Thrive Life Foods | The Prepared Pantry

Ah summer, you have the power to make us suffer and like it. -Russel Baker

Summertime is officially here in the Northwest with blue skies, warm days and yes, a bit of hot summer sunshine. Today I tried a new recipe, peach ice-tea. I used my Thrive Simply Peach drink, and brewed iced tea,( half and half) mixed. I like to mix the peach drink in a little warm water to dissolve the sugar, then mix it in with the rest of the tea and water. One of the things I love about it, is it has no high fructose corn syrup and is vitamin enriched with no artificial colors. In the afternoon when I am dragging, this picks me up. I put a little sliver of a nectarine on my glass like you would a lemon to give it a nice touch.

This afternoon I made a peach cobbler from some peaches I froze last year. Last summer when the peaches were ripe, I bought a large box of them, cut them up and put sugar on them with the lemon juice, and froze them in four cup increments in freezer bags. When I want peach cobbler, or just a bowl of fresh tasting peaches, I get them out of the freezer and thaw them in the microwave. I found a simple recipe about 15 years ago in a Southern Living magazine and I have used that recipe ever since.

Here is the recipe:

Peach Cobbler

1/2 cup of unsalted butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar (divided)

4 cups fresh peaches (or frozen)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 T lemon juice

Melt butter in a 13 x 9 inch pan in the oven at 375 degrees. Combine flour, one cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Add one cup of milk and stir it till it is mixed. Pour the batter over the butter (don’t stir). Bring the remaining one cup of sugar, four cups of sliced peaches and the lemon juice to a boil over high heat stirring constantly; pour over the batter, don’t stir. Sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes until brown. Serve warm or cool.

My children look forward to peach cobbler every summer. Taking advantage of the harvest and freezing them not only lets me take advantage of the price when they are in season, (or your own harvest if you are lucky enough to have a peach tree!) but makes this dessert very simple.

The afternoon sun is bearing down warm on the garden and heating up the house. I’m thinking the family better be happy with the peach cobbler and a sandwich for supper- I’m not heating the kitchen up again. There is a limit to how much suffering I am going to do on summer afternoon!