In honor of the impending holiday, I give to you Alexis’ recipe for Peachberry Pie. It may not be as American as apple pie, but it is definitely Texan with its peaches from Fredricksburg. (BTW, if you are in central Texas and eating those cheap peaches from Georgia, you don’t know what you are missing… so carry on, more for me.)

Obviously she had some help with the recipe, but the idea was mostly her own. She dreams these things up and Daddy helps make it real. Quite a team those two. (I think they should have a cooking blog!)

I love the personal version, but then I just love crust… They are also very tidy where traditional pies are really not. Perfect for a summer camp lunch box.

Crust

2/3 C. Shortening
2 C. All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
4-6 Tbsp Cold Water

Mix flour and salt in a medium sized bowl, cut in the shortening to the flour mix until evenly distributed.  Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together.  Cover and refrigerate the dough.

Filling

2 C. Fresh Texas Peaches peeled and 1/2 inch diced
2 C. Frozen mixed berries (Strawberry, Blueberry, Blackberry)
3 Tbsp Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Dry Tapioca

Mix all the ingredients above in a bowl, allow the filling to come to room temperature.

For personal pies divide the dough into 9-10 balls and roll each ball out into a 6″ circle. Place each circle in the cup of a muffin tin,  Fill with 3-4 tablespoons of filling, fold and pinch the dough edges above the filling creating little bundles.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

For family size pie divide the dough in half, rolling out 1 to line a 9 inch pie pan, spoon the filling into the pan, and roll out and cover with the remaining pie dough.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

I have to admit that for the longest time I was thinking “WTF is the point of a <insert snicker here> mug rug?” It just seemed so trite. So… um, quilting for the sake of just finishing something. With no respect for the real process and the ungodly amount of time the process — is supposed to — take.

Not to mention the way the name makes me giggle. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what I was thinking the first time I heard the term… and if you don’t see it, well, then your mind isn’t as dirty as mine… good for you! I admit to being as immature about the whole thing as QuiltDad… (Who, BTW, is totally freaking awesome. How did I not know about him either? I am so old and out of touch.)

But then…. I noticed the completely disgusting old paper towel that I had my coffee sitting on at work. OMG. I swear, you wouldn’t want to touch that thing even if you were wearing an entire hazmat suit and wrapped in saran wrap to boot. I think it actually got up and walked over to the trash can by itself this weekend. It probably heard that I was going to cave and make this:

Yep. A mug rug. But seriously, could we come up with another name? ‘Cuz the snickering every time I hear (or say) “mug rug” is starting to annoy the people around me.

So, now I get it. I really do. I have all these tutorials stuck in my head, and the mug rug (gag) is the perfect vessel for getting them photographed so I can share them. This little tiny itty bitty quilt (I think I need to make a yellow polka dot one… don’t you?) has been photographed more than anything else I have ever made. I think my camera is going to throw up if it sees red, brown, yellow and green ever again. But I’m so glad to be using up some of this jelly roll of some Moda line that I bought a zillion years ago.

No kidding… never. buying. a. jellyroll. again.  I know, right? Now I’m doomed to fall in love with at least 52 more.

As luck would have it, Alexis made her yummy Personal Peachberry pies… So there is even an action shot. Well, half way. I had already had dessert, and that mug is empty… so it’s really more like a posed “action” shot. Sort of like that picture of me doing a round house kick at Chris’ head. Totally not real. And, yes, I can hold my foot up that high for that long… or at least, I used to be able to.

Anyway… stay tuned for tutorials (bunches of them… because the only post I get daily traffic on from Google is my ribbon box…) and recipes. And other stuff… Probably more mug rugs… I don’t have time for anything else. But I need to find a swap, because, really, how many crumb covered, coffee stained tiny quilts does one person need?

I’m actually working on a project! This is one I’ve had in mind for a while, and assuming it ever gets finished will hang in Sean’s room.

If you haven’t guessed already, I’m making it in the same way as my other collages. There’s not a whole lot to it, yet, but I’m so proud of myself for actually getting the ball rolling.

You wouldn’t think a collage would take so much effort, but I guess my process is a little more involved. I have to first come up with the idea, spend inordinate amounts of time using google images to find the right pictures, convert them all to grayscale, print them out, cut them out and then decide that most of them are all wrong and go back to the beginning.

This idea centers on a ferris wheel. I think this is the one but it could change. I really hope not as it took me about 2 hours to cut out all those teeny triangles.

I can’t wait to share the whole thing with you… but don’t hold your breath, I probably won’t finish it before he goes off to Kindergarten.

Older Posts →