Thursday, August 21, 2008

Eat a Peach for Peace

This particular peach is a Calhoun County peach from the Market at the Square. Calhoun County has the best peaches and I am biased because it reminds me of my mom. My mother's aunt Emily and uncle Albert lived in Calhoun County. I have wonderful memories from my childhood visiting them on their farm with all the cousins. When I bite into a Calhoun County peach it tastes even better thinking of all the fun and the wonderful people and of course I get a little sad thinking of my mom, but all that mixed in is hard to resist. A peach is much more than a peach for me these days.
Our neighbor, Margie, gave us a bunch o' peaches a couple evenings ago and I was psyching myself up to make FatfreeVegan's Peach Upside-down Cake. I love the recipe and it is good, but I burned the %*(#^! out of my wrist last year making this and although the scar is barely noticeable, I obviously have not completely healed. The hardest part of the burn was how completely stupid I was, thus I didn't mention it in my blog post at the time. I was taking the heavy pan out of the oven and with my left hand (my weak hand) and it was, well, heavy and hot, but I didn't want the whole thing to fall in a hot, bubbly, peachy mess into the oven and on the floor so I caught the other side of the pan with my right wrist. Ow! I didn't have a hot pad in my right hand so all I could do was continue to burn my wrist as I set it on the stove top. Then to add insult to injury, my family was upstairs and didn't know I was in pain...for some reason the fact that my skin was blistering and painful without anyone in the world knowing made it worse (I realize I have some issues here, but I don't have time for analyzing my childhood at this moment). Once I stood with my wrist under cold water for about a year and then wrapped it in cold, wet cloth (man, it really hurt, I couldn't even stand the air touching it....I will remind you I have given birth without the help of drugs three times so I'm not a big 'ole wuss...not that you are a wuss if you don't have a natural childbirth, but you know what I'm sayin'), I went searching for empathy. Well, I love my husband more than I can explain. He is my best friend and soul mate, etc., but he is not the most empathic person in the world so I am still a bit bitter. Where the heck was I? Ah yes, I made the cake.
Well, Parker and I made the cake. We cut up most of the peaches and I got out my 15-inch cast iron pan instead of the smaller cast iron pan (probably 10-inch in retrospect...just what the recipe calls for) because the amount of peaches we cut up looked to be the amount that would fit in a 15-inch cast iron pan. Well, the ban is freaking huge, my friends and takes up a couple burners, but I didn't let that stop me. I used date sugar in the recipe because I adore using date sugar (which is really just cut up dates) and so I used date sugar in the syrup part, but it just burned right away (partly because the biggest burner on my stove is the one that is as hot as hel- the sun) so I ended up cleaning the pan out and starting over with maple sugar which is the only other sugar I had in the house at 11pm. It worked fine. I was right about the amount of peaches because they fit so perfectly in the 15-inch pan, but I doubled the recipe at the last minute and my helpful husband was quick to point out that a 15-inch skillet is actually more than double a 10-inch skillet (which reminded me of a story of my friend told me about the birth of her first child and dilating, but that isn't my story to tell). It was the world's biggest peach upside-down cake and I didn't have anything to turn it over onto so Rob make a aluminum foil plate for me. Anyway, it tasted fine, if not the easiest thing to flip over...which created quite the interesting discussion this morning at the breakfast table about which side is the "up" side for a peach upside-down cake.



Buy or grow a bunch of peaches, eat some, and make the rest into this cake.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Linda,
there are some mighty good peaches to be found in Monticello at Wolfe Orchard. They've also got the best apple selection in the region. It's a fun trip west on Airport Road, then a right at the top of the hill [there are signs]. The orchard is on top of the last bluff before you descend into the village of Monticello. The kids will have fun--there are chickens walking around and fun-shaped gourds later in the season.

VeganLinda said...

Mel, Thanks for the tip! We will have to check Wolfe Orchard out next week.

Loretta said...

mmmm...peaches! I've been thinking about making that peach upside down cake off and on since you wrote about it last year. I'm thinking the kids and I might attempt it this weekend sometime after we get some from the farmer's market tomorrow. :)
I love that you posted the Presidents of the USA Peaches video! I haven't heard that song in a long time, but it brings back such good memories.
And, LOL about your pan size discussion--it brought the same memory to my mind, too.

VeganLinda said...

Peaches by Pres of the USA brings back lots of fun memories for us too and the kids have been singing it all day now. I never realized how much the lead singer looks like Rob before. :-)

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