All things PEACH, including a pie

This is my summer of peach pie perfection. I am getting close! But first, a paean to the humble peach.

A good peach is really hard to beat. For starters, I adore their coloration. Peaches show that pinky-coral, yellow, and green marry winningly. Peaches are in a state of perennial blush, as if they are always in love and happy about it. 

I admire anything that continues to ripen once picked. It gives you a bit of stress-free leeway really. I mean, as much as anyone loves peaches, there are only so many of anything once can eat in a day. And so it's nice to know that a row of peaches sunning on a sill will be able to make you happy for many days on end.

Although I don't like to eat peach skin, I do love the way unpeeled peaches feel, especially if you've just picked them and they're still warm from the sun. They are soft, fuzzy in a lovely teddy-bearish way, firm but yielding (if not you've picked too soon, friend). They are irregularly shaped orbs of promise.

Peaches are great as is but they are also fabulous tossed in with more savory ingredients (see this wonderful salad of mine: Tomato, Peach, Chevre, and Herb Salad with Apple Vinaigrette) and grilled, roasted, stewed, and baked into things like pies and muffins. Two of my favorite ways to enjoy them cooked are in this Arugula Salad with Roasted Peaches, Pistachios, and Mozzarella, and simply grilled and topped with my Mint-Pistachio Pesto. 

Tomato, Peach, Chevre, and Herb Salad with Apple Vinaigrette

Mint-Pistachio Pesto

Heck, now that I've gone down the wormhole, I'm remembering how much I love these Ginger Peach Muffins and also my Grilled Peach Crostini. 

Grilled Peach Crostini

And the jam possibilities are endless!

to-be Brandied Peaches

Clearly, I have a thing for peaches. And I am not ashamed.

Back to the pie. I have, over the years, worked on what is, in my opinion, the best representation of a number of pies: blackberry, apple, coconut, pecan. This summer, I set my sights on their peach cousin, and I think I'm nearly there.

It is, like my others, simple. It lets the primary fruit shine bright which is what the best pies do. I use peaches, sugar, lemon, and spices but have upped the ante slightly by including an apricot or two for a marvelous bit of tang and some muscovado sugar for depth (muscovado is a dark, unrefined brown sugar with a high level of molasses {in both content and flavor}. I use cinnamon and ground ginger and am considering using nutmeg, but we'll see. Peach Pie!

Paired with my crust, salty and flaky and perfect, the peaches shine. Which is just how it should be. 

Peach Pie Jam and a Class, ear clog

How Ear Clog Can Facilitate Inadvertent Telephone Game

I awoke this morning with severely clogged ears. The children and I were like ships in the night because I could only hear about half of what they said. Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing, because the Pokémon obsession has not waned and my interest in it has definitely not grown, but it was such an odd experience to have misconversations. Kinda funny too.

"Boys, why are you each clad only in a shirt?"

I meant this literally because they were both completely naked except for tees which hung to mid-bum; tragically, they resembled what I imagine pedophiles look like when home alone. It's a terrible look.

"Where is my bathing suit?"

"What? We have no laundry chute."

"What, MOM?? What does that even mean?"

To myself: "What the eff are those kids making up now? They are nuts, and I really wish they'd at least put on some underpants."

I make coffee for me and breakfast for them. While they eat I attempt to explain what clogged ears feel like and with them how one experiences sound.

"I feel like I'm underwater or far away."

"Mom, can you hear me? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, boys, you're four flipping feet from me. I just mean the sound sounds garbled."

"What's garbled? Like weird? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, like hard to understand."

"What?"

Who's on first, for the love. I do feel that I've turned a corner in the health department so that's good.

I made their lunches for camp (just seven days of lunch-making left! Making lunches blows; that their school provides excellent-quality lunches every day makes me not care about the tuition. SUCH.A.LUXURY. I can see why my mother went on cooking strike after making my sister and me lunches for 10 years.) and got them to camp and came home to attempt to clear my ears and prep for my canning class.

Peach Pie Jam

As these events pretty much always are, this one was an absolute delight. It's fun to meet new people and welcome those you already know and then preach the gospel of something you love to do and probably would be doing anyway. We made Peach Pie Jam and also did a jam tasting of six or seven I'm canned so far this summer. Everything was a hit!

And now, back to the couch. Just in case!