Peach Cobbler Day 2026

Have I mentioned I'm enjoying this cookbook?

The American West section (see blog post from April 13, 2026) of Whisk Me Away has a recipe for Peach Cobbler. We used that recipe this year for Peach Cobbler Day on April 13. 

Valentine Days

Sadly, we don't have access to some of our pictures from around Valentine's Day so this post is missing some pictures. Oh well. Here it finally is:

 

O.K. Finally getting to it. Valentine's 2026.

I already told you that Jeremy made chocolate covered strawberries for me. Chuckle. He made them early enough that they got eaten up before Valentine's Day even came. 

The week of Valentine's Day, there was a kindergarten Valentine dance at the elementary school, just like when Lucky was in kindergarten and Jet was a baby. 

Jet and I dressed up and went and danced and had refreshments and danced some more and were excited when Daddy came to join us. He had a fair convention that day but made it back for the end of the dance. 

I think Jet has similar moves to Lucky at that age.

 

The day before Valentine's Day was when the elementary schoolers had their Valentine parties and Valentine exchanges. Lucky's class invited them to decorate boxes to hold their Valentines. Since Lucky is preparing for the school play, Alice in Wonderland Jr., many things are Wonderland themed right now. Lucky brought a Mad Hatter's hat as his Valentine box. I supplied the materials (empty oatmeal box, fabric, another cardboard box, cardstock) and Jeremy helped Lucky make it into a hat. 

 

This year, like last year on actual Valentine's Day, Jeremy and Nichole were at Life, The Universe, and Everything symposium. 

Let me stop right here and share something funny that happened during prep for LTUE. Jeremy printed off a list of classes/panels so he and Nichole could see what they both wanted to take and what they had that overlapped.

 

Mom: Nichole, Dad wants you to look through Life, the Universe, and Everything to see what things you want to do. 

Jet: Nichole, Dad wants you to look through the telescope at the university holes.

 

Thank you. Back to Valentine celebrations.

While Jeremy and Nichole were at LTUE, Jr. wanted an excuse to eat ice cream so he rationalized this.

It was Single Awareness Day. Single people eat ice cream when they don't have a date. Yes! Great excuse. And my husband wasn't with me for Valentine's Day so I should eat ice cream, too.

Reminder that I fully support the Daddy-Daughter date at LTUE (my husband did make me chocolate covered strawberries. I love chocolate covered strawberries).

We also had heart-shaped pizza for dinner or broken heart pizza as it is cut.  

I did get a nice hug from Jeremy that night. He didn't completely forget me. Heh Heh Heh.

 

The next day, I made a fancy dinner to celebrate since Jeremy and Nichole were home that day.

A great way to celebrate love with food is by using recipes from Whisk Me Away by Michelle Wright. We had some fun during and after dinner based on the Regency Era. 

For dinner, we had Green Bean Almondine with Rice Pilaf (both from the cookbook). We also had ham but I didn't use the honey glaze from the book. We rounded it out with modern day rolls and ice water to drink.

After the kids set the table in our normal use what dishes are in the cupboard (or dish drainer), mismatched or not, manner, I showed them a picture from the book of how a proper dinner table should be set. Ha Ha.

While we ate, I read to them what the book said about Regency dinner party etiquette, which made some of them do the exact opposite because that's what kids do.

After dinner a few of us decided to play a Regency game from the book. "Forfeit."

We used Lucky's "hat" to hold the forfeits and we had a blast playing together. We had the youngest of us and the oldest of us playing so it was a good game for all ages.

I love family time. And I love that we can have the whole family be involved in a holiday that doesn't have to be just for significant others. 

I do enjoy time with just my husband but we do get to do special things together other times, not just Valentine's Day and anniversaries (and did I mention that my husband made chocolate covered strawberries for me?). 

I would never try to go out for Valentine's Day to a restaurant or something like that anyway. Too crowded. We did stop by the grocery store to get some milk after I picked Jeremy and Nichole up from LTUE on Valentine's Day, though.  

I hope my children know they can always celebrate with us. There are so many reasons to celebrate. 

 

Update: We have access to our pictures again. I put some on another blog post on April 11, 2026. 

Tea Party

 

May 21 was International Tea Day. I got excited to try out recipes from Whisk Me Away by Michelle Wright. 

We had Cucumber Sandwiches, Spinach Artichoke Dip on homemade English muffins (the muffins recipe was not in the book but the dip was), The Perfect Tea Cookie, and strawberries and cream (also not in the book but it was Strawberries and Cream Day). We each got to choose what kind of herbal tea to drink and of course I had to use my "just one more chapter" mug.

Not only does this book have delicious recipes but there are bits of trivia about different time periods as well as games and quotes from Proper Romance novels. 

Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving. Food. Family. But not family as food.

Most of Jr. Jr. didn't make it into the picture and somehow part of me in the corner there did?

 

Jet helped me make rolls.

 

Nichole made deviled eggs (Lucky helped a little).

This is us making food in the kitchen while singing along to ABBA music. 

Nichole is fun to sing along to music with.

 

Jeremy and I prepared and cooked the turkey.

 

In the midst of the preparation, I had some ripe bananas that needed to be used up so I made Irresistible Banana Bread from The Fiction Kitchen Trio Cookbook. The bread turned out fine but I must not have greased the pan well enough because this is what happened.

But when life gives you lemons... er... bananas... we just picked at it while making Thanksgiving dinner. Why not?

Gingerbread Cookies!

I found a gingerbread cookie recipe I like and want to keep using. It's one I used years and years and years ago but haven't in a while. There were quite a few years when I didn't even try to make gingerbread cookies. Rolling out and cutting out isn't my favorite thing. I've tried different recipes in the last few years but decided to do this one again this year and I've got to say, I was pleased with the results. Jet and I made them earlier on and I willingly made them again for National Gingerbread Cookie Day on November 21.

The recipe is from Family Dinner Cookbook by Debbie G. Harman and it's called "Gingerbread Friends." They taste so good to me.

Speaking of that cookbook, that same day I used the recipe for "Chicken Croissants" in it because Stephanie gave us some croissants when she came over and I love chicken salad on croissants. I scaled the recipe back because it's meant for a crowd and I substituted apples in place of grapes because I had apples but not grapes. #shelfcooking

The croissant sandwiches went well with stuffing for National Stuffing Day that same day.

November 15

November 15 was Steve Irwin Day. Jet and I saw some living fish. I remembered to call them "gorgeous." I also thought about how their species have been around for millions of years.

November 15 was Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. We ate leftovers.

 

November 15 was Raisin Bran Cereal Day. Jet and I made muffins from The Fiction Kitchen Trio Cookbook. I love my baking buddy.

 

That was November 15.

Girls' Night Out?

October 4 was Buster Keaton's birthday so I wore my bow earrings while Nichole and I had bonding time.

We found out an event we were going to go to was canceled so we went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for us. Since it was National Taco Day, we thought about buying taquitos then realized taquitos are easy to make and we had all the ingredients already at home. Shelftember was still having its effect on us. Yay for shelf cooking!

So we went home and had bonding time making taquitos together while watching a movie (besides all the chatting while driving and shopping together). Of course we ate some of the snacks we got from the store.

We wanted to watch In the Good Old Summertime because it had Buster Keaton in it but we didn't have access to it, so we started watching You've Got Mail.

Back to talking about National Taco Day- before we left for our girls' night we tried taco flavored potato chips to go along with our Italian Baked Sliders from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page.

Nobody in the family was impressed by the chips but the sliders were so good.

I am getting so much use out of these cookbooks.

It turned out to be good mother-daughter bonding time. Simple but quality.

P.S. It was also World Smile Day. There were definitely things to smile about.

So You Want to Know Even More About August, Huh?

August 19 was International Bow Day. Jet and I did some coloring on a Minnie's Bow-Toons coloring page. We may have watched a little bit of the cartoon later (I can't remember).

Ah, bonding time.

It was also National Potato Day. Continuing with using A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page, I learned how to make "baked" potatoes in the Instant Pot. I like doing it that way. Along with the potatoes we had Sheet Pan Bell Pepper Chicken but I cooked it on the stove instead of in the oven. I can do that. I'm a shelf cooker.

It was also Mr. Snuffleupagus' Birthday. Our kids don't know who Mr. Snuffleupagus is. They didn't grow up with Sesame Street. Jeremy and I had to explain to them who he is.

August 20 was National Lemonade Day (it used to be in May). We made a pitcher of lemonade to go with our Tex-Mex Bowls (using leftover fajita filling) and spanish rice. I made Cilantro Lime Ranch Dressing from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. The recipe in there is simpler than the recipe I've used in the past to make cilantro lime dressing. I liked it better after it had been refrigerated for at least a day. Mmmm.

Jet was my little kitchen helper again. He decided to help spin lettuce this time. He didn't bother waiting for me to cut it up first. That's fine. I'm so glad he likes to help me make food. I hope it continues.

August 22 was Be an Angel Day. Dinner was angel hair pasta (of course) with leftovers. Jet was an angel and ate better than any of the other kids when it came to dinner. He got first choice of cupcakes for dessert.

After dinner, Nichole and I went to a Relief Society activity, a sourdough class. It was cool to again see a demonstration but it reminded me that I am not in the season of my life to make sourdough. It is a long complicated process. I did enjoy the samples and socializing, though. I do like to eat sourdough. I just can't commit to it right now.

August 23 was National Cuban Sandwich Day. I tried out some new techniques with cooking (I am constantly learning) and made Cuban Sandwiches (even if they weren't authentic).

August 24 was National Waffle Day. We made a whole bunch of waffles with the intent to freeze some of them for easy breakfasts. Ha. They didn't last long enough to be frozen. 

That day, Nichole, Jeremy, and I went on a UCB field trip to Jordanelle Reservoir- Rock Cliff area. That felt good.

Jeremy also decided to try out a new look that day. Look closely.

August 26 was National Toilet Paper Day. I used some to wipe up tears while I was crying.

August 27 was Banana Lovers Day. After our Cajun Green Beans & Pork Bites and roasted potatoes (both from that same cookbook listed above), we had Frozen Banana Bites (also from that same cookbook). 

August 28 was National Bow Tie Day. We had bowtie pasta along with macaroni with our dinner. We also had Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps, apples, and carrots.

Peculiar Sunday Supper

Sunday, January 10 was Peculiar People Day. It was also National Sunday Supper Day. I had my peculiar people make supper that day.

Nichole made maple-cornmeal drop biscuits from our Little Women Cookbook. Thanks, Orem Library. She and I made bacon gravy to go with it. Jr. helped Lucky steam some broccoli. Jr. made peanut brittle. We may have had some other things but I can't remember.