EXPERIMENTS

This month I finally got around to using some of the Peach Pie Filling I canned this past summer. 

I don’t know if there’s anything better than home-canned peaches in the middle of winter. They are so much more flavorful than commercially canned peaches. I had high hopes that would be true with pie filling, too.

I tried two new recipes. One was a failure (although nothing is really a failure, just a learning experience) and the other I am enjoying as I write this.

#1

Last month, the nurse who prepped me for a doctor appointment told me how his grandmother’s hand pies were loved by all and considered a special treat. One day, he walked into the kitchen while she was rolling out what his family called “whomp biscuits” (for the rest of us, that’s the Pillsbury biscuits you slam on the edge of the kitchen counter to open but isn’t that a great name for them?). ”Whatcha doing Grandma?” ”Making hand pies.” He said his mind was blown. He had imagined her putting a lot of work into something that tasted so good only to find out, like the best of cooks, she had a few tricks up her sleeve.

I’ve wanted to make hand pies for years. I don’t make pie crust though. If it weren’t for Pillsbury Pie Crust from the refrigerator case, I would never make anything that needed pie crust. However, I couldn’t figure out how to efficiently use the rounds of Pillsbury crust to make hand pies, without having a bunch of wasted dough. I never managed to move past that roadblock and hand pies remained on my To-Do list.

What I immediately dubbed Whomp Pies sounded like the solution to my dilemma and I picked up a couple rolls of biscuit dough the next time I went to the grocery store to give it a try.

I was disappointed. They were kind of edible but were too bready. I haven’t given up though and already have another option in mind to try. Stay tuned.

#2

This winter I’ve periodically tried new recipes in an attempt to get out of a rut in the kitchen. One recipe I came across was a peach cobbler dump cake, using a Cinnamon Coffee Cake mix. The recipe made a 9×13′ pan of cobbler though so I kept putting off trying it until there were more people around to eat it. (There’s nothing like two people eating a 9×13 pan of any dish to make it un-appealing).

Finally, it struck me that I could use half the spice package and half the cake batter mix and use a 9×9 pan. Then, if I liked it, I could make a second one another time. It also meant if I don’t like it (I’m not usually a fan of dump cake), the chickens wouldn’t end up with a big pan of what is supposed to be MY treat.

Of course, by the time I had this epiphany, I couldn’t find the recipe. So, I checked the internet for basic dump cake instructions and decided to wing it. If I find the actual recipe, I’ll try to post it later.

Let’s just say the chickens will NOT be getting any of this cobbler. Yum!