Early summertime means metric butt-loads of peaches that I have to get rid of. And, while cutting good pieces of peaches from the bad, I realized that a cobbler is a lot like a sausage. The casing and spices of a sausage is designed to hide some possibly unpleasant meat. The end result is something quite flavorful and tasty. As long as you don’t ask what went in it.

Since I don’t spray my peaches with pesticides, I have to go through them individually and cut out the bad pieces. Which are not rotten, but homes for insect babies. So, you cover up all of the good peach pieces with a tasty cobbler topping and you have a great dessert!

I got creative and made a salad. I limited it to just four ingredients. Black beans and mangos go together in a Caribbean way. Cucumber is another easy cold salad choice. And the last one was orzo. Which was a last minute change from couscous.

I made Dulce de Leche again. I started with a gallon of whole milk, two cups of honey and two cups of sugar. I reduced it down for hours until it was dark and jelly-like. It turned into about 2 1/2 pounds. Which is a lot of dulce.

I made a bowl of oatmeal. I then fried up a ripe plantain banana, and put a tablespoon of dulce in it. Mmm, good.

The BGG community gave me another recipe to try:

Cut Emmenthaler cheese into the shape of a cracker
Sprinkle both sides with dried Oregano
Fry the cracker in a hot pan until crispy
Top with a dab of Dulce de Leche
Sprinkle a tiny bit of Cinnamon on top
Place a leaf of fresh Basil on top
Drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar

I tried making fresh dough this time. I poured some hot tap water into a cup and then weight it (280 grams). I poured the contents of one yeast packet in and one tablespoon of sugar. I then measured out 80% of the water’s weight for the flour (224 grams). Giving it a hydration percentage of 125%. I let it go crazy on the counter for a couple of hours and then put it in the refrigerator overnight. Around 4pm the next day I was ready to make the dough.

Man, it smelled strongly of alcohol! Too much yeast at the start for sure. I added 233 grams more flour to bring the final ratio to 5:3 and the final hydration to 60%.

I like the new regulator in the grill. The temperature now gets up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Which brings the cooking time down to 5 minutes.

The blackberries looked good at Sam’s so i bought two containers of them. Of course, I made a cobbler out of them with a cookie dough topping. The only problem was that it turned out too watery. The cornstarch didn’t do its job and turn that water into jelly. Maybe I should pre-cook half of the berries into a real jelly first? Next time…

Lately, I have been drinking Lemonaid or Limeaid at Monument Cafe. Which are pretty good. So it got me thinking of trying to make my own. So I came up with this recipe:

Squeeze the juice of 15 limes
Squeeze the juice of 12 lemons
Combined, the juice measured 800ml
Add 2 times this amount of water (1600ml)
Add 400 grams Organic Raw Blue Agave

I kind of eyeballed the agave sweetener. The result was not sweet at all. It is good and tart!

I came across a How to make Totoro cream-puffs article and got inspired to make eclairs again.

I used Alton Brown’s Lemon Curd recipe as a start. However, as a South Floridian who grew up on Key Lime pie, I used Key Limes instead of Lemons.

Put 5 Egg yolks, with Chalaza removed, into a bowl.
Add 1 Cup sugar and
Whisk until smooth.
Pour in 1/3 Cup Key Lime juice
and 1 Tablespoon Key Lime zest, finely chopped.
Whisk until smooth.
Whisk over a double broiler for 8 minutes.
Remove from heat, whisk in 1 stick of butter, 1 Tablespoon at a time until melted.
Cover with Saran Wrap and refrigerate.

The puff pastries came out a little bit deflated. I wonder if it was because I cooked them on silicone mats? Or perhaps the batter was a little too runny?

The final product sure tasted good though!

I bought some shrimp at Central Market and cooked it up. I put butter in the pan with a some olive oil to increase the smoking point. I cooked the shrimp and added some garlic. I improvised a sauce by adding leftover pizza sauce and caramelized onions. Mmmm…

It’s been a while since I have made pizza. This time out it was with Italian Dry Salami and caramelized onions.

Since all chocolate milk made in America (and pretty much everything else) is made from High Fructose Corn Syrup, I make my own. I take a quart milk bottle and drink off about 2 inches of headroom. I then pour in two tablespoons of Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa power. And then add 60 grams of Blue Agave sweetener.