Peach Cobbler Easy Recipe

How are your baking skills? Well, I did a thing the other day. I made my very first peach cobbler! You couldn't tell me anything when that thing came out of the oven! And it was delicious! 

I took the recipe from several sources. I watched a ton of videos and googled my little fingers off until I was sure I could pull it off. 

Funny thing. My mother could whip up a peach cobbler in no time. The recipe was in her head. Hers was lightly sweet and juicy. And the dumplings! This was a thickening dough that floated around in her cobbler that gave it a spectacular consistency. Oh, my God! And there was no pre-made or store bought pie crust. Everything was from scratch.  

Well, my mother was a better woman than I because I knew I wasn't going to be making anything from scratch! Let's be real. Regardless, I was going to give my first peach cobbler my best shot!

Ingredients Needed For Peach Cobbler

So, my final recipe was a blend of several that I had found online. Here's what you'll need to get started:

2 cans of sliced peaches in syrup

2 pre-made pie crusts made of dough

sugar

brown sugar

ground cinnamon

ground nutmeg

butter

cornstarch

vanilla extract (I didn't have any)

For step by step details of  how I made my first peach cobbler,  watch my video below:

Baking Instructions

Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees

In a large mixing bowl, add the following and stir well:

2 cans peaches in syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar 

I like a sweet peach cobbler. Use less sugar if you don't have a sweet tooth like me.

To your peach mixture, add the following:

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Stir well

Melt 1 stick of butter in a pan.

Add peach mixture to the pan of melted butter and stir well

Cook on medium heat and allow to thicken.

Add 3-4 tablespoons of cornstarch to help with thickening process

Stir well

Line pyrex pan with pre-made pie crust dough 

Pour in peach mixture

*Optional: Make dime-size dumplings from leftover pie dough and add to peach mixture before covering. You'll thank me for this!

Cover the pan with a pre-made pie dough or cut dough into strips for a more decorative look.  

Brush melted butter over the top of the pie dough to help with browning

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown

Conclusion

My first peach cobbler was a huge success! 

I hope you'll try this recipe. Drop me a line if you do or send me your favorite peach cobbler recipe. 

Disclosure: Links may contain affiliates. When you buy through one of our links we will receive a commission. This is at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Life on Greenwood and allowing me to continue to bring you valuable content.

Rock Garden for Beginners

Got a bare patch in your backyard? Grass won't grow? Create a rock garden!  To say we had bare patches in our backyard is putting it mildly. We had a desert! Over the years, a huge part of the backyard had become shaded by a tree and the desert was getting bigger each year. This combined with our personal neglect lead to a dry, dusty condition. So, we hired a landscaper and lawn treatment expert to help rehab our lawn. Before they got started, I decided to mark off a small area for a rock garden.

I've never done this before, but I was confident that I could make this work. So, let's start at the beginning!

Where do you get rocks? Your big box hardware store, nursery or quarry carries rocks. But if you live in Connecticut, you should be able to find rocks right in your backyard. We had tons of rocks! I spent a few hours digging up large and small rocks and moving them over to the area that I mapped out for my garden. 

Prepping The Soil

I used a rake and a hoe to clear pockets of dead grass and weeds and did my best to get the surface as clear as possible.

I then rolled out weed blocker on the cleared area and used the larger rocks around the perimeter to hold the sheets in place. I cut holes in the weed blocker where I planned to add plants. 

                                      

  

Adding Plants

Speaking of plants,  I chose PERENNIALS, which means that they will come back year after year. Below are the plants in my rock garden:

• 2 Hostas (one transplanted from the front yard)
• Miniature Rose bush
• Black-eyed Susan
• Lily (type unknown) 

I should mention that I used a little potting soil as I planted my flowers. I did this to make sure that the plants had enough fertile soil in which to grow. Remember, that area of our back yard already had a reputation for being hard on grass and plant life, so I wanted to give it as much help as possible.

Don't Forget to Mulch

After all the plants were in, I covered the area with red mulch. Mulch is great for suppressing weeds and helping soil retain water. It's also an attractive addition to any garden or landscape. 

                                          

Lastly, I placed large and small rocks randomly around the plants to add a little more visual interest. There is no right or wrong way to do this. What I wanted to do was make it look like the plants were growing out of the rocks. I would have added more rocks, but my back was killing me!

I hope you're inspired to start a rock garden of your own. For more inspiration, please check out my DIY Rock Garden video below:

Disclosure: Links may contain affiliates. When you buy through one of our links we will receive a commission. This is at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Life on Greenwood and allowing me to continue to bring you valuable content.
 

Creative Home Office Organization Idea

 

Have you ever considered using a garment rack as the focal point in one of your rooms?  I had been staring into a blank uninspiring corner of my home office every day. It didn't bother me too much because I'm not a fan of clutter or filling a space just for the sake of saying it's decorated. But when I came across the Instagram post below with a garment rack and neutrals as the base, I wanted to see if I could recreate a similar vignette. 

What appealed to me most about the inspiration post was the sense of calmness that I got from the neutral palate. Several articles of white clothing hung from a garment rack surrounded by a white backdrop. 

White shoes lined the bottom of the garment rack, adding to the crispness. An oversized vase of pampas and candles complimented the scenario. Matching hangers also added to the cohesive look.

Time to make this happen!

PREPPING 

Step One: To get started with my recreation, I needed to clear my garment rack. I had several resale clothing items that needed to be addressed ... sell, donate or discard. Done!

Step Two: Find neutral-colored clothing.  I used a mixture of whites, creams and beige sweaters, blouses and pants for my vignette.  Instead of white shoes, I used a pair of taupe high heel pumps, camel-colored  kitten-heel sling backs and a pair of taupe flat pumps. 

FINISHING

My new palm plant added an organic feel and softened the vignette even more.  I balanced the garment rack on the other side with a mannequin, which just happened to be covered in white fabric. It turned out great! 

I found my mannequin (dress form) at a thrift store for $20, but I'll provide a link to a similar product here which might interest you:

You can also shop my garment rack with this link:

I love looking across the room and seeing this calming vignette! It so organized! 

Here's a short video of  how I completed my office refresh:

I reached out to the Instagram blogger @kyesssentials to thank her for providing such an inspiring photograph.  I also tagged her in my social media posts. I think it's important to give credit where credit is due.

Disclosure: Links may contain affiliates. When you buy through one of our links we will receive a commission. This is at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Life on Greenwood and allowing me to continue to bring you valuable content.

Cuisinart Coffee Center Product Review

 

I replaced my Keurig coffee maker with a Cuisinart Coffee Center. Great decision! My old coffee maker was on its last legs, so we really needed something...fast!

We are big coffee drinkers. We liked the simplicity of the single-serve feature, but we also wanted an option to make a pot of brewed coffee.

Two things that were important in our search for a new coffee maker were 1)we needed something reliable that would make a good cup of coffee; and 2) we didn't want to spend 30-minutes each morning brewing a pot of coffee.

I researched the internet and found several coffee makers with dual systems. We chose the Cuisinart Coffee Center. Cuisinart has a reputation for making quality products, so we felt comfortable with our decision. Link to the Cuisinart product site is here: 

Product Features

The new coffee maker is beautiful! The black and stainless steel design compliments my kitchen decor. Large water reservoirs. Control panel with buttons for single-serve 6 oz, 8 oz and 10 oz cups. Digital clock. Eazy pour 12-cup carafe for a pot of ground coffee. Perfect!

The best of both worlds! 

Video Review

A video of my review of the Cuisinart Coffee Center SS-15Series is attached.

 

Disclosure: Links contain affiliates. When you buy through one of our links we will receive a commission. This is at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Life on Greenwood and allowing me to continue to bring you valuable content.

Mother's Day Traditions and Customs

Several years ago, I participated in a Youtube collaboration to talk about some of the Mother's Day traditions and customs shared by my family and friends. It took me some time to come up with something, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

And then, I was sad. Sad that I had totally forgotten all about a very important tradition.

OUR TRADITION

It was the tradition in my town to wear a flower corsage or boutonniere on Mother's Day. Everyone wore a small carnation in honor of their mother. We wore either a pink, red, white or yellow carnation and everyone knew the significance of each color.

My Mother's Day video is below:

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CARNATION

For example, you would wear either a red or pink carnation if your mother was still living. If your mother was deceased, you honored her by wearing a white or yellow carnation. 

As a child, I remember my mother would run from store to store to make sure we had a carnation to wear to church on Mother's Day. It was critical that we wore a flower! 

I was so sad when I realized that I had somehow gotten away from this tradition. I don't even know when I stopped. Had I taught my son about this practice? What happened?

All I know is that if we don't share our stories and customs, we are bound to forget their significance and lose them forever.

I want to go back to this tradition. I don't ever want to forget...again.

Disclosure: Links may contain affiliates. When you buy through one of our links we will receive a commission. This is at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Life on Greenwood and allowing me to continue to bring you valuable content.

How To Whitewash a Brick Fireplace

 

We had an old red brick fireplace that really made our family room look dated. No matter what kind of decor I put on the mantel, the red brick stood out like a sore thumb. I hated it! 

I did so much research on different brick treatments that would brighten my room.  I was torn between painting the bricks or  going with a white-wash treatment.

For those of you who don't know, the process of white-washing is like painting, but the paint is watered down first, applied to the brick and then wiped off.  

White-washing seemed like a good option for me because, truth be told, I was afraid to paint the fireplace a solid white color.  The thought of going from dark red brick to stark white was a little frightening, but I really wanted to do something with the brick that would brighten the room.

I watched a ton of how-to videos before I picked up my paint brush. I ended up with a limewash product from Romabio in the color Bianco. It's a really white color lime wash paint. I'll link the product here:

The instruction calls for you to wash the bricks or wet them down first.  I did that first.  Then the instructions call for the paint to be mixed with water. The amount of water depends on how deep or thick you want the lime wash to be. I wasn't sure how much of the red brick I wanted to show through, so, it was a little wait and see with the first few bricks. As I went along, I was better able to gauge how much limewash to apply. 

Here's a video of fireplace before and after:

Whitewash Process

Ok, so here's the process:

1. Dilute your paint with water

2. Use a separate bucket of water and rags to wipe down/clean the bricks

3. With a wide brush, apply paint to small sections of the brick fireplace

4. With a spray bottle of water, go back and gently spray the painted brick in small sections, and wipe with a rag to get the desired depth of color.

What's great about this process is that you can wipe away as much of the limewash as you like with just a little squirt of water, or add another coat of paint for deeper coverage. The paint dries in about 30 minutes.

It was easier than I thought.  Now the white fireplace is bright and the entire room looks amazing!

Disclosure: Links may contain affiliates. When you buy through one of our links we will receive a commission. This is at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Life on Greenwood and allowing me to continue to bring you valuable content.