The first piece of mail that we received here at the ranch wasn’t a bill or some sort of junk, it was a thoughtful “housewarming” book from one of my mom’s greatest friends. Jeannie sent me a cookbook of recipes from an accidental country girl called, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Gramma spent some time looking through the book the other day while Josh and I were bouncing around the prairie and she certainly was amused. She says that she’s never seen a cookbook chock full of pictures with kids, cows, and horses.

The cookbook has a lot of recipes that use all fresh ingredients, but it’s not lacking in recipes that use cans of food. I thought for sure that these wouldn’t come in handy to me seeing as I usually have maybe one can of tomatoes on hand, and if we’re lucky perhaps a can of lentil soup. But I’ve learned my lesson; our nearest farmers’ market is an hour and a half away, and the sole grocer in town has little for affordable (or good) fresh food. We end up in Laramie with bags of goods whenever we can get out there, stocking both cabinets and freezers on our return to the ranch. So this cookbook written by a woman who lives on a remote ranch all of a sudden takes on new meaning for my way of cooking.

Rummaging through Gramma’s cupboard yesterday I found a can of olives, and in the fridge some mayo. There was a recipe in the book that actually used these ingredients together. We’ll talk about that later. I’m still trying to accept the fact that I made food to eat from that combo of foods. More importantly, it’s the end of peach season here (it’s supposed to frost tomorrow) and there are cobblers and pies to make. Here’s a great one with a few adjustments I made from Ree Drummond’s book.

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Maple Cream Sauce
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons maple syrup (the real stuff, please)
3 tablespoons honey

Peach Crisp
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg (I like to use fresh and grate myself)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) cold butter
5 or 6 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (6-7 peaches)
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

First make the cream sauce- it needs to chill before serving. Pour cream into heavy saucepan, then add maple syrup and honey. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened and reduced by a third, about 20 minutes. Chill for at least an hour before serving over warm peach crisp.

Then, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Did you know you can make your own brown sugar?

Cut the cold butter into pieces. Add the butter to the bowl and use a fork or pastry blender to cut it into the flour mixture. It will resemble a moist, coarse meal.

Place the peaches in a bowl- to peel, quickly blanch in boiling water (about 30-60 seconds), dunk in icy water, and then slip the peels right off with a sharp knife. Add the lemon zest to the peaches, mix in lemon juice and maple syrup, then gently stir to combine. Remember to save some peaches for the cobbler- don’t eat them all. Pour peaches into 9-inch square or 8×12-inch baking dish.

Top with the crumb mixture, evening out the surface with a fork. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake 30 minutes more, or until the topping is crisp and golden brown. If the topping appears underdone, continue baking in 10 minute increments until it’s done. Spoon the warm crisp onto a plate, then drizzle with chilled maple cream sauce. Yes, it really is THAT good!

We used our leftover maple cream sauce on peaches with yogurt the next morning. And then we ate more cobbler. And then we forced ourselves to hunt for something to chase to end our stupor, but in the end laid in the grass under the sun with a lazy hound dog.

Gramma was full of anecdotes the other day. Living with her is somewhere between a hilarious riot, and a time warped past. Your heart ticks anxiously at the items left to be done in the present as she details stories of the past. We’re torn with needing to crawl away and be productive, and wanting to stay and absorb all she can share. She is an amazing storyteller, maintaining her sharp mind with memories from her 80 plus years. She arrived at this ranch at the age of 17, married and learning how to be a wife in a time and place without running water, fulfilling daily chores of chickens and milk cows. Her knowledge of the past and the hardships that came with the ruggedness of life bring all of us to both laughter and tears almost daily around the dinner table. When I can take the time to benefit from her old ways and knowledge, I know I must.

Sunday I asked her if she could show me how she makes her pie crust. I had gone on a peach bender Friday after seeing a stand of produce on the roadside, buying a box of the ripe and aromatic fruit. Deprived of fresh produce, everyday since I have eaten a minimum of three peaches. We used these to make the same amazing peach pie we had last year around this time… link is here.

Here are just a few of the sentences that came from that clever lady’s mouth as she made the dough, followed by her recipe:

“I saw the way Joshua was making his bisquits. That’s fine for his bisquits, I suppose, but that’s not how you make bisquits. You need lard for bisquits. I’ll show you someday.”

“I suspect this rolling pen is about as old as I am because it was here when I got here. I’ll show you how to clean it. I don’t want it washed- if you have to wash it, just use a damp cloth. They say you have to wash these things these days, but I’ve been using this rolling pen for 63 years.”

Her recipe uses lard, something our culture is afraid of in this day and age. And to be quite honest, I’m afraid of buying lard but intrigued by the prospect of having lard from the animals on this land.

Gramma’s Pie Crust:
makes two 9″ crusts

2 c. flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
Small amount baking powder (maybe 1/2 tsp. is what it looked to me?)
Mix these dry ingredients in a bowl, then dump as a mound onto a wooden bread board (some might just use a clean counter top- Gramma thinks that to be absurd).

In another bowl place 2/3 c. soft lard. You might need to work this a bit with a fork to soften it. Add to the lard 1/3 c. BOILING water. Begin to work this quickly with a fork, and when combined push the flour mixture from the board into the bowl. This will allow some of the flour to stay behind on the board. Mix all together, handling the dough as little as possible.

Turn your pie pan upside down on the bread board and draw a circle on the board in the remaining flour dust. Place your dough in the center of this circle, and roll out the dough using a floured rolling pen. It doesn’t have to be perfect- the beauty of this crust is not only that it flakes nicely, but it repairs easily. Using a very dull knife, gently pull the dough from the board, then fold the dough in half. Lift the dough from the board with the knife, place in pie pan, and make any repairs by pushing the dough with your fingertips. There should be extra dough for any rips in your crust. Then flute the edges with your fingers and cut any ragged edges from the edge of the pan.

The pound cake, so misunderstood in the world of the grocer. So easily made and so easily kept, but so often purchased full of chemicals and complicated words at the chain markets. After some digging, I found my original pound cake recipe. It’s the one that every time I make it and share it, the receiver never forgets it and deliberates back and forth in her mind whether or not she really wants the recipe. It’s so good that any level headed person knows that it’s better left unmade. It makes one crazy with desire- for the pound cake, that is, and only the pound cake. You can think of nothing else but just one more moist, soft, crumbly bit. And then your stomach turns over with glee from its richness- ouch.

The reason I searched high and low for the recipe- I really need to invent some sort of an organizational system for myself (it’ll never happen)- was that I had found a pound cake recipe in gourmet this month that called for cardamom. I’ve been home alone the past 4 days, Josh still being in California, but I haven’t touched more than the damn microwave. I wasn’t into it. After being in heaven the past week myself (aka San Francisco), I just wasn’t in the mood to be domestic. I was like a little bachelor, going out to dinner with girlfriends I don’t see enough of, going to the bar by myself, drinking whole milk and not much more for breakfast, not touching laundry or dirty bathrooms that were supposed to be cleaned before we left… and it was fantastic. But last night I was tugged to do something, preferably something that was less than productive, but more than drinking beer or wine and reading off the computer.

I received some pretty severe news yesterday afternoon, news that overwhelmed me with sadness and further debilitated my motivation. It’s nothing involving my life, but life changing news for a friend. So I decided to make this friend homemade yogurt and pound cake. She’s a very competent cook and I think would not appreciate a meal just yet, but this pound cake you can freeze and the yogurt lasts for at least 2 weeks. It’s something, right? And it took my attention for a good while, filling the house with sweet smells.

Last night I actually made the new recipe from Gourmet, but pulled out the original pound cake recipe discovered back in 2003 in Bon Appetit for comparison and options for you. Funny to think back to when this pound cake entered my life. Was I really an adult with a real job in 2003? It sounds like so long ago, but I was married, paying back students loans, working a couple of jobs, making this pound cake and shipping it to family when we couldn’t be there for holidays. Let me tell you, it seems like a great and economical idea, but it is a pound cake people. It’s a bit heavy. Maybe now that we have evolved to smarter postal ways since then (sigh, I feel so old) you could actually send in the flat rate box and send all over this country. Other than its weight, it’s great for shipping because it lasts so very long. It’s actually better the next day and is naturally preserved by it’s sugar content.

So here they are; take your pick. Honestly, I like the cardamom flavor, but it is not bashful so use cautiously if sharing with a timid eater. All in all I think the 2003 recipe is a bit more addictive, but I think it’s because it remains a little moister from cooking at such low temperatures. The Gourmet recipe has fewer eggs and less sugar, but does have more butter due to not having cream cheese in the recipe. I think in the end I would stick with Gourmet, but cook for less than an hour. I actually diviated from the recipe by using vanilla extract (saddly I felt that I couldn’t spend the $11 on the vanilla beans at Whole Foods yesterday- I wish I could have had specks of compost black vanilla bean seeds in this cake) and adding some sour cream to the milk just because we had it. It was great and would have been better a little less cooked (unless you are sharing with those people that like their cookies crispy- then it would have been cooked just perfectly).

March 2009 Gourmet Cardamom Vanilla Pound Cake
3 c. flour
1 tsp ground cardamom (I used more)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter (I buy by the pound and calculated it to be just over a pound)
1 3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise (or 1+ TB extract)
4 large eggs
1 TB fresh lemon juice
1 c. whole milk (I used 1 1/2 TB sour cream, scooped into a measuring cup, and added milk to the cup)
For whipping cream (which I didn’t make):
1 1/2 c. chilled heavy cream
2 1/2 TB confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

}Preheat oven to 350 with rack in middle. Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess.
}Whisk together flour, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and sugar in mixer at medium speed, scraping side of bowl occasionally, until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape seeds from vanilla beans with tip of a paring knife into butter mixture, reserving pods for another use, and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in lemon juice until combined well. At low speed, add flour mix and milk, alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
}Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top. Gently rap pan on counter to eliminate air bubbles.
Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in pan 1 hour, then invert onto a rack and cool completely, about 1 hour more.
}For whipping cream: Beat cream with confectioners sugar and vanilla extract using whisk attachment of mixer until it just holds stiff peaks. Serve cake with whipped vanilla cream.

And from December 2003 Bon Appetit:
Cream Cheese Pound Cake

}Butter and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Using electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add sugar and salt; beat 10 minutes, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Beat in flour at low speed until batter is smooth (do not overbeat). Transfer batter to pan.

}Place pan in cold oven. Set temperature at 200°F; bake 20 minutes. Increase temperature to 250°F; bake 20 minutes. Increase to 275°F; bake 10 minutes. Increase to 300°F; bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour longer. Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack; cool completely. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Wrap; store at room temperature.)

This recipe certainly was a bit on the extravagant side for me. Lately I’ve found that I am only interested in two or three ingredient combinations, and they usually contingent upon what currently lives in my fridge. But this, ah this recipe, I couldn’t look wayward from my Joy of Cooking’s description: “A Joy Classic”.

I had all that I needed for this recipe sitting in my cluttered cupboard, and there were fragrant peaches hanging in my fruit basket, causing my mouth to water every quick moment I went in the kitchen. The anticipation of what to do with these soft and sweet Michigan peaches finally won over my fear of commitment involved in pie making. I always fear that devastating moment of the crust pulling apart as you attempt to lay it in the pan after cautiously rolling it out, or the taste not being equivalent to time. But believe me, every moment that I was away from this luxurious yellow beauty, the memory of it balked at me to return. The way this pie melts on your tongue burns your brain with it’s well rounded taste. You want to reward any good or bad events throughout the day or night with a sliver of the pie. It’s mildly obsessive. When the peaches are this good, you want to grasp them in any form before you lose them for the year. And the tandem custard only accents the peaches in a happy spousal manner. It’s especially hard to cope with seasons changing when life makes sense because of a pie. I found the recipe in Joy of Cooking’s index under “peaches” titled modestly, Open Faced Peach Custard Pie.

By definition, a custard involves milk and eggs and is thickened with heat. The thickening of this custard happens in the oven. The pie is only complicated in that there are multiple steps with the crust. The actual filling for the pie is simple. The crust however had me under gauge the total time needed. Now that I understand this, the second go around will be predictable and easier.

So here it is, in all its length, starting with the flaky crust. This recipe in particular calls for one baked flaky crust, however any bottom crust that you bake before adding the filling should work:
Mix
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon white sugar or 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup solid vegetable shortening, or 1/2 cup shortening and 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1/3 cup plus 1 to 3 tablespoon ice water, divided
Using a rubber spatula, thoroughly mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Break the shortening into large chunks; if using butter, cut it into small pieces, then add it to the flour mixture. Cut the fat into the dry ingredients by chopping vigorously with a pastry blender or by cutting in opposite directions with 2 knives, one held in each hand. As you work, periodically stir dry flour up from the bottom of the bowl and scrape clinging fat off the pastry blender or knives. When you are through, some of the fat should remain in pea-sized pieces; the rest should be reduced to the consistency of coarse crumbs or cornmeal. The mixture should seem dry and powdery and not pasty or greasy.
Drizzle 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon ice water over the flour and fat mixture.
Using the rubber spatula, cut with the blade side until the mixture looks evenly moistened and begins to form small balls. Press down on the dough with the flat side of the spatula. If the balls of dough stick together, you have added enough water; if they do not, drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons ice water over the top.
Cut in the water, again using the blade of the spatula, then press with your hands until the dough coheres. The dough should look rough, not smooth. Divide the dough in half, press each half into a round fiat disk, and wrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and preferably for several hours, or for up to 2 days before rolling. The dough can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 6 months; thaw completely before rolling.
*Note: I actually used the pastry attachment of my food processor for this recipe. It was easy and worked great.

After making the dough, proceed by rolling out the dough and fitting it into a 9-inch pie pan. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Position a rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
Smooth a sheet of aluminum foil, shiny side down, over the bottom and sides of the crust, flaring the excess foil, like an awning, over the crust edge to keep it from overbrowning. Fill the liner with raw beans or rice or metal pie weights, banking the weights against the sides of the crust if you do not have enough to fill the crust to the brim. Bake the crust for 20 minutes with the weights in place to set the pastry. Carefully lift out the foil with the weights inside. Prick the crust thoroughly with a fork, return it to the oven, and bake until the crust is golden brown all over, 5 to 10 minutes more. Check the crust periodically; if it puffs along the bottom, prick it with a fork, then press down gently with the back of a spoon. Brush the inside with 1 large egg yolk and a pinch of salt. Return to the oven to set the glaze for 1 to 2 minutes. Fill the shell with the below filling recipe.

Here’s the filling:
Keep the rack of your oven on the lower 1/3 and the temperature set at 400. Whisk together until well blended:
1 large egg
3/4 cup sugar
6 TB unsalted and melted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

Arrange in a single layer, cut side down, over the bottom of the crust: 3 to 4 fresh peaches, peeled and halved.
Pour the egg mixture over the peaches. Bake the pie for 10 minutes. reduce the temperature to 300 degrees and bake until the custard is brown and crusty on top and appears firmly set in the center when the pan is shaken, about 1 hour longer. Let cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I did find that my crust browned too much originally, and that it continued to brown even with the glaze. I think next time I would probably wrap the edge of the crust with aluminum foil, and butter the sides of my pie pan to keep the pastry from sticking.

The Joy of Cooking never fails.