This time of year the stone fruit is in all its glory, and Lisa’s already written about her family’s love of cherries, but it’s the peaches we love best around here. We eat them plain, standing over the sink to catch the drips, or cut into a bowl, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon sometimes when we’re feeling fancy. We eat them sliced onto our cereal and our pancakes, with yogurt and with ice cream, swirled into smoothies and grilled on sweet pizzas. If pizza feels like too much of a production, you can achieve nearly the same effect with sliced peaches on toast spread with a dollop of ricotta cheese and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar:img_0956

I’m not much of a pie baker, but can recommend my sister’s recipe for a good and simple peach pie. And when friends are over, we bake the peaches into the  easiest crisp: slice your fruit into a gratin pan, toss with a tablespoon or two of flour and maybe a bit of lemon juice. For the topping, combine equal parts melted butter, oatmeal, brown sugar, flour and wheat germ (I use a generous 1/2 cup for a 10″ gratin pan). Bake at 350 until browned on top and bubbly around the edges, about half an hour.

We are eating peaches every day, and we never tire of them; so tell me, how do you eat yours?