Birthday Pie!

I'm bad enough about getting pictures of the food that I cook, and it occurred to me that I pretty much never get the people. So to remedy

Dorla, with her birthday pie (and color-coordinated shirt, too <grin>):

Peach pie
10 peaches
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
a few splashes of white wine*
small lump of almond paste (3-4 TBLS)
1-2 TBLS more sugar
1-2 TBLS more flour

Crust

Put the peaches in a large pot, and cover them with water. Remove the peaches, and bring the water to a boil on the stove (you were just using them to guage the amount of water to go in the pot). Submerge the peaches in the water for a slow count of 30 - more if they are cold from the fridge. Dump out most of the boiling water into the sink, place the pot in the sink, and flood with cold water, to cool the peaches. Peel the peaches and discard the skins - they should slip off easily. Working over a bowl to catch the juice, slice the peaches off the pits into thin slices; 8-10 per peach. Add the sugar, flour, and wine, and toss to mix well.

Grind the almond paste, more sugar, and more flour in the food processor until you have a fine powder.

Roll out the bottom crust, and fit it into a 9-inch deep pie dish. Sprinkle a good handful of the almond-paste-powder over the bottom. Give the peaches a good stir, and pour them into the dish. Sprinkle the rest of the almond-paste-powder on top.

Roll out the top crust, and cut into strips for a lattice, or fit a regular closed crust on top. Seal the edges, and crimp decoratively.

If you've made a closed crust, cut some steam vents into it, and bake the pie at 375 degrees for about an hour and 15 to 20 minutes.
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*I was so mad at myself about these peaches - I bought a few at the co-op like 2 weeks ago, and they were large & juicy & delicious; I ate some and made the last 3 into that crisp on labor day. Then I bought more for Dorla's pie, and they were smaller, and I bought them on the hard side on Tuesday night, for pie on Friday - but it was hot as hell all week, I was afraid to leave the peaches on the counter to ripen properly, stuck them in the fridge. After I blanched them to peel, they were hard, and the skins did not slip off. I was also talking to John on the phone - he was trying to get together with his friends, and getting locked out his apartment, but that's a whole other story. I read in a pie book once that if you had less than great apples, add a splash of white wine - and I had done this with apples, and it worked - so I tried it with the peaches, and it sure smells like it worked.