Outside #52weeksofmemories

Well it's my second day of total bliss. I can get on with what I need to do during the day without the distractions, fighting or constant requests from my two lovely girls. Izzy's back at school, and Summers has kindergarten a few days a week. Have I told you it's bliss?!

Although I got side-tracked from what I was originally going to do, I still got stuff done. Like clean the dunny and bathroom, and make jam. I faffed on Facebook, and went outside and took photos, picked peaches and brought in the wheelie bins.

There may come a time when I become bored as hell, but at the moment I am savouring the time to myself.

Grilled peaches with rosemary

I have so many peaches right now. The tree is loaded and they all seem to ripen at once.

I made these grilled peaches. They are OH SO good!  

The recipe is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe from a magazine from a few years ago. Our local library has magazines of all sorts to borrow, so I have been taking advantage of that, I can't get enough of looking through food mags. This way I can do it for free!

The original recipe used a vanilla bean and a dash of brandy. You could use them if you have them. He suggested you serve them with crumbled biscotti and creme fraiche, which would be awesome. I think some toasted almond slivers would be nice too :)

Grilled peaches with rosemary
6 peaches, halved and stones removed
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 rosemary sprigs

Arrange the peaches in a baking dish, cut side up.

Mix the vanilla essence with the juice of an orange and pour over the peaches.

Scatter the zest and the sugar over. Lay the rosemary over the top.

Place the dish under a hot grill for 5-6 minutes or until fruit is golden and the juices are bubbling.

An InLinkz Link-up

3 easy ways with peaches and puff pastry

Our peach tree was chocka block this year, again. Too many to keep up with, we got 6 buckets all together. I have frozen a heap of stewed ones to use throughout the rest of the year.

We went away for the weekend camping, and I left a bucket full of fresh yummy peaches by the fence with a 'free' sign on them and some bags with the hope that they wouldn't take my bucket. When I got home the bucket was still full! What is wrong with people?! Free yummy peaches, hello!!

Oh well. I got my bake on. 

Strudel

Peach mixture

4 peaches, peeled, seeded and sliced

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/4 cup flaked almonds

Mix all together.

Use one sheet of puff pastry. Lay peach mixture down the centre. Make 1 inch slits down the edges, leaving half an inch either side of the peaches.

Fold strips over alternatively, brush with egg wash(made with a beaten egg and 1 tablespoon of water) and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 200 degrees.

Peach Turnovers

Using the same peach mix as above, cut one sheet of puff pastry into four equal squares. Place a heaped tablespoon of mix on one half of the square and fold over, making a triangle. Seal around the edges with a fork or your fingers.

Brush with egg wash of one beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water.

Bake for 25 minutes at 200 degrees

Dust with icing sugar to serve with lashings of cream!

Peach Tart

4 peaches, peeled, seeded and sliced

2 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted

2 tablespoons sugar

Cut one sheet of puff pastry in half.

Leaving a 1cm border, scatter the almonds on each half. 

Lay the peach slices in two rows along the pastry, remembering to still leave a border.

Sprinkle with sugar.

Brush edges with egg wash and bake for 25 minutes at 200 degrees.

Peach BBQ sauce

Me and Izzy picked the last of the peaches. I had heaps, and there was no way we could eat all of these before they went bad. The freezer had enough frozen peaches in it, so I made sauce!

Peach BBQ sauce

2.5 kg peaches(no stones or skin)

1 1/2 onions, chopped( I used Spanish red onions)

1 3/4 cups soft brown sugar

1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 Tblsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tblsp tomato paste

2 Tblsp chilli powder(use 1 if you don't want the spicy kick)

1 Tblsp ginger powder

Add all to a large saucepan. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes to soften everything.

Mash with a potato masher to break up peaches.

Continue simmering uncovered for 40 minutes, the liquid would have reduced to nearly half.

Puree with a stick blender until smooth. 

Pour into sterilised jars and label.

I split the recipe between two saucepans.

I've used this a couple of times to marinade chicken wings and it was good! I can't wait to try it with other meats, like pork and lamb. If you are up for it, you could add some whiskey or a drop of liquid smoke for a different flavour. I am kicking myself I didn't add liquid smoke to one of the saucepans. Oh well next time.

Linking at Jacana for Totally Thursday

Peach Pie

I have had peaches coming out of every orifice, ears, arse, you name it. Our tree brought the goods this year, I love it. 

Me and Izzy have gone out and filled up bags and bags with peaches. Her on one side of the ladder and me on the other, and a shop bag hanging on the side. I have frozen several bags of stewed peaches, eaten heaps, made pie for the neighbours, made pudding and now I've made BBQ sauce too!

Peach Pie

Filling

Peaches

1 Tbspn sugar

Pastry

1 1/2 cups flour

salt and 2 tspns sugar, mixed into flour

3 Tbspn margarine or butter

2 - 3 Tbspn cold water

Rub butter into flour. Add water and form into dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate.

Peel and slice the peaches thickly.

Roll out dough and cover the bottom and sides of the pie dish.

Layer in the peaches and sprinkle the sugar over.

With remaining pastry, cut into strips and crisscross them over the top.

Bake at 200 for 15 - 20 minutes.

Instead of peaches, try other fruit. This is the recipe I always use for apple pie. To.die.for!

If this seems like too much fiddling around, you could always just layer the fruit into the pie dish and just cover the top with pastry. The following photo is just that. Pile up the fruit under the pastry top , the fruit will settle once it cooks down. Cook for the same amount of time.

Delicious with cream or ice cream!

Peach sponge pudding and lavender custard

Peach Sponge Pudding

stewed peach halves, enough for the bottom of your pan
Spray oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1 tablespoon low-fat milk, hot

Give your dish a spray with oil. Place fruit in the bottom of the pan, cut side down.

Whisk eggs and sugar in an electric mixer for 4–5 minutes until very thick and creamy. With a spatula fold in flour and hot milk as lightly as possible. Pour over fruit to cover and bake for 25–30 minutes until golden brown and firm to touch. Serves 6.

Custard

The custard is nothing fancy, but the result is. It's just custard powder made up to how it says on the packet. 

Before you make the custard, take two cups of milk, drop in 4-5 lavender flowers for 30 minutes. Don't do it for longer than this, it will be too strong. Discard the flowers before you make custard.

I have put in a few strips of orange rind for 30 minutes into 2 cups of low fat milk, and has turned out quite flavoursome too, for something a bit different.