Freezing peaches

This summer's local bumper fruit crop has been peaches.  Week after week our CSA fruit share has contained beautiful, fragrant, delicious peaches.  July and much of August were too hot for me to even think about baking so they have been consumed fresh and in smoothies.  And we can't keep up!  (GFCF Kid and Red Sox Daddy are not fans of the fresh peach.)

So, this morning I got to work and washed, peeled, sliced, weighed, and bagged 8 lbs. of peaches (enough for four pies, yum).  More than once I thought about how American pioneer women kept themselves sane by doing what work they could do together, with each other.  I was a bit lonely, just me and the peaches.

Here is my go-to peach pie recipe.  I'm not sure when I will bake my next peach pie, but with the peaches ready to go, I know we'll be enjoying one sometime soon.   (BTW, I have followed the peeling method in this recipe in the past, but peeled by hand this morning because the peaches were so ripe the skins were practically falling off.)

Wraps

It's been all about wraps, or, if we'd rather (because sometimes I would), breakfast burritos, for me in the mornings lately.

Scrambled pastured egg(s), veg and/or aromatic from the farm, Daiya cheese or mayo, seasonings, in some wonderful (and sometimes magical) combo rolled up in a brown rice tortilla.

My breakfast wraps are quick and easy.  I slap a tortilla on a cast iron griddle and heat it over medium to medium-high heat.  The tortilla is so thin I don't even bother turning it, it heats through right nice.

I then sauté/scramble whatever I'm having inside the wrap in a swirl of olive oil: sometimes thin crescents of onion, this week more often than not leftover braised cabbage, this morning it was just two lovely eggs.  (I like my eggs just this side of cooked, so I keep an eye on them so they don't hang out in the hot pan longer than necessary.)

If I'm having cheese, I sprinkle Daiya cheese onto the tortilla when I put it on the griddle.  Placing a lid to cover will help melt the cheese faster, but it's usually not necessary (the heat of whatever goes on top before wrapping always suffices to finish the melting process before the first bite reaches my mouth).

By the time the eggs are approaching ready, the tortilla is heated up and I slide it onto a big plate.  This morning, I spread some mayo on the tortilla, gently nestled the eggs on top of the mayo, and shook on some salt and black pepper (I've been kind of nuts for red pepper flakes the last few weeks, but didn't feel like it today).  Then I spooned on the sublime tomato salad Cap made, leftover from dinner last night.  (Tomatoes delivered from the farm yesterday, farm garlic, farm basil, olive oil.)  

These wraps are big and I've learned to be generous with the stuffing.  More tomato salad?  No problem.

I'm not fancy with my wrapping.  I roll it up and start eating.  As things fall out the end(s) I just eat them off my plate or stuff them back in with my fingers.

So good, so quick, so nice to look forward to every morning.

Farm fresh

We're knee deep in tomatoes from the farm and peaches form the orchard (the veggies in my lunch all came from our CSA share).  

For lunch today, I tossed together some leftover corn (sliced off the cob), cut up tomato, finely chopped onion, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and Falconero evoo.  Toasted up some Udi's multigrain sandwich bread, spread it with mayo, and had me an open-faced salad sandwich.  Summer had a party in my mouth :-)

Roasted chicken

I love the Dutch oven.

Today I roasted my very first chicken. How simple...and easy. And it smelled all sorts of amazing while roasting.

The chicken is from a local farm...I buy through our CSA (the same farm from whence the pastured eggs come).

I modified the Nourishing Traditions Roast Chicken recipe slightly.

• I used a Dutch oven with the lid on instead of a roasting pan (I removed the lid for the last 5 minutes of roasting.)

• Next time I will add lemon, garlic, salt and pepper to the cavity.

• I used olive oil instead of melted butter...and was lazy and did not brush it on. I drizzled.

• I opted for fresh oregano this time.

• I am not making the gravy this time, but will enjoy the onions and garlic carpeting the bottom of the Dutch oven.

ETA: This chicken was DELICIOUS! Both kids loved it. This would make great road trip fare, cold, the next day.