Easier-Than-Pie Grilled Peaches

Sometimes, I've found that being too much of a perfectionist about things can lead to not doing them at all, whatever the project may be.

For just that reason, I was putting off fixing up a rustic dining bench I bought. Finally, I decided to just slap on a couple coats of white paint and call it a day. It looks beautiful now and I love it. Sometimes good just has to be good enough. The same thing can go for cooking. Planning something overly ambitious when a simple solution will do the trick can be a recipe for failure. 

Speaking of, I've had a few cooking failures lately, including an aborted attempt at late-night meringues, so when we grilled out Saturday night I wanted to make something extremely simple for dessert. We had a couple peaches laying around so I did a quick Google search and found a recipe from Salon that uses only three ingredients: peaches, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. It doesn't get much easier than this folks. Sweet brown sugar paired with the tangier notes of balsamic vinegar gives them a subtle complexity that pairs well with the grilled smokiness.

When you're feeling fairly ambitious, make a peach pie. When you're feeling a little less ambitious, make a peach cobbler. When you don't feel like cooking at all, make these grilled peaches (or go through the McDonalds drive-through and get a hot apple pie.)

Easier-Than-Pie Grilled Peaches

Ingredients

• Fresh peaches, fairly firm, halved and pitted
• Balsamic vinegar
• Brown sugar

Directions

1. Halve and pit the peaches
2. Drizzle, face up, with Balsamic vinegar
3. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar
4. If possible, allow to soak for as long as an hour, although not necessary
5. Dab the grill with oil and place peaches face down on the grill. Turn after 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle more brown sugar on the flat side (now facing up.) Remove after a few more minutes when they're soft when poked with a fork. 

Serve as-is, a la mode, or sprinkle some granola on top for a satisfying crunch. Salon recommends enjoying them with a hefeweizen, which conveniently happens to be my favorite beer.

Note: These peaches can also be prepared in a frying pan. I heated up my cast iron pan today and made a second batch, thus the absence of grill marks in my picture.