Peach Melbas and Care Bear Villians

There's a fly in here I can't kill. It keeps flying around, just cruising around my apartment mocking me, taking it's time, waiting for me to drop my guard before it buzzes back around my head again.

Anyway, the night was hot and fevered and so is my sleep. It's about 3 in the morning and I've woken up about every hour to pour an ice cold glass of water down my throat so I can sleep again. During one of these periods I dreamed the the color from my pictures was bleeding away. I couldn't stop it but sought to capture ALL the colors as they seeped away and became like a care bear villian. I think it had something to do with this image of the peach melba lingering in my subconscious from earlier.

This drink is actually the opposite of the picture and refreshing on many levels and not abrasive, but definitely intense. It's made from ground up frozen peaches, simple syrup, raspberries, lime juice, spiced rum and ice. It's a lot like a smoothie and can be made hours ahead of time and stored in the freezer. The recipe came from . I topped it off with white flesh peaches which brings me to my next point;

PEACHES ARE IN SEASON. GO EAT PEACHES.

Steph had to work the 4th so my day was fairly uneventful. I had a beer lunch: beer brats with carmelized vidalia onions in beer reduction, served with beer. By the way, the time for vidalia/walla walla onions has passed.

Dinner was simple but delicious: Steaks with grilled vegetable-pesto salad and garlic potatoes. We started out with the peach melbas I got some really beautifully marbled new york strip steaks from top and grilled them. I made a steak sauce that tasted a lot like homemade A-1 but way better:

Steak Sauce

1/3 cup worcestershire
2 Tbs ketchup
pinch of salt
several dashes of tapatio or other pepper sauce

I grilled asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes and drizzled the last of the pesto over it with a little balsamic vinegar salt and pepper.

I quartered some russets and grilled those as well and then tossed with butter, salt and roasted garlic.

Desert was a raspberry chocolate puff pastry. Aside from some eggwash brushed on the outside for color, these were the only three ingredients. I cut the thawed puff pastry sheet into quarters about 4x4" and placed ~4 raspberries and 5 or 6 semi-sweet morsels and then folded them up. If I had some coarse cane sugar I would have sprinkled it over, but only a pinch.

I love puff pastry dough, it makes you look like you spent a lot of time on something when, in actuality this is the extent and complexity of the desert I make.