I Can't Believe We Ate The Whole Thing Peach Pie

 
Disappointments happen all the time. One minute you think you have a gorgeous crop of tomatoes.

Then you take a closer look and find this.

Bottom rot!! ARRRRRGGGGGG!  At least we can still use the top part of the tomatoes....SIGH

Have you ever had one of the weekends that was just one disappointment after another? We just had one of those weekends that just spilled out onto Monday.  Nothing seemed to go right.  The Boy didn't make the baseball team he tried out for, we came back early from the Little Cabin due to a malfunctioning water pump, the car needs a bunch of work and we have a sick cat to top it off. 

Oh, and Canada lost a wonderful man today, NDP leader Jack Layton passed away in the wee hours of the morning.  It is a sad day for our nation. You can read Mr. Layton's last letter to Canadians here.  He always had a way with words. 

Needless to say, we are feeling a bit down.  How to cheer ourselves up???  Well, a movie with lots of explosions and shooting helps....you know what else helps??

Bacon.  Bacon always helps.  We made BLT sammies for lunch today....let me tell you, they hit the spot!!

The Boy even made some scrambled eggs to go with the sammies!

Now, my whole weekend wasn't a complete bust.  On Sunday I baked a pie! I don't bake pies too often and I am always nervous about how the crust will turn out.  This pie turned out absolutely fabulous!!! How fabulous you ask? Four of us ate the entire pie....the boy had 3 pieces....after a full on steak dinner.....need I say more?

On The Fly Peach and Strawberry Pie
Printable recipe

For the pastry:
4 cups flour

1 tsp kosher salt

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cups butter

1 cup ice water (you most likely won’t need the entire cup)

For the filling:
5 -6 peaches
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
squeeze of lemon juice

1 egg, beaten to brush the pastry

Put butter and water in the freezer to chill

Mix the flour, salt, sugar together in a bowl

Grate frozen butter with cheese grater to get lots of small bits of butter to mix in with the flour.  It should resemble coarse crumbs.

Pour ½ cup of ice water into the butter flour mixture and mix quickly to keep from warming the dough.  Add more water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together when squeezed. 

You don’t want the dough wet...kind of like a biscuit or scone dough.  Tip the entire mass of doughy crumbles onto the counter.  Fold the mass over onto itself, pressing flat each time and turning.  You will quickly see the dough come together and see the layers of flakey goodness you are creating. 

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions.  This will give you 4 single crusts or 2 double crust pies.  Wrap and freeze the dough you won’t use for another time and wrap and chill the dough you are using for a good ½ hour.

Cut an x on the bottom of the peaches just through the skin.

plunge the peaches into boiling water for 1 minute then plunge them into ice water.  Using a paring knife and starting at the x incision, peel the skin off the peaches.  

Slice into the peaches around the pit, twist to remove the peaches from the pits and slice the peaches.

Toss peaches with ½ cup of sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch, and a squeeze of lemon....add sliced strawberries.

Roll out one pie crust and line the pie plate.  Brush the bottom crust with beaten egg. (This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy).  Tip in the peach/strawberry filling.

Roll out the top crust.  You can cut the crust into strips to make a lattice top if you’d like.  

Add some spots of butter to the top of the fruit.

 Cut the edges down, crimp the edges, and brush with beaten egg.

Bake in a pre heated 425F oven for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350F Bake for 30 to 40 minutes more.  If the edges get over brown, cover with tin foil and continue to bake until done.

Allow to cool to warm before serving and make sure to serve with vanilla ice cream or vanilla frozen yogurt!

Seriously, this was so tasty, I am making it again for a dinner guest this week! 

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Honey Cinnamon Peaches

Not too long ago, I made an oh so yummy batch of honey vanilla plums and it did not last very long (I do have some everyday with my vanilla yogurt)! Yesterday while Hubby and I were grocery shopping, we happened past some peaches.  The lovely, sweet, peachy smell was intoxicating!  I just had to buy some.  Today I decided to savour that peachy goodness by revamping the honey vanilla plums into honey cinnamon peaches!!!

Honey Cinnamon Peaches

Wash and chop:

• 4 large, sweet smelling peaches

Place the chopped peaches into a pot on medium heat.

Let the peaches cook down for a few minutes allowing the juices to start flowing.
Add to the pot:

• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of honey
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Continue to cook the peaches until they are soft.
Mash the peaches slightly, leaving some luscious lumps of peachy goodness.

From here you can either spoon into hot sterilized jars as per canning guide lines or allow the sauce to cool and store in the fridge.  As with the honey vanilla plums this goes great with:

• vanilla ice cream
• vanilla yogurt
• with granola
• on pancakes or waffles
• in a peanut butter sandwich
• by the spoonful