Peach Week Vol. 1

In recent years, Peach Week has been a bust, but this year, it's back, baby! 

I started the week with Peach Salsa atop grilled salmon on a spinach salad. 

Peach Muffins. This recipe works well with many kinds of fruit. I’ll add a link soon.

As always, a Peach Cobbler.  

Peach Panzanella Salad. No recipe, I winged it  

Peach Toast.

Peach Margarita.

I should have another batch of peachy creations soon. 

Peach Week Vol. 3

This was the most prolific Peach Week(s) I can remember. 

Peach Caprese. 

Peaches and Cream Oatmeal

Pork Medallions with Bourbon Peach Sauce  

Peach Pancakes

Peach and Pineapple Pizza

Peach Bread Pudding with Whiskey Cream Sauce

So that’s it for the fresh peaches but I have 3 bags frozen!

Peach Week

It's Peach Week!  All our tiny peaches are ripening at the same time.

 Last year, I let many of them fall.  But emboldened by my successful apple weeks last fall, I am on a quest to use some peaches every day.

Frank was the first to take on the task, making peach cobbler.  I did not get a picture of that.  Handy took a turn with peach ice cream.

Last night, peach salsa.

It's going to be hot today.  A tall glass of peach iced tea will be refreshing.  Therefore I need to make peach nectar!

Peach Week Begins Again

Once again, it is peach week (or two)
and I am wracking my brain
trying to think of new and different ways to use them.
Pie is in the offing this weekend, of course.

Peach Cobbler and peach salsa have been devoured already. 

On the menu today: peach pulled pork (so alliterative).

I was short on counter space because of my little helper. 

To blanch or not to blanch.
These are tiny peaches.
You would not want to peel them by hand.
In raw dishes like salsa I just scrub off the fuzz and leave the peel.
For cooked dishes I blanch them for less than a minute,
drop them in ice water, and the skin slides off. 

Yucky skin. 

Beautiful naked peaches.

Throw it all in a slow cooker.  

However, my slow cooker is behind all this stuff. 

Behind the basket of cookie cutters, the shoe dryers, 

the stack of amazon envelopes, 

and the nearly hidden tote bag full of other tote bags. 

So I cooked it on the stovetop instead. 

One can of tomatoes (underneath), 

pork shoulder, 

the peaches, 

and an onion.

The men had their pork on a bun. 

I did not want to waste my stomach space.  

It was good!

Homemade cole slaw too. 

Next up, peach bread. 

Peach Week Begins

I've been working 3, 4, or 5 days a week (depending on the vacation schedule) so I don't have as much time to putter around the house as I used to.  But peach week is beginning and I'm determined not to waste these babies like I did last year.

First up, Salmon with Peach Salsa.

Ernest once had an experience with jalapeños which he never wants to repeat. I usually just put a plastic sandwich bag over my hand but since we happened to have a box of rubber gloves I decided to suit up properly. I told Ernest I practiced proper Jalapeño Hygiene, but I also confessed to getting onion juice in my eye. 

No recipe as usual. 

Signs of Summer

Summer is full upon us.  One of my neighbors has a fine crop of sunflowers. I inadvertently cropped off the tallest ones, which were past the eaves of his house. I wonder if the stalks will become part of their fantastic Halloween decorations. I knew someone who felt sunflowers were very frightening, with their giant faces looming over you.

I have a meager crop of peaches. It won't be Peach Week, maybe just Peach Day or Peach Afternoon. There might be enough for a very small pie if they stay on the tree long enough. They are still hard, but thanks to the ability to search my blog I can tell that Peach Hour should be coming pretty soon. Or Peach Minute.

We can only water 2 days a week now. Tuesday and Saturday. This is my front lawn. We're trying to keep the hedges alive but that's about it. I hear people calling their brown lawns "golden." Nope, it's just brown. 

Our Fourth of July celebration consisted of hot dogs, since it was the day of Nathan's Famous Hot Dog eating contest. I could only eat two. We stuck with traditional styles. I found an article in a recent Sunday paper (and here is another one with more tasty variations) which had Tijuana, Greek, French, Vietnamese and Californian dogs. They all sound good to me but the guys prefer the classics: chili or mustard/relish. Frank gave me a hard time because I will eat hot dogs but not chorizo. (I thought I had a post about that but I can't find it.)

Speaking of the newspaper, I wonder why I still bother to get it. It's tiny. And I have to hunt for it every morning. Keeps me sharp, I guess. The previous deliverer used to fling it under the back of Frank's car. The new one rubber-bands it into a tight little baton and flings it into the garage door, where it bounces and comes to land who knows where. This morning it was on the hood of Frank's car. I asked Frank, who lives above the garage door, if he hears a noise in the wee hours when the paper is flung, but it is not loud enough to bother him.

Handy has the week off and we are on a staycation. We thought about going to San Francisco but adding up the cost for just a few days came to about $2000 so I'd rather save that towards the massive tuition payment that is coming due right quick. And in 2 weeks he is going to Shanghai on business. Shanghaied to Shanghai.

[shang-hahy, shang-hahy] 

 

• Word Origin

verb (used with object), shanghaied, shanghaiing. Nautical

1.

to enroll or obtain (a sailor) for the crew of a ship by unscrupulousmeans, as by force or the use of liquor or drugs.

Peach Week Vol. 2

The queen of peach cocktails, the Bellini. 

Peach Watermelon Feta Salad

Simple Fruit Salad

Peach Yogurt Parfait

Bourbon Peach Smash

Peach Martini

Peach Week: Smackdown, Pie vs. Cobbler

Before I get to the pie vs. cobbler, I want to say the perfect proportions for peach iced tea are: half peach nectar, half tea. Others may have different opinions.

There was a difference of opinion on whether to make peach pie or peach cobbler. Pie won out with 3 votes, since we had already made cobbler. It's not our fault Ernest has a social life and missed out on the cobbler. So pie it was.

However, Frank was heavily involved in a video game so Ernest volunteered to make the crust. When Frank started to roll it out, he thought it was too sticky but I shushed him up right away because it was nice of Ernest to help when he didn't even vote for pie.

Sticky didn't really seem to be a problem because look at this lovely crust...

The hugest bowl of peaches seemed to shrink when I mixed them with sugar, cornstarch, and a little cinnamon and nutmeg.

Crimping, crimping.

And done!

Now in a taste-off between pie and cobbler, it would be a draw. They are both equally delicious. I promised Ernest we would do cobbler next.

After my peach honey mustard chicken glaze, of course.

Peach Week 2021



On to Tomatoes

Peach week kind of fizzled as I was too tired to deal with them.

On to tomato time.

Pickled Tomatoes!

I found a few other options.

And The Latest Pie Was...

And the pie was Blueberry Peach Custard! I found the recipe in the paper on Thursday.



Frank's changes were:

• vanilla instead of almond extract, as none of us are really fond of almond flavoring
• a pie crust from scratch. He is using a basic recipe from Joy of Cooking.
• extra fruit, becuse our pie pan is pretty large

It was delicious...creamy and not too sweet, which I like.



Here's the recipe - click on it to make it big enough to read.

Aunt Snow, did you make your pie this week?