Individual Peach Cobblers

A couple weeks ago Tim came home from work with some super fresh and ripe local peaches. We ate most of them straight up as a snack, but eventually there were two of them still sitting there, getting a little wrinkly and begging to be mixed with butter and sugar and turned into dessert. Luckily for us, Joy the Baker had just posted this cute recipe for Peach Cobbler for One...

Joy's topping recipe is really delicious- a little body from the oatmeal, unexpected tropical flavor from the coconut, lots of butter and sugar.  

Since we had 2 peaches, I doubled the topping recipe. This may have been an unnecessary step. I never thought I'd say this, but there was actually too much topping. 

What?! 

Yes, too much topping. 

I think I could have done one topping recipe and split it among the 2 peaches...

Peach Smoothie

Used the peaches I chopped up and froze, blended them with some vanilla yogurt. Ta da!

Clafouti!

"Clafouti" is fun to say: CLAFOOOOOOOTIIIII! Chuck said it like 900 times as this thing was cooking. Clafouti is kinda like a giant poofy pancake or a soufle or something... kinda reminds us of the swedish pancake thingy Martha makes in the cast iron skillet.

I think clafouti is traditionally made with cherries, but due to our glut of peaches and blackberries, we went with that. Typically I turn to David Lebovitz for his amazing ice cream recipes, but I read this Washington Post article about him, and thought his clafouti recipe sounded delicious. I would make it again- super easy! You could make it with basically whatever fruit you like...

Peach Mustard Chutney

Peach recipe #2, also for those peaches that got a little crushed on the way home from the farm: peach mustard chutney. Served with crunchy baked chicken pieces (like little chicken tenders) and an arugula salad with mini-heirloom tomatoes, lemon dressing and shaved parmesan.

Pretty tasty recipes! The chicken is pretty flexible- use different herbs in the yogurt or bread crumb mixtures, or switch up the flavors in the chutney and you've got a completely different meal.

Peach Ice Cream

Peach recipe #1, for those peaches that barely made it out of the orchard and home from Bluemont without dissolving into supperipe mush: David Lebovitz's peach ice cream from "The Perfect Scoop."

This is my favorite kind of ice cream recipe, in that it doesn't involve tempering any egg yolks, which I think is a pain in the ass. Cook the peaches slightly, whiz with sour cream and heavy cream, freeze in ice cream maker... devour.

(Served here with blackberry galette)

Peaches and Blackberries!!!

Sooooo... Meghan and I took advantage of Amy's CSA's free/reduced price pick-your-own blackberries and peaches this weekend while Amy was in Cali, introducing her future husband to her family.

Her CSA farm has a really fun you-pick set-up:

a petting zoo, hayrides, and most importantly, A FREE WINE TASTING!

We're totally going back this fall.

(more farm photos coming soon)

Also, we picked a thousand pounds of superripe peaches and 6 pints of the ripest, sweetest blackberries ever. So expect some postings on peaches and blackberries in the near future.

Boozy Peaches and Cream

Got some perfectly ripe peaches in my CSA share this week, and was looking for a simple way to eat some of them as dessert... two recipes from this month's influx of food magazines caught my eye: Boozy Peaches and Cream from Food Network Magazine and Roasted Peaches with Amaretti Crumble from Bon Appetit.

At first I thought I was comparing apples to apples: one boozy recipe versus another. Then, when I realized that what I had understood to be booze in the Bon Appetit recipe was actually amaretti (little Italian cookies), not amaretto (sweet almond-flavoured liqueur, also of Italian origin), my choice was clearly made... go with the booze. Also, I had neither amaretti nor amaretto on hand, and the Bon Appetit recipe required turning on the oven, so the deal was really sealed.

The Boozy Peaches and Cream recipe was very simple and tasty- it's basically sliced peaches with brown sugar layered with bourbon whipped cream. I would make it again, for sure. I did forget to add the toasted pecans on top, but didn't notice they were missing. I bet you could top the recipe with some of Mike's famous candied nuts, and that would put it over the top. Almost as much as writing "Mike's famous candied nuts" put this post over the top. And... scene.