Elizabeth, Shining Star

Yesterday morning I knew something was up very early in the day as I started receiving several comments on Elizabeth's cooking lesson, Peach Cobbler Bites, from the day before on this blog. Then later in the morning I went on the blog to check Sitemeter, to see how many visitors I was getting.

My jaw actually dropped as I saw the number of hits was up over 500!! I thought it must be a mistake,  as that number had never occurred before...the visitors just kept coming, so I asked my daughter, Olivia, to help me figure out why these high numbers of people were coming over from facebook.

She checked the Pillsbury page, and there was a brief mention of Elizabeth and a link to my blog!!
By late last night we had 688 visitors, and a number of very nice ladies took the time to go back to
Pillsbury and leave encouraging comments there as well. Lizzie had a GREAT debut as a young cook with her very own recipe! Here is the link and the comments she received at Pillsbury:


Pillsbury What recipes do your kids love to make? This blogger's 9-year-old niece taught her how to make Peach Cobbler Bites yesterday. How fun!

Under Angel Wings: Peach Cobbler Bites by Elizabeth

81 people like this.

Carolann Quinn My daughter can make a great paella. She's 16 now but she's been making it since she was 13. :)

Ann Dennis LOL my daughter learned how to barbecue chicken on the grill at 16 and that is still her specialty.

Just Dancin I've taught all of my sons to cook, you never know anymore if the girls they meet will be able to do it.

Cheryl Wodowski Knepper Something easy for the kids to make!!!! Thanks

Judy Husk these days girls don't cook, they eat out a lot

Crystal Shady Taylor mine love making homemade cinnamon rolls!

Patricia Ann Kelly my 8 year old daughter makes awesome baked ranch drum sticks. and my 9 year old makes delicious mac n cheese with broccoli

Jodie Moncrieff-Hennigar My kids are 6 and 8. Both love to help me. They make us supper one night a month...usually sub sandwiches...we slice the tomatoes and cheese for them then they put them together for us.

Lori Sherman Very easy and I bet they are tasty! & YES I love the green nail polish!!

Sandy Flanagan Camus Both my boys have been cooking since they were 10 or 12. Their menus have improved, over the years, from mac 'n cheese or burgers on the grill to some quite delectable dishes. Now that they're married, they share that responsibility.

Gerri Walsh this sounds good I want to make them right now but don't have the ingred. on hand !!!!

Kimberly Millsap I have been cooking for years. I cooked with my mom and grandma when I was very young. I now am married and love to cook. Hopefully I will be able to pass this on to my children.

Celesta Gunter Those look so good! My family loves peach cobbler! Thanks for sharing!

Patti Willis Cunningham GREAT job Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing Aunt Sylvia! Mom Kendra should be VERY proud of her! (the green nail polish is awesome!)

Sue Williams My grandma taught me to cook and bake: homemade rolls, potato candy, meatloaf that is out of this world. I let my grandchildren help me do easy things when I cook. They love to stir the bowl and cut out cookies.

Christy Groff- Clouser thats a great idea. smart girl. simple and easy. :o)

Laurie Wells how cute is she and her little recipe :-)

Amy Beth Carlin Sendaydiego I love to make "pigs in a blanket" using the crescent rolls and hot dogs! Yummm!

Fabiola Robichaud Way to go!! Good idea!! Love your nail polish too!!

Gina Marie Petitfils Mmmm.. They look delightful!

Fabiola Robichaud I do mine with the wainer wrap and put some chocolate chips, slivered almonds & coconut ... then wrap around and pinch each sides. Delicious!

Karen Jakab wow, those sound amazing and I bet you could do that with cooked apples too. MMMM, can't wait to try them. How amazing that a 9 year old came up with this. My 9 year old likes to cook, but I'm too scared to give her freedom in the kitchen. she does make really good grilled cheese sandwiches, my 5 year old prefers them over mine. LOL

Kathi Ballard My 2 (17 & 19) can cook somewhat, but they'd rather microwave everything................

Tina Chudilowsky My 10 yr old daughter LOVES to cook and she is really good at it! I'm very lucky :0)

Patty Barker These sound fun and wonderful! I think I'll try them with my granddaughters this weekend. Good job Elizabeth!

Carla Binai this is alot better than yesterday's making faces with veggies.

Beth Roberts Sounds great!! Gonna try this one we love peach cobbler!!!

Angel Wiles Dickson love it, maybe I can try it with my lil girl :) Nice job

Linda Field Sounds great!! Gonna try this one we love peach cobbler!!!

Janet Engdahl Avey YUM!

Ann Golden yum for me also

Connie Fitch Kids sometimes come up with the best things!!

Shiney FromWise My kids love making homemade pizzas...they LOVE tossing the dough themselves :)

Evelyn Smith Brown ooh, sounds good

Cynthia Hersey Now isn't she just too cute! I love having my granddaughter come and cook and bake with me. Elizabeth is on her way to becoming the next Sandra Lee, Ina Garten, or Paula Deen. I think it's wonder and amazing that she's creating her own recipes!! WELL DONE ELIZABETH!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND DON'T QUIT.

Kendra Gibson Schmidl I'm so PROUD of my girl- and I can say from experience these peach cobbler bites are YUUMMO!!

Sylvia Lamon Thanx everyone for the wonderful comments!! Blessings, Auntie Sylvia ♥

Oh, Fiddlesticks!

Have you ever wondered what that expression, "Oh, fiddlesticks!" originally meant? According to Google, it is a style of fiddling where one person plays the fiddle, doing the bowing and the fingering, while another taps rapidly on the fingerboard with a pair of sticks in order to get more sound out of the instrument. 


Click on this web site to hear a song performed with "fiddlesticks."  


Somehow, "Oh, fiddlesticks!" became a way to express frustration about something...I prefer to use it in my knitting! To me, these long needles seem more like sticks, so I call them my fiddlesticks.


A few years ago our daughter, Olivia, got really interested in knitting with a group of friends down in the Bay Area. She got me a cute little book, Knitting, by Anne Akers Johnson, that is for beginners and has some easy projects in it. It's actually one of the Klutz books for young people, but it worked fine for me!! :D 



One of the first projects I made was this beautiful, light blue shawl in cashmere...pricey, yes, but I wanted something very, very soft for my mom, Mary, on her 88th birthday in 2005. She was so pleased with it, and had it wrapped around her constantly in that last year of her life. I liked it so well I made myself a scarf just like it to remember her by.


Mom was a knitter in her younger days, around the time I left for college when she had more time for a hobby. She actually progressed to the point where she could make a sweater or two, which turned out very nicely. She did crochet around the edges of the sweater, and around the cute little pockets. I hope someday to be able to make a sweater that turns out so beautifully! Mom and her mother, Pearl, were both excellent seamstresses as well. 

In 2007 I was ordained as a deacon in our church, and I decided to start knitting prayer shawls as part of my ministry. I looked around our parish for a woman who was struggling with illness, and then picked a shawl pattern and some yarn. 


There is quite a bit of information on the internet about making prayer shawls which can be knitted any way you want to do them...the important thing is to say a prayer for that person during each row. The look of thankfulness on their face when they receive their shawl is so heartwarming, and I love making them.

This is my dear friend, Carrie, who received my first prayer shawl. It was a simple rectangular shape in burgundy color, long enough to wrap all around her.

Sometimes I just make up a pattern, such as this shawl for our pastor, Joy, which is basically just knitting with yarn overs to create a 'lacey' look.

In June 2007, both my dear friend, Judy, and I retired from teaching. She and her husband were moving to Oregon for their retirement and I wanted to knit her something to take with her.She has a really nice wool blazer in the light green color above, and I was lucky enough to find some matching yarn. We were so busy in that last week of school, that I forgot to get a photo of her in the scarf!! This is the first scarf I knitted with the cable stitch which I find challenging and fun. Thank you to my daughter for teaching me how to do it!! :D Recently I have completed several projects. The blue scarf I made for my teacher friend, Nina, in her school color to help keep her warm out on the frigid playground. O.K., so we live in California, but at 7:30 a.m. in the dark of winter, when the north wind is blowing, it's frigid to us!! I added another cable to the pattern to make double cables. 

This is Carol, who is wearing the prayer shawl I just finished for her. Carol is especially dear to me because she helped take care of my parents for a year or two. She is a wonderful caretaker and friend, so I was honored to create a prayer shawl for her! She is helping take care of my Aunt Dorothy, my dad's sister, now.

Candy is my friend who was born one day after me. I just finished this incredibly long cable scarf to help keep her warm up at Tahoe and Reno. She happened to have this darling hat that matches quite well. Go to my May 31, 2009 post to see Candy working with her beautiful horses in Reno, Nevada!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Three years ago our daughter, Olivia, found a very entertaining blog online about a young wife and mother who lives on a cattle ranch out in the middle of nowhere in this great big country of ours.

According to the back flap on her new cookbook just out, Ree began blogging in 2006 and built www.ThePioneerWoman.com into an award- winning website. She has won several national 2009 weblog awards: weblog of the year, best-designed weblog, and best photography of a weblog.

Ree shares recipes, with her signature photographs accompanying the directions, showcases her ranch photography, and writes hilarious chapters about how she met her "Marlboro Man," hubby Ladd. The name she has given this story, sure to become a future book, is "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels." It really is an amazing story...you've got to go on her site and read it!

Actually, after Liv got hooked on Pioneer Woman, she got my husband, David, hooked on it, and finally I gave up and succumbed to the fun.

What makes Ree's blog irresistable is the recipes, the photographs, the funny daily postings with Ree's gentle, self-deprecating humor, the colorful design of the site, the contests when she has 20,000 plus entrants in a day, the great prizes she gives away, the home schooling stories about her four children, and the adoring fans who check in daily and leave thousands of messages themselves. She has built up thousands and thousands of readers in her fan base.

Whew!! How she does it all, I can't imagine, no one can, but she has regular followers from all around the world, and now she has come out with a big-time selling cookbook!! Actually The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl debuted in the #1 spot for nonfiction hard back.

By now you are probably wondering what the tie in is for me. Yes, there is a personal story here which has now become part of our family lore...

In December of 2007 I was reading Pioneer Woman one day and she mentioned that she was "going to do pies on the blog for Christmas."

My first thought was, "Oh my gosh, I hope she has a really good pie crust recipe or they won't turn out very well no matter what she does." (Have you ever eaten what could have been a really good piece of pie, except that the crust just wasn't very good?)

I don't know about you, but I'm getting to the age that something has to be really good, like a really good cookie, or a really good piece of pie, before I'll eat it.

I mean, who needs the calories of all the bad or mediocre stuff?

Anyway, I had a brilliant thought: "Why not send in my pie crust recipe to Ree? Whatever happens, happens." So I e-mailed it to her, and waited to see what happened.

By this time my family and I had traveled to Maui for Christmas. I was going on the Pioneer Woman site on the laptop each day to see what kind of pies she was going to showcase...then lo and behold, on her December 22, 2007 posting, there it was!!! Perfect Pie Crust, with the story about me sending it in, the photos and the recipe. I think I let out a shout that must have been heard all around the Pacific Ocean at the very least.

Please note: I did not make up the recipe, but I recognized it as being a great one about 35 years ago and adopted it as my own. I have seen it written up in the newspaper since as one of the premiere recipes used by some of the best chefs, so it truly is worth trying! A lot of people commented on Ree's site that it is the same recipe that their grandmother used, so it has been around for decades...the vinegar and egg combination may seem odd, but they produce an extremely flaky crust, especially after freezing, which allows you to make up your crusts ahead of time, which is what caught Ree's attention.

My family and friends had always loved my pie crust, but what a funny thing to become known for! Over the days and months ahead all manner of people from all over the planet were writing in their opinion of my recipe, most very positive thank goodness. I still remember the man from some foreign country (France?) who left a message whining because how could he possibly make my pie crust when they don't have Crisco in his country and he doesn't even know what it is?!?

Well, my family celebrated our 'sort of' new-found fame,' and from time to time I would check in to see what kind of comments readers were continuing to leave about my pie crust on Ree's site.  Then one day last winter, about a year ago, I received an out-of-the-blue email from Ree stating that she was writing a cookbook, the New York editors were making her turn it in that day, she was really in a hurry, and would I please give her permission to use my pie crust recipe? I said, "Yes, of course," and then she asked what name would I like on the page? I quickly decided Sylvia Lamon of Jenkins Farms, and that is how it turned out.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks was released in the fall, and I made up my Christmas list of close family and friends and ordered the books. What fun it was to receive them, sign and wrap them and give them as gifts! It really is a great cookbook- wonderful recipes and photography, and lots of family photos and information about living on their cattle ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma of all places. My nephew Jim's fiance, April, has already made a number of the recipes and loves them!!

As a Christmas surprise for mom, my daughter sent a copy back to Ree and had her personally sign it for me and then presented it to me on Christmas morning. It will be a treasured keepsake! Ree wrote, "To dear, wonderful Sylvia: Enjoy and thank you for sharing the Perfect Pie Crust with me! Heart, Ree/PW" (Pioneer Woman).

Go on Ree's website and see what it's all about. Chances are you will love it!! Then buy the cookbook, and I guarantee at the very least that your pies will be fabulous. Here is a video of Ree ~

To All Moms, Everywhere

Today is Mothers' Day, a day when we honor our moms for everything they have done for us. It is impossible to fully and completely express our love and gratitude to our mothers, but Mothers' Day gives us an opportunity once a year to do something wonderful for them.

The experience of becoming a mother ourselves is probably the most thrilling of our lives. Who can ever forget the joy we feel when we first see our children and get to hold them! The love felt is instantaneous and life-long...

Raising our children is probably both the most challenging and rewarding job that we will ever have. I have heard it said that one can best truly appreciate what your own mother has done for you only after having children of your own. In my own experience I can attest to the truthfulness of that statement!

My mom was incredibly supportive, especially when my babies were young and I was learning the ins and outs of childhood illnesses. If one of my little ones was really ill, my mom was right there going to the pediatrician with me as an extra pair of ears. If I was ill myself, my mom would come down in a minute to help me take care of the children and get the meals prepared.

My mother-in-law, Bette, was also a great mother, as was her mother-in-law, Gram Lamon. These two women provided a great example in mothering for me in my younger years. We all had so much fun being a family together...

My Aunt Dorothy, my dad's only sister, has played a very important role in my life, to the point where I have referred to her many times as my 2nd mother. Aunt D. is turning 96 years old on Tuesday, when her life will be honored on this blog. I am so incredibly blessed to have had these awesome women in my life!

This week-end our daughter, Olivia, invited us down to Walnut Creek in the Bay Area for Mothers' Day. We had a fabulous time! We got to see her new office that she set up for the new company that hired her. We went to dinner at Mahalo, a great Hawaiian restaurant on Main Street in Pleasanton. This is a darling, old and new fashioned street of shops and restaurants with lots of people out enjoying themselves. We even ran in to our cousins who live there.

We had brunch with Claudia, my daughter's best friend, and her husband, Rocky, and later went to the new Star Trek movie. It is great! The only thing that could have made it better is if our son, Grady, could have been with us, but he was up in Portland. We'll be planning a trip up there sometime this summer.

To all the mothers of the world, enjoy every minute with your children. Before you know it, they'll be heading off to college, and your role will change. But you will always be needed and loved as a mother.

Holiday Visitors

                                                                  Sylvia and Georgina

Part of the fun of the holidays is the special visitors that come by to visit. On Christmas Eve my honorary brother John (my sister, Jan, and I grew up on neighboring farms with John and his brother, Tom) came with his daughter Celia, her husband, Joey, and their baby daughter, Georgina. They live in New York City, and we had waited all year to meet the new baby! What fun it was to meet her, get some hugs, and show her our two puppies and our gingerbread man tree on the patio. Georgina reminds me so much of her mother, Celia, at that age, who was born just a few days after my daughter, Olivia. We'll have more of John and his family later, I'm sure!

                                                             Olivia, Sylvia, and Katie

The other very important people who dropped by to visit that day were Katie and her fiance, Vinson. Katie and Olivia have been best friends since second grade! Katie is a Stanford graduate, a medical school graduate, and is just about to finish her residency. She has accepted a position as an anesthesiologist in a city about an hour away from our home town. We are SO proud of her achievements. Katie and Liv grew up in each other's houses, so it was like welcoming home a second daughter. And it was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Liv's birthday together!

Christmas Blessings

On Christmas Eve, no matter where we are, my family and I attend a midnight candlelight service. This year we were at home, so we attended our own parish, Trinity Life Church. It's always a really special feeling, driving home from church past midnight, with the quiet streets and the Christmas lights still on in the neighborhoods as each family waits...

Then on Christmas morning the excitement builds as the family begins to stir, including the puppies, Chloe and Max, who are always anxious to get us up early.

This is my family: our son, Grady; myself; my husband, David, holding Chloe; and our daughter, Olivia, holding Max.  It seems Mom is the only one who gets dressed early~the others are anxious to get right into the festivities!

After we open the stockings, we go into the living room to sit by the tree and open gifts. Max, the baby, was a little confused by the goings-on so he retreated to Mom's lap where he could be extra comfy in Dad's new sofa blanket and Mom's new scarf.

After the gifts are opened we adjourn to the kitchen to cook up something special for brunch. This year it was French toast, bacon and scrambled eggs.

Our afternoon was spent enjoying each other and our new gifts, especially Dad's new camera. At one point I looked over at my husband and he was asleep on the recliner, with his new camera on his chest and the manual open to the last page he was reading...it was really cute. My family really enjoys cameras, computers, and phones. Any new technology holds a fascination for all of us. I guess that's probably true for just about every family in America!

For early dinner, Liv and Grady made cheese fondue with raw veggies, French bread and wine, and chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows. What a wonderful day we had!

On the day after Christmas we had some friends over to celebrate with a potluck dinner: appetizers, martinis and wine, and a delicious ham with all the trimmings. We raised our glasses in a toast to 2009~may it be a better year, yes, a wonderful year, for all!

Happy Birthday, Olivia

Today is Olivia's birthday. She is our one-and-only, best daughter in the whole world, daughter! In this photo she is at the Sea House, Napili Bay, on Maui. That's why she looks so happy :D.

How do you describe this beautiful young woman? Well...she works in a small marketing firm in the East Bay, and she spends a lot of time running for a good cause, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training, where she is a mentor to new runners. She has run many half and full marathons, including the New York City marathon last year, which her family attended with her. That was an incredible day, never to be forgotten!

She has lots of hobbies: hanging out with friends all over the Bay Area and the state, camping and hiking, reading, photography, knitting and many more. When she was growing up she took dance, piano and cello and played in the orchestra all through school into college. She graduated from Santa Clara University and volunteered for two years in the Jesuit Volunteer Corp in Camden, New Jersey.

Olivia is the classic daughter, the kind people dream of having. Intelligent, tall, beautiful, funny,

sweet, organized, thoughtful, athletic, reliable, accomplished, with a ready, gorgeous smile...

How do you describe this young woman? "Awesome," that's how!

Happy birthday, Liv. We love you THIS...................................................................................much!!!!

Click on the video clip below to watch Olivia trying something new!

(If you listen carefully you can hear her giggle...)

A Leap of Faith

Hello world, here I am! Today is my first blog posting, ever. I have been inspired to share my life with you, and I'm hoping you will do the same with me. My postings will generally fall under the headings of faith, family, friends, food and fun, and many will overlap.  I'd like to thank my family for their help: my husband, David, who is always willing to advise on a new project; our daughter, Olivia, who has led the way with her own blog, Just a Running Fool; and our son, Grady, who is endlessly patient with all things Mac.

Most of all, my inspiration comes from above! From God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. From all the saints and all the angels in heaven, and from all the "saints-in-the-making" living out our lives here on Earth. We all live...Under Angel Wings!