Peach Pie

I love the summer time because fruit is so plentiful.  Each year, we get hundreds of peaches from our peach tree.  This year was no exception, except we didn't spray enough and ended up with "interesting" things inside and outside of our peaches.  Instead of worrying about what we would bite into, we decided to throw them all out.

 

That being said, I still had my peach craze and couldn't decide for the longest time what recipe I would try out this year.  Last year, I made peaches cream pie with our peaches.  This year, I wanted to either make a peach cobbler or just a plain old simple peach pie.

Looking at recipes, I decided to make a peach pie because I already had all the ingredients.  How did it turn out?  DELISH! I modified this recipe. 

Peach Pie
pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie

5 cups fresh peaches, sliced  (that's about 5-6 large peaches)

3/4 cup sugar 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Stir together flour, 1 cup sugar, and cinnamon and set aside.  Wash, peel, and slice fresh peaches.

Mix together peaches with the combined dry ingredients.

Turn into pastry-lined pie pan and dot with butter.

Cover with top crust, cut slits in it, seal the edges. Sprinkle top with 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Cover the edges with foil to prevent over browning; remove foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust.

It was sOoOo GOoD!  The filling resembles an apple pie filling.  It is sweet, creamy and the hint of cinnamon brings out the peaches. 

The extra sugar on top sweetens the crust and makes it a tad bit flaky which is how I like it.  This recipe is definitely in my keep pile.  I'm the only one that eats fruit pies in my house.  I haven't decided if that is a good thing or bad thing.  That's a lot of pie for lil o' me, but that's all right.  I'll gladly forgo a meal for a slice of this peach pie.

Super Mario Birthday Party - Princess Peach Felt Crowns

For E's birthday party, I was confident that I was going to make Mario Caps for the boys, but I didn't want the girls to be left out. The majority of girls don't even know who Super Mario is so I wanted to make something that they would enjoy regardless if they knew who the characters were, but I also wanted to keep the Super Mario theme. Therefore, I decided to make the crown Princess Peach wears.

Here is the character, Princess Peach. Her crown looked simple enough. I figured, "what girl wouldn't want to be a Princess?" I'd been invited to three Pink and Princess Parties this year alone so I convinced myself that this was a great headpiece for the girls.

As with any creation that I make, I started with a hand-drawn picture which I then drew on the computer. Here's the crown I came up with.

After spending 10-12 hours sewing the Mario caps, I was unsure if I wanted to tackle another unknown amount of sewing hours on the crowns. The weekend before the party, I printed and cut the paper crowns for all the girls that I invited. I told myself "...and that was that."

Yet, if you really knew me, "that is really never just that." In the end, somehow, I always convince myself to go the extra mile and so off to the fabric store I went to buy some felt two days before the party.

I used my paper crowns as a template for the felt (slightly modifying it), layering a slightly smaller yellow layer on top of the golden felt.

To save a little time, I used some spray glue to adhere the two layers together. To match the princess peach crown, I cut out blue and red circles to resemble the gems she has on her crown.

Since all the girls have a different size head, I used elastic for the back in order for it to be adjustable.

To make the elastic strap, cut out a piece of felt approximately 24" in length and about 2"-3" wide depending upon your preference. The length doesn't have to be exact since it will be scrunched up in the end.

Fold the felt length-wise and sew. Do not sew the ends together so that you can insert the elastic all the way through.

Next, cut a piece of elastic that is approximately 6"- 8". Use a longer piece for a larger head size. Mine were for 6 year olds.

To get the elastic to go through the fabric, tie a knot at the end of the elastic and insert a stick in the knot. I just nabbed a chopstick.

Insert the stick into the opening of the fabric.

Be sure to pin the end of the elastic to the end of the fabric so that it does not go all the way through.

Once through the fabric, grab hold of the elastic and remove the stick. Un-knot the elastic.

Pin the elastic to the felt and then sew the ends of the openings together with the elastic in between. Make sure the elastic doesn't slip.

When you are done, they should look like this:

Sew the elastic band to the crown.

Here is the back of the crown





The final product is a crown definitely fit for any Princess

Here are a few princesses that were more than happy to model their crown.

Thanks girls! You are all a peach!

Sparkling Sangria

I had hosted a book club meeting this past week and since it was pool side, I thought what better to drink than some sparkling sangria.  I got this recipe from my neighbor since I loved drinking it at her party.  This is so good.

Sparkling Sangria
1 750-ml bottle dry white wine
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup peach schnapps (or apricot brandy)
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
1 regular or white peach, pitted and diced
1 can diet lemon-lime or grapefruit soda (such as 7 Up or Fresca)
1 can club soda
Oranges, for garnish

Directions
Combine white wine, pomegranate juice, red wine, schnapps, apple pieces, and peach pieces in a large pitcher. Stir well to blend flavors. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Before serving, add diet soda and club soda. Serve over ice with orange curlicue garnish.

 credit

Yummo!  I will definitely be making this again at our meeting next month :)

Peaches Cream Pie

We picked so many ripe peaches that I needed to do something with them.  I decided to bake a Peaches Cream Pie.

 

Peach Cream Pie (modified from here)

• 3 cups fresh peeled and chopped peaches
• 1 unbaked 9-inch deep dish pie pastry
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 fresh peach, sliced for garnish if desired
  
  Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
  
  
  
  Place 3 cups fresh peaches into pie pastry.
  
  
  
  
  
  In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and salt.   Add eggs and sour cream.  Pour mixture over peaches.
  
  
  
  
  
  Spread mixture over peaches.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
  
  
  
  
  
  Sprinkle meal mixture evenly over pie.
  
  
  
  
  
  Bake 60 minutes or until golden.
  
  
  
  
  
  Outside is crispy, while the inside is creamy.
  
  
  
  
  
  Garnish with fresh peach slices, if desired.
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a great desert to have on a summer day.
  
  
  
  
  
   Refrigerate leftovers.