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.

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.

The Unappreciated Boysenberry

There used to be a place in my hometown of North Little Rock, Ark., called Sue's Pie Shop, and one of the pies I loved to order there was a piece of boysenberry pie. I remembered how wonderful that pie was when I read this article from the Los Angeles Times.

The Times' David Karp writes:

To the uninitiated, the boysenberry may look like a big, blowzy, underripe fruit, but it is in fact a noble fruit, as distinct from a common blackberry as a thoroughbred is from a mule.

Large, dark purple, juicy and intense, it derives its unique flavor from its complex ancestry: sweetness and floral aroma from its raspberry grandmother cousin, and a winy, feral tang from three native blackberry species.

It's a California classic . . . [a]nd it's all the more precious despite its near extinction in this state, because it evokes why people moved here in the first place.

. . . they are so delicate that as a fresh fruit they can be enjoyed at their best only from farmers markets, farm stands, and home gardens.

I wish boysenberries grew abundantly here in the mid-Atlantic. The delicate nature of this fruit is what must make the mass-fruit producers hate them -- they don't ship well. But I'll take a pint of fresh boysenberries over those tastless, oversized, not-yet-ripe strawberries that get shipped to the East Coast this time of year.

Variations on Pumpkin Pie

Where was this recipe when I searched the web last week? Well, it looks good and maybe I'll give it a try in the next few weeks -- it's Eggnog Pumpkin Pie.

I have heard great things about this recipe for Apple Butter-Pumpkin Pie by Paul Deen, but I intend to give it a try because it combines two of my favorite flavors.

Pumpkins, While Supplies Last

Apparently so. According to the Los Angeles Times:

Recent heavy rains in the Midwest are putting pumpkin pie in short supply this holiday season. On Tuesday, food giant Nestle, which controls about 85% of the pumpkin crop for canning, issued a rare apology and said that rain appeared to have destroyed what remained of a small harvest this year and it expected to stop shipping the holiday staple by Thanksgiving.

So if you love pumpkin pie, enjoy a slice or two over Thanksgiving because it may be the last taste you have for a while.

Rethinking Key Limes (and the Pie)

I'm a big fan of Key Lime Pie. This Los Angeles Times article offers some other ideas for making good use of key limes.

But I have no intention of taking heeding the article's suggestion of incorporating meringue into Key Lime Pie. Why tinker with such a marvelous dessert?

BTW, I found this recipe from Bon Appetit magazine for Key Lime Cupcakes. The recipe doesn't specify key lime juice so I suspect you could use either type of lime juice. I may have to try making them this weekend.

The most interesting thing I learned from the L.A. Times article is that although key limes are a novelty among U.S. consumers, these limes are the most popular choice by consumers outside of the U.S. The reason why key limes aren't as widely bought and sold in the U.S. can be traced back to a 1926 hurricane.