Harvest time and bum feet

       

The peaches on my tree are finally ripening, as Tony, our next door neighbor felt it necessary to come over announce.

Tony is sort of the Gladys Kravtiz of the cul de sac. He keeps track of everything and everybody. It can be annoying, but somehow comforting -- if the house ever caught fire, Tony would be the first to at least tell firefighters that we have pets. Tony has taken a great interest in the tree and told us he's helped himself to a few peaches. It gives him something to do.

On the other hand (or foot, chuckle, chuckle), I'm having some trouble in the peach-picking department. I finally had an appointment with a podiatrist. I've always said that the best doctor's visits, like the best travel, are uneventful -- everything works just as it should. At the very worst, you go to the doctor, he writes out a prescription and 10 to 14 days later, voila, you're all better. This wasn't one of those trips.

The podiatrist took one look at the foot, which has been bothering me for a while and then took a dramatic turn for the worst and has been really hurting after the accident, and said it had collapsed -- I have no arch on my right foot now -- and it is "frozen" -- it won't move the way it used to. He ordered MRIs and put me in a walking cast, which explains why in the picture it's so dirty -- casts and cooking don't go real well together. I'll find out more when I see him for my next appointment, next Thursday, when we'll "find out what we have to work with," as the doctor put it. He said he thinks I've lost a tendon.

I've been trying to stay off it for the most part, but it's hard because I'm not very good at sitting still. We took Kaia to the fair for our traditional night where we let her do anything she wants. It was a lovely evening and she was wonderful, but I thought I was going to die, especially the next day when I could hardly walk. It was worth it because I would have been way more upset if I'd missed one of my very favorite things in the world -- going to the fair with Kaia.

In the midst of all this my zucchinis are ripening and the peaches are littering the ground attracting all kinds of bugs. I've been cooking up a storm. First, I baked a peach pie, then a peach cobbler, then zucchini bread. Finally, I made peach preserves flavored with the wonderful cinnamon I bought from Penzey's.

It's kind of circular, really. I'm nervous about my foot. I'm not really into things like surgery, especially if it's as bad as what is described online. The idea of anyone hacking away at me me with a knife does nothing for me -- especially if I'm not going to emerge looking 20 years younger. So I limp around in a frenzy of baking to give me something to do, which is KILLING my foot. And even I'm getting tired of my whining.

But I'm trying out all kinds of recipes and these two have met with accolades:

Peach cobbler

Biscuit dough
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream

Filling
4 to 5 cups *prepared fresh peaches (skinned, pitted and sliced)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar (adjust depending on the sweetness of your peaches)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350. Place first five dough ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it forms a cornmeal-textured mixture. Add cream.
Prepare peaches by cutting an X with a knife in the skin and immersing them in boiling water for one minute. Immediately plunge into cool water and slip the skins off. Remove pits and slice inot 1/4 inch pieces. Mix with remaining filling ingredients. Grease oval gratin dish, if you have one or use a square 9x9 container. Flour a surface and roughly roll out biscuit dough after kneading about 8 times. Place fruit in dish and stretch the biscuit dough over the top. Brush biscuits with cream and top with sprinkled sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Zucchini bread

For bread
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
21/2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (toasted for five minutes)

For streusel
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8X4 inch loaf pans

In a large bowl beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nuts. Stir into the egg batter. Divide batter into prepared pans. Mix streusel ingredients by blending in butter by hand until it forms a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle on top of all three zucchini loaves. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.