Peach Crisp

My weekend without John went by fairly quickly and productively.  I was able to clean the house yesterday and do a few extra cleaning type things (clean up my garden, clean out and organize the bathroom cabinets, pack away my summer clothes, bring out the fall clothes and get rid of some jeans).  Today I was able to relax and enjoy some time with God.  It was such a beautiful fall day.  I love the changing of the seasons and right now I am loving the fall weather, especially after the hot hot summer we had.  I just want to be outside going for walks and bike rides and be inside baking!  It's the perfect time to have the oven going with lots of fall treats.  Normally at this time of year I am baking lots of apple crisps, well all year round I do that, but this is the time of year that apples are being harvested, so you tend to make them a bit more now.  But today I had some peaches that I needed to use up, so I thought that I would try a peach crisp, something I've never made before.

Since I've never made a peach crisp, I learned a few things about baking with fresh peaches today.  I've never had to peel them before and began with a paring knife and was just going to go at them, but as I started I realised that it was probably going to take me forever to do it that way.  So after looking up online (and a little advice from my Nanny who I was talking to on the phone), I decided it would be better to boil them and then dunk them in ice water to get them off.

Now I'm not sure if I did something wrong in this process, but it seemed to take forever to get the skin to want to pull off completely.  I finally ended up taking a knife to a couple of them, but it was still probably easier than how I was originally going to do it.  Most of them ended up having the skin pull off, even if it was in sections.

The first of many peaches to be peeled.

Once the peaches were done, everything else went easy, just mixed up the topping, put it on and let it bake.  I showed John the finished product over the webcam tonight and he said the only problem with me making it while he was gone was that he couldn't have any.  Looks like I'll be making another one when we get back from Hawaii, which I'm fine with because this recipe was delicious!!

mmmmm good :)

Juicy Peach Crisp
(from Allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/juicy-peach-crisp/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=juicy%20peach%20crisp&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page)

Ingredients:
6 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter

Directions:

1)  Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and grease an 8 inch square baking dish.

2)  Place the peaches in the bottom of the baking dish, and sprinkle them with almond extract.

3)  In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles crumbs.

4)  Sprinkle the flour mixture in an even layer over the top of the peaches, and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, until the peaches are bubbling and the topping is browned.