The Best Peach Pie Ever
Nick Johnson

Based on two recipes:
	Betty Crocker Pie and Pastry Cookbook 1968 edition
	Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

16 Medium peaches, peeled, quartered and sliced
Lemon Juice
1.5 C sugar
4 Tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Butter
Toasted, sliced almonds
2 oz dried, unsweetened montmorency cherries (if you can only find sweetened
    ones, reduce the sugar to 1 1/3 C).
Dash of Salt
1/2 tsp almond extract

Sift together dry ingredients - sugar, corn starch, cinnamon and salt.

As you're peeling and quartering the peaches into a deep pot or dutch oven, 
splash on a little lemon juice and toss the peaches to mix it through. It'll
keep the peaches from oxidizing so quickly and add a little tart to the flavor.

Once all the peaches are sliced, drain off the leftover liquid.  Save it if 
you wish (for ice cream topping maybe?)  Add the almond extract and slowly
blend in the dry ingredients and cherries, mixing gently by hand from bottom to 
top to coat the mix as best you can.

Cover and chill this blend for an hour in the refrigerator.  Prepare two pie
crusts in very lightly olive-oiled pans.  Remove chilled mixture and mix from 
bottom to top a few more times; some of the juice will have settled and this 
blends the almond extract a bit more.  You might also simply wait until this 
time to add the almond extract to the liquid at the bottom of the pan and then
mix it all together.

Scoop out the filling mixture by hand or with a slotted spoon so that the liquid
stays mostly in the bottom of the pan.  Divide evenly between two pie crusts.
Scoop up a little of the liquid (maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons or a big wooden spoon's
worth) for each pan and pour it over the top of the filling, spreading it around.

Put on the top crust, pinching the bottom and top crusts together.  Apply either
a pie shield or aluminum foil around the edges.

Preheat over to 425.

Place small pats of butter every few inches around the top crust of each pie and
sprinkle on some sliced almonds.  Cut slits through the top crust every 1.5
inches or so.

Bake for around 45 minutes.  Begin checking at 35 minutes for the top crust to be 
golden brown and for liquid to be bubbling up from the center.

Chill for an hour if you can stand to wait that long.  Serve with vanilla ice
cream and a smile.