Starting to Count the Days

I'm not counting the days just yet, but I'm becoming more aware that my days of leisure are numbered. Maybe that's why I've been getting quite a bit done latley. I wrote a post last year about our peach tree that hardy ever bore fruit and how I told it last year that it was on borrowed time. Russ was about ready to chop it down and then it had a bumper crop. This year, it must have still been nervous because it had hundreds of peaches. I'm very possessive of these peaches because they are incredibly good. I don't mind the birds sharing our apricots, plums, or figs, but I'll stand outside with the water hose to guard those peaches. The best method we've found though for keeping the birds away is to trick them by setting out plastic crow decoys from Cabella's.They work great for quite a while. By the end of the season, the birds have started to get wise, but we've had more luck with them than with anything else. We love to share our peaches with other humans and have given away several bags to neighbors, and a couple of night ago I made peach hand pies that my family agreed were about the best peach dessert they'd ever tasted. The recipe was easy, which made it even better.


Peach Hand Pies

2 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar, plus
sugar for dusting pies
4 lbs peaches, pitted, peeled and diced
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tsp. vanilla
2 (15 ounce) packages refrigerated pie crusts (4 crusts if homemade)
1 egg, beaten
Melt butter in sauceapn over medium heat. Combine cornstarch with 2/3 cup sugar; add to saucepan.
Stir in peaches, cinnamon, and salt. Cook until mixture thickens and simmers, about 25 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Cool completely; set aside.
Cut crusts into quarters; spoon 2 tablespoons filling into the center of each quarter, leaving 3/4-inch dough uncovered on each side.
Fold dough over filling; press edges together to seal. Transfer pies to 2 ungreased baking sheets. Brush tops of pies with egg; sprinkle with remaining sugar. Prick the tops of each pie.
Bake at 425 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes until golden, rotating baking sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking. Remove to wire racks to cool.

I found a good-sounding recipe at Reciezaar and altered it somewhat. I didn't have any lemons, so I added lime instead. And Paige suggested adding the vanilla.


They were delicious. Kai ate three of them! And yes, he is about to use his index finger as a scoop.



I'm almost finished with my socks. They look a little goofy, but I'm still happy with them. I didn't try to match the stripes because it was so long between repeats.

I've been working on my Bear Claw Pillow too. I am in LOVE with the Jaeger Extra Fine Merino, I'm using for it. It's so soft. It reminds me of Aurora 8 yarn. The greedy part of me is considering calling Wildfiber to see if they'll semd me some more, not only because they have it on sale, but also because I've discovered that it's discontinued. I've been wanting to knit the Rowan Audrey sweater ever since I saw it on the Audrey Knitalong website. This yarn would be perfect for it!