It is so great having friends with fruit trees! When there is a bumper crop year and they are up to their ears in so much fruit that they don't want to go to waste, they think of me and I appreciate it so much!  
      I was over at Anita's house the other day and everywhere I turned, she had apricots in buckets, boxes and baskets.  I took some home and canned some.  Another friend also gave me some small peaches from her tree, so between the leftover apricots and the leftover peaches, I decided to make a batch of Apricot Peach Butter in the Crockpot.  It was so easy and the results were fantastic! 

     If you have been following, you will know that I have probably gained 5 pounds playing with my new Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker Attachment.  Making ice cream has never been so easy and delicious! 

      We are having a party here tonight, so I have been working on making enough ice cream to go around, and because Maddy is lactose intolerant, and I know many other people are as well, I decided to experiment with a non-dairy variety of ice cream.  You won't believe how easy and delicious this ice cream was to make! Also, it is much less expensive than ice cream made with heavy cream, so bonus!

     A couple of years ago, I purchased some tweezers from Kikkerland which quickly became my favorite!  I thought that I was going to give them away as a stocking stuffer to a guitar player I happen to know (my son), but I forgot about them.  When I found them, I decided to keep them for myself and I was so happy with these little things! They gripped really well with finely honed, slanted ends and after using them, I couldn't use any other tweezers.  Then, about 2 weeks ago, I lost them.  I don't know how or where I put them, but I miss them terribly and I've had to put up with less wonderful tweezers since then.  My husband has been surprised how much I have bemoaned the loss of these tweezers.  They are out of stock on Kikkerland, but they do have some other designs that I am going to send for.  
      This experience brought to mind the fact that sometimes the needs of women are very different from the needs of men!  My husband probably only would think about using tweezers if he were to get a splinter in his finger, whereas I use them almost daily! 
      Out of curiosity, I asked my girls what things they would consider to be essential to them, and what they would feel lost without.  Here is a list of what we came up with:

     You may have noticed that I have been on a honey kick lately.  I just posted about ​Honey Sweetened Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and Honey Sweetened Ice Cream.  All of this was spurred by a desire to create some treats that do not use refined sugar.  Well, I've done some research about why this might be beneficial to the human body and I've learned some interesting things.  
      Not only that, but I've discovered a great way to make cupcakes without refined sugar, including the frosting, which if you ask me, is quite the amazing feat!  So, read on!