I heart peaches…a lot. And lucky for me, they are in season right now in the Northwest — I’ve stocked up like they are going out of business. So when I had the unusual craving for dessert tonight, I decided to put my peaches to good use:
Halved and pitted the peaches. Brushed the flesh with canola oil and sprinkled with some brown sugar.
Grilled peaches flesh-side down over medium-high heat.
Blended together some cream cheese, almond extract, honey and pineapple mint (from my friend’s garden).
Topped the grilled peach halves with the cream cheese mixture and crushed vanilla wafer cookies (Amaretti cookies would be great, too — tying in with almond extract flavor). Voila!
For those of you who watched Top Chef season 5, you’ll recall Fabio Viviani‘s famous line: “this is Top Chef, not Top Scallop” (referring to Jamie’s lack of variety after making her umpteenth scallop dish). I had the chance to meet Fabio this weekend at the inaugural Gig Harbor Wine and Food Festival. And during our first encounter at one of the tasting booths, Fabio mentioned that he hates cilantro and I smartly replied, “same here, it’s not Top Cilantro after all.” Yeah…not quite as funny when I say it…
Anyway, I accompanied @foodiecritic to the event as her unofficial photographer. I’ll let her give you an in-depth recap in her Belles of the Sound blog post on Friday — be sure to check it out. In the mean time, I would like to give a shout out to the brilliant folks at Anthony‘s for these insanely delicious Ahi tuna crisps — definitely my favorite nibble of the day.
And now I leave you with my Flickr slideshow of the press event and cooking competition between Fabio and chef Craig Haslebacher, who recently beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America.
Ciao!
Photo Source: http://www.comcastbiteofseattle.com/
Summer really kicked off this weekend in Seattle with amazing weather and fun food events like Mobile Chowdown, Ballard SeafoodFest and Chocolate Salon. And next weekend, we have the premiere Seattle summer food event to look forward to: Bite of Seattle at the Seattle Center (fingers crossed the nice weather sticks around). Of the many fun activities lined up, I’m particularly excited for these:
- The Bite Cooks!: 30-minute cooking demonstrations by several of Seattle’s top chefs. Emceed by chef Thierry Rautureau (AKA The Chef in the Hat).
- The Alley: A multi-course meal of tastes from over a dozen of Seattle’s best restaurants, and even some up-and-comers. Hosted by Tom Douglas and benefitting Food Lifeline.
- Wine Tasting & Jazz: Vintage wines from over a dozen Washington wineries, and contemporary jazz performances.
Check out this page for info on other featured events — looks like the Deen Brothers (yes, as in Paula Deen‘s sons) and the plumped Foster Imposter chickens will be making special appearances 
. And if the food, wine and music aren’t enough to entertain you, try your luck at snagging a cutie and 15-minutes of fame at Comcast’s booth where they will be filming their “Dating ON DEMAND” TV segment 
Posted in Events, Food & Wine
Tagged food and wine, Tom Douglas, Seattle restaurants, Food events, bite of seattle, thierry rautureau, the chef in the hat, seattle food events, summer food events, seattle center
Jenn Davis
