Summer Breakfast. 8″x8″ gouache and watercolor pencil Sharyn Dimmick
My mother went to Reno for a few days, leaving me in the house with our three cats, so I had three days to observe how I cooked for myself while she was gone. When I lived alone I developed a fondness for one-bowl cooking, complete meals that fit in a single bowl. Friday morning I made one of my favorite summer breakfasts, polenta cooked in milk, seasoned with vanilla extract and stirred into a bowl of diced peaches. It was so good that I made it again on Saturday — in fact, it is what I eat for breakfast any time we have fresh peaches in the house, usually from late May through early October.
The secret to this recipe is a fresh, tree-ripened peach. I buy most of my peaches from Frog Hollow Farm at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. In formerly flush years I would buy them by the flat and we would eat peach waffles, peach bread pudding, peach cobbler. I would freeze peach puree to make waffles in the winter or spring. Now I buy them a few at a time: I bought four last Saturday, two Cal Reds and two O’Henry’s, enough for four breakfasts.
The other secret is cooking polenta in milk, which makes it lovely and creamy. I began cooking grains in milk when I broke my first bone five years ago, started cooking oatmeal in a cup of milk to make sure I would get daily calcium in the food I ate.
To make this dish, go out and pick a peach from your tree or buy a soft, sweet peach from your farmers’ market. Slice it and then chop the slices into smaller chunks. Put this into your cereal bowl. Then film the bottom of a saucepan with a little water, add a cup of milk, a dash of salt and a quarter-cup of polenta. Cook over medium high heat until it starts to bubble, then reduce heat to a simmer until it thickens enough to your liking. It’s a good idea to stir it frequently so that it won’t stick to the pan. When it’s done, remove it from the heat and stir in a capful of vanilla extract. Pour it over your peaches in your bowl, stir and dig in. The polenta warms the peaches. The juice from the peach sweetens the polenta. The yellows and oranges look like summer in a bowl.
Cilantro Pesto with Green Beans. 8″x8″ gouache and watercolor pencil Sharyn DImmick
At lunch-time on Friday, I looked at the cilantro that I had bought a week before and stuck in a glass on the counter — I needed to use it. Cutting off the stems, I broke each leaf from its stem and tossed it into my blender. I went out and picked a Meyer lemon from the front yard, cut it, and squeezed it into the cilantro. I diced a red onion and minced half a clove of garlic. I added some chopped walnuts from our freezer (new crop has not come in yet). I moistened the mixture with some olive oil and started blending it while I got out some rinds of Parmesan, which I grated with my microplane. You can get a microplane, otherwise known as a rasp, at any hardware store — don’t bother with expensive versions from cooking stores: it is the best tool I know for grating hard cheeses and zesting citrus. I gave the blender a stir and added the cheese and a tiny pinch of salt.
Pesto done, I put on some water to boil and got down a package of whole wheat penne, taking out about a quarter pound (four ounces). While the water heated, I topped and tailed a large handful of fresh green beans and snapped them in half. I cooked the pasta for seven minutes or so, then added the green beans to the pasta water, cooking them for one minute more. I drained the pasta, scooped some cilantro pesto into a pasta bowl and stirred like mad to distribute it. It made a little more than I could eat — measurement is not my forte when I am not following a recipe — so I had a small serving leftover for Saturday’s lunch, which I ate cold — equally delicious. The lemon and onion in the pesto and the bitterness of the walnuts play off the sweetness of the green beans and whole wheat.
For dinner, I ate leftover Greek salad on Thursday and made a sandwich of leftover roasted pork loin with leftover apple coleslaw on Friday
Whole Wheat Pasta with Cilantro Pesto:
Combine in jar of blender for pesto
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed.
1 lemon or lime, zested, than juiced or squeezed
1 small red onion
1/2 clove garlic
2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Olive oil to moisten
Salt to taste
3 to 4 oz whole wheat pasta per person.
1 large handful of fresh green beans, trimmed and cut in half.
Blend pesto. Cook pasta until almost done: about a minute out, add green beans to pasta water. Drain pasta and beans into a pasta bowl. Add some pesto and stir or toss to mix. If you have leftover pesto, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week, or you can freeze it.
When Mom got back Saturday afternoon she asked if there was any cooked food on hand. Nope. I told her I had eaten all of the leftovers. We ate bread, cheese, grapes (me) and tomatoes (her).
Painting Note: For more information on “Summer Breakfast” or “Cilantro Pesto with Green Beans” or any other original painting, please contact me here.
thekalechronicles 
Sharyn – I can’t wait to cook polenta with milk to eat with Frog Hollow peaches. My mouth is watering. You are brilliant. Thank you. I am also charmed by your paintings. Completely charmed. With each one I am sitting with you at the table and yet each setting goes beyond the table. I’m hooked.
Thank you so much, Katrina. Glad to have you aboard. Chime in whenever you want. — Sharyn
Hey Katrina, I found your blog, “Kale for Sale” (!) and wanted to subscribe but could only find a way to subscribe by RSS feed. I don’t like RSS feeds because I don’t understand them — they are too complicated for me. Can I subscribe by email? Pretty please? — Sharyn
P.S. That idea about figs in egg cartons is brilliant. Brilliant.
Sharyn – I haven’t posted in over a year but there’s still a box in the sidebar to subscribe and I believe notification comes via email. Let me know if doesn’t work and I’ll revamp it. Or something.
Never thought of eating polenta for breakfast. I’ll have to try it.
It’s my favorite in the summer, Rebecca. It’s also good with wild blackberries instead of peaches.
I’m re-discovering polenta, and I had never thought of making it as a breakfast with milk, I’d have to use Soya milk but I think the key to your breakfast is great fresh peaches! I always liked to add fruit to porridge (oatmeal), it always seemed to lift it out of the ordinary.
Or you could try coconut milk. Shira has just made breakfast quinoa with coconut milk. I don’t like breakfast cereals cooked with water at all anymore — I had a calcium/Vitamin D deficiency that led me to cook like this and now I would not go back.
I can’t wait to try this breakfast polenta–especially the way you describe it, with milk. I used to love putting fresh peaches in cream of wheat when I was a kid. I tried making a peach and blue cheese toast the other day for lunch. I totally loved it, but Scott thought it was a little weird, so I didn’t post it.
I eat this everyday in peach season, Katherine. I love fresh peaches. You should post your toast if you like it — people have different tastes and no one has to cook or eat anything they find on the internet.