All things PEACH, including a pie

This is my summer of peach pie perfection. I am getting close! But first, a paean to the humble peach.

A good peach is really hard to beat. For starters, I adore their coloration. Peaches show that pinky-coral, yellow, and green marry winningly. Peaches are in a state of perennial blush, as if they are always in love and happy about it. 

I admire anything that continues to ripen once picked. It gives you a bit of stress-free leeway really. I mean, as much as anyone loves peaches, there are only so many of anything once can eat in a day. And so it's nice to know that a row of peaches sunning on a sill will be able to make you happy for many days on end.

Although I don't like to eat peach skin, I do love the way unpeeled peaches feel, especially if you've just picked them and they're still warm from the sun. They are soft, fuzzy in a lovely teddy-bearish way, firm but yielding (if not you've picked too soon, friend). They are irregularly shaped orbs of promise.

Peaches are great as is but they are also fabulous tossed in with more savory ingredients (see this wonderful salad of mine: Tomato, Peach, Chevre, and Herb Salad with Apple Vinaigrette) and grilled, roasted, stewed, and baked into things like pies and muffins. Two of my favorite ways to enjoy them cooked are in this Arugula Salad with Roasted Peaches, Pistachios, and Mozzarella, and simply grilled and topped with my Mint-Pistachio Pesto. 

Tomato, Peach, Chevre, and Herb Salad with Apple Vinaigrette

Mint-Pistachio Pesto

Heck, now that I've gone down the wormhole, I'm remembering how much I love these Ginger Peach Muffins and also my Grilled Peach Crostini. 

Grilled Peach Crostini

And the jam possibilities are endless!

to-be Brandied Peaches

Clearly, I have a thing for peaches. And I am not ashamed.

Back to the pie. I have, over the years, worked on what is, in my opinion, the best representation of a number of pies: blackberry, apple, coconut, pecan. This summer, I set my sights on their peach cousin, and I think I'm nearly there.

It is, like my others, simple. It lets the primary fruit shine bright which is what the best pies do. I use peaches, sugar, lemon, and spices but have upped the ante slightly by including an apricot or two for a marvelous bit of tang and some muscovado sugar for depth (muscovado is a dark, unrefined brown sugar with a high level of molasses {in both content and flavor}. I use cinnamon and ground ginger and am considering using nutmeg, but we'll see. Peach Pie!

Paired with my crust, salty and flaky and perfect, the peaches shine. Which is just how it should be. 

Dispatches from the beach

I can hear the water lapping against the shores of the channel, can feel the breeze whisper against and across my shoulders as I rock slowly on the second floor porch. Some birds perch, others soar, boats and jet skis head home. The sun is setting, moving south as if through multiple filters. It is vivid orange. It is blinding yellow with rays bursting in all directions like a child's drawing. It is muted behind the prism of layers of clouds moving in various directions. Some are utterly static while others race. How is this? How do some freeze in the face of forceful currents?

Last night we celebrated my mother-in-law's 70th birthday, and today, she, my father-in-law, brother- and sister-in-law, and nieces headed home. It was a wonderful week- getting to see the kids together, see them truly love and delight in playing together is a treasure.

yellow cake with whipped chocolate caramel ganache frosting - recipes by apuginthekitchen

My crew decided to stay the day and are glad we did. I had peach apricot pie for breakfast (made this yesterday!), went for a run, we spent a last couple hours on the beach, and saw Wonder Woman. As have many, I cried in several spots, moved by her fierceness, wisdom, compassion, courage, and unabating morality. If only such sorts of people actually led our country right now. If only...

Instead, we have an ignorant, insecure, greedy, lying, fraud in the big seat, and innocent people like Philando Castile are murdered in cold blood for no reason other than their skin color and their killers are set free. This country is not moving forward, and it is utterly disheartening and enraging.

With a wink, a nod, and a clenched fist of hell yeah, I leave you with this. 

Eggplant parmesan, a thank you, and a great book to read with kids (or without them)

A dear friend is moving soon, and last week I had the good fortune to get to host a going-away dinner for her. Word on the street was that her favorite meal is eggplant parmesan. I like eggplant parm, but A) have not made it in years, and B) often find it bland, watery, and underwhelming all around.

To avoid those pitfalls and ensure a gold-medal casserole, I crowd-sourced beloved recipes and tips from some of my most trusted foodie friends, and then came up with my own recipe. Wendy suggested baking the eggplant rather than frying it, a method she came across in a Food52 recipe written by Nancy Jo. Great tip as eggplant is the greediest olive oil sponge in the world, and I hate oily dishes.

Suzanne uses ricotta in addition to mozzarella and parmesan, and as I both love ricotta and am always happy to make yet another pot of it, I went with her advice to use it. I also decided to use panko for some extra texture and depth.

The tomato sauce recipe is my own, one that I've been tinkering with and perfecting over the years. I think it's sublime. So, here's the recipe, Eggplant Parmesan, and here are some pictures to whet your appetite. Included in the headnote are tips about using male eggplants as they are less bitter.

I must also take this time to thank you all for the outpouring of enthused support for my last post, When you've got a siphon but needs a bellows. It's always so heartening to hear that my words resonate with you.

And lastly, if you have kids, nieces/nephews, children you mentor/babysit/work with/love, 8 years and up, I implore you to read the profound book, Wonder, with them. Heck, if you have no children in your life, I still implore you to read Wonder. Written by R.J. Palacio, Wonder topped the New York Times book list, has won a host of awards, inspired the Choose Kind movement, and is soon to be a motion picture in wide release.

It is a fictional story of a 10-year-old boy, August Pullman, who was born with a craniofacial deformity. When we meet August, he has undergone dozens of reconstructive surgeries but still looks very different. His mother has home-schooled him until now, but we soon learn that he'll be entering fifth grade at a mainstream private school in the near future.

Oliver and I are reading it for his book club, and we have enjoyed and hung on every page. It has offered more than a few opportunities for deep discussion about kindness, people's insides versus their outsides, bullying, justice, anxiety, shame, and love. It is a very, very dear story that's not sugar-coated or superficial. It is both tough and uplifting. We both found ourselves in tears this morning in one particularly moving scene. Ol has never before cried in a book and seemed nervous about doing so.

"Bug, I have cried in so many books over the years. That's when you know a story is a really good one that will always stick with you; when even if it's fiction you love and care for the characters. You hurt for their losses and cheer their successes and root against the bully and hope kindness and justice prevail. What you're feeling is the impact of a great book. Lucky us."