Peaches

I love Jersey summers…when it is not so muggy (and, that’s hardly ever) that the first second you walk out the door all your clothes get glued to your skin and not peel off until you walk into a freezing air conditioned car or building. Couple weeks ago it was blazing hot and humidity was unbearable. The man in the radio station said, “It is 93 degrees right now, but it feels like 113 degrees.” Yes. Jersey summers are grrrrreat. 

 For real though, the real reason to love Jersey summers is all the berries, vegetables and fruits that grow in all the great farms and orchards. There are lots of them. New Jersey IS the garden state after all.

O and I have a favorite orchard near us. It was the first place we visited when we moved here. They have farm animals outside, and it is free to check them out. They also have lots of kitties roaming around the yard. And, O loves kitties. They also have little peddle tractors and cars for the kids to ride on, and cool old tractors that the kids can climb on. All free. The farm store has produce, but the favorite of ours is their cookies and apple cider slush. Not free. But, yummy! We always get a cookie before heading home. They also make fantastic apple cider donuts. Yum Yum!! Another great thing that the orchard does is a Read and Pick program every Tuesday morning. We have been able to attend now two of them this summer. You pay $7 per child, and the cost includes a fun story time during which the orchard lady talks about the animals on the farm and all the different produce they have available that week or month, a few songs which are not actually sung because I don’t think the orchard lady can sing (why else would she not sing head, shoulders, knees and toes?), and kids imitating animal sounds to wake up the farm. After the story time, the children get to go and pick whatever the theme happens to be for that week. And, this week we got to pick peaches.

Each child got a small paper bag, and they were allowed to pick the whole bag full. With some guidance from us moms (well…in my case a lot of guidance), the children picked about 8-9 peaches. I had never been picking peaches before. I have picked plenty of apples in my life (we used to have 13 apples trees on our yard growing up), but never peaches. I did not know that they grew attached to the branches. And, they smelled so good. And, they were all so beautiful. The kids had a great time; although, they were more interested in the cookies and apple slush that was waiting for them at the end of picking than the actual peaches. Oh well! 

The plan was to make peach pie. My friend was going to make peach gobbler. I was going to make my super easy Finnish pie with peaches on it. I had never tried making it with peaches. I always use apples. It turned out OK. I prefer the apples. However, since this recipe is so ridiculously easy. And, absolutely fantastically yummy, I thought I would share it with you here. I got this recipe about 17 years ago when I was working at a child care place in Finland. If I remembered still who gave it to me, I would be more than happy to give credit to that person. But, since I barely remember what I ate last night for dinner, I am going to just say that this is not my original recipe; although, I have added one extra ingredient to it. I prefer to make it with apples, but you could use any fruit or berry. Use whatever makes you happy. Also, the original recipe is in Finnish, but I measured everything in cups which means that the amounts are a bit strange. So, just go with it. It will taste fabulous at the end.

Super Easy (Apple) Pie

¾ cup    milk

2/3 cup  sugar

1 ½ cup flour

3 tsp      baking powder

1 tbsp    vanilla sugar (I have not tried vanilla extract, so I wouldn’t know how that would work)

5 tbsp    butter

             sugar and cinnamon

2-3       apples (or other fruit or berries)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Thinly slice your apples. Or, if you are adventurous and using berries, you may want to wash them first.
   
3. Take a round pie dish, butter it, and sprinkle plain bread crumbs so that the whole pan in covered. (NOTE: Using Italian bread crumbs may add an odd flavor to your apple pie.)
   
4. Combine all the dry ingredients and milk together. Mix until they are all combined.
   
5. Pour the batter into your buttered pie dish.
6. Add apple slices to the top of the batter. I like to leave space around the edges.
   
7. Add little bit sugar and cinnamon on top of the apples. (I did not add cinnamon on the peaches, but I did put some sugar on top.)
8. Put the pie in the oven for 15 minutes.
9. While the pie is baking, melt the butter.
10. Once 15 minutes is up. Take the pie out of the oven and pour the melted butter on top. I start from the edges of the pie and move inward.
    
11. Put the pie back in the oven for another 15-25 minutes. My oven seems to be temperamental, so I never know how long something takes. Once the pie is nice and golden brown on top and not too runny in the middle, it is done.
    
12. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream and think how super easy this pie was to make. And, plan to make it again the next day. That’s how good it is!!