June 07th, 2019

Today is National Donut Day!  Woohoo!  One of the best tasting days ever!

But by now I'm sure you have noticed these are not photos of donuts.  These are photos of a pie.  Yeah, my bad. I forgot that it was donut day until it was too late to do anything about it.  There are no donuts in the house.  It's all very sad and should probably be considered a civil crime if not a criminal one.  Or maybe a sin.  Only venial  and not mortal but still a sin.

However!  If you think about it, a pie is not that far removed from a donut. Not really.  Both of them are relatively simple recipes with only a few ingredients.  Flour, sugar, fat and in the case of the pie, fruit.  The donut being a fried treat and the pie being a baked one is probably the biggest difference.  While I have seen recipe for baked donuts, I've never tried them so for today's purposes, it does not count.

And both of them, pies and donuts are yummy!  Both of them are probably terrible for you healthy-wise. AND both of them are excellent for breakfast.  Seriously.  I had the last piece of this particular pie for breakfast this morning. It was exquisite.

Making a pie wasn't on my list of things to do that day. And in all honesty, I actually hadn't made a pie in quite some time .  But when I was at the grocery store just a few days ago,  I could smell the peaches when I walked in the door.  They smelled so good I was almost drooling. I made my way to the produce department tout suite!  Ooooo the peaches looked just as good as they smelled.  And they weren't hard like most grocery store peaches, they have just that wee bit of give to them indicating perfect ripeness.

At first I was going to buy just the peaches.  Lots of them.  Lots and Lots.  I would glory in peaches, I would glut upon them, I would make them into every conceivable peach thing in existence.  And then I calmed down.  How many things could I actually reasonably make before they went south.  I mean, once they reach perfect ripeness, the only place to go is over-ripe.  Over-ripe is not good.  I would have to think of something to do with them that would preserve the perfection of this  moment of  absolute readiness. Hmmmmm.

So many choices!   I had almost settled on Peach Shortcakes, the shortcakes themselves being ever so easy to make, and then my eyes fell on some equally perfect nectarines. Oh me, oh my!   I changed my mine immediately.  Pie it would be.  

While nectarines aren't as fragrant as peaches and not quite as supersweet, they are a little firmer and that lends itself to a pie perfectly.   I came home and put all of the rest of the groceries away quickly so that I could get right to work.  Pies are one of those things that, even if you haven't done it in awhile,  comes back to you quickly.  Like riding a bike I suppose.   Only in the kitchen, with peaches and nectarines and a pastry board and a rolling pin.  Which doesn't sound very much like riding a bike does it?  Oh well.  I suppose the point here is that it all came back to mind very quickly.

I hauled out all my gear and got right down to it.  In no time at all the pie was in the oven and the house smelled sooo goooood!  Once it was baked and cooling on the counter top the effort of not cutting in to it immediately was killer. I know, from experience, how hot that fruit inside really is.  If we tasted it now we would badly burn our mouths!  Hard to bandage a tongue.  Trust me on this.

Eventually it cooled enough to try.  Tim and I each had a piece.  Lots of "ummmming' went on.  I'm always torn between gobbling it up as fast as possible because it's so good and eating it really slowly and savouring every bite.  

And each day, at some point during the day, we each had a piece of pie until there was just one piece left.  One beautiful  glistening jewel of peach/nectarine pie left, saved just for me, me, me.  The last piece always tastes the best.  Who knows when I will be moved to make another pie?  It could be weeks, months, years!  (Or to be fair it could also be days. You never know with me)

So yes, I celebrated National Donut Day by eating the last piece of pie.  It's ok.  I'm pretty sure it's not a law.  If I'm truly bothered by it, when National Pie day comes around, I will eat a donut to balance things out.  

PS Tim showed me a recipe yesterday for a bread make from only two ingredients, flour and ice cream.  WOW!   I am intrigued.  I absolutely have to try that one out.  If any of you have already done this please let me know how it worked for you.  Thanks!