Day 208 (cheer, but no Unifying Theme)

This morning, when I knocked on Dikla's door to drop off BSM, he started making his little "Ah, ah" noise that he makes whenever he wants something. So I maneuvered him closer to the direction in which his little hands were stretched, and he grabbed the door handle and tried to open the door. I'm so happy that he loves going to daycare.

I also really like that the supermarket near the Yishuv has a shelf of grade B produce for 3 ILS/kg (that's 38 cents per pound, using today's exchange rate). This means that I get to bake with fruit. This past Shabbos I made a delicious peach pie (recipe below), and today I just felt like baking muffins, so I baked peach muffins. (That recipe is also below.) I've never baked muffins with classic muffin tops before. It's fun. And as Husbinator said, "The muffins are brown, so you even get to pretend you're eating something healthy!"

AND BSM took a solid two hour nap this afternoon, instead of his usual seemingly-solid hour-and-a-half nap, so he was actually cheerful when he woke up, and remained cheerful until bedtime. 'Twas glorious, indeed, and I celebrated by taking him to the playground behind our house, and he had a great time climbing and sliding and looking and pointing.

Oh, AND he took a bath without my having to put on shorts and a T-shirt and climb in with him. Granted, this bath contained neither soap nor shampoo, but since it also didn't contain me or BSM tears, I'm cool with that. Give him a couple days to get used to being the only human in the tub, then I'll break out the shampoo. Meanwhile, rubbing the dirt off with only water will do just fine, thank you very much.

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Peach Pie (Paula Deen)

7 cups fresh peaches, peeled and thickly sliced (can substitute frozen slices)
½ lemon, juiced (I used 3T lemon juice)
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon nutmeg (I don't love nutmeg, and I don't have any on hand, so I substituted cinnamon)
5 tablespoons butter, divided (if you use unsalted margarine, remember to add a pinch of salt)
1 prepared pastry for a 9” double crust pie
1 egg

Pre heat oven to 425º F.

Roll one half of the pie dough out to fit the bottom of your pie pan, allowing a 1” over hang and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

In a large sauce pan, add peaches, lemon juice, sugar and flour and stir until coated. Bring fruit mixture to a low boil. Reduce heat to low and cook until fruit is just slightly tender. Remove pan from heat. Stir in almond extract, nutmeg and three tablespoons butter. Allow to cool slightly.

Remove pie pan from refrigerator and fill with the cooled mixture. Dot the top of the fruit with the pieces of the remaining two tablespoons butter. Roll out the second crust and decorate the top of the pie with a lattice top or any special way you like. (If covering the top of your pie completely with the top crust, make sure to cut slits in the top to allow the steam to escape) Decoratively crimp the edges.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg together with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the top of your pie with the egg wash.

Bake for 10 minutes then lower heat to 350ºF for an additional 30 minutes or until the top is golden and the fruit is bubbly.

Cool before slicing.

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Peach Muffins (King Arthur Flour)

4 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (I don't have any on hand, so I skipped it)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I don't have any on hand, so I skipped it)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (since I skipped 1 t of other spices, I put in 2t cinnamon)

(I also threw in a little more than a teaspoon of vanilla)2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups milk
4 peaches, diced (not peeled) or 3 cups small whole berries or other fruit, diced
granulated sugar

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in eggs, vegetable oil and milk, then gently stir in fruit. Grease 16 muffin cups, and heap batter into cups; they'll be very full. (I.e., fill those cups all the way up to the tippy top.) Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins test done. Makes 16 muffins. (I used foil muffin cups that seem a bit larger than I remember my muffin tins as being, and I made 18 muffins.)