Jim's surprise party

Michael left for golf on Wednesday (7/24) and I got busy in the kitchen.  You know I bake Michael a birthday cake every year and invite the neighbors over to share it (you kind of have to do that, because since you’re no longer working…you can’t take the leftovers into work to get rid of them…and a large chocolate layer cake with dark chocolate frosting, divided by just 2 people equals thighs the size of TEXAS  J).  Anyway, I usually do the same thing for my birthday.  Well, about a month ago, a neighbor of ours had his 70^th birthday, but he was just recovering from a triple bypass AND a valve replacement and so it was very low key.  I felt bad that I never got anything pulled together for that….so I called his wife and said ‘instead of having the birthday cake for me….let’s make it a surprise party for Jim’.  She thought that was a great idea….so I proceeded to make that same chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  We were having a lot of people over, so I needed a second dessert and decided to make a peach cobbler.  I went looking for a recipe on the internet…and couldn’t find one  L.  What I mean is…I found plenty of recipes….but they were not what I was looking for.  I finally decided that I was calling it the wrong thing, and started to look for a peach crumble or buckle or crisp.  Still didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so decided I had to make it up.  Just to jump ahead a bit….I think we served more peach crisp than chocolate cake AND several people thought it was outstanding…I was thrilled!!  Anyway, I made the peach watchamacallit and also tried something I read recently on the internet.  In case I am not the last person in the world to find out this trick, I wanted to tell you.  I tried to get free stone peaches (which I usually call cling free peaches because I can never remember the real name of them) but they are not in season yet.  So…I have the peaches where the stone holds on to the peach flesh with a death grip!  First I sliced them from top to bottom and up to the top again, until the peach was cut into 4 quarters longitudinally…..then I started to slice it into eighths, and the slices began to fall away from the pit like magic J.  I finally hit a peach where it was into eighths, but still hadn’t begun to come apart (it was not quite as ripe as the previous ones), so I turned it on its side, and began to slice laterally around the peach, and again, the cubes started to fall away from the pit.  It couldn’t have been easier and I didn’t make myself crazy trying to dig the pit out.  I mixed the 4 pounds of peaches with some spices and a few other things and put them in the bottom of a 9” by 13” pan.  I made a crumb topping and sprinkled it over the peaches and baked it….as I mentioned…a huge hit (but you really can’t go wrong when you are starting with dead ripe luscious peaches!!)  Anyway, everyone but the birthday boy showed up a 7 and he and his wife came over at 7:30…I think everyone had a blast and I was totally happy about the response to both desserts!

bithday boy (Jim) arrives...

and gets seat of honor in front of all of the cards

Dennis (foreground), Howard, Dee, blurry Phil

blurry Jim, Dennis, Howard, Dee, Julia, Phil E (by windows) & Gale

Angie, Evelyn-Susan-Marylu background, Bill & Lee on sofa

Evelyn (by window) & Marylu, Linda & Tony in background,
Bill & Lee on sofa

Howard, Dee, Julia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan & birthday boy Jim

Tony, Ken, Jimmy & Sally

oops - forgot to take pic at beginning and as you can see
it went over very well

yep - forgot to take pic again....

Evelyn & Marylu

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I left the house at 9:15 AM on Thursday (7/25) and didn’t get home again until 3 PM.  I spent the morning at quilting and had a good time there, even though I discovered that my 9 patches are TOTALLY not the right finished size L…can you say do-over?  Then it was on to the library to return a bunch of books, over to pick up Jan and on to the vacuum cleaner store to try to get the vacuum repaired.  Norm told me just to go to SEARSPARTS.COM and order a hose, so that’s now on my list of things to do.  We stopped at WALMART on the way home and finally I got home, unloaded car and collapsed  J.  We were not going anywhere in the evening, so finally opened bottle of champagne to celebrate birthday and watched TV and relaxed for the rest of the night.

 

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