I had you there for a minute, didn’t I? What’s more fun than drinking tea or coffee, or in my case, Chai, in bed on Sunday mornings? The only thing that could make it sweeter is eating a piece of peach pie with my sweetie.

I love the light that comes in through the French doors of the bedroom in the early mornings. It’s the only true light-filled place in the house. Usually, I will only allow myself the luxury of staying there on the weekends for obvious reasons. This last Sunday I took a cup a chai (I won’t say that my boyfriend delivered, or I would be run out of town) and the last piece of pie that I put on one of my favorite white Portuguese plates and headed straight from the kitchen in my white Nighty straight back to the bed all crumpled with white linen. I set my plate down and went into a swoon. The light, the pie, the linen… and then I picked up the pie with my hands to take a bite when the peachy freshly baked pie aroma hit me. I breathed it in with eyes closed.

I bit into the pie with anticipation and it did not disappoint. The balance of soft butter crust with justly sweetened peaches was absolute sensual harmony. Boleros should have been playing.

It was a moment of pure pleasure and joy of eating.

I had baked the pie the previous day with Blazing Star organic peaches from Palisade, Colorado. They are my absolute favorite. Their sweetness and peachiness are stellar. They were in their perfect ripeness, also known as their balsamic time. Second-day flavor is always better. It settles into what it is. In this case, a 17th Century Bottom Crusted Peach Pie.

I learned this pie, I must say, from Martha Stewart 30 years ago, resonating with its early American look, like cut peaches cuddled by a piece of wrinkled linen. This is not the first time I have written about it, nor will it be my last, but it is the piece de resistance ~ not a galette, not French, not not French, but very primitive early American since those are my roots. For a southern girl who has pie in the blood and used to judge pie contests, I will claim that this is the “best pie I have ever eaten in my life” (to quote Charlie Papazian). Until next summer at least.

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Recipe: 17th Century Bottom Crusted Peach Pie