livin' in the country

today was pretty cool. tess and i went on an adventure around our little town to find fresh food! we went to the local produce stand (L&G farms) as the first stop to get some fresh fruits (a carton of 6 peaches for $2.50!), veggis, and eggs! they also have a nursery, so i inquired about fig trees. we've been hoping to plant fruit trees at the house since we moved in, and i decided that if they had them i was going to just buy one today! ...but they didn't, and they didn't have figs either, but (and this is how you know i live in the country) the 92 year old lady they sometimes buy figs from lived right down the road!

so after the produce stand guy called "ms ruby", he gave me directions to her house - and this is really what he said - just go down this road here, past the middle school, down and up a hill, and it's the first brick house on the right, there's a single-wide across the street. i mean really, how awesome is that?! so i went down the road and found ms ruby standing in the driveway with rollers still in her gray hair, and i bought 6 lbs of figs! i was hoping for 1-2 lbs, but when she asked me if i wanted 15 or 10, and told me it supplemented her income, i couldn't help myself. luckily, i know my dad will love the extras, and once you get them home, 6 lbs of figs isn't all that much. the best part? they were only $2/lb, so i only spent $12 on a massive bag of figs. try getting that deal at a fancy schmancy farmer's market for some "organic local produce".

then we went to lowe's foods (pretty much the fanciest grocery store in a 30 mi. radius) and picked up the rest of the necessities. so for dinner, tess and i prepared a feast for daddy! we made spicy bbq'd country ribs, homestyle green beans (from the stand, cooked in chicken stock i made a few weeks ago), wild mushroom rice pilaf, and la piece de resistance, fresh scratch-made peach pie! i made this thing completely on my own (with help from tess), from peeling the peaches to making and rolling out the pie dough! and since it turned out AWESOME, i'm going to give you all the recipes!
the crust:
Ingredients

* 1 cup unsalted butter, chilled
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 tablespoons white sugar
* 1/3 cup ice water

Directions

1. Combine flour and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Cut butter or margarine or butter and shortening into tablespoon pieces; add it to the flour and butter (i used plain, unsalted butter). Use the paddle beater to cut the butter and flour together. Alternatively, this can be done by hand with a pastry blender.
2. With the mixer on low speed , or while stirring the mixture with a fork, pour in the cold water. When the dough starts to clump, and before it turns into a ball, stop stirring (i had to use a little more than 1/3 cup to get to the right consistency).
3. Lightly knead dough in the bowl until it forms a ball. Divide dough into two parts. Flatten each part into a disk, and chill for about 30 minutes before rolling.

the pie:
Ingredients

* 1 (15 ounce) package pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie *just use the recipe above!*
* 1 egg, beaten
* 5 cups sliced peeled peaches (6 medium sized peaches worked just fine)
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Line the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate with one of the pie crusts. Brush with some of the beaten egg to keep the dough from becoming soggy later.
3. Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour over the peaches, and mix gently. Pour into the pie crust, and dot with butter. Cover with the other pie crust, and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal or press the edges with the tines of a fork dipped in egg. Brush the remaining egg over the top crust. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam.
4. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is brown and the juice begins to bubble through the vents. If the edges brown to fast, cover them with strips of aluminum foil about halfway through baking. Cool before serving. This tastes better warm than hot.

the crust tastes like a flaky shortbread cookie, and according to the hubby, the filling is PERFECT. the only modifications i made to the recipes were using a homemade crust (rather than a storebought as the pie recipe recommends), making sure all the ingredients were fresh (including lemon juice from a real lemon), baking for 10 mins at 450 and then 40 mins at 350 (instead of 30-35), and when i peeled one of the peaches, it was definitely not ripe at all, so i cut very thin slices and let them sit in sugar for awhile before incorporating them into the rest of the peach mixture.

let me know if you try the recipe! happy eating, and enjoy exploring your local foods!