at home with ann

I may have mentioned this before, but when we got married (3 years ago on the 18th!), my husband wanted wedding pie.  A bit of a stickler for tradition, I wasn't on board and we had a lovely and delicious lemon wedding cake instead.  Everyone loves pie, though.  Pie is also a great make ahead dessert, because a few minutes back in the oven during dinner and you have warm pie.  Warm pie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it's pretty much perfect. We celebrated my aunt's birthday at the beach this past weekend, so I made birthday pie.  When we arrived on Saturday morning I discovered that they had eaten pie the night before.  Good thing you can never have too much pie.   It's peach season, so peaches are ridiculously cheap at the market right now.  I bought a batch last week and we were barely able to eat them fast enough.  There's that 1-2 day window of peach ripeness, and you do not want to be on either side of it.  This batch...

As you have likely noticed, I like main course salads.  They can be made in advance, and usually get better a day later. This was my first time cooking barley.  I thought it would be with the grains like rice and couscous in the market, and had nearly given up hope and gone to Whole Foods, where you can always find everything, when I found it with dried beans.  So if you want to make this and can't find barley, check with the beans. Peach Cucumber Barley Salad slightly modified from Good Housekeeping Ingredients: 1 cup pearl barley 2 cups water, vegetable broth, or a combination (I just used water) 1 cucumber 2 peaches 1 pint cherry tomatoes 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves 2 Tablespoons vinegar (cider or red wine) 1 Tablespoon olive oil salt and pepper 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed Place dry barley in a saucepan over medium heat and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, until toasted. Stir in water/broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, c...

This should actually be the smoothie of the week, because I ate it for breakfast five days in a row.  It's refreshing, and the tropical flavors are a delicious combination. It used to seem that unless you had access to Trader Joe's, the frozen fruit selection at the market was primarily strawberries, blueberries, and the occasional raspberry.  While those are all great, it restricts smoothie recipes a bit.  Now, even at the regular grocery store, you can find everything from cherries, peaches, pineapple, even mango in the frozen fruit section.  Frozen fruit makes the best smoothies, because blending it results in a thick and frothy drink without the addition of ice cubes.  Of course, you can freeze fresh fruit yourself, which I often do whenever things are getting a little soft in the fruit bowl. This smoothie was a combination of fresh banana, frozen peach, frozen pineapple, and lowfat milk.  So good I photographed it two days in a row. Cup from Qu...