Fresh Peach Pie

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Peach season has been abundant around here.  I have some very awesome neighbors who shared their bounty with me.  One neighbor invited me to pick peaches with her, another left a bag of peaches on the front porch and yet another sets a box out at the end of the driveway for anyone who needs a few.  I've made topping for waffles, I froze peach pie filling, I made fruit leather, I froze some for smoothies--but I also made a fresh peach pie.  Oh, this is a treat for sure!

Makes a 10" pie
7 C. sliced fresh peaches, divided (probably about 10 big peaches)
1 C. sugar
5 T. cornstarch (I might use 6 T next time)
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. butter
1 10" baked pie crust


When you make fresh peach pie you mix the raw peaches with a glaze.  I don't care for the pre-made peach sauce that you buy in plastic tubs in the produce section.  I thought I liked the box of powdered peach pie filling mix--until I made my own.  Yeah, you have to ditch the box. It won't take much extra time.

First, bake a pie crust and let it cool on the counter. You can do it any way you like, buy a frozen one, refrigerated dough or make your own.  Next, peel your peaches (I use the quick blanching method to get the skins to slip off rather than try to do it with a paring knife) and get them sliced up and in a big bowl.



You will need to put the juice that has accumulated at the bottom of your bowl as well as 1 cup of the peaches into a blender.  You should have about 1 1/2 cups of puree (add water if needed, or wait a few minutes and get a bit more juice from the peaches still in the bowl).  Add the sugar and  cornstarch and blend til smooth.




Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat on medium until it comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, remove from heat and add butter and lemon juice.  Pour the hot mixture over your sliced peaches.  Gently mix with a spatula then pour into the crust.

Put the pie in the fridge for at least 4 hours and serve with whipped cream. 

Bottling Grapefruit

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I ran across a Pin one day while looking at "Popular" pins and found a fun blog that had lots of canning and preserving instructions.  The post that interested me most (at the moment) was the bottled grapefruit.  I like grapefruit.  Even as a kid I liked it--provided it had a lot of sugar on the top.

I really enjoy the fancy grapefruit in the glass jars from the grocery store that have all the membrane removed--but its usually over $3 a jar, so I don't buy it too often.  Today, looking at the grocery ads, a small store had grapefruits on sale 5 for $1.  I stopped by and picked up 20 fruits (each were about a pound) for just $4 and tried out home canning of grapefruit.

When you peel and de-membrane the fruit, you lose a lot of volume.  I did 10 fruits and got 4 pints of finished product.  It took me about 40 minutes to peel and prepare the fruit.  I thought about doing the other 10 fruit on the counter, but I think I'll just eat them fresh--but it was a fun project for an evening.

Supplies
Grapefruit
Sugar
Water
Canning jars with new lids and bands
Sharp knife!
Water bath canner
Funnel

Prepare the fruit
I used my sharp santoku knife to slice away the peel and pith.  Then I sliced as close along a segment's membrane on both sides and popped it out of the fruit.  Do this over a bowl since it will be juicy and slurpy.  Put the prepared fruit in a bowl and try to keep out the seeds.





Sugar syrup
You can make it more or less sweet.  I used 5 cups of water and 1 3/4 cups of sugar (which was about twice the syrup I needed for my fruit).  Mix the water and sugar in a pot and bring it to a boil.


Add the fruit to the jars and then pour the hot sugar syrup over the top, leaving about 1/2 inch of space at the top of the jar.  Use a knife to slide around the edges of the jar to get rid of any air bubbles).  Wash the rim of the jar off and put on the lid and band.


Process the fruit
Put the hot fruit-filled jars into the water bath canner and bring up to a boil.  Once its boiling, process for 15 minutes (I live above 4,500 feet).  Pull the jars out and set on the counter.  The lid should have "sucked down" and not make any noise when you push on it--otherwise the seal didn't work and you'll need to keep the jar in the fridge and use it first.



Since I already had jars and sugar, I got 4 pints of grapefruit for $2, so much better than the $3 at the store-and I enjoyed a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory while I was at it!

Apricot Habanero Jam

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Saturday I was headed to the Big Orange Box store for the 3rd time for a yard project when I drove past a house at the end of the street with a sign that said "Free apricots" with a ladder all ready to go in the yard-sweet!  I stopped by and knocked on the door and the gentleman who lived there was happy to have the fruit go to a good home.   It was great to chat with him while I picked about 2 grocery bags of apricots.

I knew I was going to make some jam, but I wanted something more interesting than usual.  Some searching around the internet and I saw that adding in peppers was popular.  That sounded great.  I've done jalapeno jelly before and it was tasty.  I pulled out my Ball Canning book (the blue one) and saw that the recipe for regular apricot jam didn't call for pectin. Hmmm, I haven't done that before, so I hedged my bets and used 1 package of liquid pectin during the last 1 minute of cooking. Just in case.

Ingredients
8 cups apricot puree (about 12 cups of whole fruit...maybe 5 pounds?)
6 cups sugar
3 habanero peppers
1 teaspoon butter
1 pouch liquid pectin (optional...the recipe didn't call for it)

I washed the apricots in the sink and then used my fingers to split them in 1/2 and pull out the pits.  I then pureed (chunky) the fruit in my food processor.
 

I removed the seeds from the peppers and tossed them in the processor along with about 1 cup of the fruit puree.


Mix the fruit and sugar in  a large pot (I used my 8 quart dutch oven) and bring to a boil on medium heat.  Stir occasionally and cook until reduced about half (took about 25 minutes for me).  The color goes from the light, bright color to a dark caramel-ly color.  I also used a  thermometer to check when it got to about 220 degrees.  For the last minute of cooking, I added 1 pouch of liquid pectin and boiled for one minute, then filled my sterilized jars (makes about 5 pints) and processed in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Tastes great.  It does have a kick, but the cooking tones it down from when I tasted the raw puree.  Serve with cream cheese on crackers or as a side for pork or chicken.  Could be a tasty replacement for cranberry sauce on a sandwich. My mom suggested it as a dipping sauce for fried cream cheese wontons.  Hmmm, a trip to the store for won ton wrappers may be in order tonight.

Applesauce

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As a kid, I remember August and September being busy helping my mom and grandma put up fruit.  Our basement was filled with jars of peaches, cherries and pears.  I will admit to just being too lazy to do lots of canning, but I make an exception for homemade applesauce.

As with just about anything homemade (and made with homegrown items)--its going to taste better than anything at the grocery store.  The grocery store varieties are just too sweet or too much like baby food for my taste.  Applesauce is very easy, and pretty fool-proof.  Its even easier if you have a food mill, so that you don't have to peel the apples.

You will need:

Apples (I had 1/2 bushel of Ginger Gold-a sweet and spicy soft apple, terrible for eating, wonderful for sauce--I get them from my favorite vendor at the farmer's market)
Food mill
Jars with lids and bands


Since I use a food mill, I won't be peeling my apples, so I wash them in the sink.  Next, I cut the apples up using one of those apple cutters.  I put all the pieces, including the core into a large stockpot with about 1/2 cup of water.  Cover with a lid and simmer until the apples are soft (about 20 minutes)--you will need a big spoon to try and rotate the apples from the top to the bottom at least once.

Dump the soft apples into the top of the food mill and crank it out.  I use a large cake pan to collect the sauce.  Don't worry if the first bit looks a bit runny, once you have all the pulp through you can stir it up.  I run the "garbage" peels etc...3 or 4 more times to get all the goodness out that I can. I do not add anything to my applesauce--but some folks like sugar or cinnamon.


In my sterilized jars, I add the warm applesauce and leave about 3/4" of space.  Put on the lid and screw on the band.  I used my steam canner, bringing the batch up to full steam then timing it for 25 minutes.

I'm told you can freeze applesauce instead of processing it, but my freezer was kinda full...and I do like seeing the pretty jars in my storage room.  Even if you don't want to make a giant batch, make a small batch and serve it warm in a bowl like you would oatmeal (pour on some half and half, brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans)--yeah, good stuff.

Freezing Corn

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As a kid, I remember my family spending the end of summer putting up food for the winter.  Mom bottled peaches, bing cherries, pears and pickles.  She also made use of our avocado green  upright freezer (which I think may still be around somewhere...) by freezing corn.  Corn was a veggie that all of us kids would definitely eat.  Since I was just a kid, it seemed like a literal mountain of corn that would be piled out in the  yard and my brothers and I were assigned to husk it all (with the reward of a trip to A&W for a rootbeer float after).  I figure that it was probably around 12 dozen ears of corn...wow, lots of corn.  Big family.

Twelve dozen would be serious overload for me, so I usually do just 1.5 dozen, sometimes 2.  If the ears of corn are good sized, you'll get about 1 c. of kernels per ear.  Start to finish for my 1.5 dozen was about an hour.

Get the corn husked and rinsed to get off as much of the silk as you can.

If you are doing a large amount of corn, you'll want to buy a block of ice and fill up one side of the sink with the ice block and water--the other side of the sink is just cold water. If you do a small batch, like me, you can get away without the ice block.

Bring your water to a boil and add as much corn as will fit.  Bring back up to boil and put the lid on the pot--boil for 4 minutes.

Remove the corn from the boiling water and leave it in a bowl for a few minutes while you go get more corn for the pot.

Once the next batch of corn is on the timer, you put the cooked corn in the side of the sink WITHOUT the ice to cool a bit.  As you keep bringing corn from the stove, you'll move corn out of the water side and into the ice side.  (See, if you go straight from the pot to the ice side, you'll melt the ice...what you want is to cool the corn a bit first in the water, then get it nice and cold so that it stops cooking and will be easy to handle).

Pull the corn out of the ice water and place on a clean towel.

You can either get all the corn cooked and cooled before you start cutting it off the cob, or you can just do each batch as it is ready.

To cut the corn off the cob I like to use a pan with low sides (like the broiler pan)-although today I used a serving platter and a sharp butcher knife.  There are gadgets that are designed for cutting kernel off, but a sharp knife works really well. (I couldn't hold the camera, the knife and the corn all at the same time, so be sure to use both hands :)

Hold the corn with the fat end on the tray and cut the kernels off close to the cob.  With a couple tries you'll find just the right spot where you're getting all the corn off the cob, but not getting any of the tough cob in the process.

Once the corn is cut off, you have a pile off corn strips that everyone who walks by will snag.  Use your hands to reach in and break up the corn.  I do not add anything to the corn. 

All that is left is to measure it into freezer bags.  I make small 1-cup serving portions and put it in regular sandwich bags, because I like to put several bags into a larger freezer bag.  My mom used to do 3-cup bags for our family of 7.

This corn is so tasty in January when generally there is no good produce to be found.  Well, I think a rootbeer float is in order!

Rhubarb Abundance!

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I grew up in Idaho, and apparently that may have something to do with my enjoying foods that many of my friends have either never heard of or can't imagine anyone liking--rhubarb is one of those foods.  I love the tartness that this "fruit" gives to pies and cobblers.  I planted my own last year, but it was too small to harvest anything from this year.  Lucky for me, my friend had an abundance and was willing to share with me!

I already made (and ate) the rhubarb cobbler--with no pictures.  Oops.  I use Paula Deen's cobbler recipe because it always works and I've tried it with lots of different kinds of fruits.

4 C. rhubarb (or any other fruit that you love)
2 C. sugar, divided
1/2 C. water
1/2 C. butter, melted
1 1/2 C. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder (scant)
1 1/2 C. milk

Preheat the oven to 350.  On the stove in a medium saucepan mix the fruit, 1 C. sugar and the water.  Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.  While fruit is coming to a boil:  In a 3 qt baking dish, put the butter in the bottom of the dish.  In a separate mixing bowl, mix 1 C. sugar, the flour, salt, baking powder and milk together to make a batter.  Pour the batter on top of the melted butter; don't stir it.   When fruit mixture is done, spoon or carefully pour it all over the top of the batter.  Bake for about 40 minutes.  During the baking time, the butter mixes in the batter, the fruit ends up on the bottom and the batter is all golden and moist on the top.  Yum.


OK, since I had so much rhubarb I also made up some pie filling to use later.  I've done this technique before with apple and cherry pies.  Check it out here.  For this recipe, I used:

4 C. chopped fresh rhubarb
1 1/2 C. sugar
3 T. instant tapicoa

Put all ingredients in a gallon size freezer bag.  Zip it up and mix it up.  Let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes, then place the whole bag into a pie pan.  Freeze it in the pan.  Once frozen, you have a pan-shaped disc of filling mix that you can use to make a quick pie.  I usually use refrigerator pie dough, so my prep time is about 2 minutes, then let it bake for 45-60 minutes (its a long time because the filling is frozen), so you'll need to use foil to shield the edges of the crust during the long baking time.

Still MORE rhubarb?

I still had more rhubarb, but I was out of tapioca for more pie filling.  No worries, you can just chop up rhubarb and put it in freezer bags to use later in a cobbler, pie or some other treat.  I bagged it up in 4 c. packages.  Easy!

Dad's Homemade Salsa

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My family loves salsa. I can remember coming home from church on Sundays and immediately digging into a bag of chips with salsa, if you were slow getting home, you were out of luck! My dad now makes this salsa (he won't even eat bottled salsa anymore) and you can whip it up in about 5 minutes, so try it out!

Ingredients

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles

1 can diced tomatoes

1-2 jalepenos, seeded and roughly chopped

1 small onion, roughly chopped

1 sm bunch of cilantro

1 lime

I'm lucky enough to have cilantro growing in my garden this year, so I used it. I didn't have a lime in the fridge, so I used lime juice (about 1 T). Open the cans of tomatoes and dump them into the food processor. Chop the onion into big chunks (just so that the food processor can get the job done faster). If you like spicy salsa, use more jalepeno, but it tends to get hotter the second day, so I go easy. Wash the cilantro and put in the processor.

Once everything is in the bowl of the processor, put the lid on and pulse it until you get to your desired "chunkiness." Make sure you have some chips on hand, this stuff is tasty :)

Rhubarb Crisp and Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

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Happy National Ice Cream Day! To celebrate, I used more of those tasty garden strawberries in some home made ice cream. I'm a fan of Cook's Illustrated magazine (and their TV show, America's Test Kitchen) because they tell me WHY I need to prepare a recipe a certain way. The scientist in me just wants to know why. This ice cream recipe is a custard style and it substituted some of the sugar with corn syrup to help reduce the ice crystals that usually form in home made ice cream. I have to say, it works, but it isn't a fast recipe (I mixed it up in about 15 minutes, but then you need to chill it and strain it before you freeze it). Haagen Daaz, watch out!

I know most people love the combo of strawberry rhubarb crisp/cobbler, but I don't like my strawberries all cooked and soggy, so I decided to try out this Taste of Home magazine recipe and used the version that had rhubarb and apples (and saved the strawberries for the ice cream). Tasty stuff. Mix the ice cream and the crisp together and YUMMY!

Both recipes and instructions are below.

Rhubarb Crisp

Quaker Oats Recipe

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 cups sliced fresh rhubarb or frozen rhubarb, thawed
• 2 cups sliced peeled apples or sliced strawberries
• 1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted (next time, I'd use 1/4 C.)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add rhubarb and apples or strawberries; toss to coat. Spoon into an 8-in. square baking dish. (I doubled the recipe and used my 5 qt casserole)
• In a small bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender. (my doubled recipe baked for 65 min). Serve warm with ice cream if desired. Yield: 8 servings.

Premium Vanilla Ice Cream

Cook’s Illustrated, July./Aug 2011, Pg 23

1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla or vanilla bean paste)

1 ¾ C. heavy cream

1 ¼ C. whole milk

½ C. plus 2 T sugar

1/3 C. light corn syrup

¼ t. salt

6 large egg yolks

Opt: 1/4 C. strawberry puree plus some sliced berries for texture (I used some fresh freezer jam and some berries instead).

1. Place an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan in the freezer to chill. Cut vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrap out the seeds. Combine vanilla bean, seeds, cream, milk ¼ C. plus 2 T sugar, corn syrup and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until steaming steadily and thermometer reaches 175. Remove from heat.

2. While milk is heating, whisk yolks and remaining sugar in a bowl until smooth, about 30 seconds. Slowly whisk 1 cup of the heated milk mixture into eggs, then pour all of egg/cream mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thermometer registers 180 and mixture has thickened slightly. Immediately pour mixture into a large bowl and allow to cool 10-20 minutes. Transfer 1 cup of mixture into a small bowl and cover both bowls with plastic wrap. Place large bowl in fridge and small bowl in freezer. Cool at least 4 hours or overnight (small bowl will freeze completely).

3. Remove custards from fridge and freezer. Scrape frozen custard into the bowl of refrigerated custard and stir until smooth. Strain custard through fine mesh sieve (Note: If using regular vanilla instead of vanilla bean, add it now). Transfer the mix to the ice cream freezer immediately. Churn until it resembles soft serve and is about 21 degrees (add the strawberry puree in the last 30-60 seconds). Transfer to the chilled baking dish, press plastic wrap onto the surface of the ice cream and freeze for about 1 hour.

4. After about an hour, transfer ice cream to an air tight container, pressing firmly to remove air pockets. Freeze until firm, about 2 hours. Keeps about 5 days.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

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Need a fast dessert that won't heat up your kitchen on a hot summer day? Try making a fresh strawberry pie! You can make your own regular pie crust (which I have given up trying), you could use a box pie crust mix (like Krustez or Betty Crocker) or you can use a pre-made graham cracker crust. I took these ingredients with me up to the cabin for the 4th of July for a yummy summertime dessert.

Ingredients

1 9-inch pie crust

1 pkg Danish Dessert, Strawberry (Junket brand...found on the Jello aisle, usually on top shelf)

1 3/4 C. cold water

4 C. sliced fresh strawberries

If you are lucky like me and have a strawberry patch that is doing amazing things, go get some berries, wash, hull and slice them (or at least cut them in half so that they are nice bite size slices).

In a small saucepan combine the cold water and Danish Dessert mix and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.

Pour the sauce over the berries and gently mix. Pour into the prepared pie crust. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (I prefer to not leave overnight because the berries start to get soft).

Top with whip cream if you like! Super tasty and inexpensive (strawberries...free, Danish Dessert $1.34 and crust, $1.19 at Walmart).