Last Call for Summer!

Peaches, Diner Breakfasts and Oppenheimer

Fall is officially here, so I am squeeeeeeeeezing all I can out of summer produce. Two weeks ago, with the last few peaches of September, I had an extreme urge to make a fresh ‘n’ juicy peach pie.

Fresh fruit and cream is a god-given combo, and I wanted to make a peachy keen, creamy pie. Buttery graham cracker crust + tart yet sweet peach filling + freshly whipped cream = a light and easy but full of flavour summer pie.

Try this pie and indulge in the final rays of summer’s sunny flavours!!

Peaches & Cream Pie

Ingredients: 

Pie Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Peach Filling

• 3 medium peaches, chopped into 1” pieces (you can keep the skin on!)

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup water

• juice of half a lemon

Topping:

• 1 cup whipping cream 

• 1 tablespoon icing sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• peach slices, for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 350 F. For the pie crust: whisk together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and salt. Slowly pour in melted butter and combine with a spatula. Add the mixture to a 9” pie plate. Press the crumbs into the bottom, and up the sides of the pie plate. Don’t press too hard, just until the crust is no longer crumbly, and covers the surface of the pie plate evenly. 

2. Bake the crust in the oven for 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

3. For the filling: combine all the filling ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often. Once at a boil, turn down the heat and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes. The peaches should be soft, and starting to collapse. I like the filling to be a chunkier, compote texture, but you can also add more water and simmer longer to make it jammier. When the desired consistency is reached, take the peaches off the heat, and allow to cool.

4. Add the slightly cooled peaches to the completely cooled crust, and put the pie in the fridge. It’s best if you leave the pie overnight at this point, but 2 hours in the fridge will do.

5. For the topping: add the cream, sugar and vanilla to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer or whisk until soft peaks form. 

6. Add whipped cream to the top of the pie, and garnish with fresh peach slices. Pro tip: dip the peach slices in lemon juice, and wipe off the excess juices so that the peaches don’t brown!

7. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!! 

Peaches and cream and other delights!

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Popcorn

I recently finished Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck. As a girl who has just moved her entire life from one coast to another, this book felt auspicious, and timely. But some of my favourite moments in the book had to do with Steinbeck’s food writing (obvi, lol). In particular, I keep coming back to his discussion of diner breakfasts. A diner breakfast is one of my favourite things in this life - my perfect day would probably start with one. When talking about roadside restaurants, Steinbeck says: 

“[These breakfasts] are uniformly wonderful if you stick to bacon and eggs and pan-fried potatoes. At the roadsides I never had a really good dinner or a really bad breakfast. The bacon or sausage was good and packaged at the factory, the eggs fresh or kept fresh by refrigeration, and refrigeration was universal. I might even say roadside America is the paradise of breakfast except for one thing. Now and then I would see a sign that said "home-made sausage" or "home-smoked bacons and hams" or "new-laid eggs" and I would stop and lay in supplies. Then, cooking my own breakfast and making my own coffee, I found that the difference was instantly apparent. A freshly laid egg does not taste remotely like the pale, battery-produced refrigerated egg. The sausage would be sweet and sharp and pungent with spices, and my coffee a wine-dark happiness…”

The simplicity of eggs, potatoes, sausage/ham/bacon and coffee is, of course, made so much better with local and organic ingredients. However, I really have to agree: diners ARE the paradise of breakfasts. I’m a two eggs sunny side up with sausage, toast and home fries kinda gal, hot sauce on the side. Plus mayo if I’m getting nasty w it. I feel strangely sentimental each time I eat this breakfast - so familiar yet so different at every restaurant, made even more different by being on the other side of the country. And yet, you can always count on a diner breakfast. It’s homey, greasy, and just old fashioned goodness. Paradise most definitely. 

From breakfast at Flo’s Diner <3

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Sexy Little Snack

I went to see the world famous Cristopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer alone last week. The theatre being near St. Lawrence market, I popped in right before the screening and grabbed a nice ol’ stick of chorizo. Sitting in a big ass VIP chair, legs up, reclined, watching Cillian Murphy pierce me with his baby blues, and all the while munching on spicy Spanish chorizo is my heaven. Hot and spicy sausage indeed. ;) 

XOXO!!