slower

summer is when i do not have to rush to do food photography before 5pm, which is when i lose the outside light that works best with my camera. it is a bit after 8pm here and i present to you a bowl of roasted peaches.

summer is also when it seems i have more time to pursue my self-invented recipes that take more time to create. case in point - and this is where the above image comes into the picture, so to speak - roasted verbena peach ice cream.

this recipe actually began last monday when i happened unexpectedly by a roadside fruit market about an hour from my house. table after table was filled with baskets of peaches, and i bought my bountiful share. i've been eating them all week waiting for them to build in flavor for today's step 2 - the roasting.

in a 400 deg F oven, i roasted 8 peaches, halved, cut side down for 45 minutes in a mixture of rose infused honey, verbena infused organic sugar and fresh lemon verbena from my garden on a baking tray. then let them cool.

a few minutes ago i combined 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup of verbena infused sugar, 3/4 tbl mexican vanilla extract and the syrup from the roasting pan in a heavy bottomed saucepan, along with more fresh verbena to simmer and then steep until the verbena infuses the cream mixture.

this will shortly be mixed with the crushed roasted peaches and allowed to cool and marry flavors overnight.

and tomorrow ... tomorrow i'll make ice cream.

don't forget: my contest to win a jar of rose infused honey from my garden is still ongoing. all you have to do to enter is leave a favorite memory of cheese or honey. i'll pick a winner next week.