Beanie's Birthday

On August 26th, my son turned 1 year old.

Peaches

Last summer, during the end of my pregnancy, all I wanted to eat was raw summer fruit -- plums, peaches, nectarines, just plain or at most cut up in a little yogurt.

This year I have discovered the delights of baking with stone fruit. A few weeks ago we got a couple pounds of plums from the produce co-op, and to keep them from going to waste, I scoured my recipe books for a good recipe to use them up.

I finally found one in my 1971 copy of Joy of Cooking -- Apple, Peach, or Plum Cake Cockaigne -- and have made it a couple of times, once with just plums, and once with a few peaches thrown in.

Yesterday we found gorgeous peaches for a very good price per pound, so I bought two big bags and just spent the afternoon slicing and peeling them and then laying them out on cookie sheets in the freezer. Once they are frozen, I divided them into one cup baggies so that I can easily bake with them during the winter.

Apple, Peach, or Plum Cake Cockaigne (from Joy of Cooking)

Use a 9 x 9 x 2 1/2 in. pan. Preheat oven to 425.

If the fruit used is very juicy, reduce the liquid in the dough by at least 1 Tbsp.

Sift before measuring:

1 c. all purpose flour

Resift with:

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

Add:

1 1/2 to3 Tbsp. butter

Work these ingredients like pastry.

Beat well in a measuring cup:

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add enough milk to make 1/2 cup.

Combine with the flour and butter to make a stiff dough. Pat the dough into the pan with a floured palm or spread it in part with a spoon and then distribute it evenly by pushing it with fruit sections when you place them in closely overlapping rows.

Use about:

3 to 4 cups sliced, pared apples or peaches, or sliced, unpared plums.

Sprinkle with a mixture of:

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 Tbsp. melted butter

Bake about 25 min.

"...She went from mystery to mystery with more and more courage. She was a long time playing with the shells, and longer still looking at the rock pools, exploring each miniature ocean from horizon to horizon, but at last she was ready for the fairies' cave. She did not feel at all afraid as she pushed past the green rock and went inside. Since she had run into this strange place through the horns of the horseshoe she had felt no fear, only awe. She had discovered a new country, but it was her own country. In this place where one was alone that one might listen, she felt at home as never before. In spite of its mystery it was so clean, so simple, and so safe. Nothing befouled the air one breathed, the music that was heard and yet not heard, like the sound of bells caught away by the wind, was without confusion, cold and clear like crystal..."

--Elizabeth Goudge, from Green Dolphin Street

This passage makes me miss the places, now so far away, that are my own country...