Becca’s World

Found this recipe online and thought I’d share. It comes from Joan and here’s the original link.

Ingredients

1 stick (4 ounces) butter, melted
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation

Heat oven to 375°. Pour melted butter into a 2-quart baking dish (11×7 or 8-inch square). In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of the sugar, the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir to blend. Stir in the milk and vanilla until blended. Pour the batter over the melted butter. Toss the peaches with the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Arrange the peach slices over the batter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. The top will be browned and the cake will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Serve warm with a little heavy cream, whipped topping, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Here’s how mine turned out. I made two at the same time but only had one square pan. Looks great in a pie dish and tastes delicious!

I learned to play bocce today. Unless I’m missing a bunch of rules, it’s not that complicated. The challenge is that I need to learn the strength required for a particular shot. Most of the time, I threw too hard, which I didn’t expect – thought I’d be short of the target, not long.

Wonder if I’d have the same struggle with curling. Never actually played that one, only watched it. I do know bocce seems like the summer version of curling, though they originate from totally different countries.

I’ve never been intensely motivated to participate in sport, but instead prefer to be a spectator. I like to cheer people on and I’m often amazed by their skills and determination. And I’ll admit that I go a bit crazy when the Olympic Games occur. I soak up as much of the competitions that I can.

Someone told me today that sporting events like the Olympics seem trivial in the wake of the people fighting disease and poverty in this area. In this person’s opinion, they have no real place in our lives.

Although I understand that I’m not interacting with those folks on a day-to-day basis and therefore seeing the desperation firsthand, I can’t agree with the statement.

Sport is often what keeps people fighting. One example is a weightlifter from Germany who fought hard for a gold medal in Beijing to honour his dead wife. I’m sure that training for the Games allowed him to deal with his grief in a healthy way instead of being consumed by it and unable to go on with life.

I’m not saying the salaries of professional athletes make sense to me – why are so many millions of dollars being spent on them when the Canadian health care system and our military suffer for money? At the same time, if nothing were spent on sport, we’d be missing an important part of our culture.

The same can be said of the TV and movie industry, which was also dismissed in the same conversation. We don’t need to be obsessing over the details of a movie star’s life, but the works that are produced generally have a beneficial effect on people.

It may sound like I’m oversimplifying the matter, but I think sports and entertainment are good for the soul. I’m not ashamed of the enjoyment I get from following the Olympics or watching a good movie.