Peach and Crème Fraîche Pie

When it's June and stone fruit is everywhere, I highly recommend looking into baking a Peach and Crème Fraîche Pie with this really sweet peaches that you found at the market.

I found the recipe at Smitten Kitchen and it's sweet but not overly because of the crème fraîche. 

It's quite possible that Jenica and I throw pie parties just to eat pies.  Our friends know how to deliver very good pies and this was not all of them.  

Cookbook Club - Pati's Mexican Table

In an attempt to catch up, I need to go back to August which just seems forever ago.  It's difficult to reconcile writing about the summer while listening to John Denver & The Muppets singing Noel.  But this cookbook needs to be shared.

Tara was excited to cook from this book or rather show us how delicious it is.  I made the green beans with toasted pistachios and a vinegar sauce.  I'm a big fan of having something green at every meal.

This dish is incredible.  Tara made Shredded Pork in Ancho-Orange Sauce and I still think about this dish.   She prepared the guacamole, salsa, queso and limes to eat with the tacos but they were not needed.  The pork had so much flavor in the sauce.

I made the Blissful Corn Torte which was sweeter than I like my corn bread.  Apparently, it's a really good breakfast treat (as written in the book).

Jocelyn baked this great key lime pie and May the Mexican cookies.  The cookies were nice because there wasn't too much sugar but lots of dark chocolate.  Overall, this is a book I'd appreciate investigating further.  We all agreed that the pork won the night.

A White House Christmas

It's been a long time - almost three months.  The reason for being gone so long range from lots of travel to being sick to a new job.  So much of my time seems to be spent adjusting to all of these changes.  Fortunately, yesterday I attended an event that I really wanted to share because it was beautiful and very much a dream.

I went with Trish and Phor to the White House Christmas Open House.  It was a rainy day that contrasted with the gorgeous colors, smells, and music from within the White House.  I took so many photos but regretted all of the ones I didn't take after the tour was over.

I really enjoyed seeing the Presidential and First Lady portraits.  It was a game of who I could recognize.

Trish in the East Garden Room.

The Vermiel Room - tree skirts made of garland.

The Library - more than 2,700 books chronicle America's history.

China Room which displays over 200 years of china services used by First Families.  The portrait is of Grace Coolidge who was a beautiful woman.  

The East Room

This was close as I could get to Edith Wilson's portrait - another incredible glamorous painting.

The Portrait of George Washington that Dolly Madison saved from the burning White House.

The White House creche, composed of 44 figures, has been displayed in this room for nearly 50 years.

Teddy Roosevelt.  I was disappointed not to find FDR's portrait.

The Green Room which was redesigned by Jacqueline Kennedy.  It's a parlor used for teas and receptions.  It's difficult to think of these rooms being comfortably used for anything.  

The Red Room

The State Dining Room with a portrait of Lincoln.  And the gingerbread house below is a 300-pound sugar creation featuring a skating rink and marzipan sleigh and reindeer.  The dogs are right in front of the house.

Carolers entertained us at the end of the tour.  This group was from Illinois.  I kept imagining a holiday Hallmark movie about them needing to raise the money so they could sing at the White House and romance probably happened on the way.

I love Truman.