Just Peachy

We keep pretty busy in August. We have birthdays to celebrate, Summer holidays to enjoy and peaches to eat. Lots and lots of peaches. Seems like every week I come home from the grocery store with peaches once August hits. I can't help it. David loves peaches. Particularly when I bake them into peach crisp.

This Peach Crisp recipe is from The Complete America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. You can find the recipe here, billed as apple crisp but with a peach substitution suggested at the bottom. I made Apple Crisp in the Fall using a Bon Appetit recipe that was pretty perfect but I am always up to try new crisp recipes. (Hence the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp I turned out just last month.) Three out of four Robinsons in this household agree that the crisp is one of our favourite desserts. Nothing could be easier. Cut up some fruit, toss with with sugar, then set about creating a lovely crisp to go on top. This crisp topping includes the old standbys - flour, sugar(s), oatmeal and cinnamon. It also includes nuts which I don't cook or bake with often, even though none of us are allergic to nuts. I think I have heard 'no nuts please' from school, camp and other activities where snack is involved so often that I automatically avoid recipes where they are included. You could likely omit the nuts here. I used walnuts and found they did add a nice crunch but the overall flavour of the crisp wouldn't suffer without them. Those looking for a crisp that isn't runny don't try this one. I personally don't mind a runny crisp. Particularly when you have vanilla ice cream slowly melting into the sweet, runny nectar that gets left behind in the bowl. David is a purist and eats his crisp plain, preferably with a fresh cup of coffee. This crisp was the perfect end to our Monday night dinner this week. Our Sunday dinner this week consisted of a pool party / BBQ with friends. I made macaroni salad. A ton of macaroni salad. It was good, but not as good as the stuffed baked potatoes we had that were filled with bacon and cheese. Had me at bacon, obviously.