Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me...

{This was a weird, cool, "freak of nature" peach to find in our box! This nature-branded "A" was a sign... that the peaches really belonged to us. ???}

Listen to the "Peaches" song, by The Presidents of the United States of America. Thanks Deb, for reminding me of this group recently! Anyone else remember them?

Well, I finally finished off those peaches. Actually did about a week ago. Ya, I'm finally getting around to posting about them. I only want to post this for me anyway. Next year, when I get peaches I just know I'll be trying to remember all that I did with the peaches from 2009. So I'm just saving myself some trouble. Right?!

Anyway... here's what I did with approx. 60lbs of peaches:

1. Ate them, washed, straight from the box. Ate them cut up. Ate them blanched, peeled and then cut up.
2. Made peach-apple sauce. (mixed with some existing apple sauce).
3. Made some fruit leather. (twice). Pureed peaches mixed with apple sauce.
4. Peach-mango salsa. YUM! I made two batches of this and I finished it so fast. I say "I" because I was such a pig, and literally I ate most of it... with chips, while no one else was around! SO YUM!
5. Dehydrated peach slices. These went fast... I mean we ate them fast. They take so long to dehydrate, though. We eat them faster than they take to make. We dried about 8 racks full.
6. Peach pie in a jar. (twice)
7. Frozen peaches. Six, gallon sized bags.
8. Peach crisp (cobbler? I never know which one to call it.) The one with the oat mixture on top. Yummy.
   
9. Peach syrup (so yummy on german pancakes, or regular pancakes).
10. Is that all? Really? I feel like I'm missing something.

Next year I'd like to try canning some and I am looking forward to trying my friend's peach-strawberry jam recipe!!

(The "Pie in a Jar" didn't turn out as pretty as I had hoped, but it was so good. I think I just needed a different crust recipe. ...maybe...)

Pie in a Jar

Ever since I saw this post on Little Birdie Secrets, I've wanted to try making these scrumptious little treats. I just love personal sized treats. Whenever there is pie around I feel like I eat too much or there is too much left over. This is just great as a small gift when visiting a friend for the day or as a little pick-me-up.

This really was way easier than I thought. Everything went REALLY fast. I made some this morning and gave it away to a friend around 10am. I felt a little funny about giving it away because I technically haven't tried baking it. I told my friend that I hadn't tried it yet and she said she'd let me know how it turned out. If I really wanted I could just bake one of the two I have left in my freezer. But, those are already intended for some special friends.

(I had the crust up over the top of the jar so I could make sure I had enough to squish the top crust with it. It worked well and there was a little left over.)

The crust recipe I used was from an old church cookbook. The recipe was titled "Best Ever Pie Crust". I figured with a title like that, I couldn't go wrong!

2 cups flour
1 cup crisco
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Cream 1 cup flour with the crisco. Add remaining flour and dry ingredients. Stir in milk. May use spoon or electric mixer. Roll out for double pie crust or 2 single pie crusts. For baked shell, fill unbaked crust with uncooked pinto beans. Bake at 450* for 15 minutes. Gently spoon out beans.

{Of course I disregarded the second half of the instructions, while making the pie in a jar.}

For the filling I just peeled 2 medium sized fresh peaches and cut them up in small pieces. I added some sugar (didn't measure - but I guess it was about 1 1/2 Tablespoons). I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. I also added about 1 Tablespoon of flour to thicken the juice.

This yielded about 3, half pint jars of pie filling. I still have some pie crust dough leftover. So, I think I may whip up some more tomorrow. {... if I can find any more of my little jars.}

I also found a great post about this on Not Martha.