Just Peachy!

One of the nice things about having a friend close by is that when you feel sick, as I did yesterday, the other person can make you dinner. Last night my boyfriend made me a delicious meal of chicken sandwiches. He pounded, breaded, and fried a few chicken breasts, caramelized an onion, and made a sauce to put over them. Thank you, honey!!!

After dinner I felt much, much better and decided to show my appreciation by making him a peach pie. My boyfriend is originally from Maryland and loves anything peachy :)

Here's the recipe I use for basically all pies:

The Crust:

I used a store-bought one - it's easier and I really don't eat much of the crust anyway. If you want, you can make your own using any recipe you find, but really a plain ole pre-made one is just fine.

The Topping:

This is my FAVORITE part of any pie because I use a crumble topping. I have an insane love of crumble and my boyfriend always teases me because I pick it off the top of the pie when it has finished being baked. Anyway, what you do is put about 3/4 cup oats in a bowl with a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add about 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mix this all together then cut in with a fork or your fingers a little less than 1/2 stick softened butter. You can add more oats if the mixture looks too buttery and more butter if...well, you get the picture. I also sprinkle in a little almond or vanilla extract - these extracts go really well with stone fruit or other fruits like apples.

The Fruit:

I peeled and cored 5 peaches and sliced them into different thicknesses - I personally like a little uneven texture when you bite into a pie. I then added about 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, a tad vanilla, a sprinkling of salt, and a squirt lemon juice and let this sit for maybe 15 minutes to accumulate juices. In a sauce pan I added the juice of a half lemon and 1/2 tsp cornstarch - these I whisked together to eliminate any bumps. I warmed this till the mixture thickened a little, then added the juices from the fruit. Lastly, I added the fruit and mixed everything together. You can eliminate this last over-the-stove part if you don't want a gooey filling - but I myself love the gooey center/crumbly top combo.

So, I poured the fruit into the crust and baked the pie at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Before putting the pie pan in the oven I set it on a baking tray so any spillover wouldn't end up on the bottom of our oven.

You can serve this with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or just plain.

A good friend came over and we coupled pie with a romantic comedy.