Fresh Peach Pie

We love this pie so much, even my husband who usually has no desire for dessert.

The options listed with the recipe include blueberries, peaches, and strawberries.  In June, I make it with just strawberries.  But the version Genevieve is proudly (hungrily) holding is white peaches with a few blackberries.  The later photos show yellow peaches with blueberries, at a picnic.

Fresh Peach Pie (called Strawberry Pie in Simply in Season)

First, bake a tart crust.  I usually do this when the oven is on for another reason and then I tuck the crusts, still in their pans, into a bag and into the freezer.

Cut together until crumbly and pea-sized, or smaller:
1/3 c. WW pastry flour
2/3 c. white flour
1/3 c. room temperature butter
2 Tbs. powdered sugar
pinch salt

Press into a 9" tart or pie pan.  Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, until golden.  Cool. 

For the fruit filling:
Mash in a saucepan:
1 cup sliced peaches

Add and whisk together:
1/2 c. water
1 scant cup sugar (depending on your fruit, less)
3 Tbs. cornstarch

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Stir in:
2 Tbs. lemon juice

Allow to cool.

Fold in:
4-5 cups sliced peaches (I usually mix in a few berries of some sort)

Spoon into cold shortbread tart crust.  Chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

P.S.  I suddenly need to post all my summerish thoughts before it's too late because the weather is crisp right now, I'm making a school dress for G, and the first butternut squashes have appeared on market. 

Sunday Dinner: Vichysoisse

I didn't look at a screen the entire week I was at the beach - how odd and how refreshing.  But now I'm back with lots to record!  I already enjoyed a nice visit on your blogs when I got home.

I'm beginning to think many things are easier in winter - it's so cozy to cook up big, heavy meals and welcome the stove heat.  Now in the summer, what should we eat?  I don't like the feeling of perpetual snacking.  I've been browsing through my vintage cookbooks for ideas - after all, these people did not have air conditioning either and most of them wore many more layers than us. 

I've been making extremely simple meals, always with a chilled element and some straight up summer bounty.

Sunday's meal was no different:

Vichysoisse
biscuits and butter
yellow grape tomatoes
fresh peach and blueberry pie

Saturday:make biscuits (bake them with the bread and granola - if I'm going to turn on the oven, I'm going to fill that baby up)
make Vichysoisse
make peach pie (using previously baked crust from the freezer)

Sunday noon:
snip some parsley for the Vichysoisse
wash the tomatoes
set the table
warm the biscuits in the toaster oven

The Vichysoisse (first time I've made it, had it) was good, but I wasn't wowed.  I did add some dill, and then the snipped parsley. 

Also, I really do keep my oven filled if I have to turn it on for something.  I'll roast some vegetables, even if I don't have an immediate plan for them - better to prep them now when the oven is on and have another meal option in the fridge. 

Or the tart crust - I have 4 pie pans, enough that I can bake a double batch and stick one in the freezer without missing the pan.  And it was easy as pie (ha!) to slice the peaches, make a quick sauce, and plop it all in the frozen crust to chill for Sunday.

I was baking bread for general eating, but also to make pretty sandwiches for a party - I'll get that post up this week.

The Stars Aligned

I cook three meals a day quite often, and usually there is something that needs salt or a longer cooking or something.  But not this time:  we had a perfect meal with my parents and sister last week.  I almost feel like I can't take credit for that meal because I'm not sure I could make it perfectly again.  How nice to preserve that lovely evening here on my blog!

We ate:
white sauce chicken, grilled to dark gold
baked potatoes - fluffy and creamy in the way of good potatoes
tender roma green beans with brown butter
cucumber salad with onions, rice vinegar and mint
fresh peach and blackberry pie

I'm not sure exactly how the stars did align, but each dish was perfect in its own right.  I felt really proud of myself, like I had somehow achieved "good cook" status, although unsure how I actually pulled it off (and on time, I might add).

And then my husband wisely brought out the homemade raspberry cordial with the coffee and pie.  It's there in the large bottle, next to Ben's "flower" centerpieces, which he likes to arrange and set on the table for every dinner.

White Sauce Chicken - recipe from Bill Clark in our local newspaper a few years back

3/4 c. mayo
1/4 c. cider vinegar
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. black pepper
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk together.  Marinate 8 legs/thighs in the mixture overnight. 
To grill, heat one side of the grill to medium and place the chicken, skin side up, on the side with no heat.  Cook for 2 hours without turning; the key to this chicken is looooooong (cooking) and slooooooow (heat).  The chicken will be beautifully deep gold and falling off the bones.

Updated, at Jeanie's request:

Raspberry Cordial
1/3 bottle white rum
1 1/2 pint red raspberries, washed
1 c. sugar

Combine the ingredients in a glass bottle, cap tightly and allow to sit for one year.  Great for sipping with dessert, especially chocolate.  A little cough syrupy tasting on its own.  We got this method from our friend Daryl, but all the other methods I've seen online and in cookbooks are more involved. 

Four Different Rhubarb Pies This Spring

Joy of Cooking Pie - just rhubarb with a double crust.  Simple, but I cut the sugar too much - the balance between tart and sweet is hard to find for rhubarb. 

Rhubarb Kuchen - like the peach kuchen from More with Less, only with a bit more sugar.  Still one of our favorite pies.

Jennifer Jo's Rhubarb Cream Pie (it was too hot to take pictures, if I recall)  This was my favorite of the rhubarb pies and I'll be making this again.  It was luscious.  It's very similar to a recipe in Simply in Season, only with more cream.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie - my husband's favorite and really not as fake-strawberry tasting as I feared. 

However, I still flinch at the idea of baking  strawberries. Surely there could be a way of making a thick rhubarb sauce on the stovetop, and then folding in fresh strawberries, putting it all in a baked tart crust and serving chilled.

(It was late in the day and he dropped a bite)

Any other rhubarb pies out there I'm missing?  Beeboppa, reeboppa, rhubarb pie. . .