Quintessential Summer Weekend

It has been almost a year since our first dishwasher was taken from us following a brief illness, and at such a young age.   This happened at a difficult time (see "things that stopped working" post from August 2009). The weekend began here on Friday night with another repair to the "new" dishwasher.  Bruno bravely tackled this one after the repairman was a "no show".  He replaced the faulty parts with aplomb,  and we were washing dishes while drinking tea well before midnight!  Interestingly, Kokee is suffering from staph infection (see the "things that stopped working" post again).   Correlation or causation we don't know, but hopefully this is the last dishwasher repair and a break in the cycle of the 2010 "things that stopped working".

The rest of the weekend was splendid, with warm temperatures, some work in the garden and the usual activities to keep us busy.  We are harvesting green beans, blueberries, okra, and basil at the moment.  We shared dinner with Jo and Eric on Saturday, featuring steamed green beans and roasted potatoes, from the garden of course.  For dessert we had Peach Mabel, a HHR original (recipe included below), a GREAT way to serve fresh blueberries and peaches.  Thanks to Jo and Eric for the flowers from their garden! Following dinner (and a very speedy drive to Westerly), we enjoyed a fantastic play, The Perfect Wedding, at the Granite Theater.

Sunday was hot and humid, and we worked around house and garden and treated ourselves to a trip to the beach late in the afternoon.  We went to East Beach at Watch Hill where the waves were well suited for body surfing and the warm ocean temperatures were refreshing (rather than numbing!).  We swam, watched the sun set, and returned home to have grilled black fish from Stonington topped with a basil vinaigrette from the garden.  It was a great weekend!  

We have some fun activities planned this week.  Stay tuned... that is your hint.

Peach Mabel

Serves 4

Inspired by Peach Melba, which is made with raspberries

Ingredients:

1 c fresh blueberries

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP light brown sugar

pinch of sea salt

4 peaches, halved and stoned

1TBSP honey

1TBSP of melted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place blueberries, sugar and lemon juice together in a small saucepan.  Bring the berries slowly to a simmer with occasional stirring. Simmer for ~5min until you have a thick sauce.  Add a pinch of sea salt, stir and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Stir together melted butter and honey. Brush the cut sides of the peaches with the honey mixture and sprinkle with cinnamon (optional).  Grill the peaches skin side down first on low for ~5min, or until lightly browned, turn and grill cut side down for another 5 minutes.
3. Place peaches in a serving dish, top with blueberries and a scoop of ice cream.  A sprig of mint or basil goes nicely.