A Peach Repertoire

I bought more than a half-dozen peaches at a farmers market last weekend, and I've been enjoying them ever since. I rarely buy peaches at the grocery store any more -- just too risky. I just noticed this web page at the N.Y. Times' food pages that lists a number of recipes featuring peaches.

The recipes range from fried peach pies with bourbon and cinnamon to peach puree vinaigrette. There's even a recipe for peach ice cream, which looks mighty good.

Food for Thought

The Hazards of Being a Food Critic: The Albany Times-Union's food writer believes he was beaten by men who were hired by a local restaurant owner who had a score to settle. More details are right here.

Starbucks Coffee . . . and Beer Hall? Apparently so. Restaurant News reports that a Starbucks in metro Seattle is planning to renovate with a "green" design and a menu that will expand to include beer and wine. More details are right here.

No Need to Abandon Fish: Maria Rodale contends that the oil spill in the Gulf need not drive U.S. consumers away from seafood. She notes that trout is a freshwater fish that is "farmed" -- meaning that eating it doesn't raise the same sustainability issues as some other fish. She even has a recipe to share. More details are right here.

Satisfying Our Sweet Tooth: Here's more proof that dessert is still Americans' favorite course. I just noticed that 4 of the 5 "most popular recipes" listed on Delish's home page are desserts. One of them is Sour Cream Ice Cream. That's one of those recipes that you just know is either wonderful or terrible. More details are right here.

Food for Thought

A Congressman With a Sweet Tooth: According to the Washington Post, the leadership PAC of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) spent $13,400 on candy, cookies, popcorn and chocolates.

Gifford's Closes Suddenly: I was surprised to discover a closed Gifford's ice cream outlet in downtown Washington (located on E Street, between 10th and 11th Streets, N.W.). The front door has a sticker that indicates that the health department closed it. Interesting. They don't prepare meals there, and ice cream doesn't present a lot of potential for health code violations so I'm curious what happened. Nothing I saw on Gifford's website provides an explanation.

Can You Taste the Difference? When it comes to eggs, apparently not. This blind taste test found that there was no difference between supermarket eggs and those from locally-sourced, humanely treated hens.

Que Syrah, Syrah: The N.Y. Times' Eric Asimov wonders if there really is a future for Syrah producers in the U.S. One wine producer who was an early champion of the red-wine grape laments that Syrah "appears to have crashed and burned in this country."

Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie

Thanks to Laura, the blogger at Feeding Frenzy, for this marvelous recipe for pumpkin ice cream pie. We made it this weekend, and it was a big hit.

Pumpkin may seem like a strange ingredient for a dessert served on a May weekend, but this was ice cream, after all. Be sure to make the ginger snap-cookie crust (instead of a standard pie shell). That crust was a key part of what earned the dessert raves.

When Dairy Gets Scary

Last year, best-selling author David Sedaris was asked to name the "most unusual thing" he had eaten. He gave this answer:

A few years back, in Barcelona, I tried some Camembert-flavored ice cream. It was basically Dirty Sock: The Dessert.

Definitely sounds kind of gross.