Life is Peachy

Bank holiday Monday was an interesting one for me as it was the first time that my grandparents had come to visit for nearly eight months.

I decided to play safe with my menu choices therefore and for their pudding I returned to a tried and tested favourite of theirs which went down well when I cooked it for them at the August Bank Holiday two years before. I also played safe with my selection of music while preparing the meal with the expanded re-issue of Elvis' Aloha From Hawaii, a record which although it has its share of exciting straight ahead rock and roll also had enough mawkwish elevator music on it to appease my grandparents' conservative tastes.

I dumped a small tub of low fat cheese spread (without wanting to do any product placement I used low fat Philadelphia which worked well) into a mixing bowl together with a teaspoon of grated orange zest, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and three and a half tablespoons of ground almonds. After mixing these ingredients together with a metal spoon I left them to stand in the bowl while I prepared the peaches.

I took five peaches and cut them in half length ways as well as removing the stones from each one. I then placed the halves of the peaches in a high-sighed and newly greased glass baking tray. I spread the cheese, orange zest, vanilla extract and almond mixture evenly over each of the peach halves.

After the peaches had been fully covered with the mixture I cooked them on the baking tray in the oven for twenty minutes at 180 degrees (190 for non-fan ovens). When I took them out of the oven I noticed the edges of the cheese spread had begun to turn brown, which was a sure sign they had been cooked for long enough.

As they were two years previously the peaches stuffed with cheese were very popular with my grandparents and even my granddad (who is a diabetic and dislikes tomatoes) enjoyed them. The spread was not overly sweet but still had enough of a taste to blend with the peaches to make this a top quality but easy to make pudding. It certainly helped put me in my grandparents' good books after our eight month hiatus.

Post cooking- the brown colouring on the cheese is a dead giveaway that the dish cooked properly

Prior to cooking- always make sure the peaches are fully covered in spread.