Mission accomplished—homemade peach ice cream churned and consumed!

Summer was clicking along, and no rite-of-passage homemade peach ice cream had slipped over our tastebuds yet. A travesty.

All those peaches—we had been drowning in them, as this blog has reported. All those recipes for peach endeavors, but no homemade peach ice cream had been churned and enjoyed. With this omission, how could we still be living and breathing?

Aha, a loved one to the rescue! During our recent trip to Colorado (and may I say cool Colorado! At the risk of being lynched by some charbroiled Texans and Midwesterners right now, for three straight mornings we woke up to 44-degree mountain temps) a family gathering solved this dilemma. My sister, Cathy, produced some of the finest homemade peach ice cream that Hubby and I have ever experienced. Cathy was kind enough to copy down her recipe and send it home with me.

Quickly, back in Texas, we had to stir up some of our own. Wish I could say it permanently soothed the byproducts of our murderous heat, but for a few brain-freeze minutes it definitely eased the pain.

I liked this recipe because it called mostly for sugar substitute (I used Splenda-brand sweetener) and because it didn’t require the mixture to chill in the fridge for several hours before you churn it. Immediately after I blended all the ingredients, it headed straight for the electric ice-cream freezer to do its work. Perfection resulted!

OK, summer, you can head out of town now (and take your broil-setting with you). Homemade peach ice cream consumed!

Cathy’s Peach Ice Cream

1 quart chopped and mashed fresh peaches

1/4 cup sugar substitute

1 quart half and half

3 eggs (I used 3/4 cup egg substitute)

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup sugar substitute

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute) 

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pint whipping cream

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

In a medium mixing bowl mix mashed peaches and 1/4 cup sugar substitute. Set aside. In a small saucepan scald half and half. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs, 1/3 cup sugar substitute, sugar, salt, vanilla, and whipping cream. Add half and half and mashed peaches. Pour into canister of ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Makes 8 servings.

Peaches and pecans in coleslaw? Outtasight good.

I just adore coleslaw of any stripe, so when I found out I could make it with the additions of peaches and pecans, I was thrilled.

In my frequent summer dilemma of what to do with the peach crop, a recipe that used several peaches in a slaw-type setting was welcome indeed.

The magazine article that featured Peach-Ginger Slaw showed them served alongside homemade Hush Puppies. So we HAD to have Hush Puppies as an accompaniment. The only thing else I needed in this summertime tableau was a red-and-white-checked cloth. CHECK! I have my grandmother’s 70-year-old vintage one, with colors just as perky as they were in her day. This cloth of many memories was the perfect backdrop for serving these two treats.  

The addition of peach slices seemed to mellow out the tanginess of the slaw dressing. The nuts crunched up the mixture. A summer delight, just as I figured it would be.

Peach-Ginger Slaw

1 cup chopped pecans

3 tablespoons pepper jelly

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1/3 cup canola oil

1 (16-ounce) package shredded coleslaw mix

2 large fresh peaches, unpeeled and coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 10 to 12 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. Stir halfway through. Cool completely (about 10 minutes). Meanwhile, microwave jelly in a large microwave-safe bowl at high 15 seconds. Whisk in vinegar and next 2 ingredients until all are blended. Gradually add canola oil in a slow, steady stream. Whisk constantly until mixture is well blended. Add coleslaw mix and toss gently. Gently stir in peaches. Stir in pecans; add salt or salt substitute to taste. Serve immediately or cover and chill up to 8 hours. Stir in pecans and salt to taste just before serving. (Source: Southern Living, July 2012)

Good dish of Peach Cobbler cures all ills, even the wipe-out feeling of returning from a holiday weekend

Another peach tree—number four in our garden—has surrendered its yield—a guarantee that in the near future more peach recipes are sure to find their way into this blog. Today’s is a tried-and-true love that every summer I yearn to put on the table—a very simple but wonderful Peach Cobbler. If you want to cut to the chase and get a peach dessert whipped up lightning-fast, here’s your ticket.

This recipe is courtesy www.pickyourown.com and is so easy, I could make it in my sleep (and just about did. Why is the first work day after returning from a holiday always such a wipe-out?) But a good steamy dish of peach cobbler cures all ills!

Peach Cobbler

3 pounds fresh ripe peaches, sliced (about 6 cups when peaches are sliced)

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into tiny pieces

Topping

1 cup all-purpose four

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 teaspoon baking power

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs slightly beaten (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

Put into a large bowl fresh peaches, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 1/4 cup water. With a wooden spoon mix peach mixture gently and then transfer to an 8-inch-by-8-inch-by-2-inch baking dish. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To prepare topping, in a small bowl put 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons softened butter, and eggs. With a wooden spoon beat until topping is smooth. With back of spoon spread topping over peach filling. Try to space topping evenly. Place cobbler on center rack in preheated oven. Bake for 50 minutes or until peaches are tender and the crust is a light golden brown. Remove from oven to wire rack and let stand for about 30 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.

Collecting July 4th inspirations? We give thumbs-up to Fresh Peach Sherbet.

Peach homemade ice cream is a staple among my “peach-iana” recipes—could make it in my sleep—but I’d never tried peach sherbet. In my file of summer “must-prepares” was a peach sherbet recipe (Better Homes & Gardens) that had 2011 marked on it, so I clearly had set it aside as a goal for this year. No problem there; the peaches in our orchard are still pouring in. I grabbed my latest installment and set out to stir up this temptingly cool dish.

In fact if you don’t want to make the effort to hand-churn or electric-churn homemade ice cream for July 4th and your conscience will allow you to sub this sherbet for that all-American freezer treat, I’d highly suggest you consider this frozen peach dessert—Fresh Peach Sherbet. It will make you forget the soaring temps outside and will chill you to your tippy-toes. Very non-guilt-inducing as well, since it can be made with sugar substitute and low-fat evaporated milk.

Just another way to wallow in those garden-fresh peaches. Here’s the how-to:

Peach Sherbet

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

dash salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 cup water

2 cups fresh peach puree (mash or blend 3 to 4 cups of fresh peeled and sliced peaches to obtain 2 cups puree)

1 (13-ounce) can low-fat evaporated milk (1 2/3 cups)

2 egg whites

1/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

In large saucepan combine gelatin, 1/2 to 3/4 sugar, and salt. Over medium heat stir in water and heat and stir until gelatin dissolves. Stir in desired fruit puree and evaporated milk. Turn mixture into a 9-inch-by-9-inch-by-2-inch square pan; cover and freeze until firm. In small mixer bowl beat egg whites until soft peaks form (tips curl over); gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Break frozen mixture into chunks; turn into chilled mixer bowl. Beat until fluffy. Fold in egg whites. Return to pan; cover and freeze until firm. If necessary let sherbet pan stand on counter for a few minutes before you serve to allow sherbet to become soft enough to dip up. Makes about 1/2 quarts.

Peaches and carrots and nuts, oh my! A great breakfast bread combo

For the last month I’ve been salivating all the way to the mailbox (who says people don’t get anything worth having through the U.S. Mail anymore?) The June 2011 issue of Southern Living magazine promised that the next month’s installment would be all about peaches. For a peaches gal like me that promised heaven. I’m forever scouring every source imaginable for new and inventive ways to cook with peaches. I knew the SL folks would hatch up some doozies.

O my! No disappointment there when my July installment finally appeared. I knew I’d find some treasures when I saw the magazine quote author Alice Walker (In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens), who wrote the following: “Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.” The theology in that quote may not be accurate, but the fresh-peach part of life truly helps fulfill on the psalmist’s belief that he would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 27:13). Peaches truly represent one of the crown-jewel aspects of life on earth.

What to try first among all of SL’s novel suggestions? I already possessed a half-bag of fresh carrots that I needed to use in a recipe and of course always have shelled pecans on hand, so Spiced Pecan Carrot Bread seemed as though it was a great way to get started on responding to SL’s call to honor the peach. The idea of blending peaches and carrots in a breakfast bread tantalized me; the recipe was touted as having won first place in South Carolina’s 2009 Annual Peach-Off Contest. Instead of making the recipe into one large 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf, I used a large pan that contained spaces for 8 mini loaves. I thought I’d enjoy having lots of little loaves to share with friends and family; I also knew we didn’t need a big ole chunk of tasty breakfast bread sitting around all week. With mini loaves I knew I could get rid of the temptation quickly.

These turned out wonderfully moist. I loved biting into the warm fresh peaches as the loaves were first out from the oven and cooled minimally; the combination with carrots was a big success. Of course Hubby couldn’t resist topping his bites of bread with some homemade peach preserves (from last summer’s canning). Best of all I have 11 little loaves left for some delicious little gifts (although some of them may remain as gifts to ourselves!)

Spiced Peach Carrot Bread

3/4 cup chopped pecans

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped fresh, ripe peaches

3/4 cup freshly grated carrots

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup skim milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a shallow pan bake pecans in a single layer for 8 to 10 minutes or until nuts are toasted and fragrant. Halfway through stir nuts. Cool 15 minutes. In a large bowl stir together flour and next 6 ingredients; add peaches, next 4 ingredients, and toasted pecans. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into a lightly greased and floured 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf pan (or in a pan containing spaces for 8 mini loaves). If baking large loaf bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center emerges clean. If baking mini-loaves bake 30 minutes or until pick emerges clean. Cool in pan(s) on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove bread from pan(s) to wire rack; cool completely (about 1 hour).

What could be more summery than this delicious Peach-Blueberry Pie?

Just doesn’t get any more delicious—Peach- Blueberry Pie, combining the best of the summer garden—fresh peaches and blueberries. Preparing this essence-of-summer recipe, from my cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, has become a summer ritual for me. Thank you, ladies of Northlake Baptist Church in my hometown of Garland, TX, for tossing your summer book club covered-dish event featuring my book and for giving me an excuse to prepare this wonder again.

About a month ago I had spoken at a women’s banquet at this church; members had scheduled one of their summer book reviews to feature my book. Attendees were to consider bringing a dish featured in the Country Garden pages. What a treat for me to arrive at host Cindy Jones’ home and find on the counter dishes of Cheese Grits Casserole, Chicken Spaghetti, Pecan Pie Muffins, Strawberry Pretzel Salad, Garden Slaw, and others that sprang straight from the cookbook’s pages.

After dinner participants discussed such questions as: What particular food reminds you of your childhood? What are special or unusual traditions shared by your family? What is one of your favorite memories of your grandparents or great-grandparents? What do you most hope to share with future generations in your family? This was a terrific idea for a party activity and brought tales that alternated between the side-splitting and the tear-prompting. Wonderful evening.

When considering what I personally would bring to the covered dish, I didn’t have to look any further than to our backyard garden and the peach trees still bringing forth their gorgeous yield. Many people wouldn’t imagine combining peaches with blueberries, but I remember that the original recipe suggested peach/blackberry and peach/raspberry combinations as alternatives to this one. The crust was my time-honored Easy Pie Crust featured in my first cookbook, Way Back in the Country. It’s a never-fail recipe and easy enough for a young cook to make as his or her first pie crust (which is how it was first introduced in our house—as a summer learning activity when our daughter was young.)

Hubby almost wept when he saw this lattice-crust pie being toted out the door for the party. “Please try to bring home just one slice,” he sniffed piteously. Lucky him; a few slices were left. He was happy to see me return, but he looked past me to see that, thankfully, some pie indeed remained under the clear plastic pie-plate cover. He was grateful indeed!

Peach-Blueberry Pie

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

3 cups sliced peeled fresh peaches

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon butter

pastry for double-crust pie (9-inch pie pan)

milk

cinnamon

sugar

In a bowl combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and allspice. Add the peaches and blueberries; toss gently. Line pie plate with bottom crust; add the filling. Dot with butter. Top with a lattice crust. Brush crust with milk; sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool completely. Serves 6-8.

Nobody’s a kook for trying this delicious peach kuchen, a queen of coffeecakes

I’ve never known how to pronounce that crazy word kuchen, but I’ve always loved recipes that made this little coffeecake. So I found a recipe for Peach Kuchen to kick off my Peachathon this weekend. This year we are blessed with peaches beyond belief! Two peach trees in our garden already have been harvested, with three to go. Our fridge is so full of peaches, we have trouble inserting anything else. This past weekend I had to get to cooking so we could clear out some bowls of peaches and make room for the next batch to be picked. Glory, glory! Because all of our peach trees were destroyed in the flooding in 2007 and the new trees only now are into full production, we’ve been waiting for this day of abundance for a long time.

This Peach Kuchen (I finally looked this German word up in a pronunciation guide. It’s KOO-khen, with the sound kook emphasized, except I’m certainly no kook for making it.) was our Saturday morning breakfast (and then dessert throughout the weekend). It was wonderful and so simple and of course very easy on the eating plan when made with the fat-free sour cream and sugar substitute.

I found the recipe online furnished by 1st Traveler’s Choice Internet Cookbook (www.virtualcities.com). The site featured Peach Kuchen as a signature recipe from Abigail’s Bed and Breakfast Inn in Camden, ME, a way-up-there city to which we’d actually traveled when we lived on the East Coast some years back. I could just imagine B&B guests sitting down to this breakfast delight. The ample crust of flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter made a terrific base for the peaches-and-cream topping.

Nope, no kooks in kuchen. I patted myself on the back for being one smart cook. Another peach recipe down and many, many to go.

Peach Kuchen

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup butter

5 peaches, peeled and sliced

2 egg yolks (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 cup sour cream (we used fat-free)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the sugar together. Work in butter until mixture crumbles. Pile into an ungreased square pan and pat even layer over bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan. Place peach slices over pastry; sprinkle mixture of cinnamon and remaining sugar over top. Bake for 12 minutes. Mix egg yolks with sour cream; pour over top of partially cooked kuchen. Place back in oven for 30 to 40 more minutes until top is bubbly. Serve warm with no-sugar-added vanilla ice cream. Serves 6-8.

"Best-ever" thing to make from peaches goes on shelf to enjoy for the rest of year

Whew! Mission accomplished!

For me, some food endeavors merit a great big, self-pronounced atta-girl once they're behind me.

When the peach orchard began producing in the spring and we saw that this year was going to be a watershed year where peaches were concerned, Peach Preserves, which I always consider to be a mammoth accomplishment, always were on my radar screen.

As I mention in Way Back in the Country Garden, my new cookbook, I consider Peach Preserves to be the absolute best thing that can be made from a personal peach harvest.

The recipe's not that difficult--the preparation simply involves a matter of settling in and simply getting it done. Boiling the jars, rounding up the lids and rings, peeling the peaches. The actual making of the preserves is a fairly short process compared to all the get-ready steps.

Hubby helped by being the Champeen Peach Peeler and making the grocery runs to buy some fresh lids for this year. He also helped remove the hot jars, once sterilized, to dry on clean towels spread out on the counter. That freed me to concentrate on the peach mixture.

What an absolute high I got when I finally began ladeling the preserves into jars and watch as the golden, thick syrupy mixture with giant peach chunks began settling itself into its new home in the clear jars on the countertop! Into the boiling water bath they went so the jars would seal. I never run out of excitement when I hear the telltale "click" of the jar lids as a sign that the sealing is successful. The jars then go on the pantry shelf for our dining enjoyment in the months ahead; I'll also give the best-looking ones as gifts.

One jar remained unsealed, of course. That's the one that went into our fridge so we could begin sampling this delicacy. We've already spread some on oven toast and on a few Fresh Peach Muffins, the recipe for which I've shared earlier. Tomorrow morning I intend to make some from-scratch biscuits (from Neta Welborn's recipe in the cookbook that Truett Welborn furnished me; I wrote about it in an earlier blog.)

Atta-girl for sure! The Peach Preserves are worth every bit of the effort--a gift that should keep on giving until the next spring.

Peach Preserves

8 cups peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced (about 4 pounds)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 (3-ounce) package powdered pectin

7 cups sugar (although I usually use sugar substitute, for this recipe I use really sugar)

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Combine peaches, lemon juice, and pectin in a large pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a rolling boil and stir gently. Add sugar and return to rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute; stir constantly. Remove from heat. Skim any foam. Add almond extract and mix. Pour into hot jars; leave 1/4-inch headspace. Adjust caps and process for 10 minutes in boiling-water bath. Makes about 6 12-ounce jars.

Too many recipes left at the end of the fruit supply? Roadside produce stands are the answer

The old saying, "Why do I have so much month left at the end of the money?", could be applied to where we are season-wise right now.

I'm thinking (and mourning), "Why do I have so many peach recipes left at the end of my summer?"

The peaches long ago left our trees; the branches, though still green and leafy, are sadly bare of fruit and will remain that way until next June.

And yet my recipe file still brims with untried recipes that didn't get brought to life before the peach crop faded away. One of those was an all-time winner, "Peach-Blueberry Pie", which combines two of my favorite fruit in all the world. It appears in my new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, but truthfully, I don't think I prepared it all last summer or maybe even the summer before. It's the absolute greatest, but yet another year was breezing by without it materializing.

Enter Ham's Orchard. Until a few weeks ago I probably was the only North Texan alive who didn't know about this fun little spot, just east of Terrell off Highway 80. A combination roadside market/fudgery/burger stand, Ham's is best-known for its many varieties of peaches produced from the massive orchard adjacent to the indoor produce stop. A few weeks beforehand my daughter and her husband had been introduced to Ham's and had suggested we take a Sunday-afternoon drive to tour it as well. I knew Ham's would have to be special to entice my daughter, who is very great with a child (did I say very?) and desperately seeks to avoid crowds, to brave Ham's crowded aisles to show us this haven of goodies.

Perhaps Ham's best draws are the fresh homemade peach ice cream and peach shakes that are wildly popular with customers, especially on extremely hot Texas summer afternoons. Other delicacies are the homemade peach cobblers and ready-prepared meals that are sold ready to be popped into the oven. On the Sunday afternoon we stopped in, customers swarmed around like bees after honey. I saw my opportunity to replenish my peach supply and give life to my "Peach-Blueberry Pie" after all.

With a small sack of some of Ham's finest tucked under my arm, I resisted the temptation for a soft-serve peach ice cream cone and instead envisioned my upcoming pie that soon would have intermingled morsels of peaches and blueberries bubbling through the squares in the lattice-topped crust. (I had a bag of blueberries left from an earlier visit to the Chickasaw Nation farmer's market, so now with the peaches I was in business.)

Happily, that dream was soon realized. Nobody we saw departing Ham's slurping peach shakes or licking peach cones on that Sunday afternoon had anything near the smiles on our faces that resulted from the first bite of my upcoming warm homemade Peach-Blueberry Pie.

Yay! I didn't have to wait another year to enjoy it after all.

Peach-Blueberry Pie

1 cup sugar (I use sugar substitute)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

3 cups sliced peeled fresh peaches

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon butter (I use unsalted, not margarine)

pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)

milk (I use skim milk)

cinnamon

a "little" extra sugar to mix with the cinnamon

In a bowl combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and allspice. Add the peaches and blueberries; toss gently. Line pie plate with bottom crust; add the filling. Dot with butter. Top with a lattice crust. Brush crust with milk; sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filing is bubbly. Cool completely. Frozen fruit may be used if it is thawed and well-drained. Serves 6-8.

Remaining peaches once again provide a dessert marking a "new-beginnings" occasion

In the end I didn't have to use much discernment at all. The choice was a very natural one.

The remaining peaches from our most prolific peach tree--all peeled and chopped, with their slices filling a nice-sized bowl--measured only five cups: no more. I knew I could get only one ample peach dish from the batch awaiting me in my refrigerator. I had to make it count.

The crop from our next tree wasn't ripe yet, so this current supply would have to get a big bang for its buck. (My June 7 blog, "When crop is smaller than expected, selective use can still impress the taste buds", mentioned this dilemma.)

It wasn't enough for peach jam or peach preserves, which were high on my wish-list for this summer but certainly not possible with only five cups of peaches at the ready.

I leafed through the peach section of my recipe album. What called for five cups? A fajita cookout in our back yard the next day needed a dessert prepared by me. Our garden's peach tree that would be responsible for this yield could entertain compliments with guests dining only a stone's throw away on the deck. What food item would be just perfect for our meal?

Then it hit me. Our Sunday event was to be held to celebrate new beginnings. Two young people--Ishmael and Crystal--were being baptized during Sunday church. We had invited their family to the cookout afterward in honor of this special occasion--a very key decision to trust Christ as Savior that Ishmael had made in 2008 and his sister, Crystal, had made just a few weeks ago. Both testified they were ready for a fresh start as they had asked Jesus into their hearts and lives.

Last summer we celebrated new beginnings as well--as our cousin Lynda and her fiance George tied the knot after an extended courtship. One Sunday afternoon both of them, who as single parents separately had been rearing children alone, had visited our home to ask Louis to perform their wedding ceremony and unite their families. During their visit I served everyone "Quick Peach Cobbler" to acclaim the first peaches from our new trees since our entire peach orchard had been wiped out in the deluge of May 2007. It marked new beginnings for our peach grove, also.

"Quick Peach Cobbler" called for five cups of peeled peaches--the exact amount that I had on hand this time, too. My new-beginnings recipe would serve its purpose once again. The dish lives up to its name--quick to prepare, especially considering the outrageously tasty results. And the aroma in my kitchen as the bubbling peach dish materialized in the oven . . . it was my Aunt Bonnie's kitchen all over again from summers of my childhood when I would visit her on the farm and help her peel that week's yield of her peach trees.

"Quick Peach Cobbler", featured in my new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden in a chapter called "To Love, Honor, and Surprise" about Lynda and George's wedding, turned out to be a wonderful addition to yesterday afternoon's victory celebration in our back yard. Crystal and Ishmael were brimming with joy after being buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life. In front of their family members, some of whom were just starting to contemplate whether they might need to make commitments to Christ, this brother and sister were bold in their newfound faith and had no regrets.

Members of the church choir, on learning of Crystal and Ishmael's decisions, taken a special interest in them, prayed for them, and graciously sent along some desserts to accompany our fajita dinner. The choristers had furnished two chocolate sheet cakes, a plate of brownies, a pecan pie, and a lemon poppyseed Bundt--but no peach cobbler, so my "new-beginnings" dessert settled into a place of honor on the table. And when one guest asked me, "Did you say the peaches for this were picked from that tree just a few days ago?", I made sure I said "yes" loud enough for the parent tree to overhear. It had done itself proud.

Quick Peach Cobbler

cinnamon

nutmeg

sugar (we used sugar substitute)

5 cups sliced and peeled peaches

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup sugar (w used sugar substitute)

1 large egg, beaten (we used egg substitute)

1/2 cup butter (we used unsalted butter)

ice cream or whipped topping (we used no-sugar added topping)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl place sliced peaces. Sprinkle sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg on top of sliced peaches. Toss to mix. Place mixture in greased 9-by-9-inch baking dish. Mix 1 cup self-rising flour, 1 cup sugar, and egg to a crumb-like texture. Pour over layer of peaches in baking dish Melt butter and drizzle over crumb topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until top turns brown and crusty. Serve hot or cold, plain or with ice cream or whipped topping Serves 6-8.

Summer days turn perfectly peachy, but what to make with that first delightful crop?

For several days I've seen them peeking their perky little fuzzy heads among the lush branches.

They were signs of the first of this summer's peach crop, which started out as blossoms, then tight, knobby outcroppings, then green mini-fruit. Slowly they began to get color about them, as a blush of yellow-orange-amber began spreading over ripening rounds.

From my vantage point at my home-office desk, which overlooks our backyard garden plot, I watched as the color deepened and the fruit swelled. Every day I could spot more of them and could see their increasing weight droop the branches more and more.

Soon, I mused excitedly. Soon.

That thought naturally skipped to a related reverie. What dish will I make with the first ones I bring in? The "peach" section of my loose-leaf album memorized, I didn't even have to remove it from the shelf and thumb through for inspiration. I knew them all by heart. Peach-Plum Crumble. Refrigerator Peach Jam. Peach Lattice Pie. My tastebuds frolicked as my mind wound around the possibilities.

Last year's first harvest was designated for Quick Peach Cobbler that I served my cousin, Lynda, as she and her fiance, George, visited our home to discuss plans for their upcoming wedding.

In my new book, Way Back in the Country Garden, I describe why this cobbler was such a cause for celebration--it marked the first peach ingathering we'd experienced since the Great Deluge of 2007, when rain fell for days on end and drowned out all the peach trees in our garden. Last year was the first time the new, fledgling peach trees, which we planted to replace the prize ones that died, gave forth a harvest.

Several weeks ago we thankfully began assessing that peaches would be abundant again this year--maybe never as prolific as before the 2007 flood but certainly respectable--enough to make my way through my cherished peach recipes plus experiment with new ones as well.

Two days ago I managed to sneak one off a branch and bring it in for my breakfast cereal. Not ripe enough to be soft and malleable, but a foretaste of things ahead.

Today finally I could tell enough were ready to pick that I'd better bring my basket. This time, from 10 to a dozen were ready for the Moment of Truth. I scurried in with them and peeled them--their tangy yet mellow fragrance as several cups of chopped peaches stewed on the stove recalled my Aunt Bonnie's house during childhood summers I stayed with her and Uncle Bill on their farm and we put up peach preserves. Nothing like that aroma . . . or those memories.

With two cups of peaches cooked and ready to land themselves in the perfect dish, what did I finally pick to showcase them? Ultimately, after filing through several more "peach" pages--spotting recipes for Individual Peach-Berry Crisps, Peach Angel-Food Cake, and Peach Crumb Pie, I knew what the hands’-down winner would be.

I quickly dumped them in a bowl to stir up . . . Aunt Sallie's Pudding, of course. (See recipe below.) Amazingly simple, with only a few basic ingredients, this "pudding" actually bakes in the oven with a layer of batter poured over a layer of chopped peaches. Top it with fat-free whipped topping (my hubby subbed fat-free vanilla yogurt) and you have a light, summer winner. It's been a favorite ever since I discovered it in the Birchman Baptist Church (Fort Worth) cookbook some years back.

What about the also-rans--Fresh Peach Muffins, Upside-Down Ginger-Pecan Peach Pie, Peach Lattice-Topped Cobbler--to name a few?

Today's only the first day of June; more languid summer days stretch out promisingly on the horizon; gratefully, this year more peaches beckon. In fact, I think I better get the ice-cream freezer down from the shelf. I think I hear some Fresh Peach Homemade Ice Cream calling my name!

Miss Sallie's Pudding

3 eggs (we use egg substitute)

1 cup sugar (we use sugar substitute)

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup chopped peaches

1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond flavoring

2 tablespoons butter

Place chopped peaches in a microwave-safe bowl with 1 tablespoon water. Cover and cook 4 minutes on high until peaches are soft. (Can also cook these in a saucepan on the stove until peaches become tender.) Set aside. Mix eggs, sugar, and flour with evaporated milk; add vanilla and almond flavoring. Melt butter in an 8-by-8-inch pan; pour peaches over butter, then pour batter over peaches and butter. Bake at 300 degrees until firm (about 30 minutes).