Peach Crisp

Peach Crisp is a tasty alternative to apple crisp, and a favorite in our household in the summer or winter. If you've never tried it, you don't know what you're missing. I use my home canned peaches for this recipe (2 quarts), which makes throwing everything together really simple. You can use the same recipe for apple crisp, which is equally delicious, or experiment with other fruits in place of the peaches.

This is a tried-and-true recipe that I have been using since high school. Please do not try to substitute additional butter for the shortening (it will turn into an overly greasy topping which is not very pretty!).

If you are using fresh peaches, blanch* them in boiling water first to remove their skins. Use "free-stone" peaches so you can easily remove the pits.

Filling:

• 3-4 cups sliced peaches
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
• ½ cup butter/margarine
• 1/3 cup shortening

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8” square pan and set aside.

2. Mix together all filling ingredients and pour into greased pan.

3. Mix together all dry topping ingredients and cut in butter and shortening with a pastry blender until well incorporated. Spread topping evenly over filling and bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

*How to "blanch" peaches: Bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, carefully drop in 2 or 3 peaches into the water. Wait 30-60 seconds, or until you see the skins starting to peel. Remove peaches from the water with a slotted spoon and allow to cool briefly. Cut peaches around through to the middle from stem to bottom, and using your knife or fingers, remove the skins. Skins should slide off easily.

Grandma's Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

Although my Grandma Williamson has passed on a number of sugar cookie recipes, I find this one to be the easiest. Mainly because it doesn't require chilling any dough or going through the rather laborious process of rolling and cutting dough. Score! I topped these beauties with a lemon icing this time around but I'll give you both icing recipes so you can choose between the two.

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened (or half butter/half shortening)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 5 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together until well blended. Add all other ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Use either a cookie scoop or a rounded tablespoon to drop batter onto a greased cookie sheet. These do spread a little when baking so leave some space between them. Bake for 12 minutes or until they start to be golden brown.

Standard Icing

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 2 T milk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Lemon Icing

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 2 T milk
• 4 T lemon juice or to taste
  

For the icing, I just beat together the softer, or liquid, ingredients first and then incorporate as much powdered sugar as is necessary to get it to spreading consistency.

After I got my icing to the lightly lemoned state, I set aside about 1/3 cup and colored the remainder with yellow food coloring. The picture shows the finished product with all the pieces put together! The squiggles are nothing more than the basic icing squeezed through the snipped tip of a Ziploc bag. Be as creative as you want to be and enjoy!