Hey everyone good morning or afternoon!

Christi, the themes (Victorian), and (leather and lace) are great ideas. Good Luck, Laura & Edna in picking your theme. You both are very good and as I said before your cakes will be awesome

Edna wrote: ( Hey don't leave me behind! )...they won't, I have it all map out. Christi will swing over pick up Laura in TN., then they will swing over pick up Lea in TX, then swing over pick up my dear friend Sharon (Sugarshack) in LA., then they would swing down to FL. and pick up Edna, then you all would drive up to my place in KY. You all know I'm joking, but it was a nice thought WOW! the gas price for that trip would be mind blowing

Well, I have to work on a fondant snail & puppy, so as Christi, I will be hopping on and off of here today. I will see you ladies later. Happy baking all.
God Bless You & Yours,
Sharon

Looooove the Victorian and you two would be so good at it!!!!!

Laura.............I so admire your pie and wish I had one scrolling along in my posts too!! I too am a pie freak and make them quit regularly.

Ssssssssh, don't tell anyone but pie is actually my favorite!

Lea!!! You traitor!!! LOL

Lea, When DH and I got married, 42 yrs ago.... his Mother made the best pies in the country.. no way I could or would even attempt to compete.... I can hold my own today with her pies ) But I got the cake thing sewed up tight... hahaha p.s. I dearly love my mil too...

I learned from the old school of pie making too, Laura, and there really is no better! My mother was a "known" pie maker too, like your mil is.
Does she make Milk Pies? Nobody these days seems to even know what a milk pie is and it is one of my fondest pie memories as a child growing up. Grandmother made them everytime we visited them in Oklahoma, then my mother made them and now I do.

We are very lucky to have come from such good pie making stock!!!

I know what it is Lea

I also know what a cracker pie (mock apple) or buttermilk pie is..

Hmm.. pies I make..

Mile high lemon, apple
peach fried pies courtesy of my late grandma.. fried apple pies courtesy of my mom

.. there is more then just the usual pies though.. I LOVE blackberry cobbler with fresh whipped cream OR right out of the oven with ice cream YUM

that was my fav when I could eat sugar!!!

Ohhhh Christi, I love blackberry cobber and can't wait to pick some this summer and make some cobber. I also do a peach cobber and a apple cobber. My daughter can eat whole apple cobber all by herself

Fried apple pies are a huge huge thing here...everyone loves them and they are sooooo good. I have not done the fried peach pies Christi, might have to give them a try.

My mother in law (rest her soul) would make apple stack cakes and strawberry rhubarb pie all the time. Her brother grew the strawberries and she grew the rhubarb.

My grandmother canned a spread or a jam/jelly called pear honey. My family loves it on pancakes, biscuits, waffles, french toast, toast and I have even had people who had eaten dinner with us...love it with their fried chicken. I miss my grandmothers and their teachings, but I am greatful for what I did get to learn from them.

God Bless,
Sharon

HAPPY 13th ANNIVERSARY To you Christi & your DH !!!!!!!!!

May it be a beautiful day filled love, joy and romance

God Bless,
Sharon

Aww thank you Mrs. Sharon


Ohhh my mom makes pear honey Sharon!!!

I forgot about the strawberry cobbler YUM!!!! My neighbor has about a acre of blackberries... and we are allowed (both seasons) to pick as many as we can get in like 5 hours..(they sell them) .. so in those 5 hours we always get enough to freeze...when you can them some I strain.. and mom has made a preserve for me that is wonderful inbetween the layers of a cake...she also makes this one no as sweet... so it won't be too sweet in the cake... its really a new flavor for me and it is going well.. since you really don't see blackberry as a flavor EVER lol..

Good Morning CCers!!!

May your cakes come out level and airholess... may your icing go on smooth as silk.. May you get those straight corners like you have wished for... may your BC look like fondant.... may you never get a wrinkle in your fondant...

WOW... and good mornin Christi.. I am so impressed with ya'll.. Christi, Sharon, and Lea... pies, cobblers, fresh fruit.. that is good stuff... It has always been my firm belief that baking comes from the heart as much as the head. My first mentor, my great aunt, was my inspiration from the time I could reach her apron strings, and I followed her thru her kitchen every chance I got.. She has been gone for over 40 years now, but I can still smell her german chocolate cake.....

Ohh dang Laura why did you have to say German chocolate... I am drooling.. the caramelly sweetness on top .. I could eat it by the spoonfulls.. now I can't have it.. nobody likes it here but me... noone will even make me one.. Not even just a slice.. I'd roll around in it.. OHHHHHH jeez

Good Day Ladies, hope all is going well so far. Your Welcome Christi and you are lucky to beable to get to blackberries that easy Wow! nice to hear someone else knows of pear honey

Laura, I agree it does come from the heart. My GM on my dad's side, was all Old Regular Baptist. Every Sat. they would fix huge dinners, tables and tables of out of this world eating. My GM and most of my great aunts and others had more them one kitchen...one in the house, and one off of the house (my guess is this was done because of all the cooking and because of the heat in summer, so the house didn't get so hot). In these kitchens they sometimes had more then one stove, sometimes two or more of everything. They would also do all their canning and freezing there.

My mother and her SIL's are such wonderful and great cooks/bakers...(kind of funny, mom's maiden name is Baker ). I look forward to our family reunion every year and all that taste testing . Think this year I will see if we can do a family cookbook. All this talk has taken back in time, what a wonderful trip! Sounds like we were all lucky, to have these outstanding people in our lives, growing up.

God Bless,
Sharon

Oh, Sharon, indeed we were. The kitchen was the heart of the home for the past generations.. I have so many wonderful memories of aromas, and shelling peas, and fresh baked cobblers. And you are so right about those family reunions every year. We always had them on my Aunt and Uncle's farm, and they would roast a pig in the ground all night for this event. There hasn't been a reunion since my Aunt died either, so sad.. But my DH's family still has one every year..
So, when is yours? <packing my bag>

I wanna come also

LOL that's what happens when you get beat with a ugly stick.. after you have a strawberry daiquri on the beach LMAO .. AND if you look at it long enough .. you will lose weight LOL

I promise.. I'm squinting in the pic LOL

I hope no one minds if I chime in here of memories from the kitchen.

I think of my grandma (still a live) as one of the best cooks/bakers in the world... I love it when she bakes and cooks anything - she doesn't get a chance to do it to often anymore. But when I was a little girl, about 11 years old, My grandpa picked me up from my house and said - your gonna learn to cook an entire meal today. I said ok... off we went to grandma and grandpa's... I learned to cook an entire turkey dinner down to the nines. Then we brought it home to my mom, and had a feast that night. It is one of my best memories as a child...

I also remember the HUGE pancakes my grandpa used to make Oh the memories, my grandpa is no longer with us... and food is something we shared in common, we liked a lot of the same things.

The memories of pies, cobblers, cakes, cookies ohhh... to have those days back again would be wonderful!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane girls!

Wow! I have missed much since last night!

Now I want pie pie PIE PIE PIE!! In a pie plate, in a hand pie or as a cobbler in a deep dish........just let me have pie this weekend!!

Christi, you skinny thing you!! You need to eat some pie too!
I think it is awesome you know about milk, buttermilk and mock apple pies!!!!!!!!!!!!!! May they never die and become unknown!

Reading over these last posts sure took be back to some good old days of family reunions and so much good food from the hearts of some awesome women!

Now Christi, you know I don't nip on anything much but my DH's heels when he is misbehavin! Just ask him!

Did you upload pics of your two cakes yet? I know they turned out TERRIFIC!

Christi, your two Communion cakes are precious! Very well done! Sorry they fell on you but nobody would know that but you! They look awesome!

Hi guys ! MY gramma used to make the best choc chip cookies ever and she just lived down the street and when she was ready to take them out of the oven she would call us to come and eat them while they were still warm! My most favorite memory ! I can still taste them with the choc just melting in your mouth !

You know.. I remember every Sunday driving 75 miles from our house to my grannies and grampies.. when we got there I would go outside and chase the chickens.. just waiting for grannie to tell me to get the eggs out of the hen house ... yep.. SURE granny LOL.. NO WAY .. I was scared to death of the chickens.. they looked like mean things to me... after that we would have the best dinner.. I mean THE BEST.. And things that NOW I can't eat.. because nobodies taste the same... like.. now hold on to your hats guys.. pickled beets.. I LOVED them when I was a kid.. but only grannies! Mom's wasn't good .. nobodies...just grannies.. Since grannie died.. Ohhh LONG time ago I still haven't eaten a beet like that.

The list was always the same at grannies house for the weekend dinners.. oh the meat might change but .. there was always... fresh corn off the cobb...pickled beets.. mashed potatoes...cucumbers and onions.. and green beans.. most of the time we had fried chicken.. fresh... FRESH LOL..
For desert there was always either fried apple pies, fresh pear preserves with homemade biscuits or even peach pie.. never did we have soda's though.. not at grannies.. milk or orange juice (and that was pushing it) .. Sometimes as a treat she would get apple koolaid...

ohh the memories.. jeez guys where did time go????

What is it about little ole ladies and their baking... ??? They always knew just how much to add of everything.. they didn't measure (or I never seen my grannie measure)