Sort of, anyway.  Cooking domesticity.

Did I ever post the peach pie?  It was orgasmic.   Had to be the peaches, because I suck at baking.

Adapted from a recipe from Suite101, Cyndi Allison.

PS, how the hell do people take such nice food pictures and why don’t mine look that good?  I know, for starters, don’t set the pie on the most beat up aluminum cookie sheet that I own.  WhatEV.
* Double pie crust (9 inch size)
* 5 or 6 cups of fresh ripe peaches (sliced).  Wash the fuzz off a little if you’re not going to peel them. Or don’t worry about it.
* 1 TBL fresh lemon juice
* 1/2 cup sugar – My peaches were very sweet, so I halved the original 1 cup of sugar
* 5 or 6 TBLs regular flour, depending upon how soft and juicy your peaches are
* ¼ tsp cinnamon or less
* 2 TBS real butter

Directions:
After 3 tries, I got the perfect pie.
1. You can make your own pie crust or get a frozen double crust of refrigerator crusts.
2. If using prepared crusts, let them thaw out or warm up.  I used both Mrs. Smiths and Marie Callander’s crusts.  Marie’s wins in terms of butteriness.  I used the refrigerator type first.  It was not any better than the preshaped frozen crusts.
3. Mix the lemon juice with the fresh peaches. Stir to get the lemon juice mixed in.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Mix well. You can also dump it straight on the peaches, still works well.
5. Stir the sugar/flour mix in with the peaches.
6. Pour the peach mixture in a pie crust.
7. Dot the butter evenly around on top of the peach mix in the crust.
8. Top with the second crust.
9. Use a knife to make slits in the top pie crust.
10. Flute the edges of the crust. Or just mash them together like I did.  Still looks edible.
11. Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for around 40 minutes. Check often near the end of the baking time as ovens can vary. The middle of the pie should be a pretty buttery brown, and you’ll see bubbles in the knife slits.
12. You’ll probably need to put strips of tin foil or a pie edge protector around the outside edge of the pie the last 15 minutes or so. Fluted edges tend to get darker than the center on homemade pies.

Fresh peach pie is fabulous served warm. Some folks like to scoop on a spoon of vanilla ice cream.

Peach pie is also fine served cold. The pie does need to be stored in the refrigerator, since it’s a fruit pie.

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Remember the tomatoes from Hell?  I picked a bunch of green ones and made Chow-Chow from a recipe sent to me by my friend Bev.  She’s southern and her Mamaw (grandma to me) made Chow-Chow with a recipe that was about like this (she can’t find the original, it’s buried in her garage).

I think it has about twice as much vinegar as it needs, but then I’ve never really been an expert on Chow-Chow, so?   If you want a jar, let me know.  Warning:  It’s not for the faint of heart. Or faint of gastrointestinal tract.

Less peppers, more green tomatoes in my batch.  Really, it’s pretty weird.  But I’m not southern. YMMV.
Mamaw’s Chow-Chow

1 medium green cabbage, about 2 pounds
2 red peppers
4 green peppers (Skip these and add more onions and cabbage, if you ask me – Bev)
4 onions
6 green tomatoes
1/3 cup non-iodized salt
Cold water, about 8 cups
8 hot sterilized pint-size jars
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
6 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons turmeric
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
My comments are in [brackets]

Choose vegetables that are garden fresh and free of blemishes. Select a tight head of cabbage with green, tender leaves. Rinse the vegetables several times, making sure all are completely free of debris or grit.

Lay the cabbage on a cutting board and cut into quarters. Cut out the core and discard. Lay the cabbage flat on the cutting board and shred finely. Rinse 2 to 3 times with cold water and drain.  Core and dice the red and green peppers; thinly slice the onions; and chop the green tomatoes. [I used my food processor and just pulsed a few times, worked brilliantly on all the vegetables including the cabbage.  But not the red bell pepper, which I hand diced just to be pretty in the jars.]

Place the vegetables in a large glass or earthenware bowl. (You will probably have to use two bowls.) Sprinkle with the salt, and add just enough water to cover the vegetables. Using a large spoon, toss the vegetables well.

Cover the bowl with a cloth or plastic wrap and allow the vegetables to remain in the salt brine overnight, preferably in the refrigerator or in a cool place. The next morning, drain the vegetables well and set aside.

Prepare the sterilized jars. Meanwhile, tie the pickling spice and mustard seeds in a small piece of cheesecloth or any other white cotton fabric. (Canning purists do this to keep from biting down on seeds and berries when eating the chow-chow. The bag is removed from the relish before canning. It is perfectly acceptable to can the vegetables with the spices.)

Combine in a large, heavy, stainless steel or enamel pot the vinegar, sugar, turmeric, ginger, and the bag containing the pickling the pickling spice and mustard seeds. (Don’t use an aluminum, copper, or iron pot because the interaction of the vinegar and salt with these metals will discolor the vegetables.)
Add the drained, salted vegetables–the cabbage, red and green peppers, onions, and green tomatoes–and mix well.  [I also rinsed my veggies just a little, so as not to swell up like a balloon when I tried it.  Still plenty salty]

Cook the vegetables over medium-low heat for just 10 minutes, stirring constantly. [It took 20 minutes and I had the heat up on med-high for half the time.  It’s a LOT of vegetables to heat through in 10 minutes on med-low. ]   Watch carefully because the mixture can stick and burn easily. Remove the pot immediately from the heat. Remove the cloth bag of spices and discard . Pack the vegetables into the hot sterilized jars (run them through a dishwasher cycle with the drying cycle on), leaving 1/2-inch space at the top of each jar. Seal at once.
Makes 8 pints.