Little Peach Pies

These little peach pies from Cooking Light were part of the menu for tonight's dinner. The recipe made 12 little pies. Six went to a friend who just had a baby. Six stayed home with us. Needless to say, they are ALL gone now.

CL's recipe calls for a sweet cream cheese pastry dough. It has less fat in it than regular pastry and is pretty easy to put together. The food processor did all the work. The hard part was rolling out the 12 little circles. So that you don't have to add lots of flour and make the pastry tough, the recipe tells you to roll each circle out between two sheets of plastic wrap. Let me tell you . . . that's a lot of plastic. It almost felt wrong to use so much plastic just to save a few calories. Not good for the earth. Not good for my pocketbook, either. Now I need to go buy a new roll of the stuff! Argh!

The filling was pretty easy - dried apricots, frozen peaches, some spices, sugar, lemon juice. The filling is precooked since the pastries only spend 18 minutes in the oven. The best part was glazing them after they came out of the oven and cooled. You all know how I love icing!

These were pretty good. Three of us ate two apiece. So much for less calories! Even Jonathan thought they were tasty which is impressive for a 5-year-old, I think. I'm not sure this recipe is a keeper. We'll have to see what my friend says after she tries her batch tonight.

Easter Pigs

A few years ago I purchased some knitting kits from Magic Cabin. With the kits I was supposed to be able to knit a pair of cats, a pair of pigs, and a pair of horses. As a new knitter I really only knew how to cast on, knit, and bind off. The only kit that promised a creature for such simple skills was the cat - so I did that. My first cat is still laughable to look at. The second is much cuter but has lost his tail in the ensuing years. Anyway, this Easter I was determined to put something cute and homemade in my sons' Easter baskets so I pulled down the kit for the pigs. This one was much more complicated, requiring me to knit, purl, increase, and decrease. Yikes! Never fear, though. One can find directions for anything online. I went to a few sites and watched a few video demonstrations. And tah-dah, some piggies appeared. I think they are adorable. My five-year-old was delighted with his. My one-year-old could have cared less. I'm mighty proud of them. Maybe in a few years I'll tackle the horses.