Saturday, August 25, 2012

Deb's night: Extra fat, fat-free and vegan donuts


Greetings, loyal reader(s).  Deb's very well organized kitchen brings you another episode of cooking club, featuring polenta, mushroom cream sauce, and a dessert, whose ingredients are so healthy that I shan't disclose their ingredients, lest you not eat them.  In fact, I, Alex, was going to be the person to cook this dessert, but I was so incredulous that Deb wouldn't let me rub my negative energy fingers on the dates.  (Oops, let that one out of the bag.)  Anyway, now I'm blogging!  How about that!
Le Nom.


So, speaking of my negative energy fingers, I've been told explicitly not to touch Fred, Legs, Legion or any of the other named insects that are peaceably cohabitating with the Oakenhome.  Jim and I have just returned from Costa Rica, where we we played with bugs and frogs and sloths, etc., and thus have a very healthy appreciation of how to respect wildlife.  For example, the best way to respect crocodiles is to feed them pieces of raw chicken.  And thusly, the best way to respect fruit flies ("Legion") is to leave a pineapple outside for them to snack on, breed and then eat more of your pineapples.  Cooking club: respecting nature one species at a time.

Anyway, Brian has darted away mysteriously to go buy us some cupcakes, which he assures us is not related to Deb's dateful dessert.  As the blogger, I am of course gleefully agnostic, and happy to get whatever I get.  Who knows, maybe they're date cupcakes?  No negative energy fingers here!  Look elsewhere, haters!

In the meantime, Deb has been bitten by the bug of not washing mushrooms, and instead wiping them with a wet towel.  I've read about this, but I'm usually way too lazy to do it, so props to patient Deb for wiping them.  It looks a little like...uh...something else that could be wiped...but hey!  Positive energy forces for the win.

And Deb's healthy quest (mushroom cream sauce aside) includes a dry saute of onions for the bok choy side dish.  Deb assures us that this will work, and I'm not sure, but it's apparently a popular technique for some things.  Maybe it will work?  In fact, the mushrooms and onions are releasing enough liquid that things aren't sticking to the pan, so that's good!  On the down side?  Well, my dad always says, "no fat, no flavor!"

C Cups cupcakes!

Cupcake accepts challenge.
Speaking of the intersection of fat and flavor, Brian has returned with cupcakes!  Hooray for C Cups cupcakes!  They are Mississippi Mud Pie and Tiramisu flavored, and will do battle with fat free bok choy.  I pity the vegetables, I do.  No hate, though.




Proto-polenta
Spread and chill.
I'm sure this is sanitary.




So with the cupcakes taunting us, we now carve the chilled polenta into noodle-ish squares, where we will bake it with the mushroom sauce and grated fontina.  It looks like it will be pretty delicious actually, in my favorite style of cooking - mix delicious things together and bake them.  Cheese, cream, mushrooms, polenta, repeat.  Oh yes.  At this point, I am obligated to tell you that this recipe is in Julia della Croce's The Vegetarian Table: Italy.

Sauce!
On polenta noodles!
Cheesed!


In the raw vegan tongue, this is pronounced "dessert"
Now it's time for the dessert!  Deb has processed some old fashioned oats to make a coarse oat flour, and Jim has soaked some raisins.  Deb is assembling a collection of spices which would make you jealous, and I have to admit, I have no idea what this dessert is going to turn out to me, because Deb won't tell me!  Apparently it includes microplaned nutmeg!  Also, cashews for the frosting, which need to be soaked as well.

Deb's focus on this intensive dessert has left Jim and Brian left to fend for themselves, which for them means talking about TMZ.  I heard something about Twilight and love and scandal, but believe it or not, I'd actually watch cashews soak than read TMZ.  So back to Deb!

Next comes grated carrots, a banana and apparently Almond Milk and Walnuts.  To make this dessert even MORE ambitious, apparently it involves a donut pan?!  I'm reminded of the evil attempts of parents to get their children to eat healthy.  As if molding carrots into the shape of a donut will make them more appealing...wait...maybe...it..will!  Positive energy!  I have it!  Now, it's time to drain those soaking things, and blend them with tofu and lemon juice to make a frosting.  Deb, ever the bastion of positive energy, says to me, "it sure does look gross."
Vegan mush donuts.  Yum!

Ain't nothing more delicious as a frosting than tofu, that's what I always say.  Well, that's what I say to gluten free vegans who don't eat sugar.  For everyone else, I recommend cream cheese.

I got to play my favorite game!  The "save the frosting" game, which involves for me, apparently adding cinnamon, brown sugar, a banana and coconut oil.  It tastes healthy still, but maybe more like a dessert than a tofu mush.  Hooray!
Baked polenta delightfulness, along with fat free bok choy.











And now, it's time to plate, and enjoy our upcoming episodes of True Blood.  It is worth noting that I almost had a conniption because during True Blood, we were not able to pause, rewind or do anything that would require a remote control.  This means also that I had about 30 seconds to type out everyone's reviews before the next episode automatically started.  And did I mention that Deb's computer had something like two minutes of battery left and a broken keyboard?  Yeah, I was not pleased.  So, I give you this delightful set of reviews.  Enjoy, internet.


A glazed, delicious donut!



The End
The Scores:




JimDebBrianAlex
PolentaA.  A.  Delicious.A.  I'm proud of that.A-.  I like the polenta lasagna idea - good base for further experiments.
Stir FryA-.fklajdsfalskjdfaklsdf 

ads;fla
donuts

c- not a dessert, a breakfastc. tastes as good baked as raw.  mediocre








He's not laughing, he's crying. :-(

Monday, August 13, 2012

Shark Night! Featuring Celebrity Chef Jenny Jo

We started writing this on FRIDAY THE 13TH!  A post so late, it HAS to be jinxed!  This post goes out to the fine folks at Mei Mei's Street Kitchen, who I'm sure never have this much trouble.

Hello, readers gawkers and stalkers!  It's Brian, chronicling Jim's night, which is a celebration of summertime food:  we start out with homemade guac, and plan to have potato salad, BBQ tempeh sandwiches, Mexican Street Corn and Zucchini Bread for dessert! 

(Anthropological note:  for this writer, "summertime food" meant Minute Maid lemonade, frozen Ice Pops, and Chef-Boy-R-Dee pizza-in-a-box after the sun went down and the world cooled off.  This is more of an idealized summertime meal.)

There's a bit of debate about the potato salad: Jim insists that cheese is a traditional part of any good one, which everyone else rejects with horror, scorn, and some disturbed anti-Pennsylvania sentiments.  Alex suggests cumin, which Deb rejects.  (Note: there's cumin in the guac, which was quite tasty, and some in the BBQ sauce for the tempeh, so some in the salad too might be a bit overwhelming, imho).
The only part of the potato salad we can agree on

There's another quick poll taken about whether the tempeh should be done up in little slabs, rib-style, or in shreds, pulled pork-style.  Pulled pork-substitute wins by a narrow margin!

The pictures tonight are courtesy of Alex's new phone, which is a thing of technological beauty, when they're not courtesy of my phone, Phoney, which is much more anthropomorphized.  That's right, Phoney, we still love you best.

Deb's chopping polish-style pickles, which I've never even heard of before.  Surprisingly spicy!

"What makes them polish-style?"
"They're hot?"
"They were invaded by Germany?"
"People make jokes about them?"

Alex has shredded zucchini for the bread, and discovered that two shredded cups = 1 zucchini, which is good except he shredded two zucchinis.  Oops!  Deb is getting ready to hardboil some eggs, while Jim has sliced, chopped, hacked, and other blade-related verbs the tempeh until it's good to go.

As a side note here, we have to give props to Jim, who had all the planning and hosting of this sprung on him at the last minute--certain people (including This Humble Blogger) had thought that we wouldn't be meeting this week due to half our cast being on vacation in Costa Rica, and were caught completely unprepared when we realized our mistake yesterday afternoon. 

Deb, midway through chopping and preparing the potato salad, has paused to look online for a recipe.  She is inherently suspicious of the ones that call for a) balsamic vinegar, b) cider, c) cheese, d) bacon, or e) any fat at all...except for one site called potatosaladsmadeoutofnothingbutsand.com she's not having much luck.

Not the face of a successful recipe-finder

Our music tonight has been mostly Motown, which has been helping fight off the nasty earworm I've had all week.  What earworm, you ask?  Let me share it with you:

I know, right?  It's that freakin' banjo!  I'm a sucker for sixteenth notes.  (By the way, you should never say that if you lisp).

ANYhow.

The Mainer pauses to ask what state our potatoes actually came from, because (as I'm SURE you know) the region makes an incredible difference (translation: it's amazing how petty potato-growing states can get about each other, especially after the great fight over who would get to host the National Potato Museum back in the '80s.).  Tonight's russets are clearly labelled "Product of the U.S.A."...clearly Stop & Shop is attempting to defuse any pro-Idaho or -Wisconsin riots by not shoving Maine potatoes' innate superiority in their faces.

This is "Spuddy", the mascot of the Maine Potato Blossom Festival.  Not pictured: the mashed potato wrestling.  No I am not making this up.


A big tablespoon of cinnamon goes into the zucchini bread.  Suddenly it smells like Christmas in here!  (Only without the underlying scents of pine needles, wet boots and stress-sweat.)

Our plan: fry the tempeh to give it a crispy-crunchy texture, then cover it in the sweet bbq sauce and heat it again to let the sauce caramelize.  'Caramelize' is one of those words that always promises good things, like 'vacation' or 'bounceycastle'.
See what I mean?


We come to a screeching halt to debate how "Gotye" is actually pronounced--Alex says it "Goat-yay", Deb says "Goyt", I've always thought of it as "Goy-tuh" (though part of me's known it's wrong)....the internet solves the issue by saying the artist himself pronounces it like "got ya".  (Note for the youngsters out there: before the internet, this debate might have raged for MONTHS, and ended in blood.  Thank you Al Gore.)

However you pronounce it, they're surprisingly nerdy

Deb's quietly gone far, far off-recipe with her potato salad; she added some cider vinegar but it's still bland, and she refuses to even consider salt.  What to do, what to do...add lime!  It...well, it goes with the guac and the Mexican street corn?  It should be noted that Deb manages to slip the lime juice in while Jim is out of the room...Alex then adds an 1/8th of a cup of Sam Adams, Just Because, and then lots of paprika because it apparently needed a bit of a kick?

"Isn't it funny how if you add beer to any food it makes it gourmet, but if you add it to life it makes it trashy?  Like, if you show up to your kid's game with beer, it's a bad thing?"--Alex philosophizes.
Alex claims this is, quote, "bad". 

Jenny Jo arrives!!!  She's here for Readercon, a literary SF convention, but we all know it was the chance to be tonight's Celebrity Chef that really brought her to Boston. She feels the potato salad needs more moisture, which Alex immediately takes to mean "more beer" (even though she was actually thinking mayo). 

"I could've gone to a party, but instead I came...here..."  --Jenny Jo, describing her day at the convention and counting her blessings.  (srsly.)

As Alex mixes blueberries into the zucchini bread batter, Jenny Jo leaps in to help out with the street corn.  Deb still feels the potato salad needs something, but isn't sure what...maybe a little more vinegar now?  There's a large sentiment that pickles would improve it, but that's vetoed by picklephobic Alex...his counter-proposal of shredded zucchini goes over like a lead balloon. A hollow lead balloon filled on the inside with zucchini.  As a compromise Jenny Jo cuts up a cucumber and experiments with a little sample to see if that would help, which it seems to...her proposal of salt and pepper hits the brick wall of Deb's saltipathy, and the idea of celery is shot down by Jim who feels it's an Abomination.  Who knew that potato salad was such a minefield???


We debate the photogenic-ness of our various members....Alex insists Deb's amazingly photogenic,

and Deb not only disagrees but uses verbal judo to insist that no, actually ALEX is.

  I...have a good personality.

Having reached the end of "The Stand" and marvelled at hairstyles of the early '90s, we ponder what to watch next.  Deb advocates either "Sarah Connor Chronicles" or "Lie to Me", both of them series she's already seen and loved.  Jenny Jo suggests "Being Human", which all of us have seen at least some of--Deb and I liked the British first season, Jim liked what he saw of the U.S. version.  "Dr. Who" was also proposed, but dear reader, between you and me there's some suspicion that the unpopularity of DS9 and Farscape with some members of the club indicates that they wouldn't do too well with the Whoniverse.  Anyhow, before we reach a decision we get pleasantly distracted trying to guess what the heck REALLY happened during the last ten minutes of  Sherlock.  (My guess: aliens.)

The tempeh is ready; at this point we're frying onions to go with it, and preparing the sauce for the street corn.  Deb and Jenny Jo, meanwhile, are slicing up our long loaf of french bread to be sandwich-y.  There's now some speculation on what else can go on the sandwich--spinach? arugula? romaine?  cilantro?  pickles? grated carrots? Nothing at all?  Some of us lean toward spontaneously creating vietnamese-style bahn mi sandwiches, while others (me) go more for the Arby-style sauce-and-tempeh-all-over-nom-nom-nom method.

Sandwich fixins


"I wanna learn about pressure points for martial arts purposes"--Deb, turning a conversation about massage into something a bit darker. 

While we wait for the corn to finish we compare notes about music--were you aware that a lot of Indians really like Pink Floyd?  I was not.  Were you aware that a certain writer at a camping retreat played Baba O'Riley over and over again for inspiration, and did NOT get slaughtered by the other people at the campsite after the fifth time it came blasting out of his tent?  I know, I find it hard to believe too.

"Oh, that's very nice.  I mean, it certainly looks big."--Deb, showing her priorities when it comes to meals.

The finished product


Results:

Guac:
Deb--It was okay, B.  There was a cumin taste.
JJ--A-...it was actually made from avocados, which puts it ahead of a lot of guacamoles.
Jim--B+...not thrilled with the cumin, which was an Alton Brown thing that sounded better than it really was.
Alex--B; it was fine. It was guacamole.  There might've been something in the chips that might've detracted.
Me--B+. It gave me pleasure.


Tempeh-wiches:
Deb--thought the sandwich was fabulous!  The tempeh was weird, but all the cucumber and carrot stuff made it delicious.  I'd never make that tempeh again, though!  That puts it in the B+ range.
JJ--I actually want to give the sandwich a C...a tempeh sandwich is not a good textural choice.  It needed something sweet and crunchy (like a pickle).
Jim--would give it a B-; thinks the bbq sauce needed more heat, and it really did have that tempeh aftertaste. 
Alex--the tempeh had a tempeh flavor.  The texture, even by itself, was lovely.  The sandwich bread was kind of weird, and definitely not banh mi bread.
Me--B+ again.  It rose past my fear of a vegan sandwich and was tasty.  The bread-to-tempeh ratio needed work, but that's not the recipe's fault.



Corn:
Deb--Didn't put the mayo on, so I just ate corn.  Maybe that can be my whole review, right there.  I think it was grilled?
JJ--A+!  Without the condiments it would've been A-level corn, and with the mayo it improved dramatically.
Jim--A+!  That corn was awesome, one of the best things we've done in a while.
Alex--A!  I think there were...I mean...it was pretty good.  What makes it not an A+ for me is that it lacks some extra thing...it was really good, but not Oh My God. 
Brian--A+. This is the sort of thing you'd prepare for out-of-town foodies who come to visit.  Just make sure you're stocked up on napkins.

Potato Salad:
Deb--C, kind of bland...although I am pretty full right now.  Somebody said the eggs shouldn't have been in there, and it's true.
JJ--B- for blandness...it needed sweet pickles.  Generally the whole meal needed more sweet crunchiness.
Jim--C...needed cheese.  (This offends the German in Jenny Jo!)  It's amazing how much the cucumber in there reminded me of celery...which I hate.
Alex--C; it was not a good potato salad.  It passed through zones where it was good!  There was a point where it was a solid B if not a B+, but then we kept adjusting it.
Brian--C.  Not enough salt, not enough mayo, and there's a sneaking suspicion that these potatoes were from some third world (i.e. Canadian) labor camp.
Remember, you can't spell 'Prince Edward Island Potato Museum' without DEMONIC


Zucchini Bread:
Deb: B+, maybe a B.
Alex: B+  The honey and yogurt were necessary to ramp it up.
Jenny Jo: A- with the yogurt.
Jim: With the honey and yogurt I give it an A-.  Without, maybe a B+ish?  It'd probably be awesome as french toast.
Brian: B+...it reminded me of good banana bread.

Still Life With Zucchini (bread plate made by Jim, by the way, and available for discerning readers)


Our show tonight was Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2 of True Blood.  Even though we've heard awful things about later seasons (fairies? really?)  we're going to stick with this series for a while.  Why?

The writing.


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Alex's Night: Happy Birthday, 'murica!

This cooking club post is a looooooong overdue shout out to Americans everywhere. Overdue, because we actually ate the food over a month ago on Independence Day, not because Americans are known for being deprived of self praise. Why so late? Well, see, it was Slacker Jim’s turn to write the post...

Those of you who are melatonin and culturally-challenged will recognize the fine cuisine described below as a loving homage to trash du trail-er, filtered as always through the perspective of four people who can cook about as well as a snake can clap  ...

We are joined tonight by celebrity chef Janet -infamous celebrity, that is,  because she’s the only born and bred real Boston suburbanite in the room.  Welcome, Yankee, I mean, Janet! 

 
Jovial celebrity chef Janet


Snackage

The meal begins with an homage to two things near and dear to the heart of every true American - potato chips and the microwave. ( Anything cooked in a microwave falls firmly within  the trailer scope, we feel.)  And while not quite as lazy as just opening a bag, microwave potato chips are incredibly easy to make.

1.)  Slice potatoes
2.)  Spray Pam (or other lipidacious spray)
3.)  Microwave

It helps when you add plenty of salt at the end, but they are crispy and wonderful!  And, as 
long as you don’t believe that microwaves are inherently evil, suspiciously healthy...
As with most our food, they tasted better than they looked.

Pro tip: Boy, do sweet potatoes shrink in the microwave.
Pro tip #2:  We brushed flavored oil on the plate and laid the chips on the plate and then used our oil spray bottle to coat them.  Much healthier.  An advantage to making them this way is you can try different seasonings. 
Amateur tip: For fun and profit, try microwaving expanding peeps on top of shrinking sweet potatoes and watch them cancel each other out!


Biscuits

Jim sez: I hear Deb informing Janet that they got me that silicone baking mat for my birthday and how we'll never need to cook with oil or grease again as they load the butter and crisco laden biscuits into the oven. They’ve been busy making a vegetarian version of Greg’s Southern Biscuits and bonding over health tips.  For these biscuits,  we substituted Crisco for the lard and sauteed vegetarian "bacon" bits in butter and strained them out to simulate bacon drippings.  The smokey flavor of the fakin’ bacon is pretty impressive, but it’s unclear if it’s a good substitute for the real thing.  One wonders, does the real thing also have tons of MSG?

Deb has destroyed many a biscuit recipe in her day.
 
"You should write that down, I just said something brilliant!" -- Janet.  Oops, I missed what she said BEFORE that, but I bet it was AWESOME.

In keeping with the theme of tornado challenged housing, have we mentioned that Deb is obsessed with the idea of living in a Tiny House ? Isn’t it interesting that tiny houses are built on wheels and so are trailers? Could it be a coincidence that her husband Brian is morosely foreseeing a day when “all our appliances will hang from the ceiling on bungee cords like the ketchup and mustard squirters at McDonalds?”

A great green bean debate suddenly erupts.  Are you one of those people who insist that both ends of green beans need to be snapped off?  If so, YOU'RE WRONG!!! [Says Mr. "I saw it on a cooking show so it must be true." -Deb] The stem end is the only end that has to be removed.  The other end is just as delicious as the rest of the green bean  [I'm talking to you, Alex and Deb. ] 




A thing of beauty


"I bet that 'true/false' thing he does doesn't ever get old"  -- Deb

Nothing says Fourth of July in 'Murica like juicy, grilled hamburgers, except maybe having a home run derby on an aircraft carrier and hitting the balls off the deck into a swarm of people driving jet-skis,  all while loud rock & roll plays...which actually happened in Baltimore.  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A! 
THESE COLORS DON'T BUNT


Sorry, where were we....hamburgers!  American!  Yes.  Like the 'fakin bacon drippings', these were tasty enough to please our carnivores while still allowing our vegetarians peace of mind. We also made our own ketchup!

Hamburgers and ketchup gravy
(Or, in plainspeak, fake meat burgers braised in home made ketchup)

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon steak seasoning, or to taste
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 1 large onion, cut into chunks
  • 1 cup ketchup (see recipe below for a homemade variety)
  • 1/2 cup water, or as needed

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, 1/2 cup ketchup, bread crumbs, onion powder, steak seasoning, salt, and pepper. Form into small fat hamburger patties, or meatballs.
  2. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Place the patties in the skillet, and cook until browned on both sides. Remove patties to a plate, and drain grease from the skillet.
  3. In the same pan, slowly stir together the remaining ketchup and water if the mixture seems thin, add a bit more ketchup, or if it is thick, add more water. Add the onion, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Return the patties to the pan, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir after the 30 minutes, and if the gravy is still thin, continue simmering with the lid off until gravy thickens. 
 That recipe comes from AllRecipes.com.


1  28-oz. can tomato purée
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
1 clove garlic, crushed and peeled
1⁄2 fresh jalapeño, stemmed and seeded
2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
1⁄2 cup cider vinegar
Pinch cayenne
Pinch celery salt
Pinch dry mustard
Pinch ground allspice
Pinch ground cloves
Pinch ground ginger
Pinch ground cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put tomato purée, onions, garlic, jalapeño, and sugar into a blender or food processor and pulse until blended. Add vinegar and 1 cup water and purée until smooth.
2. Transfer to a medium saucepan; add cayenne, celery salt, mustard, allspice, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Store in refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 month.

Dessert:  Cherry Nectarine Crisp

Nothing says USA like apple pie, but we've made those before. So tonight, we're attempting to mix cherries and nectarines in such a way that they don't come out tasting sour and unappealing.  For this tricky endeavor, Alex chose to put his faith in this recipe, also from allrecipes.com.  but then of course, he changed the hell out of it.

If you want to try it, note that we modified this recipe with the following ideas:

Cherry-Nectarine crisp with honey
Topping: Nilla wafers, butter, honey, brown sugar

How did everything taste, you wonder? Well, here goes:


AlexBrianDebJanetJim
Microwave Potato ChipsA(almost A+)  I was shocked at the flavor and texture.  I could eat 100 Million of them A-  Easy, innovative.  The only thing keeping them from an A+ is discovering different toppingsB-  I liked it but there was a small hint of ehhhh.  I wouldn't make this again unless I was starving in a house  with a potato and a microwave. And I couldn't get out, I mean.B+/A-  They were very good, very easy but there was nothing super special about them.B+  With the right seasonings, they would be an A.  Individually seasoning them was a little annoying.
Home made ketchup braised fake meat burgersB  Very hearty and tasty.  It tasted like ketchup.A-  It wound up being really tasty.  The ketchup was a little tricky.A  Those were amazing!  B+  Super delicious but a little too sweetB+  I agree with Janet.
"Bacon" Sauteed Green BeansA-  Flavorful.  The "bacon-ness" didn't disguise the green beans.A-  The "bacon-ness" could have disguised the green beans a bit more, and that would've been fine with me.A-  Bacon was a nice bright note.  Maybe bigger bits would be niceB+  Good but I didn't taste the bacon flavor.B  A little greasy but they were tasty.
Greg's Southern BiscuitsB  They were fine.  They needed to bake for 1.5 minutes less or maybe they were over-mixed just a little.A  They were perfect.  Biscuit-y biscuitsB+  Just the fact that we broke the biscuit curse and had good fluffy biscuits is a great thing but they didn't transcend to A status.B-  I don't believe in the fake buttermilk.  B+  The others failed to butter their biscuits and that made all the difference.  Silly people





Nectarine and Cherry CrispB  Those nectarines were not ripe enough to bake.  The cherries were greatB  I'm not a big fan of baked fruits. 
B+  I loved it but I wouldn't make it again because Nilla wafers aren't that healthyB-  It was good, but desserts can be so very good that the bar is high.B  Nilla wafers and cherries are amazing!  The nectarines needed to be riper and a bit more flavorful.