For the Love of Peaches

I mentioned the other day that Chris and I are cooking through Portland, Oregon Chef’s Table by Laurie Wolf. We selected a menu of three recipes and began that adventure last weekend.

It was much tougher than we thought. Initially, our plan was to cook on Friday night (tech-free Friday), but we fell asleep putting Mackenzie to bed. We regrouped on Saturday morning and decided to make dutch babies and lemon curd for breakfast, and then also prepare our Portland menu for lunch.

We grossly underestimated the complexity and time requirement for chef’s recipes. By the time Mackenzie’s usual nap-time rolled around, the weight of peaches that needed to be cooked or preserved, in addition to these three complicated recipes, was weighing heavy on my mind. Mackenzie must have known, because nap-time took well over an hour to accomplish, with many delays and trips to the bathroom. After her last potty break when I was nearly out of patience, she and I snuggled up in her bed, and I thought to myself, “For the love of peaches, go to sleep!” And soon enough, she did.

While she slept, Chris started preparing for our cooking session, and I made a quick run to the grocery store for a few ingredients. On my way the idea occurred to me that we should make blogging this adventure our thing, and not just a series of posts on my blog. I really wanted Chris to feel more ownership and creative freedom. And thus, fortheloveofpeaches.com was born. I bought the domain on my way into the grocery store.

Of course, little miss M didn’t want to miss out and barely slept for an hour. We were still hard at work on the appetizer when she woke up. The roasted peaches with feta were her favorite.

It’s still very much a work in progress, but I hope you’ll check it out. We have posted two recipes from last weekend — Dungeness Crab and Corn Risotto, and Roasted Peaches, Figs, Feta and Salsa Verde. Chris’s photography is stunning. I am so proud of him, and so excited to share his talent with you. I’m posting the dessert recipe — Blueberry Rhubarb Pie — tonight.

We also installed a nifty recipe plugin that makes the recipes downloadable, printable, shareable, email-able… I’m super excited about it and hope you will be, too.

So, for the love of peaches, go check it out. 🙂