Friday, August 16, 2013

Birthdays, Trifles & Dunes

Does summer seem to you to be careening towards a rapid end? Crazy that a blink of an eye ago, it was June and the beginning of summer. Now it is past the middle of August and we are rushing towards school time. Are you trying to soak up every last drop before a scheduled fall makes it's appearance? 

We are, and it has made for a full week here in the Barefoot hippie household. We started this week with 3 weeks of summer break left. Now we are down to just over two...

-In case you missed my earlier post this week...we celebrated two birthdays...

-We attended our last summer concert in the park. We heard some great bands this year, and some mediocre ones, but we had great food and conversation for each-so who's complaining?

-We took a weekend trip up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Sleeping Bear Dunes is home to one of the highest, if not the highest, sand dunes in the world. And we climbed them. First the 110 foot high beast, and then another 3 miles up and down, to Lake Michigan. It was crispy when we jumped into the water, but refreshing. Meres did a surprising amount of walking on her own. Her little arm a-pumping and away she went!

I did collages to spare you hours of scrolling through pictures.
-We spent a night at our camper, for the first time since Meres was born. It was wonderful to sleep in, and spend a slow day reading, talking, playing and relaxing.

-50% of our family got haircuts. Our clippings would probably rival Absalom's.

-I pick my first two round tomatoes of the summer. And boy were they delicious! I forgot to take a picture. I am hoping to gather enough tomatoes next week to make a batch of spaghetti sauce with fresh herbs.

-Do I see a light at the end of the tunnel? Meres has finally done a few bm's on the toilet.

-I read/finished a few books this week. Holley Gerth's You are Made for a God Sized Dream and Laura Child's Agony of the Tea Leaves. Laura Child's Tea Shop Mystery series is set in Charleston. It makes me want to pack up and visit. Plus, she always includes awesome recipes for scones, soups, and sandwiches. Yummy! I am also reading through a novel about a Norwegian immigrant family in the 1880s in the Dakotas.

-I had a Pinterest fail this week. I may tell you more about that next week. I have been pondering a Pinterest fail post for a while. Now I have my own fodder.

-Today I have a recipe for you that you will want to pin. It will not fail you. It is gorgeous, delicious, and as easy as you want it to be.


I came up for the idea of Peanut Butter Pie Trifle a few weeks ago, when I was whipping together a couple of my famous peanut butter pies. I thought to myself, "self, this pie filling would make an awesome trifle layer." And thus was born this winner.


The components are:

-the peanut butter pie filling with an extra 8 ounces of whipped topping stirred in,

-32 (give or take, based on preference) fun size butterfingers, crushed

-9 x 13 pan of brownies, cut into 1" squares. You can make brownies from scratch or use a box mix.

Layer in a trifle dish or pretty glass bowl a third each of the brownies, filling and butterfingers. Repeat twice, ending with the butterfingers.

This will make enough to feed at least a dozen people, if not more. Serve with some good, strong coffee or cold milk.

How was your week? How are you making a point of enjoying the last few weeks of summer?