Day One of "Staycation"

Evan and I love to travel, but this year our travel plans hit a bump due to Enzo's leg surgery. We decided to make the best of the situation and do a "Staycation." We are sticking around southwest Virginia and making a deliberate effort to take advantage of all that this area has to offer: berry picking, local restaurants, visiting a new winery, the New River, Stepping Out (http://www.blacksburgsteppinout.com/), catching up with friends and most importantly- slowing down.

Day one of Staycation involved sleeping in, chocolate chip pancakes, crafting for me and fun car stuff for Evan. On Evan's way back from his annual "Man Day" camping trip he picked up some peaches from a roadside stand outside Berryville, VA (the one in the Wendy's commercial:). So, we're ending our day by making one of our favorite desserts - Peach Kuchen (coo-ken).

I went to a small Presbyterian church growing up in Chester, NJ and each year they had a Peach Festival in early August that draws in the masses. Here's a local news report of the event. My mom is the redhead in the hat in the beginning http://www.dailyrecord.com/VideoNetwork/51471930001/Annual-Chester-Peach-Festival. The ladies in the church work for weeks making homemade peach ice cream (never had better), peach pies, and peach kuchen. Each year my mom and I would bake and work the day of the festival. It always shocked me how quickly the pies went. People went nuts over them!

This year, I'm not able to go up to Chester for the event so Evan and I made some kuchen here. It's a very simple recipe.

Peach Kuchen
1/2 cup butter
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 cup coconut (don't worry if you don't like coconut, it's hardly noticeable)
1 (29 oz.) can of peaches or 5-6 fresh peaches
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
1 egg

                                       

Cut butter into dry cake mix until crumbly, mix in coconut and press into pan along bottom and sides. Bake 10 min. at 350 degrees. Then arrange drained peaches over base. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the peaches. Mix sour cream and egg and pour over top. Bake 30 minutes.