Just Peachy

When life gives you lemons, you make lemon-aid...when a little old man gives you fresh picked peaches you darn well better find a good way to use them and not let them go to waste (finger wag, finger wag, finger wag). Lol...but seriously...a very sweet older gentleman gave me a generous armload of peaches a short time ago and I immediately thought of a recipe for peach pound cake I'd been wanting to try...but we ate them first. So with our appetite for fresh peaches growling we visited one of our local farms we are blessed to have in our area to gather more. Here's what I did with them...

Peach Pound Cake (Revised view the original recipe here)
1 c. butter (see note about substitutes)*
1-3/4 c. sugar
6 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. low fat peach yogurt
2 1/2 c. fresh or frozen peaches
(1/2 cup of the peaches can be replaced with any other fruit you wish blueberries and raspberries are sure winners but apricots or strawberries would be excellent too)

Directions:

[Note: If you're using fresh peaches you will want to peel them first. To do this drop them gently into a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds then put them directly into a bowl of ice water. The skins will slide right off.]

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the batter alternately with yogurt. Fold in the peaches.
2. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

As originally written the cake probably tastes pretty much like a standard pound cake but maybe just a touch heavy on the almond flavor. Although, almond extract is a traditional flavoring for pound cake, 1 tsp. is just too overpowering for my taste especially since peach should be prominent here. Adding fresh or frozen peaches is a great way to add some flavor and texture (and of course it looks very pretty) but if you really want peach flavor you're going to have to add something extra. That's were the peach yogurt came in. I've recently gone on a yogurt kick using it in the place of sour cream and mayo; if you haven't tried it please do you'll probably love it and it's so much better for you. I first thought I might just use plain low fat yogurt to replace the sour cream but decided I would need extra peachy-ness so I opted for peach yogurt instead. I cut back on the sugar because of the sweetness in the yogurt and because I love the combo of cinnamon and peaches in peach cobbler I added a tad here.

If you try it, I hope you enjoy and as always feel free to play with the recipe like I did, make it your own and have fun! :)

*Substitutes can be made but please be aware that the butter flavor is a prominent note in pound cake. If you do choose to substitute Margarine for butter always substitute STICK butter with STICK margarine 1 for 1, but the taste will not be the same. My preference if I use one is a blended Margarine like Land O Lakes Country Morning blend.

Good Ol' Zig

I have to thank my husband for introducing me to Zig Ziglar although at first I wanted to resist liking his speeches...if you've never heard him, his way of speaking is a whole lot like a Southern Baptist preacher. On one of my discs Mr. Ziglar talks about the power of the spoken word and the language we use on ourselves and others. On that disc I was astonished to hear that the average 16 year old has been told "no" or "you can't do that" approximately 17,000 times....17,000! As I mentioned at first I was totally blown away by that number, but the more I considered the countless times I myself was told the same things, I realized perhaps that number is not quite so unbelievable. Over the following days after listening to that particular recording my mind gravitated repeatedly to that one bit of information. I found myself hearing parents telling their children the very things Zig mentioned in his speech with the addition of my personal favorite "don't do that, you'll hurt yourself".

I've thought a lot about this...it fits so perfectly into what I already believe. Words are power. They are very strong conveyors of our feelings, thoughts, emotions, of our essential being. Self fulfilling prophesy is a very real thing and in that same vein it if you hear something often enough it becomes second nature to you therefor fulfilling the prophesy of those words.

Its easy to ignore or just be unaware of the language that we use. I Googled the top 500 most commonly used words just out of curiosity. "No" was #84 and "Yes" was #486. Holy cow! No wonder there are so many people walking around as Zig says "looking like the picture on their drivers license." We are by far quicker to tell ourselves "no" than "yes". We say "no, I could never have that" or "no, I don't deserve that" instead of "YES, I would love to have that" or "YES, I can have that if I want".

My point is this, if we could just become more aware of the words we use (inner dialog included) and turn even just a fraction of the negative words into positive ones, our outlooks and self images could be infinitely greater.

As reinforcement I would like to give a short list of my favorite "positive" words. I am sure that if you can work a few of these words into your day you'll not only feel better but also there is a very good chance you will uplift those around you too.

Exceptional Delightful Sensational Serene Thrilling Valued
Wise Zeal Love Best Awesome
Beaming Abundance Amazing Righteous Spectacular Fun

Maudern Life

Hi,

I'm Maude, I'm an artist and crafter. I love to bake/cook, garden, happy endings, ♥ the great outdoors, music that makes me dance, Tim Burton movies (except Coraline....creepy), pizzas with feta on them, and frozen yogurt. There are many things I want out of life but happiness is top of the totem poll. Welcome my story...to my pursuit of happiness.

Cheers