A Russian and a lesbian invited me to a dinner party (doesn’t this sound like the start to a really bad joke? Sorry, I can only think in stereotypes), and because I’ve created quite a reputation for baking desserts, I had to bring one to the party. Let me tell you, Russians and lesbians? Not an easy crowd to please. Or dance for. Go figure. I’ve been trying to make the most of summer produce before it gets bitter and cold in Chicago, and stone fruit is everywhere right now. I whipped this baked peach dish up really quickly and was pleasantly surprised with the results. After reading several different baked fruit recipes (cuz thats how I roll…and bake), I created my own ultimate recipe. Let’s called it Leena’s Kick-ass half baked peaches. Yes, lets. So most recipes involved putting a butter mixture that typically involved some kind of sugar, some spices, and occasionally nuts or crushed cookies on the peach halves, and sprinkling a little . I halved the peaches, took out the stone, and sprinkled a little lemon juice on the halves to prevent browning. For the butter mix, I took some softened butter and mixed it with equal parts of white sugar and brown sugar, some toasted sliced almonds, a few shakes of ground cinnamon, and a few handfuls of crushed ginger cookies for some crunch. I put the peaches in a pan, cut side up, spooned a bit of the butter mixture into the halves, threw some white wine I had lying around in the bottom of the pan, and baked it for 20 minutes or until the peaches were soft.
Yum. Really easy (I bet you could make the butter mix, freeze it and have it handy all year), and with a scoop of organic vanilla bean ice cream, totally delicious. The Russian and the lesbian? LOVED IT. They also liked my interpretive dance about the struggles of Mexican dog fighting set to the music of Yanni. Score. ~LTG!
