by Elizabeth on August 15, 2010
These are the peaches that my kids and I picked at a peach farm on Friday! What fun. My friend suggested that we go to Wickham’s Fruit Farms in Cutchogue, New York on Friday to shoot a little video for her website, Parent Earth. Then we came home and baked a really simple (it literally takes less than 10 minutes to make) and delicious Peach/ Raspberry crisp with the peaches we picked and a 1/2 pint of organic raspberries that I bought down the street at Oysterponds Farm. Now, you don’t have to pick your own fruit to make this desert delicious, and you can even go so far as to bake it with frozen fruit if you want to brighten a winter day. We just happened to have the sweetest, most delicious peaches I’ve ever tasted at our disposal, so we diced them up and made it with those.
The peaches were so ripe that these little helpers peeled the skin off by hand.
Rustic Peach/ Raspberry Crisp
1 1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup palm fruit oil shortening (on the cool side but not refrigerated)
1/2 pint raspberries
12 large peaches, peeled and cut into cubes
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and set aside a 9×13″ baking pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sorghum flour, the brown sugar and the cinnamon. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening until large clumps form. Set the topping aside.
In another large mixing bowl toss together the raspberries, peaches, and granulated sugar with your hands. Dump the fruit mixture into the baking dish and cover it with the dry topping mix. Place the crisp in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Let the crisp cool for 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm with your favorite allergy-friendly ice cream or whipped topping.
by Elizabeth on August 9, 2010
I think that’s some fast food joint’s tag line. Even so, they’re right.
Tonight we had a little dinner party. It started out as just us and another couple and their kids, and then, at the last minute, we added another family to the mix. It was really fun, and, actually, very stress-free. You see, I started the prep in advance, and I learned a long time ago that the best parties are those that are the least fussy. So, as I was deciding what to make, I kept things very basic: fish, vegetables, quinoa and corn, watermelon for the kids and ice cream for all. This menu sounds, at first, quite boring. On the contrary, because instead of making everything in the expected way, I made each dish with a very simple twist. The vegetables were strung on skewers. The colors, as you can see from the photo above, spoke from themselves. Rather than just brush them with olive oil, I marinated the brochettes in a lemon, garlic, oregano and thyme marinade. See, simple but interesting. Same went with the fish. Yes, simply grilled, but garnished with slices of grilled lemons and sprinkled with fennel fronds just before serving. You already know about my favorite quinoa, corn, mint salad– it’s always a show stopper because many of our guests have never tasted much less heard of quinoa.
What I’m saying is that you too can throw a great party. Start with an easy menu and serve it with your own signature spin. Whether it’s grilling the fruit for dessert rather than just slicing it over ice cream, the same old fare doesn’t have to be boring. Eating is also a visual experience– serve your go-to meal on different plates or even use those linens that you hate to get out for fear of having to iron them. Just the tiniest change in the ordinary details makes the party your own, one that your friends will be talking about for weeks. Or at least until the next one.
