It's full-on summer here in Anastasia Island. Surprisingly, it feels completely normal to be living here again. I have my morning run and swim on the beach in front of my house. I walk Jimbo in the morning in my bikini drinking hot chai to wake up. I attempted to go to work today, but surf camp was canceled due to lack of kids for the week. I am convinced to get some kind of work done this week, mainly writing out the stories I've been working on about Jimbo "America" Jenkins travels and experimenting with some new flavor combinations in baking.

Sometime I can't stand heavy desserts in the sweltering Florida humidity, so I turned to the ultimate summer fruit- peaches.... or nectarines. I know for a fact I baked one of these fruits. No, I was not drunk. When I was buying fruit, there was an entire section labeled "Peaches or Nectarines." I am not kidding. They were ripe, a color between the two, and just fuzzy enough to leave me bewildered. If that's not bad enough, the stickers on these mystery fruits were not labeled with anything but a number. It didn't even say where they came from! I purchased them anyhow, because they were ripe, and with peaches or nectarines you really can't go wrong. However, is it some strange hybrid fruit? But I digress.....  I made a peach or nectarine crisp. It has few ingredients and an insane amount of flavor.

Peach OR Nectarine Crisp:

Filling:
8 peaches or nectarines, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice raw sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
handful of flour

Topping:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Toss the peaches or nectarines with the sugar first, adding in the lemon, the vanilla, and then the spices. Toss with flour your liking, it depends on how juicy you want the filling to be versus thicker like a pie filling. Pour the filling into an 8x8 glass baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix the walnuts, oats, and brown sugar. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add slowly mixing as you pour. This should create a sticky, combined texture. You don't want it to be too dry or too wet. It can be easily corrected if it's too dry, simply add more butter. If too wet, add more oats or sprinkle some flour in there. Get creative... you could even add chopped candied ginger or chopped macadamia nuts. Go wild.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. The top will bubble through the crisp topping a little bit. Let cool for 10 minutes. Serve alone or with ice cream. Also good for breakfast....................