As a little girl, summer was a time filled with visiting family and friends all over the Southeast. My family would drive to visit relatives in Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. One of the things that I remember most were the produce stands that we would occasionally stop at on our long journeys.The stands were overflowing with watermelon, tomatoes, okra, and my favorite — peaches.

I remember biting into these fuzzy fruits and tasting the delicious sweetness — the peach juice running down my chin. If we were eating peaches by the side of my great aunt’s pool, we would finish up, throw the pits over the fence into the woods, and run and jump into her pool.

Eating peaches brings back a sense of nostalgia for me. Last week I saw that my grocery store was having a sale on peaches and thought it would be great to pick some up since they are so delicious, and make some of my favorite recipes or try out new ones that I found on Pinterest. Little did I know, my friends who just PCSed from Italy who are living with us for a few weeks love peaches too!

Our weekend was filled with making the peach dishes below (my friend Amy and my husband cooked, I just took photos). One night, we had several friends over to help devour our edible creations. Our evening ended a in card game, a bunch of laughter, and all of us indulging in a pie, not yet frozen peach ice cream, and grilled peaches. I love eating peaches just like the next guy or girl, but the memories I have tied to eating this wonderful summer fruit are unforgettable.

Be sure to show us what you make with peaches using #idfoodchallenge.

What summer fruit brings back wonderful childhood memories for you?

Grilled Peaches

InDependent Original

• 4-5 peaches sliced in half with pits removed, leave skin on

• ½ cup honey

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (less if you don’t care for cinnamon)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• ½ cup brown sugar

• ½ bourbon (optional, but don’t worry, it burns off)

Place the peaches inside a large zipper storage bag. Then add the remaining ingredients. Once all the ingredients have been added, gently work/massage all the ingredients over the peaches until they are completely covered. Let the peaches sit for about 10-15 minutes (or however long you have). Heat your grill to low to medium heat. Place the peaches face down so that you can get pretty grill marks. Pour remaining liquid into a cup, measuring bowl (something with a lip) or you can leave it in the bag, but you will need to be able to pour it later on. Grill peaches face down for 3-4 minutes, or until grill marks are present. Then flip them over so you have a bowl where the pit used to be. Pour a little of the remaining liquid into the peach bowls, exercising caution if you choose the flammable bourbon option.Cook for another 5-7 minutes or until the skin starts to brown. These are great when served with peach gelato or vanilla ice cream (just put the ice cream into the make shift bowls).

Peach Muffins

via allrecipes

These were so good that the first time Amy made them they disappeared before I could snap a photo of them. Luckily she made another batch for me so that I could get a beautiful photo of not only her delicious muffins, but of her as well. Amy stated that she decreased the sugar to ¾cup and added about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Since I don’t have a food scale in my kitchen, Amy just used two peaches, didn’t measure, and baked the muffins in my large six-muffin baking pan for 30-35 minutes.

Peach Gelato

via Epicurious

Making this delicious treat is a delicious way to cool off. My friend Amy made this dish while her husband, my husband, and I all offered our help (mainly we just stood around asking,“What if you do it this way?”or “What if you do it that way?”). My husband and I broke out our ice cream maker that we got for our wedding (five years ago) for the first time so that we could play with it. Although you don’t need an ice cream maker, the bowl from the device did come in handy. Amy made this dish with five peaches which she said was plenty, a whole egg white, and only ¾cup of sugar.