Baked or Barbecued Peaches

It is really beginning to feel like Autumn, Steve stacked wood all weekend and the mornings and evenings have that indescribable autumn smell. However yesterday afternoon on my Patio it was 30 degrees, warm in anyone's estimation. San Froilan the Patronal festival in Lugo starts on Thursday and by tradition that is when we check our woodpile, sweep our chimneys, close our windows and prepare for cold weather. This is because, also by tradition, that is when the rain starts.

I thought that in anticipation of this colder weather, I would give you the last summer recipe of the year. This recipe works well on the barbecue or in the oven. I would advise using a cake tin on the BBQ rather than the tart plate I have used in the photos

You will need good ripe peaches to start with (Nectarines would also work).

Cut them in half and remove the stones.

This will leave you with a hollow bit where the stone was, you can make this hollow a little deeper with a teaspoon if you want it to look neat and tidy.
Into each hollow place one heaped teaspoon of butter, one heaped teaspoon of brown sugar (any that you have in your cupboard) and one tablespoon of liquor I use amoretto or an almond flavour liquor, but I think orange would work as well. The liquor will overflow a bit but that ok. Now add three tablespoons of water to the bottom of the dish NOT over the peaches.

Place on the barbecue away from direct heat and loosely covered with foil ( remove the foil after 30 mins). Or in the oven uncovered at about 180 C and cook for about an hour but check regularly after 40 minutes. All juice at the bottom of the dish should be syrupy and bubbly. The peaches should be soft but still holding their shape and brown on top.

Don't remove them before the edges are all caramelly dark brown. They should smell divine at this point.

Eat them hot with cream or ice cream. One of my Airbnb guests declared that this was the best dessert she had ever tasted.

On the grounds that it so simple to make it is one of the best desserts to serve to guests meaning that we all win.
On a final note don't make it without the sugar, it will work, it will be nice, it will give you a million points in the healthy eating conversation which you will be honour bound to have, but you will be missing the deliciousness and maybe even the point.  Either only eat one peach half or skip the ice cream, Yogurt even fat and sugar-free yoghurt taste fantastic with it. But don't omit the sugar.

Rainy season, Amazon, and preparations for the Christmas market.

We always have a rainy season here, and it´s a common joke that it lasts for 9 months of the year. In reality though November is often pretty wet, this year though the rain has started a bit early and has left us with  a dozen jobs that really need attention outside, including firewood which we are only halfway to chopping and storing. It doesn´t do to bank on normal weather patterns when in truth there is no such thing as normal.

Steve has just gone to collect an Amazon parcel from town, we have never been able to persuade them to deliver to the house, in fact they insist that the house doesn´t exist. We have tried persuasion and threats all to no avail, so off we go into town to rendezvous with with delivery drivers in cafes and car parks, somehow it rather defeats the object of internet shopping. The right thing to do would be not shop on Amazon, but they are so useful we have never been able to hold out for long. Such is modern life I guess, but all the same I am grateful don't  do that much shopping, internet or otherwise.

Our washing machine broke down at the weekend, yet another link to the commercial world. The repair man is coming tomorrow, simple life or no I am not wanting to wash everything by hand.

I am having a stall once again at the Christmas Market of a friend, I rarely sell much, and it is always cold but we generally have a good time. It is kind of a tradition now. Normally I take way too much stuff so this time I plan on taking cowls only in lots of different colours . We will see how they do.

The walnuts are going down though I have to confess to being slightly fed up of putting walnuts in everything. Any way all last years are out of the barn now and in the pantry so I shouldn't forget them.

Autumn, woodsmoke, and quiet.

I have arrived back in Galicia with the autumn, rain outside and my cocina lit. The cocina is fueled by wood and is the most common form of cooking, heating appliance in rural areas. For those of you in Britain it is similar in appearance to an "Aga", less sophisticated and far less expensive. In the UK I know that wood burners are trendy at the moment here where the population is small and most people in the countryside own a piece of woodland they make economic sense.

The down side of using a cocina is that they involve a great deal of work, felling trees if you have them (we buy uncut logs locally) chainsawing, splitting and stacking. all of which should be done by now. We still have logs to cut, but have some ready for winter from last years supply. Working a year in advance means the wood is better seasoned anyway, but every fine weekend is spent cutting wood and in our case scavenging wood from local logging sites (with permission) to eke out our supply,
Cooking on a cocina is also more of an art than a science and takes a degree of practice.

The up side of all this is that winter fuel costs little in terms of cash, the kitchen is always warm, the kettle is always hot as is the oven. A faint smell of wood smoke hangs over the village which adds to the welcome and I love it. I always wondered with Aga,s whether the attraction was purely psychological,  the always warm kitchen, the reassuring solidarity, the potential to dry anything from wellington boots to kittens, and the promise of casseroles and cakes. Our wood stove  would have no place in the super hygienic, pristine, kitchens of home makeover shows but carries the comfort and warmth that I want in a home.

I have just returned from a whirlwind week in the UK. The time shared between cooking for friends and being a Grandma. Both are occupations which are high on my favorites lists and I miss my family dreadfully. The longer we live here though the harder I find it to tear myself away, I am used to the quiet, the clean air and the steady rhythm of rural life. Besides that, being used to Galicia´s roads, good quality and almost empty the M1 seems like a nightmare version of eternal punishment. The cost of a bad cup of coffee is also bewildering as is the size of the cup. I fear that these examples of progress may one day reach here,and have to remind myself that "sufficient unto the day the evil there of....."


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