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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Peaches in the Summertime.......

Apples in the fall. If I can't have you all the time I won't have none at all. -Gillian Welch
I couldn't help but lead with a fruit photo again. Our visiting friends from Mississippi stopped at Tony's on the way here and brought more gorgeous stone fruit from the valley below. Peaches were diced and baked into an old favorite (non-gluten-free) coffee cake. They were eaten creek-side in the sunshine with juice dripping all the way to elbows. They were grilled on the left-over coals from a BBQ dinner until caramelized and insanely sweet and topped with homemade honey vanilla ice cream. They were sauteed in coconut oil and put atop crepes. They were diced and drizzled with rosemary honey. They were devoured within a few days with no canning required. 

We love the musician Greg Brown in this house. His lyrics are so down-homey, so farm-girl, so Americana. His voice is so deep and rich. One of my favorite songs is called "Canned Goods". If you have a spare 4 minutes you can listen to an older version of it with a delightful little slideshow by clicking the arrow below.


We are in the middle of a week of 100 degree daytime temperatures. This is when our house shines. The towering pines at the rear of our property provide afternoon shade. We close the windows during the heat of the day and open everything up in the evenings and through to the morning. This effectively keeps our house comfortable 24/7. We've been swimming everyday, either in the creek or the community pool or both. Swimming and eating ice cream!

Leo designed a drying rack for his swim suit after I mentioned that we should probably have a set spot that we hang it each time we return from the pool. He literally drew up the plans for it and we built it together. Then he directed me on how he wanted it painted (light blue waves against a white background). It was a fun project and, yet again, I was impressed with my 6-year-old's creativity and design sense.


We have a bright red Cuisinart electric ice cream maker. It has been working hard lately to keep up with our taste for sweet frozen goodness. We've been making all kinds of frozen concoctions. I am still avoiding cow's milk products for the most part and so I experimented with a coconut milk ice cream and was pleased with the results. I will share my simple recipe here:

Coconut Milk Honey Vanilla Ice Cream
You will need:
1 can (15 oz.) of full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup of pure honey
1 cup of almond milk (unsweetened, sweetened is fine too just reduce honey slightly)
1 T. pure vanilla extract

Do the first part in the morning so you are ready to make the ice cream in the afternoon. Place honey and coconut milk in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until honey is dissolved. Remove from heat and add almond milk. Lastly stir in vanilla. Place pan in refrigerator and let chill 6 hours or more. Stir before adding to frozen ice cream maker canister. Follow directions for your ice cream maker. Our takes 25 minutes. Scrape ice cream into a lidded container and freeze till firm (approximately 2 hours).

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

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