Side Dish | Dish It Out!

Truth. Don’t let the smooth taste fool you, I am a peach. People generally use this expression as a term of endearment, “Isn’t Jenny a peach? Look how she helps her Mom shingle the new barn”. It can also be a a sly dig in some circles, “Howard’s a real peach, finishing all of Auntie Lucy’s cobbler before she had any”. In my case it is more of a Dish! I am a peach. I am fuzzy with a stone pit in my core.

Don’t let the smooth taste fool you.

I will explain.

It took all of my twenties and most of my thirties to cultivate my beard (bane to my family). I endured relentless comments on the sprouting ‘peach fuzz’. Comparisons were made to dirty lollipop sticks, over-used QTips, sparse golf courses and broken Chia-pets. To wear my ginger whiskers in my forties, I glow. I am a peach, I sweeten with age. I am a peach, but not with a heart of stone. More of a head of it. More on that? Moron that.

I can be pretty obstinate, hard-headed if you will, in the kitchen. I hardly measure ingredients, will leave every cabinet open, cover every surface and risk bodily harm in pursuit of a perfect

Melissa-fent Fruits, Summer 2014

taste. I fly by taste, sight and smell in addition to the seat of my pants. Sometimes the recipe will fly, sometimes not. Casualties are inevitable,

“….you can’t make an omelet without breaking any eggs. Any cook will tell you this.” – Clue, The Movie – Col. Mustard AKA Martin Mull.

I am a peach, if you work around the dense center the fruit is delicious. Sort of speak.

So I bore you with all of that to tell you about some recent quality time in the DIO! FoodLab, peachy-keen if you will. Our wonderful sponsor Melissa’s Produce sent us some gorgeous stone

fruit this season. We got to play with delicious white peaches, apricots, plums, plucots and stunning avocados. Yes, Virginia, avocados are fruit. We sautéed, pureed, basted, broiled and blackened.

A drive-by fruiting.

We blended, froze, reduced and grilled. There was much merriment involving Melissa’s tasty treats and at least one botched juggling show. But I digress.

The fruits of our labors (you know that pun was coming) were tremendous. Condiments, side dishes, desserts, drinks and snacks smacked the lips of happy hungry DIO! staff. The team’s favorite recipes will follow for all to enjoy. Please let us know your success with the recipes and remember any pix of your efforts will be rewarded. We swag and shout out with the best of them. The first recipe was delicious…….

Grilled White Peaches, a side dish.

Pairing these lovelies with an Herbs de Provence rubbed pork chops was phenomenal. The grill char on the sweet flesh of the peaches was incredible side by side with the savory of the pork’s seasonings.