Fresh Peach and Blueberry Bread - Delicioso!

 Here we are in the first week of June already.  This year is flying by.  Today, we got to attend our 6 year old grandson's "bridge" ceremony which is a Waldorf education celebration of moving from kindergarden to the halls of higher learning, better known as first grade.  As I watched him cross the bridge from the land of childhood, play, and imagination, into the land of higher learning where the road to maturity begins, my heart was filled with joy.  The teacher told a beautiful story about the land of the littles and what it was like before they chose their families and came to earth - the beautiful blue and green world of plants, animals, and minerals.  As they crossed the bridge, the teacher gave them a key to wear around their necks (the key to higher learning) and a small bag containing a gift from the animal, plant, and mineral world.  Then they received a yellow rose and joined their families.  There were tears (just in case  you wondered).  It was a wonderful way to start the week.

We had a busy weekend.  My sister, Sara, and our longtime friend, Linda, came to visit for the weekend.  We toured the city, ate a lot of good food, and even did some honky tonkin' on Broadway here in Nashville.  There is so much good music going on in this town.  Talk about a fun way to spend Saturday afternoon.  If you ever come to the city, do NOT miss all the music.  Nashville is Music City, USA, after all.

Knowing they were coming to visit, I baked some goodies to have on hand.  First, I made two fresh strawberry pies which I will write about tomorrow.  Since fresh peaches are coming in from Georgia, I had some on hand that I had purchased at the Nashville Farmer's Market.  Now, there is always that conundrum of what to do with peaches after you make a cobbler, or slice some up to enjoy on cake or with ice cream.  You can always eat one whole (peeled I hope, peach skin makes me shiver), but there has to be many more things you can make with sweet, ripe, juicy peaches.

I found this recipe for peach/carrot bread on All Recipes.com.  The recipe sounded so good, but I didn't know how I felt about peaches and carrots and I really didn't want to stand and grate carrots.  Personally, I prefer peaches and blueberries.  I often add blueberries to my peach cobbler because they complement each other so beautifully.  I had blueberries on hand, so I substituted blueberries for the carrots.  Guess what?  It works!  It works superbly!!  This bread is awesome!!!!  Here is what you need.

3/4 cups chopped pecans
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped fresh peaches
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs lightly beaten

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl using a spoon.  Pour the batter into a 9 x 5 loaf pan that has been lightly greased and floured.  Place in a 350 degree preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and 5 to 10 minutes.  Test the center of the loaf with a skewer in the center until it comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool before removing from the pan.

This recipe makes a very large loaf.  It fills the loaf pan to the top when baked, so be sure and bake it until very done in the center.  I took mine out at 1 hr 5 minutes and tested it with a toothpick.  The toothpick showed clean, but the bread was a little underdone in the center when we ate it.  (I would recommend a skewer instead of a toothpick so it goes down into the loaf further.) No one seemed to mind one bit though.  Everyone had several pieces in fact.  This is DELICIOUS!

You can see the peaches and the blueberries, and the pecans add a nice texture to the bread with that lovely hint of cinnamon.  Mmm.  Mmm.  Mmm.  It's sort of like baked peach cobbler without having to make a crust.

There will be fresh peaches from now until the first part of September.  Here is a recipe  you can use that is something different, easy, and soooooo good.  Makes some loaves and freeze them.  It is awesome for breakfast or brunch.  Fabulous with coffee.  If you want to try the carrots, just use 3/4 cups grated carrots in place of the blueberries.  If you make it that way, let me know how it turns out.  We will stick with the blueberries.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

It's nice to have some home baked goods for company.  It let's them know you thought of them and wished to honor them with something from your hands and heart.  donna