aunt Maude's house... he brings presents and all the kids tell him what they want most for Christmas (very helpful for Santa since this Christmas happens to fall a week or so before Christmas day)... the kids love it and are not shy about telling Santa what they want most for Christmas..

Christmas Baking

Hey Blog readers, as you know typically around Christmas time there is some baking going on at the Peck house… this year it was our job to bring treat’s to Christmas at Aunt Maude’s house… so after hours of looking through recipe’s I decided on the following recipe’s:

Crème De Menthe Brownies  for Cindi who loves Andes mints 

Pomegranate-White Chocolate Cheesecake  becaue who doesn't love cheesecake

Key Lime Pie with Chocolate-Almond Crust for aunt maude whose favorite is key lime

Grabbed the ingredients on Friday and decided to do the baking on Sat – after I got home I realized that key limes are really a pain – and to top it off I didn’t have a juicer (Aunt Lori can you help??  Need to order a juicer thingy) so I cut them in quarters and used my pamperd chef garlic press and some cheesecloth to get the required amount of juice - this took longer than expected and while I was working on this – the kids (Cole and Lexi) showed up to hang out with Bill & I while Trevor and Cindi went to Cindi’s work Christmas party…

Cole & Lexi wanted to help so we read over the recipe and watched the movie on how to make the snake bites (I must add at this point that I bought a new immersion blender recently and am still learning how it works) I can tell you that one thing that we did learn rather quickly is that it is probably not an acceptable kitchen tool for a 5 year old.  For those of you who are thinking "duh Traci" you have not met Lexi - she watches you do it and then she decides she can and will do it... so therefore, Lexi was helping me whip the key lime filling and ……

But never fear – we did not let this keep us down – (short of having to turn up the heat and have Cole and Lexi bake with no shirts on while they were in the washer) we kept on going…

Dinner was a wonderful concoction that let us finger paint our food before baking it with food coloring (who doesn't love that) snake bite pizza and my favorite part of that was the kids saying “Papa would not like this” and then calling my dad who hates snakes to invite him to dinner... for some reason he declined their offer

And after dinner we tackled Gingerbread men (with the kitchen aid this time)

While the cookies were in the oven and we were not looking, one of them ran away (apparently a Christmas story from Lexi's class)... Luckily we found where it was hiding...

It was a great time and after some serious sponge work the kitchen is back to normal.  I will say the key lime pie turned into chocolate peanut butter pie the next day (I was all over those little limes) but the cheesecake and brownies were good.

Happy Baking :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

A little Merry Christmas Video - Compliments of Bill & Traci - if the video doesn't play for you, try the link below the video!

We hope you have a Verry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Love,

Bill & Traci

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/sKh7zsGAM6HiGUfI?cmpid=ey_url

Deer party at Traci's Stand

This is what happens when I'm not at my stand

30 Rocks

Birthday's can be fun - but it turns out that "30 rocks" at least that was the theme of this weekends activities.  Unfortunatly for Jess she is the oldest of the three amigos that is Kim, Jess & Traci... therefore she was first to hit the big 30.  For months Kim and I have been plotting out how we might celebrate this milestone event... it required spreadsheets, flowcharts, top secret emails, microphones, headphones, iphones, a little creativity, some luck and lots of help from Jess friends and family - but after much worry and anxiety it was a complete success and best of all, Jess was surprised!

Chandra and Jadya somehow managed to convince Jess that Kim and I were coming later the night of her birthday for dinner, however instead, we showed up bright and early with a Treat family favorite, Louies' custard rolls, armed with our plan and ready for a day filled with fun.

The general idea of this "spy party" as Jess would like to call it - was as follows:  Jess had a variety of clues (movie clips) and after listeing to the clip she had to guess the next activity as well as the name of the movie.  Each clip lined up with a fun activity or present from one of her friends or family...

The end result looked something like this:

Jess trying to figure out the clues

 

Roller skating

Shopping for a new outfit (no she did not buy this)
 

 
Manicure/Pedicure

 

View from the hotel room  (29th floor - how cool is that) 

A little gambling - Completely against everything Kim belives in

Trail Cam

4 different Big Moe's hanging out at the farm - can you see them all?  Yes, Yes the date is off by 1 month on the trail cam - sorry I was in a hurry...

Peaches anyone?

Peaches are in season - so it was time to make some peach salsa and some peach jam... it looked something like this...

Peach Salsa #3

6 cups fresh Peaches, diced (about 12 medium or 3 lb)
1 ¼ cups Red Onion, diced
4 Jalapeno Peppers, seeded and minced
1 red Bell Pepper, diced
½ cup finely chopped fresh Cilantro
½ cup White Vinegar
2 TBS Honey
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 ½ tsp. ground Cumin
½ tsp. Cayenne Pepper
Salt to taste
Blanch, peel, pit and chop peaches. Measure 6 cups. Combine all ingredients in a large stainless steel, or enamel, saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, 5 minutes.
Ladle salsa into hot, sterilized canning jars to within 1/4 inch of top rim (head space). Remove air bubbles by sliding a rubber spatula between glass and contents. Readjust head space to 1/4 inch, if necessary. Wipe jar rim to remove any residue. Process lids according to manufacturer’s instructions. Place lids and bands on jars. Tighten but do not over-tighten. Place jars in water bath canner and process 10 minutes. Cool. Check jar seals.

1 package no sugar pectin - I used Ball No Sugar needed box

6 pounds peaches
4 cups sugar
6 Tbsp lime juice
1 vanilla bean, split and cut into 1-inch pieces
6 Tbsp bourbon - I used Jim Beam
1.5 tsp almond extract
- Put the peaches, sugar, and lime juice into a large non-reactive pot and smash/blend the suckers into a rough pulp using either a potato masher or an immersion blender.
- Put the pot over medium-high heat, add the vanilla pieces and bring the peach mixture to a rolling boil, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Boil for 1 minute, then add the pectin. Bring the jam to a rolling boil once more, stirring constantly, and boil exactly 1 minute.
- Remove the jam from heat. Stir in the bourbon and extract, ladle the hot jam into jars, and screw on the lids. Then set the jars on a rack in a large pot of boiling water--the water should be 1 inch above the jar tops. I just washed the pot I made the jam in (the only big pot I own), put the jars in, made sure they were under an inch of water and turned it on high.
- Bring the water to a gentle boil and boil the jars for 10 minutes. Then remove the jars from the hot water and set aside to cool. You should hear the lids popping within a few minutes of their bath.

Summer Fish Contest

A little weekend fishing competition was in order last weekend at Cork's pond.... the results are slightly difficult to report as Cole was keeping score (and cheating for his Uncle Bill)... so clearly Bill was the winner. We had a good time, surgery was not necessary and no one got skunked. Lexi was victorious in catching and releasing her own fish - no small feat for a 5 year old. Trevor fried the fish for the kids and we heard it was "delish" - although there is a large oil stain on his patio now (no telling how that got there).