blue_dolphin

So, I decided on oatmeal for breakfastl this morning. Perfect with a nice ripe peach to slice up. When I got it out of the cupboard, I started thinking about the peach crisp for one that @Anna N posted over on the summer fruit cook-off thread, here and here. And....well....this is what happened next: You might call it a single serving peach crisp with heavy cream. I'm calling it oatmeal with fruit. And yes, with heavy cream to pour in.

Thank you! The recipe calls for 1-2 teaspoons of ground chile (piquín, guajillo or árbol) and 1/2 t salt to be sprinkled on the diced pineapple before they go into the molds. I've got the whole chiles but am also lazy so instead of grinding, I used some of the ubiquitous Mexican chile-lime "fruit seasoning". I have the Valentina brand but Tajín is probably more popular. I sprinkled on a little more when I ate one. I was going to dip them all but it's probably best to let the eater determine how much they want to add - that first lick could really put someone off if I over did it !

There is a thread here, Pickling Nasturtium Seeds, and it sounds like it would make an interesting condiment. As you know, if you already read through, no one mentioned curing them in salt alone but it also sounds easy enough that one could try small batches with different variations without too much trouble.

I labeled and packed up most of the popsicles in my freezer and delivered them to my cousins yesterday afternoon. I like to make them and see how they come out but I don't need to eat them ALL....well, except maybe for the roasted peach & bourbon ones ! Reducing the batch size helps but they were still piling up. Now, I have more room. These are the spicy pineapple pops (paletas de piña con chile) from the Paletas cookbook. In exchange for the popsicles, my cousin gave me a bunch of nice ripe peaches. I stopped off at the liquor store on the way home to replenish my supply of Elijah Craig and another batch of those roasted peach and bourbon pops will be in the freezer shortly.

Just baked almond croissant, fresh peach and black coffee: Some freezer rearranging yesterday revealed a couple of those TJ's pastries that thaw/proof overnight and for once, I remembered to set one out last night and popped it in the Cuisi steam oven to bake while I sorted recycling and wheeled out the trash bins. Coming back into the house to the aroma of fresh baked pastry and coffee was a treat!

This is such a great line . I keep trying to compose a response but it stands on its own so well - nothing I could say would improve it! Thank you!

I'm pretty much in awe of anyone who does one of these foodblogs. They are so fun to follow but must be an absolute ton of work. I can barely manage posting my breakfast and a random popsicle! I remember when I first joined eG, I was traveling a lot for work - usually a few days in Seattle, a stop in San Francisco and then back here in SoCal every other week. I thought it might be fun to blog about. Then I started to think about how I would actually do it - ha! No internet posting allowed from work sites was the least of it - when would I actually have time to work! Yes, there's a big boring factor with me as well . Living alone, I very often cook a dish and end up eating the same thing for several meals. I don't mind but it wouldn't make for particularly interesting blogging! Not sure who our next intrepid blogger will be, but many thanks from me in advance!

Beans on toast: Rancho Gordo Yellow Indian Woman beans smashed on to toasted ciabatta topped with artichoke and red bell pepper tapenade. Thin slices of Pecorino Romano.

Could the blogger be @ElsieD? I think she asked for recommendations for a trip to Newfoundland last year and mentioned a bringing bakeapple home from a previous trip. (what can I say....I'm a looker-upper)

Yes! I posted a picture of the watermelon & parsley pops here. They are very, very refreshing. Almost like a palate-cleanser with that fresh parsley flavor. EDITED TO ADD: Link to recipe for watermelon & parsley pops You just purée the watermelon, sweeten with simple syrup (they used ~ 6 oz simple syrup to 1 2/3 lbs of watermelon, ~ half of a bowling ball-sized melon) and then add finely chopped parsley (recipes says 20 leaves of flat-leaf parsley). They stress adding the simple syrup to taste because the fruit always varies. I always reserve some of the melon to dice into little cubes and drop into the molds. I usually put the pops in the freezer for about an hour so it's starting to freeze and then add the cubes. I recall my parsley was rather float-y so I used the sticks to re-distribute things when I added the cubes. There's a recipe for watermelon & lemongrass pops that's similar but heats the simple syrup with a sliced stalk of lemongrass and lets it steep a while to infuse the flavor. And one for watermelon & cucumber pops that uses ~ 1/3 cucumber : 2/3 watermelon. I was going to try that one but decided to go with the cucumber, elderflower & tequila pops instead. Recipe here. Thanks! Some of the IP enthusiasts over on the Facebook group seem to want to cook anything and everything in the IP so I was very amused by my use of it for popsicles!

Guess what I used my Instant Pot to make???? Popsicles!!! This thing can do ANYTHING! OK, I didn't actually make popsicles in the IP, but I did use it ! The first step in the recipe for pear, ginger & cream pops was to chop the pears and cook on the stove until they were soft. I also wanted to steam some candied ginger to soften it so I could add chewy little ginger cubes (rather than rock-hard ginger pebbles) to the pops. I put the chopped pears into the IP with 1/4 cup of water and set a few pieces of candied ginger on top of the pears. 5 min at high pressure did the job perfectly. I ended up with ~ 1/2 cup of gingery-pear liquid after cooking and used that to make the ginger-infused simple syrup used to sweeten the pops so all the flavor went into the pops. I posted them over in the popsicle thread.

Even though there is still plenty of summer fruit around, I saw some nice, ripe (rather than the usual rock-hard) little Bartlett pears so I decided to make the people's pops recipe for pear, ginger and cream pops, one of the first flavor combinations from this book to catch my eye. The recipe gets its ginger flavor by making a ginger-infused simple syrup. I decided to add some little cubes of candied ginger for texture and more ginger! I've been only making half-batches (4-6 pops) but after making the cooked pear purée, I realized that I had enough for a few more so I decided to make 2 variations. I saw a recipe for Pear, Ginger and Riesling Sorbet that sounded appealing so I substituted some late harvest Riesling for the cream in some of the pops. They all got the little cubes of crystalized ginger. Pear, ginger & cream on the left; Pear, ginger & Reisling on the right: Both are very good. The recipe doesn't call for a lot of cream (2 oz heavy cream for ~ 30 oz of mixture) but adds a lot of richness. The late harvest Riesling was sweet (4% residual sugar) but balanced with a nice acidity that made for a brighter, fruitier pear flavor.

Leftover pasta from last night's dinner. Added some sautéed baby greens and, of course, I put an egg on it :

Is the blogger @Tere? Not long ago, she mentioned that she was thinking of doing one.

Linguini with Italian sausage, red bell pepper, sugar snap peas and crispy lemon, as inspired by @jvalentino:

Thanks, @jvalentino! I will certainly give that a try.

That looks and sounds fabulous! Would you consider saying a bit more about how you put this together? Particularly the crispy lemon part? I've added lemon zest to this sort of dish before but this looks so much more interesting and flavorful. Thanks!

That always gets me at breakfast time, when I've put together something that would be so perfect with a glass of wine. Of course, if I gave into those thoughts, I'd have to go directly back to bed for a while and start over.... Edited to add: Love Humboldt Fog !

Raspberries & cream:

I didn't try adding bourbon, but the peaches worked very well with a roast pork loin. I adapted this pressure cooker recipe for Hasselback Pork Roast with Apples, Coppa & Sage using peaches, prosciutto and sage. The pork gets sliced most of the way through, slices of fruit and cured meat are layered in between, then secured with skewers and string before browning with the sage leaves and then pressure cooking with white wine. I had some extra peach slices so I put them in on top of the pork. Using some of the cooking liquid (not all - it was rather salty from the prosciutto) and bourbon to deglaze the browned bits on the bottom of the pan and adding some of those extra peach slices to make a peach-bourbon sauce as you suggest would be a nice addition. I just brushed on some ancho chili jam and called it day: Edited to add - I posted this over on the Instant Pot thread the other day.

I must say those roasted peach & bourbon popsicles were stellar. Roasting the peaches really intensifies the fruit flavor. Here's the photo I posted over in the popsicle thread: Even better when served with a little glass of bourbon alongside for dipping - highly recommended: Sort of like a roasted peach Old Fashioned! Recipe below is from the people's pops cookbook. I made a half recipe (2 big peaches) that yielded 5 pops. Since the peaches get roasted and blended, fruits that are a little over or under-ripe work fine. The recipe suggests that very ripe fruit doesn't have to be roasted, but I think that bit of caramelization adds a lot. Peach & Bourbon Pops 1 1/4 lbs peaches (4-5 tennis ball-sized), halved 6 fl oz simple syrup (1:1) 3 fl oz bourbon 2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice Put the peach halves cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 deg F until they have softened. I used 20 min steam-bake at 350 in the Cuisi steam oven. Once the peaches are cool, remove the pits and buzz them up in a blender or food processor. Make it as chunky or smooth as you like. The recipe says to leave the skins on, I removed what was loose and left the rest. Add the simple syrup to taste, bourbon and lemon juice. Pour into molds, insert sticks and freeze until firm (4-5 hours or overnight) before unmolding.

One more IP data point to report - Israeli-style couscous. After I made the IP pork roast with peaches and prosciutto that I mentioned above, I also used the IP to cook the Trader Joe's "Harvest Grains" blend (Israeli style couscous, orzo, baby garbanzos and red quinoa) that I served along with it. Stove top cooking time per the package is 10 min and I was debating what to use when I found this: Pressure Cooker Israeli Couscous describing the exact product and recommending a cooking time of 5 minutes. I cooked half a package + 1 1/4 cups of chicken broth in a pyrex casserole dish (pot-in-pot method) on manual, high pressure for 5 min. Perfect! Probably could have steamed the broccoli in the IP as well but it was just as easy to do that in the microwave.

That sounds good. I have this version of a roasted corn chowder marked to try so I appreciate the reminder to get on with it! I figured I'd just do the first step of making the corn cob broth under pressure and then either switch to a regular pot or use the IP sauté function for the rest.

More leftovers, with poached egg: Leftover couscous-grain mix, broccoli, diced pork roast and poached egg.

Over on the Instant Pot thread, I reported making a "Hasselback" roast pork loin with peaches, prosciutto and sage. I've been enjoying leftover pork sandwiches on some little slider rolls. Most were picked up off the cutting board and consumed in a few bites. I took a moment to document one of them today: The rolls were toasted and spread with whole grain mustard and some red bell pepper and ancho chili jam. Below the roast pork, you can make out a bit of the roast peach slice in the center and if you look closely, you can see the very thin piece of prosciutto on top of the pork.