Fun Food Friday- Peach Pie- Fresh & Baked

Peaches are in bloom over here in West Michigan.  I went to the orchard and got a lot of peaches.  Steve wanted me to make a fresh peach pie like his mom makes.  It's a great pie, but you can't freeze it and since I had lots of peaches and didn't want to be eating peach pie for the next couple of weeks, I decided to also make some baked peach pies to put in the freezer.  So that's what you have below, 2 different peach pie recipes.  For the baked pie recipe I doubled it and it ended up making 3 pies (when I freeze pies I use disposable pie pans which are smaller than my glass pie pans so I usually end up getting more pies out of my recipes).  I find it's not usually all that much more work to make 3 pies and then you have a freezer full. :)  I linked my pie crust recipe everywhere it says pie crust to make it easy for you to find my blog on making pie crust :).  Enjoy!

Fresh Peach Pie

Ingredients: Baked Pie Crust, Peaches, Corn Starch, Light Corn Syrup, Peach Jell-O (3oz), Sugar

Peel and slice up peaches

To a saucepan add 1 cup of sugar...

1 cup of water...

 

2 Tablespoons light corn syrup...

And 3 Tablespoons cornstarch

Bring this to a boil...

Until thickened.  It will be transparent looking.

Remove from heat and add a 3oz package of Peach Jell-O (I accidentally got the big box so I had to measure out half of it, that's why it's coming out of a measuring cup :))

Stir until all combined.  It will now turn into a nice orange color

Add 1 quart of peaches ( I think I used about 10 small/medium peaches)

And mix until all combined with the syrup

Pour into a baked pie crust...

It needs to refrigerate for a few hours until cooled and thickened up.

Top with cool whip and enjoy!

Baked Peach Pie (this will make 3 pies)

Ingredients: Pie Crust, Peaches, Flour, Sugar, Cinnamon, Butter, Vanilla

To a big saucepan add 11 cups peeled and sliced peaches...

2 cups of sugar...

1/2 cup flour...

and 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Stir together and set aside until syrup forms

Then bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes or until the peaches are tender, stirring often

Remove from heat and add 6 tablespoons of butter...

and 2 teaspoons of vanilla

Stir until all the butter is melted

Roll out 3 pie crusts

Fill with the pie filling

For the top roll out a pie crust and using a pizza cutter slice into 1/2 inch strips

Place 5 strips on one side of the pie and fold back

Then weave strips through those strips, alternating over and under

Until they look like this

Three pies all ready for the freezer.  I froze them and then covered and put them in a ziplock.

I had some extra peach slices so I decided to just throw them in a pan...

Sprinkle on some sugar...

And top with some apple crisp topping I had in my freezer

And now I also have a peach crisp in my freezer! 

I love having pies all ready to go in the freezer.  When you're ready to use one just thaw and then bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 and bake 25-30 more minutes or until crust is browned.

 

Fresh Peach Pie

1 Baked Pie Crust

1 quart peaches, peeled and sliced

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 Tbs cornstarch

2 Tbs light corn syrup

1 (3oz) pkg peach Jell-o

 

Boil sugar, water, cornstarch and corn syrup together until thickened.  Take off heat and add Jell-O.  Add peaches to syrup, combine and pour into the pie crust.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Top with cool whip.

 

Baked Peach Pie (This recipe is for 1 pie)

5 1/2 cups peeled, sliced fresh peaches

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tbs butter

1 tsp vanillas

2 unbaked pie crust

 

Combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan; set side until syrup forms.  Bring mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, and cook 10 minutes or until peaches are tender, stirring often.  Remove from heat.  Add butter and vanilla, stir until butter is melted.  Roll out 1 of the pie crusts and place in pie pan.  Pour pie filling into crust.  Roll out the other pie crust.  Cut into 1/2 inch strips and arrange strips in a lattice design.  At this point you can either bake or freeze.  If freezing allow to cool and freeze before covering.  When ready to bake allow to thaw.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 to 30 minutes or until crust is browned.



Week 43

Jonathan- 21.8 pounds
David- 20.7 pounds

Both boys are doing great although I have to say I seriously think they are getting more teeth!  They both are still drooling like crazy and chewing on their fingers like they're starving!  But thankfully they're staying pretty happy.  As you can see they both can stand up next to things.  Saturday Jonathan pulled himself up for the first time and is now expertly pulling himself up on everything he can.  Unfortunately for him the first time he did it he was standing over Micah so he didn't stay up long as Micah proceeded to push him down. :)  What are big brothers for right? :) Here he is standing up:

And then just tonight David pulled himself up for the first time (I'll have to get a video of him this coming week)!  No cruising yet, their feet stay where they are when they stand up. :)  I put the exersaucer, playmat and bouncer away in the basement this week, it's so nice to get some floor space back, my living room seems so much bigger.  As you can see from their weights David is slowly but surely catching up to Jonathan.  One other fun thing this week is Micah has started calling them by their names (well, he calls them "Jon" and "Dave"- only he is allowed to do that :)) and it is amazing that almost every time he gets it right who is who.  It is really fun to see all the boys play together.  Micah seems to like it more and more everyday getting to play with his brothers.  Sometimes he gets frustrated that they don't understand what he is telling them. But he really is so sweet to them.  David and Jonathan are starting to play together, but that more consists of them stealing each other's toys:

There truly never is a dull moment over here.  Someone is always moving, always getting into something they're not supposed to, something is always being thrown.  Boys definitely rule over here.  But life continues to be good.
Here's some pictures from our week:

 

As you can see, this is a picture Micah took.  Steve and I were quite impressed.  He is taking a picture of his reflection in the oven door, quite the photographer that boy.

Steve had an elders meeting on Monday so the boys and I walked down to the playground.  Micah was so easy at this age, he did not like grass, so you could put him on a blanket and know he would not get off of it because that required touching the grass.  As you can see, David does not have the same problem. :)  And Jonathan seems to think grass tastes good because he is constantly trying to eat it.

This is a car Micah got from a couple at church after the twins were born.  It used to be able to ride on its own.  Then one day Micah decided he wanted to take it to the playground and have it ride down the slide.  Each time it came down the slide something broke on it.  First the battery cover came off, then the axle broke, then the battery pack came detached, etc. So we took it home, taped it up and as you can see on the next video- "No Broke!" :)

 

 

Micah would consider this week a good week because 2 nights in a row he got to "eat bye-bye".  Friday night we went to a lady from church's house to watch a car cruise and ate dinner on her lawn and then Saturday night for my birthday we picked up dinner and ate at the CRC Conference grounds

Micah and I were playing with his beach ball one morning, hitting it to each other, well, I would hit it to him and he would just hit it up.  And one of the times he hit it he somehow got it stuck in the curtain.  He was quite proud of himself.  We had to keep it up there for a couple of hours until Steve came home for lunch so Daddy could see it :)

I got a new ice cream maker for my birthday.  The motor on my old one was shot.  But the bucket was perfectly fine and I always thought it looked like a trash can so I decided we would just put it in the spare bedroom but it just looked boring so I asked Micah if he wanted to color it, he thought that was a fun idea.  So "Nana's room" (what Micah calls our spare room) now has a fun trash can.

The twins woke up early from their nap the other day so I decided they still needed to rest so I laid them on the floor and put Praise Baby on.  They actually stayed laying there for at least 10 minutes :)

Play time is so much fun.  I love when they all play together

Micah told me he needed to feed Teddy.  So I put Teddy in the high chair and gave him a bowl and spoon and bottle.  Well, there was a can of Puffs on the table.  Micah decided that's what Teddy needed to eat so he would put a Puff on the spoon and give it to Teddy...

and then proceed to eat it himself. :)  Silly boy

And lastly, on the garden front, my tomatoes are doing great!!! :)

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Fun Food Friday- Blueberry Muffins

One of the great things about living in West Michigan is all the fresh fruit during the summer.  Right now we are in blueberry season so I thought I would share with you a yummy blueberry muffin recipe.  This one has a crumble on top that gives it a sweet crunch.  If you don't have access to fresh blueberries you can always use frozen, just thaw them before you put them in the batter.

Ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Salt, Butter, Cinnamon, Blueberries, Eggs, Baking Powder, Vanilla, Milk

In a bowl cream together 3/4 cup butter...

And 1 1/2 cups sugar

To the creamed mixture add 3 eggs...

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla...

1 Tablespoon baking soda

and 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix together until nice and smooth

With the mixer on low add 1 cup flour...

and 1/4 cup milk.  Repeat this 2 more times until you have used 3 cups flour and 3/4 cup milk.

Mix until all combined and smooth

Add 2 cups of blueberries

and mix on the stir level so you don't smash up the blueberries

For the crumble to a bowl add 1/3 cup sugar...

3 Tablespoon flour...

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon..

and 2 Tablespoons cold butter

Cut together with a pastry blender...

Until all crumbly

Scoop the batter into muffin tins.  I like to use an ice cream scoop so they are all the same size.

Top with the crumble

Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

Blueberry Muffins

3/4 cup butter (12 Tablespoons), softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
3 cups flour
3/4 cup milk
Crumble:
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, cold

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt and mix.  With the mixer running at low speeding, add 1/3 of the flour, then 1/3 of the milk.  Repeat 2 more times.  Fold in the blueberries.  For the crumble combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Cut in the butter using a pastry blender.  Spoon the batter into the muffin cups.  Top with the crumble.  Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes.