home-grown

Dear Mom,

Oh that tomato relish...  I will be extremely upset if you don't save a jar for me and John.  I have been telling him about that stuff since I've known him, and this is the first time in those eight years that you've made it!  It is a hard thing to describe, its definitely not something you can buy off the shelf.  I think if I had a dishwasher I would have made the stuff myself by now, but with out a dishwasher the idea of sanitizing everything just frightens me.  I know you can boil the jars and what not, but I'm still terrified of botulism!  I know that this is kind of ridiculous, but considering how much I love food (and how much I eat) I have this terrible feeling that it will be my demise some day!  (I also have fears of becoming lactose intolerant or allergic to gluten, in which case I might as well be dead.)

So making tomato relish is kind of out of the question.  Unless of course we wanted to eat the whole batch in one sitting, which it sounds like if we were Dad that would be an option.  Not only is it really not feasible from a kitchen engineering perspective, it is also not economically feasible.  Tomatoes are pricey!  When we moved to Chicago we fell in love with our apartment because of the great little third floor wood deck out back that gets the morning sunshine which streams between the leaves and branches of a beautiful old tree in our back yard.

 
I was so excited to try to grow potted tomatoes, peppers and herbs.  The herbs did great!  And that's about it.  The foodie in me though, has still not let the dream of home-grown peppers and tomatoes die.  I'm still trying.  Every year I buy a tomato or pepper plant and give it the old college try, but every year this happens:

With the tomatoes its worse.  The good thing is we have an abundance of great farmers markets in the city of Chicago, and we also subscribe to that wonderful consumer-supported-agriculture box that arrives at our doorstep every other week.  So when I spied some beautiful peaches at the farmers market, I held back the urge to devour them immediately after purchase and decided to make a cobbler.

This recipe comes from Cooking Light, and can be made with any type of stone fruit.  Apples or cherries would also be great, you could probably even mix and match different types of fruit. 

peach cobbler

for the peach filling:
5 good-sized peaches, chopped into quarters
(that sounds like Grandma-speak - how about large peaches)
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1-1/2 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. salt

for the dough:
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
6 oz. chilled 1/3 fat cream cheese, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
2 tbsp. turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly coat 6 ramekins with cooking spray and cover a small baking sheet with foil.  Place the ramekins on the baking sheet.

Combine all filling ingredients and divide among the 6 ramekins.

For the dough, in the bowl of a food processor place flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and pulse 3 or 4 times.  Add the butter, lemon rind and cream cheese, pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.  Add the buttermilk and pulse until blended.

Drop the dough by spoonfuls over the peaches, dividing evenly.  Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar and bake at 375 for 35 minutes or until the dough is golden.