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.

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 :)

Guacamole

I love guacamole, but I've never made it completely from scratch before so I thought I'd give it a try.  I decided to try Alton Brown's guacamole recipe because it got such rave reviews.

Ingredients

3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash.

Then, fold in the onions, jalapeno, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

 

What's the verdict?  It was SO delicious.  I am a wimp when it comes to spicy foods so I only used 1/4 of a jalapeno, and 1/4 tsp of cayenne.  It wasn't spicy at all and it was really chip licking good.  This recipe is definitely a keeper and one that I know I will make again and again.