Just Peachy!!!

I need to preface this entry by saying that the kerfuffle with Zooey on Monday isn't the reason I have been away from the blog for the week.  It was finals, and I was in a grading frenzy.  As for Devil Dog, who is currently snoozing at my feet, she turned three on Thursday and took her birthday in a barking stride.  Hopefully now that she is officially an adult coonhound, she will settle down, but I have a notion that trash bin diving will always be a hobby of hers.
But she is cute, isn't she?

Snoozing in the sun

What a week!  Zooey eating the oatmeal stocking and the end of the spring semester were only the beginning of it.  Tuesday I took an herb growing class through the Valley Permaculture Alliance.  It was extremely interesting, and I now have hope for my herb garden.  I just have to remember that if my herbs don't make it (and by the looks of the pineapple sage today, things aren't looking good for these guys), I can start fresh again in the fall.  I've got some ideas for raised beds (also good to keep the hound from running through them), but we'll need to look at how we'll be able to keep them watered.  In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to save at least some of my plants.
I also discovered, with some great joy, that my tomato plant has baby tomatoes growing!

See them????????????????

There are only two, and they are small (it's off the grape tomato plant), but they are still fruits, so I have hope that I can keep plants alive to let them do their jobs.  And maybe next year I'll have enough tomatoes to make a batch of gazpacho.  The pumpkins are growing nicely, as are the cucumbers, and my cantaloupes are coming up.  If we can keep Zooey out of their beds, I might end the summer not feeling so badly about the herbs.
We also went to a Diamondbacks game on Thursday (great seats!!!!) and then took the weekend by storm, all after what I have dubbed The Great Peach Crisis of 2011.
Thursday (lots went on on Thursday), I made the horrible discovery of molding peaches.  In a panic, I risked getting black fuzz underneath my fingernails (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!) as I salvaged those peaches who hadn't yet been so afflicted.  This was going to be a search and RESCUE mission, dammit!
Then, I went into full preservation mode.  Thankfully, even though I had to toss too many peaches to really make me happy (OK, so even one or two would have made me super upset), I managed to can four quarts of peaches and make another four pints of jam, with two peaches leftover (more on those in a minute).  I even used the peelings to make peach honey, which I am still working on (if that works out, I'll let you know, because it sounds awesome).  It just makes me sick to think of how many more quarts I might have been able to make had I not acted more quickly.
Saturday we breakfasted at the Gilbert Farmers' Market.  It's extremely close to Bergie's, so we parked close to the coffee shop and walked over.  LOTS of interesting vendors were there, including our wonderful CSA and a salt company called Go Lb. Salt - they had some really interesting salt planks that are used in the same manner as cedar planks as well as grilling kits.  Both look like excellent gifts, so I shall keep them in mind (play your cards right...).
Our meal came from the Superstition Farm truck.  I had to have another round with the egg sandwich, although I changed it up from the cheddar that I had last time to the pepperjack - very pleased with that decision!  Scott had the farm burger, and when he was too full to finish it, I stepped up and took it down.  It was worth every bite (there were only like three left).  The hush puppies were, as usual, amazing, and I was sad when I ate my last one (and that Scott had eaten his).  HRH enjoyed some ice cream from Udder Delights, and the best thing was that it wasn't even a question whether or not the whipped cream that came with it (she had chocolate, but they also were offering carrot cake - carrot. cake. ice cream!) was real and delicious.

Don't even tell me this doesn't make you drool.
I know you would be lying.

Today started off with the rest of the peaches - those last two (well, there were about two and a half, when I tossed the bruised parts) went into the filling for cinnamon rolls.  Mmmmmmmmm... cinnamon rolls!!!!!
I needed to use up the rest of our buttermilk, so I was happy to find this recipe.  I had actually started planning to use this other recipe, but then I realized that I did NOT want to be up that late just waiting for the dough to rise.  Next time I'll be better prepared.  However, I did model my glaze after the latter's icing recipe, although I didn't use vanilla and used less sugar because I added a little peach jam to boost the peach flavor.

Still hot and gooey in the pan

I did like this recipe - the rolls were fluffy and gooey and doughy.  But they were a little too doughy, so I'll have to work on that.  The filling was also not as exciting as I had imagined, but I think that was my fault; I didn't realize that we had too litter brown sugar until after I melted the butter, so it was a little liquidy and kind of ran out the bottom.  Oops.  Of course that happens when I don't pre-measure everything.  Murphy's Law and all that crap.

Melty

Ready to roll!

After spending the night in the fridge,
they took a little time to rise on the counter before hitting the oven.

That being said, I think instead of melting the butter, I'll just soften it next time.  And add a little more cinnamon.  But then add more peaches to balance out the cinnamon.
I had two more cinnamon rolls for dessert tonight.