One of my favorite things to make is... pie. And crisps. mmm!

A roommate happens to work at a farmer's stand and often brings home "seconds" or extra fruits or vegetables, and the past couple of days we have had a box of peaches sitting on our table. So tonight, I endeavored to make a fresh peach crisp since I had all of the necessary ingredients, and wanted to practice a recipe anyhow... so here is my journey and the recipe I used.

Peach Crisp

For the Filling:

4 cups fresh sliced peaches (about 15-16 small to medium peaches)
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp. flour

For the Topping:

3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
6 T. chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces-

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

- Combine filling ingredients and pour into 8x8 inch pan

- Combine topping ingredients, and cut in pieces of butter last (until topping is crumbly)

- Add crumbly topping over filling in pan

- Bake 40 minutes*

Note: This recipe could also be doubled and added to a 9x13 inch pan and baked for the same amount of time.

And... ta-da! This was also my first attempt at washing, peeling, and slicing peaches. The process was actually quite enjoyable.

It just so happened that this evening I had a handful of family members drop by the house after they were visiting my Grandfather in the hospital. Nothing serious, he just had knee replacement surgery and will be staying in the hospital several days to recover, but when the family heard that I had a peach crisp in the oven and were invited to try it, they made a point to visit my humble establishment. And I loved it... what's the point of making something if no one else is around to enjoy it? That is my favorite part of cooking or baking... being able to serve it to other people.

ps - the peach crisp goes great with ice cream!