Homegrown Happy Valley

Every time my son and I go to the grocery store, he asks me to buy peaches. My typical answer: “Sorry bud, let’s wait until we see them at the farmer’s market–they aren’t in season for us yet.” Now that he’s used to that response, he’ll ask whether other foods are in season, too. The wait makes the reward even sweeter. When he finally spotted his beloved peaches at the market this week, he looked like a kid who had just walked into a candy store.

What food do you look forward to all summer long? Tell us in the comments below.

PS - Don’t forget this Saturday kicks off Central PA Local Foods Week & Farm Tour.

HOT ITEMS OF THE WEEK:

• peaches
• corn
• tomatoes

ON THE MENU:

Day 1

The Cuizoo Family came over for a fun evening to wrap up the weekend. We combined what we had left over from our CSA boxes and farmer’s market trips from the week, grilling sausages  from Hog’s Galore and burgers from Blue Rooster Farm and serving them with green beans sauteed in olive oil and tamari, pesto pasta salad with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, and Kristin’s hot-off-the-press chocolate zucchini cake (don’t tell my family - I just snarfed down the last bite).

Day 2

For lunch, Michele tried two dishes from Mark Bittman’s “101 Simple Salads for the Season”:

• peach/tomato/basil (Number 1 on the list; Michele substituted peach for watermelon.)
• quinoa with apricots, pecans, lemon, and pepper (Number 99 on the list.)
  

Day 3

Short ribs (Katie used beef stock in place of veal stock) served with roasted potatoes with olive oil and dill and sauteed green beans and carrots.

Day 4

Michele made kale and white bean soup, served with a salad of greens, yellow cucumbers, and blueberries.

Day 5

Katie found a new roasted chicken recipe and served it with pesto and pea pasta (chicken from Village Acres; peas and egg noodles from the State College market).

Day 6

Katie put her leftover chicken from Day 5 to good use for a picnic. She had pesto chicken sandwiches (pesto and leftover chicken on Gemelli’s ciabatta bread with red leaf lettuce, tomato and Meyer Dairy cheese), watermelon and blueberry muffins.

Day 7

Breakfast for dinner: blueberry pancakes with fresh peach sauce and scrambled eggs from Village Acres.

DESSERT OF THE WEEK:

Peach Flan Cake

Peach Flan Cake. In the mid-1970s my Great Aunt Grace saw a recipe for Peach Flan Cake in a magazine. She brought the cake on a family visit to Leisure Village (a senior community in South Jersey). Everyone liked it so much that they started to make it each year when the Jersey peaches ripened. My mother and her sister continue the tradition–and have since passed it onto me–and it’s one of our favorite family recipes.

Pastry

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
a few grains salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons milk
2 tsp finely grated lemon peel

Filling

2 pounds peaches or nectarines, peeled, halved, and pitted (about 4 cups)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar

Glaze

1/2 cup apricot preserves (raspberry or strawberry work well too)
2 tsp water

Directions

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add butter and cut in with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse corn meal. Add egg, milk, and lemon peel and stir with a fork until the mixture is moistened but still quite crumbly. Pat mixture into an 11 inch fluted quiche or tart pan with a removable bottom, refrigerate while preparing fruit. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, toss peaches with lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch. Arrange peaches cut side down on the dough in a circular pattern, so that the pieces of fruit touch but do not overlap. Pour any juice remaining in bowl over fruit and bake 50 minutes on shelf in center of oven. Turn oven up to 400 degrees, place pan on shelf in lower third of oven and bake 10 minutes longer. Crust will be pale golden, not brown. Place pan on a wire cake rack to cool. Stir preserves and water in a small saucepan over moderately low heat 5 minutes, until syrupy, strain. Brush the glaze over the peaches. Serve warm or cold.

DRINK OF THE WEEK:

Michele’s 4-year-old son had a “local” lemonade stand at their garage sale. He served raspberry lemonade made with Tait Farm Raspberry Shrub and blueberry cake from the Hill’s Plaza farmer’s market.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Eat Local Challenge, Farm, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.