Peach Cobbler

Yesterday(Mon., 8-27-07) was the first day of school for India and Coral. At 6 a.m., I took Coral to Early Morning Seminary class, saw India off to the bus at 6:35. After working out, driving Niall's carpool, doing errands, laundry, and paying bills, I showered and went to an Assembly at the Elem. school concerning the new Art program for which I am a volunteer. After hosting my Visiting Teachers and debriefing the girls as they came home from their first day-Coral was mostly positive- India, not so positive-I drove Coral to work and returned to the school for more training on the Art program. After a beautiful, home-cooked meal-not really, it was pizza and salad, I delayed taking India shopping for school supplies in order to deal with the huge pile of ripe peaches my neighbor gave us over the weekend. As they all needed to be consumed at once or wasted, I sorted, peeled and sliced them into a huge peach cobbler.

I was using the recipe I got from Granny some years ago. I thought back to when I was young and spent early mornings in the cabin on the 7D Ranch, preparing buckets of peaches, to be frozen and then transferred to the the freezer 'locker' in town before it became too hot to work.

I remembered my Grandfather pumping water from the creek-bed to water the peach trees and defending them from raccoons. Kevin thinks raccoons are cute and is inclined to feed them. He just doesn't have the understanding that comes from good midnight stake-out in the orchard with a gun.

I also remember several years ago at a family gathering preparing peach cobbler in Granny's kitchen with Aunt Susan. We talked about whether the recipe really called for that much butter(we used only half) and that we preferred a biscuit topped version. I have to admit that I have since converted to the traditional pie crust version. I also grate my nutmeg fresh.

Here is the recipe:
combine
4C fresh, peeled, peach slices
2 heaping T flour
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1C sugar
place in pie crust lined baking dish- you 1 1/2-2 recipes of pie crust altogether
top with 1/2 stick of butter, cut up, and a lattice of pie crust strips
bake at 425 degrees for 15 min. and then at 350 degrees until bubbling throughout and pie crust is done

I think the kids all tried to eat cobbler for breakfast this morning. I hope they understand why, after an exhausting day, which was not over, I spent the time on my feet to bring the traditions and flavors of my childhood into our home. I also hope they didn't see me look over the other produce neighbors have given us- odd colored cucumbers and medium to large zucchini- and sweep it all into the trash. It just doesn't inspire me like fresh peaches.