Week 29: Peaches, Peaches, Peaches...

So I am a huge fruit fan. I enjoy all kinds but my favorite by far is fresh peaches from the Okanagan. In the last post I talked about our trip but I did not mention that bought 40 lbs (20 for us and 20 for my parents. These were first pick of the season peaches so they needed some time to ripen but once they did they were amazing. This week I am going to go through 2 recipes because one I have made several time before but it is so good I thought I should bog about it. The other is a simple recipe but it was so yummy. I will start with the simple peach gelato recipe which is actually more of a sorbeto but who cares. You will need

4 cups of peeled peaches

1/2 cups of water

3/4 cups of sugar

1 egg white

Start by making a simple syrup from the sugar and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved remove from the heat and cool.  While the syrup is cooling peel and cut the peaches. Puree the peaches and if you want strain through a sieve. I did not do this because I like to have stuff in my gelato. Combine the peaches and syrup and let cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Pour mixture into your ice cream maker an 20-30 minutes later you are enjoying some summer freshness in a bowl.

The next recipe is for a peach pie I found in the Moosewood dessert cookbook several years ago that is a wonderful twist on a classic pie. It is a peach pie in a ginger bread crust. The ingredients are

Ginger bread

1 1/2 cups four

1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 to cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces

2 tbsp molasses

2 tbsp cold water

Pie filling

6 cups sliced peaches

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp grated ginger root

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375'. In a medium bowl sift together flour, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, salt and baking powder. Cut the butter into mixture and then mix with you fingers until it is crumbly and resembles cornmeal. Drizzle the molasses and water over dough and mix until the crumbs of dough begin to cling together. 

Set aside 1/2 cup of the dough and knead the rest into a ball. Press evenly into the bottom and sides of a pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

In a bowl, toss peaches with brown sugar and ginger root. Dissolve corn starch into lemon juice and sprinkle over peaches and mix. 

Pour the peach mixture into pie crust and crumble remaining dough over the peaches. Bake on upper rack for 40-55 minutes. Check after 30 minutes if crust is stating to brown cover with foil and continue to cook until peaches are tender.

Week 28: A trip to the Okanagan

So last week we got out of the city and took a little trip to the Okanagan. The weather was great and the wine and food was as tasty as always. I thought I would go over some of the highlights of the trip for this post. As we do every time in the Okanagan, we went to Quails Gate and since Luca was sleeping in the car at the time Jamie went and got the wine. Now there was nothing new about us going to Quails Gate to buy some of their Old Vines Foch but that wine is so good it just needs to be mentioned. If you have not tried it go get a bottle.

For the first time we went to Mission Hill and although I am not a fan of their wine the grounds alone are worth the visit. I did pay $10 to try the OCULUS which was well worth it. If you want a nice $80 bottle of wine I would highly recommend it;-)

We stayed at a nice B&B on the East side of the lake so we decided to try a couple of the wineries down there. We went to Cedar Creek which was really so-so and we also went to Summerhill which was an interesting surprise. Their regular wine was adequate but their sparking wine selection was surprising good. I am not a big sparkling wine fan but since it was nice and hot that day I gave it a try. The next time we are going to a party that requires a sparkling wine I will be buying some Summerhill. 

Finally, we went to a wonderful goat cheese farm called Carmelis. It was a bit of a drive but worth it in the end. They had some lovely cheese (the goatgonzola was very nice) and made their own goats milk gelato on site. We did the full tasting and had some tasty cookies and cream and caramel gelato.  

Week 27: Finally back to blogging

So at the beginning of July I started back to work Jamie started a new job and Luca started full time alternating at daycare and with the Grand parents. Apparently this was ended up being tougher than I thought. It has taken me several weeks but I have finally got around to writing something again. This entry includes a couple quick things I whipped up over the span of a week and a half. 

The first was a crispy goat cheese salad. Years ago when Jamie and I lived in Italy we did a weekend trip to the South of France with our friend Lucie. While there I was introduced to warm goat cheese salad and I loved it. I had not had one in years and then I was watching Food Network one day and this lady was making one that sounded super easy. I will just describe the making of the goat cheese because it would go with whatever favorite salad you might like to make. Here is what you will need

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup rosemary infused oil (I used plain olive oil and threw some rosemary into the bread crumbs)
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or some dried thyme)
1 package of goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix bread crumbs and salt and pepper and add 2-3 tsp of oil to dampen the crumbs. Spread on baking sheet and toast in oven until golden brown. Allow to cool and then toss in thyme and rosemary.


Slice goat cheese into 1/2 inch disks. Brush with remaining oil then coat with bread crumb mixture. Bake in oven for 5-7 minutes and enjoy. 


The next recipe is for a yummy cherry sauce that I served over brownies. It is cherry season here so it only made sense to make a cherry sauce. The recipe called for


2 cups of pitted cherries
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp kirch (I used about 4 tsp of port instead)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Stir everything into a medium sauce pan over medium heat until it boils and thickens (about 5 mins). That is it super easy ans super yummy.