It’s been a full week for me. On Monday Recliner Man and I had lunch and spent some time visiting with friends. By the time we got home that afternoon I wasn’t feel the best and was a little worried I might be about to have another gallbladder attack. Thinking it wouldn’t be any worse than the last attack I told him to go ahead and have dinner with our son and I’d be fine at home alone. I still wasn’t sure it was going to be an attack anyway so I wasn’t going to let myself get too concerned.

They ate close to home and got back rather quickly but it wasn’t any too soon for me.  I had Recliner Man rush me to the Emergency Room. It was now time to get concerned and call out the big guns. I sure hope no one who knows me was there that night. I was moaning and groaning and putting on quite a fuss. I can’t begin to describe the pain. After two hours of talk and blood tests they finally got an IV going and hit me with three pain killers. I don’t know what all they used but one was morphine.  For about an hour I kept asking recliner man when the meds would kick  in and finally a nurse  was able to get a doctor to say I could have more morphine. Ah, sweet morphine.. my new best friend. A couple more hours passed before I saw a doctor and one more before I was told I’d need surgery and was wheeled upstairs. Poor Recliner Man sat there helpless and worried for six hours. I owe him for that.

I had surgery the next evening and it wasn’t any too soon. An infection had set in overnight and half the gallbladder was already dead. The surgery went well and I came home yesterday afternoon. So far there has been very little post op pain and I am recovering well.

Sitting at the computer isn’t the most comfortable position yet so I think I’ll wait a few more days before I give any thought to posting again.

It was time for  another technique from Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin. I got my friend Billie and Chris to come over and play with me again. I don’t think any of us were expecting to enjoy this technique. If I’m being honest… I had the bad attitude that I was too good for fun foam. Yeah, sometimes I get full of myself.

All three of us ended up enjoying this and our cards all had very different looks. These are the two that I made. I’m not sure if I’ll add more to them or not. When we get together for a play day we tend to pack only the basic supplies in our cases and just concentrate on the technique. We don’t usually have a lot of embellishments handy.

This technique is a fairly simple one. You stick fun foam shapes onto card stock, add a light layer of gesso and then paint over the whole thing. You can add stamped images to the cards and/or the foam pieces. I think I am also going to play around with embossing on the foam or debossing.

My friend Jo asked me to take part in a Jam with her.  An ATC Jam is collaborative effort of artists, most often done through the mail. This was a three-person jam and the two other artists had already added their work by the time I got the cards.

I can’t think of Africa without thinking of animals so that’s the route I took. This is the finished card as created by Jean Pitzer, Jo Berneche and myself.

Judging from how little of this cobbler was left at the end of the night I’d have to say that people really liked this! The Peach Cobbler was Recliner Man’s choice for a dessert and he wasn’t disappointed. Actually, I think he was a bit disappointed… disappointed that he had to share it!

Peach Cobbler

 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While it is heating up, melt 1/2 cup butter in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Mix together:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Then add:

• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 large egg

Pour the mixture over the melted butter.

Mix together:

• 2 bag of frozen peaches ( you can also use canned or fresh peaches)
•  3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Spoon the peach mixture over the batter layer.

Bake for about 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

I completely forgot to take a picture of this wonderful cake after it was out of the pan. This image was taken just after it came out of the oven and I was using a narrow bamboo skewer to check if it was done.

This cake was a big hit at the 4th of July party. I kept hearing comments about it like, “this is just like my mother use to make” and “oh, oh, oh, this is so good!” The best part is that it is super easy to make. The second best part is that it makes a big cake. Big enough that I cut it into thirds and froze two sections for us to enjoy later.

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

•  1 1/2 cups softened butter
• 3 cups white sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract

In an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy and then gradually beat in the sugar.

When it is light and fluffy add the eggs, one at a time. It is important that you don’t over mix so just beat until each egg is gone from sight.

Wisk together the dry ingredients and then add them to the butter mixture alternating with the sour cream.

Stir in both extracts and then spoon the batter into a greased and floured 12 cup tube pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for an hour and a half. Depending on your oven it might take a little less or more time. Be sure to keep an eye on it and check for doneness with a skewer.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to continue cooling.

It was Party Time at Billie’s on the 4th. We played cards, had a great grilled chicken dinner, played Wii, and saw some fireworks. It couldn’t have been any better. Billie and Larry are great hosts.

For my desserts I decided to bring the Pink Lemonade Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing, Sour Cream Pound Cake, and the Peach Cobbler.

I got the cupcake recipe from Confections of a Foodie Bride. Their cupcakes look a thousand times better than mine did so go have a peek at their photo. If it doesn’t have your mouth watering, nothing will. These cupcakes were delightful! I used the less tart option because Recliner Man likes his lemonade sweet and the recipe warned that the full strength version really packs a punch. I’m going to post the recipes for the Pound Cake and Cobbler over the next few days so I’ll post the pictures then.

The fireworks we were planning to watch were canceled this year and we were all pretty bummed about that. Luckily our valley streets are all planned out on a grid and Billie lives due east of the Tempe Town Lake. TTL is about 10 miles away and we were able to go out into the street and have a clear view to the west where their fireworks were going off. The weather was even on our side. A monsoon storm blew through while we were playing Wii but by fireworks time it was fairly calm outside and the temperature had dropped enough to make it really comfortable.