mellymell: (Default)
So, we had these 4 pounds of peaches and about 8 oz. of blueberries to use fairly quickly. The peaches weren't so great out of hand. They were a bit tart and clung to their pits, despite being a good dark rose color and soft on the outside. So, a cobbler it would be. But I didn't feel like making a cobbler dough. So, a crisp it would be. But I didn't want to do an oat crisp like I would for apples. I looked up the cobbler recipes from Alton Brown's "Cobbled Together" episode and combined his peach rhubarb cobbler recipe with his berry crisp recipe. Here's what I came up with:

Blueberry Peach Crisp Filling
4 lbs. peaches, sliced (peeling optional)
8 oz. of blueberries (I would imagine it would work just as well with frozen berries)
1.5 cups of sugar
1/4 cup of cornstarch

Blueberry Peach Crisp Topping
1.5 cups pecans, coarsely chopped (or stick them in a ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin)
ginger snaps coarsely chopped to match nuts (I wish I had quantified this when I did it, but I'd have to say it was about 15-20 1.5 inch round cookies, probably wound up about 2 cups or more crushed)
10 oz. of all-purpose flour (approx. 2 cups)
1 1/3 cup of sugar
8 oz. of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

Mix the filling together in a 9x13 baking dish.
Break up the cookies and nuts and toss them in a bowl with the flour and sugar and mix thoroughly. Then add the butter cubes and mix in with your fingers until mixture looks crumbly. Top fruit with an even layer of nut/cookie mixture. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until fruit is bubbly and topping is slightly browned.

Would also be awesome if you mixed some crystallized ginger in with the fruit. The topping almost tasted like granola. Chris had made some ginger peach ice cream on Sunday (the only peaches in it were some peach preserves, but it had lots of crystallized ginger and more ginger snap cookies broken up into it). We topped the warm cobbler with a scoop of the ginger ice cream. Winning combination!


Catching up from the weekend )
mellymell: (rainbow at island in the sky)
So, conversations of how Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day are in general sham holidays that we're obligated to celebrate aside, Chris surprised me with a new orchid and a wonderful dinner last night. Last week was the surf, this week the turf. Along with a big, wonderful, perfectly cooked (despite setting them on fire) steaks, he made steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce and mashed sweet potatoes with chipotles. As an appetizer, he made stuffed, marinated mushrooms (marinated in balsamic vinegar and stuffed with a mixture of onion, the mushroom stems, artichoke hearts, mozzarella and goat cheeses and bread crumbs and I'm really not sure what else, if I left out anything). Everything was incredibly delicious, though neither of us could finish our steaks. Thinking of searing them a second time and slicing them up for salads tonight, perhaps.

The orchid is a new species to my small, but growing collection. A Cymbidium, it's huge at about 3 feet tall. It kind of reminds me of a Gladiolus, with strap-like leaves arching up a bit taller than the flower spikes that are covered in large, kind of cupped, trumpet-like flowers. When I read about the culture of the species, it seems they'll do well right along side the rest of them with just one seasonal difference. In the fall, I need to let it get cool and stay cool (like around 45 degrees) and relatively dry and unfertilized for a few weeks. After this cooling period, bringing it back to normal growth temps and humidity will trigger another round of flower spikes, just in time for the dead of winter.

Some pictures of the entire collection, newest to oldest )

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mellymell

May 2011

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