I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately. A lot of time outside too, but I haven’t been taking many pictures outside. My favorite time to take garden pictures is early morning, when the kids are still asleep and the first light hits the plants. The past 6 weeks or so it has been foggy just about every morning. Not that I’m complaining, it’s our natural air conditioner, it’s just not very helpful when you like to take pictures outside as everything just looks sort of ‘flat’.

So instead I’ll keep you inside until the fog lifts. I made yogurt cheese out of some homemade yogurt that went terribly wrong. Do you make your own yogurt? I find it terribly fussy to make, the whole heating up to a certain temperature then cooling off to another temperature then getting it to sit at the right temperature for 8 hours. I just haven’t had much success either with my patience or with my yogurt. However I found that straining out the whey to use for fermentation experiments makes a good cheese that is perfect between a cracker and some homemade pepper jelly (one of my favorite snacks).

Recently there was a big rummage/tag/thrift sale in town and I picked up this little beauty, the Juice King. I do believe that it was originally intended for oranges, but it juices peaches like a champ!

Realizing that school is going to begin in one short month and that I’ll now have to prepare two lunches everyday, I’ve been making a whole slew of homemade fruit roll ups. We have an beautiful old workhorse of a stove that always runs warm. The oven temperature always is at about 120 degrees. Probably not the best for our utility bill, however great for drying! I’ve found that 15 plums makes two cookie trays worth of roll ups. I just make up the puree, spread it on the cookie sheet and stick in the oven and check on it every handful of hours. Easy!

And if you cut them about an inch thick, you end up with 20 roll ups (the end cuts are for the chef). A big tip I discovered this time around is to brush the parchment paper with olive oil first to make for easier peeling!

(this batch was a little too thick, I used 20 plums) I’ve read that homemade fruit leather last about a month unrefridgerated but lasts about a year in the freezer, so into the freezer they went, to be used in winter when there isn’t any fresh fruit to be found. School mornings can be so hectic I find great comfort in knowing that at least one component of their lunch is all ready to be popped into their lunchbox.

And oh yes, what Sunday morning wouldn’t be complete without peach cobbler (it’s breakfast food right???).

I hope you are all well and enjoying this summer!