Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree...

No barbecue is complete without peach cobbler. Am I right or am I right?

You can say a lot of things about me… That I have a short temper, bit of a snob, control freak, overbearing parent, that I have a dark sense of humor, that I swear like a truck driver, a tad acerbic, that I’m a total prude, that I am a hint vindictive, that I’m an ugly crier… But I can say with certainty that no one will ever be able to say that I forgot where I came from. I may have lived my life in rather hoity-toity circumstances but my family always kept our roots and by roots I’m referring to my white trash roots.… At least in terms of food.

You can take the girl out of Missouri… But you can’t take the Missouri out of the girl.

For example:

My mother still makes her spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. The garlic bread is made on hamburger buns.

My mother has never bought anything organic in her life.

At all times, at my parent’s house, there is Coffee Mate Powdered Creamer.

We have never had cane sugar at our house. Lots of brown sugar for baking but never cane sugar.

My mother makes meatloaf and writes “hi” on top of it… in ketchup.

Bacon is nearly a vegetable at our house and bacon grease is a valuable commodity.

Fleur de Sel is only for decoration at our house.

If I asked for strawberries when I was young, my mother would deliver a bowl of sliced strawberries in whole milk with brown sugar or whole strawberries with a side of sugar “to dip.”

My mother’s refrigerator was never without popsicles. Ever.

“Drippings” is a culinary term I learned early on.

My mother has never gone past a California roll at a sushi restaurant and even that is pushing it.

But the true dichotomy is that my mother is a total food/culinary snob:

For example:

Everything is homemade.

There has never been a crockpot at our house.

If you have to ask what quince paste is, you are not an O’Connell.

One time my sister brought a store-bought pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving dinner and my mother has never forgiven her for it.

My mother will think you were raised poorly if you don’t know how to debone a chicken.

My mother taught my brother how to use a double boiler to melt his chocolate when he was basically a toddler.

Included in every one of my mother’s recipes is, “Use a pretty platter.”

So, this brings us to today’s BBQ Fixin’s: Peach Cobbler

Don’t ever try to fancy up peach cobbler. Just let it be… Simple. My mother doesn’t even peel the peaches for her famous peach cobbler. It is so good! Now don’t forget that this is my mother’s recipe so read through it and try to decipher everything because she usually changes her mind halfway through. And I didn’t correct her spelling, grammar or punctuation.

Here is my mother’s recipe:

Anne’s Original Peach Cobbler

This is a recipe that I made up along ago.  The crust part is different from most but it is really good. 

Ingredients:

1 package of Pillsbury or Betty Crocker pie crust in the box.  Not refrigerated. In the box cake section in the market.   Can be hard to find.  Any brand is OK

 9 or 10 really ripe peaches  ( ripe peaches will make it juicy)

Brown sugar

White sugar

Butter

cinnamon

nutmeg

Lemon Juice

Slice the peaches with the skin on and put into a bowl. I like to slice them lengthwise.  Now add about 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and 1/4 cup of white sugar.  I like both because I don't want the cobbler to be to dark in color but still sweet.  If the peaches are not really ripe you will need MORE sugar. I really like to have a mix of ripe and not so ripe peaches. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon or more of cinnamon.  Then about the same of the nutmeg.  Just depends which flavor you like.  I like nutmeg. Add the fresh lemon juice.  Now taste it.  How does it taste?  This is where you make it your own. I usually add more brown sugar! Now add the butter.  I like slices of butter... about 1/2 a stick or more.  Mainly more!

Now put the mixture in a buttered (really butter it good with soft butter) baking dish that  will look good on the table. 

Now to make the topping.

This is my own concoction...so bear with me. It is good!

I take the box mix of the pie crust and put it in a bowl and I add a little cinnamon and nutmeg to it along with a little brown sugar.  Mix all of that up. You want it to be a little brown but still looking like crust.   Taste it.  I like it sweet.  Now add the water from the directions on the box.  But not all of it... go slow adding in the water.   You want it sticky but able to pick up. 

Now take a little of it....like just enough to make a little flat patty about 2 or 3 inches around and  start placing these little patties all over the peaches.  You don't want it to be like a smooth pie crust but a crust that looks hand made.  You want the peaches to be able to bubble up between them just a little but still cover the peaches.  Does this make sense?   Now  you need to make a little egg wash by adding a little water to a egg and mix it up really good and with a pastry brush spread it all over the pie crush.  Now add some white sugar all over this....

Bake in a 350° oven for about 1 hour.  Keep watch over it. You want it to be light brown and have the liquid bubbling between the crust. That is when it is done.  It has to bubble!

Hope you try this recipe.  It is really good. Not as hard as it might look. Just make it your own...add or take away what you don't like and just make it good. This is not a recipe to cut calories.  Go do that with another recipe!  Enjoy... Anne

And just because variety is the spice of life, here are a few other versions of peach cobbler that will knock your socks off.…

 

Southern Style Peach  Cobbler with Maple Sugar, Bourbon and Brown Butter

Recipe HERE.

 

 

 Butterscotch Caramel Peach Cobbler

Recipe HERE.

 

 

Chef Rick Bayless's Grandma Potter's Peach Cobbler

Recipe HERE.

 

 

I have a few more BBQ Fixin’s recipes over the next few weeks. I asked my mother for her recipe for coleslaw and I swear to God her exact answer was, “I just use Kentucky Fried Chicken Coleslaw, I just never told you.” So there’s that recipe.

Even though my mother can whip up Beef Wellington, Salmon en Croûte and a gorgeous Croquembouche with the best of them, these humble barbecue recipes are our family favorites. Stay tuned for Pineapple Upside down Cake.

A toute!

*Something you don’t know about me? Speaking of peaches… My sister’s nickname since she was 17 years old has been Peaches. She got the nickname from her ex-husband, Dennis Dragon, who was in a Malibu surfer cult band called The Surf Punks. They were the epitome of Malibu cool. Dennis was from a truly talented musical family… His father was Carmen Dragon, a famous symphony conductor. His mother, Eloise Dragon, was an opera singer and his brother is Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille. I have known Dennis since I was 15 years old when my sister met him and I have only seen him wear long pants twice… Once at his wedding to my sister and the second time was when my sister forced him to go to Aspen. All other times have been a bathing suit. Anyway, Dennis is the one that nicknamed my sister, Peaches.