Fran’s Favorites: Imagination Library books and peaches

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I’ve had an amazing time these past couple of weeks traveling around Ohio and talking about the Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library — our partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination library to sign up kids ages birth to 5 years old for free books, every single month, delivered in the mail.

Yesterday I was in Northern Ohio. I helped the Greater Cleveland Food Bank give out food to nearly 2,000 families. COSI partnered with the Great Lakes Science Center and several other organizations to also give out “Learning Lunchboxes,” which they are giving out across Ohio. These boxes contain fun activities for the children to promote science, technology, arts, math and more. Each box also held a reading guide and a sign-up sheet for the Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library. It was a fun time with music, mascots from the Cleveland Browns and Indians, volunteers from the library and Metroparks. It was so good to help so many families!

From there I traveled to Sandusky where I visited Firelands Regional Medical Center. We are working very hard to sign up babies for the Imagination Library right at the hospital on the day they are born. Then we know they will get all 60 of the Imagination Library books! I helped one of the new moms sign up her baby. Emelia was born the day before and I was able to sign her and her 2-year-old sister up for the Imagination Library books. Before I left the hospital I read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to some children. It’s such a fun book and always a favorite!

I came home to a tree full of peaches to pick! They are sweet and delicious, and always present a decision on what to make! Last week I made a small peach pie, which was very good. At a friend’s house we had a peach caprese salad, made with sliced fresh mozzarella cheese, alternating with sliced tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, and sliced peaches, then drizzled with a little olive oil. It was delicious. I think for this weekend I’m going to get some fresh corn from one of our local farmers, and “cobble” some of these peaches into a quick peach cobbler. You don’t need much more than that for a perfect summer meal!

Peach Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Topping:

4-5 cups sliced peaches

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Cook together in saucepan or microwave for a couple of minutes to bring out the juices of the peaches.

6 Tablespoons butter

Cut in pieces and place in 9” X 13” inch pan. Put in oven to melt.

In bowl mix together:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

Stir in:

3/4 cup milk, just until combined.

Make layer of this over the butter.

Spoon peaches and juice over batter.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes.

Fran’s Favorites
https://www.fairborndailyherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2021/08/web1_FranWEB.jpgFran’s Favorites

Fran DeWine

Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine is a Cedarville resident, Yellow Springs native and guest columnist.

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