Peach Strawberry Pie

I love the fresh fruits of summer. I often buy large quanities of fresh fruits and freeze or dry them to use year round. While cleaning out my freezer yesterday I found a bag of strawberries and a bag of peaches I had frozen last summer. Along with the fruits, I also found some deep dish pie crusts. What better combination could I have asked for?

One of the great things about the recipe is that even if you don't have access to the fresh fruits, you may use canned or frozen. I also make two pies at a time; I also do this with casseroles. This way I can bake one and put one unbaked back in the freezer to bake at a later time. This makes it very simple to pull a homemade meal together in a hurry.

Peach Strawberry Pie

2 1/2 pounds peaches, peel, pit and chunk
3 cups strawberries, sliced
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional but very good)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter

2 deep dish frozen pie crusts
2 crust covers (I go the lazy way and buy the rolled up pie crusts to cover my pies if I am not making from scratch)

You may mix the 1st 8 ingredients in a bowl and pour into the pie crusts. (OR you can only pit the peaches and remove the stems from the strawberries. Add the 1st 8 ingredients into a blender and chop the mixture before adding to the pie crusts.) Cover the pie crusts with the top crusts. Cover the edges with pie rings or aluminum foil. Bake until golden brown. Enjoy! This is really good with vanilla ice cream.