sweet nectarines

one of the things i'll miss about living in southern california are the fruit trees in my backyard. again, this summer, our white nectarine tree fruited delicious fruit!! we've mainly been freezing them b/c there's so many, and i have been hesitant to eat them right off the tree. we've discovered many worms inside the nectarines. so i half them, pit them, slice them, then freeze them.

for those who aren't familiar with freezing fruit i recommend laying the fruit on a cookie sheet. after it's frozen, then place the fruit in a freezer bag. if you do this before hand, the fruit sticks to each other, and it's very difficult to separate the fruit.

i realize that the photo makes them look huge, but they're actually not that big. but hey, at least it's organic. no pesticides!

recently, i did make nectarine muffins again like last year. it was a cool enough day to utilize the oven. this recipe makes about 22-23 muffins.

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 egg
1 cup milk
1 large ripe peach - peeled, pitted and diced (you can add as well)
1 1/2 cups very ripe nectarine, pitted and diced
raw sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper
muffin liners.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add vegetable oil, egg and milk;
mix well. Fold in diced peach and nectarine. Fill each muffin tin 2/3 with muffin mix.
Sprinkle a raw sugar onto the top of each uncooked muffin.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 13 minutes. Serve warm or cool.