More on Peaches

Sorry folks for taking a small break from posting. Things were hectic around the house for a while and when that happens, I don't have the time to be creative.

However, on Friday Clint left for a week long business trip to Paris, so I've been trying to provide some succor to my palate this weekend by going to the Bloomington Farmer's market and imbibing in some good, fresh ingredients. I went with my mother-in-law and 2 year old which is always an adventure. I came away with some gorgeous yellow and orange cherry tomatoes, a bunch of peaches, some purple potatoes (those were for Cece because purple is her signature color) and some green beans.

I went to work on the tomatoes right away, cutting them in half, dousing them with olive oil and sprinkling them with sea salt, oregano and sage. I then let them roast in the oven at 220 for 5 hours or so, cut side up. YUM!

The peaches, I used in two wonderfully sweet recipes that you'll find below.

Peach Pie

Ingredients:

• 6-8 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
  
• juice from 1/2 a lemon, plus its zest
• 2 TBL of maple syrup
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of allspice
• 1/3 C flour
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 1/4 C butter
• Pillsbury Pie Crusts (There is a reason God created Pillsbury)

Directions:

• Slice the peaches over a bowl to catch all the juices
• Add lemon juice and zest
• Add maple syrup
• Let sit while you make the crumb mixture
• Mix the flour and sugar together
• Cut in the cold butter until it becomes crumb-like in texture
• Put one of the pie crusts in the bottom of the pan
• Add 1/2 of the peach mixture
• Top with 1/2 of crumb mixture
• Repeat
• Create a lattice with strips of the other pie crust
• Cover with a light egg wash
• Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (you may want to put the pie pan on a cookie sheet if you have really juicy peaches)
  

Stonefruit Cobbler

Ingredients:

• 2 C pitted and halved Bing cherries
• 4-6 peaches, skinned, sliced and pitted
  
• 1/3 C brown sugar
• dash of pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/3 C orange juice
• 2 Tbl butter (for later)
  

Shortcake:

• 3/4 C flour
• 1/2 TBL Sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 TBL cold Butter
• 1/2 C + 2 TBL of heavy cream

Directions:

• Put peaches, cherries, sugar, juice, vanilla and ginger together in a saucepan and cook until boiling
• Place in a 8x8 pan
• Preheat oven to 425
• Mix together the dry ingredients for the shortcake
• cut in the cold Butter
  
• Make a well in the center and add the milk
• Stir until well combined.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold about 8 times
• Roll out to desired thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter (or juice glass in my case) dipped in flour
• Top the cherry/peach mixture with small bits of butter
• Lay the shortcake rounds on top of the fruit and bake for 30 minutes until golden
  

All Jazzed Up

I like to keep a lot of cheap, yet flexible, ingredients in my dry goods pantry. What I mean by flexible, is that I can use them in a number of different and yummy ways. Here is a list of my favorites:

• Dried Black Beans
• a Variety of Canned Beans
• A Variety of Canned Tomatoes
  
• Jasmine Rice
• Couscous
• Chicken and Beef Stock
• Bread Crumbs
• Cornmeal
• Rolled Oats (not instant)
  
• Aunt Jemima's Whole Wheat Pancake Mix (name brand is the best)
  

The following 3 recipes take a number of my favorite ingredients and jazz them up in some awfully good ways.

Gingerbread Blueberry Muffins

Here, I used the recipe from my whole wheat pancake mix, substituted a gingerbread pancake mix that I got as a gift from my mom for the whole wheat, added some more spices and blueberries and made muffins instead of pancakes or waffles

Ingredients:

• 1C Pancake Mix
• 1/3 C Brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• handful of cinnamon
• dash of cardamom
• dash of ground ginger
• 1 C milk
• 1/3 C vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 + C of Blueberries

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400
• Line muffin tray with paper muffin cups
• mix the dry ingredients together
• Mix the wet ingredients together
• add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just moist
• Spoon mixture into muffin cups
• Top mixture with a dash of cinnamon and sugar
• Cook for 16-18 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean
  

Oven Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Cornbread

* To make the oven dried tomatoes, take a variety of small cherry tomatoes, slice in half , place on a baking sheet with the cut sides up, sprinkle with olive oil, kosher salt, sage and oregano, and bake at 200-220 overnight

Ingredients:

• 1 C Oven Dried Tomatoes*
• 1 C frozen Corn, thawed
• 1/4 C White wine
  
• 1/4 C Goat Cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 C Flour
• 1 C Corn Meal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 C skim milk
• 1/4 C 1/2 and 1/2
  
• 1/4 C vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg
• 1 Stick of Butter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Place butter in a 8 or 9 inch baking dish and place in the oven to melt
  
• Saute onion in olive oil until translucent
• Add corn and white wine, cook on medium heat until wine is absorbed
• Transfer onion and corn mixture to a small bowl, add tomatoes and cool
• When tomato mixture has cooled thoroughly, add crumbled goat cheese
• In a large bowl, add dry ingredients together
• Stir in the wet ingredients until just mixed
• Fold in onion/corn/tomato mixture
• Pour into the melted butter in the pan (top with more goat cheese if you a person after my own heart :))
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean
  

Homemade Granola

This recipe can be a bit sweet. If you want to cut down on the sweetness, just reduce the amount of honey added at the end. Because of the butter, I store this in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C Pecans, chopped
  
• 3/4 C Walnuts, chopped
• 3/4 C Sunflower Seeds
• 3/4 C sliced, blanched Almonds
• 1 C Rolled Oats
• 1/2 C Golden Raisins
  
• 1/2 C Standard Raisins
• 1/2 C Breakfast Cereal like Wheaties, SmartStart, Rice Crispies Etc.
• 1/2 Stick Butter
• 1/4 packed Brown Sugar
• 1/2 C Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 1/4 to 1/2 C Honey
  
• Dash of Cinnamon

Directions:

• Mix nuts together. Place in a single layer on a small cookie sheet and broil in oven until slightly toasted.
• Place in a large bowl and add the remaining dry ingredients
• In a small saucepan, melt butter and sugar until the mixture boils. Stirring constantly, boil for 2 more minutes
• Remove from heat and add in peanut butter
• Pour butter mixture over the nuts and oats. Stir thoroughly to incorporate.
• Drizzle honey over the entire mixture.
• Grease a 8 or 9 inch baking pan
• Add granola to baking pan and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until nice and golden brown
• Cool completely
• Break up granola using a spatula or knife and enjoy!
  

Easy Summer Fare

We had a pretty low-key food weekend but spent a lot of great time with friends and family.

Saturday night we had good friends over, one of whom is a vegetarian. Although she is the easiest vegetarian I've ever known regarding culinary restrictions (e.g. she'll eat an egg cooked in the same pan as bacon) I try to be considerate of her food choices when planning a menu. So, we had pizza. Not only is it an easy meal for a veg-head, but its a crowd pleaser with the toddler. Cece ate her entire pizza!

I whipped up some pizza dough and laid out a variety of ingredients. I use a blend of whole wheat flour and regular all purpose flour in the dough to make it a wee bit healthier than normal. Our friends have a big garden and were kind enough to bring over some tomatoes and peppers, which we sliced up. My friend also brought some of her luscious oven dried cherry tomatoes which were soooo good (I'm hoping a recipe will make a guest appearance on this blog)!

Everyone got to make their own pizzas and Clint popped them on the grill. The result was a nice, crisp pizza with fresh toppings and a hint of smoky flavor. I also put together a tangy vinegar slaw since I happened to have a head of cabbage in the crisper.The slaw held up so well (and made so much) that I took the rest to a cookout at my mother-in-laws the next afternoon. It is a great slaw to take to cookouts or other pitch-ins because there is no dairy in the recipe to make it go bad in the heat.

Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients

• 1 C All Purpose Flour (+ more All purpose flour as is needed to make the dough manageable)
• 3/4 C W. Wheat Flour
• 2 1/4 tsp (or 1 1/4 oz package) quick rising yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 C very warm water
  
• 1 Tbl olive oil
• Handful of chopped fresh rosemary and oregano
• Ground pepper

Directions

• Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, herbs and fresh cracked pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a chopping blade.
• Place the top of the processor on. Start the blade and add the water and oil to the flour through the chute (I have no idea what the technical name of this thing is called) until a soft dough forms.
• Add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, as is necessary to make the dough not overly sticky.
• Remove and shape the dough into a ball
• Place into an oiled bowl, and turn so the oiled surface is on top.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size , about 30 minutes
• Divide the dough to make individual pizzas, or keep intact for 1 really large pizza.
• Roll out on a lightly floured surface, transfer to a baking sheet and pinch up a raised edge
  

Tips and Tricks:

• When cooking pizzas on the grill, cook one side first, remove, flip over, place the toppings on the cooked side, then place the pizza back on the grill and cook until the bottom is nice and crisp. This way your crust will get cooked without burning and your toppings will all melt together nicely.
• If cooking pizzas in the oven, preheat the oven to 500, bake 15-20 minutes until crust is lightly browned.
  
• Don't go crazy with the toppings. An overloaded pizza doesn't cook well.

Apple-Cabbage Slaw
Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized green cabbage, cored and chopped fine
• Salt
• 2-3 Granny Smith Apples (yellow or light green), peeled, cored and cut small
• 2 green onions, sliced thin
• 1/2 C Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 1/3 C Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tbl Dijon Mustard
• heavy dash of red pepper flakes

Directions:

• Toss cabbage with 1 1/2 tsp of salt in a colander set in a bowl. Let set 1 hour
• Rinse cabbage with cold water, drain and dry with paper towels
• Place cabbage in a large bowl with apple and green onions, tossing with your hands to mix
• Bring rest of ingredients to boil in a saucepan.
  
• Pour mixture over the cabbage and toss to coat
• Cover and refrigerate at last 1 hour, but as long as 1 day, before serving
• If refrigerated for 2+ hours, let sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before serving.
  

Pork and Peaches

We ran out of skim milk and Clint's favorite breakfast cereal (Barbara's Puffins--Peanut Butter Flavor) yesterday morning so I figured I should stop by the store and pick up some replacements that afternoon lest there be a panic the next morning.

The closest grocery store to my office is Bloomingfoods on the Near West Side. I have a love affair with that store and wish I could find everything that I need there to run my household and at reasonable prices to boot. But I digress...

Every Tuesday evening during the season there is a small farmers market on the west side of the store. There are only a few vendors but nearly all of them had beautiful looking green beans, tomatoes (FINALLY), peaches and blackberries. Regrettably, I only had 5 dollars cash in hand so I opted for some green beans at $3.00 a bag. I was so entranced by the prospect peaches though that I picked up a few inside the store (where I could use my credit card), along with a sweet onion and some peach nectar, in addition to the real reasons I went to the store (e.g. milk and cereal). I had three boneless pork loin chops waiting for me in the fridge for dinner so I formulated a plan on the fly. Here's what I made:

Boneless pork chops with sweet onion and peach glaze, steamed green beans, couscous with blue cheese crumbles

My go-to recipes for green beans and couscous were included in the post entitled "Make-Up". Look there if you are curious. The only difference between this couscous dish and the pilaf included in the prior post is that I omitted the veggies added blue cheese crumbles to the cooked couscous at the end.

Boneless Pork Chops with Sweet Onion and Peach Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet onion, cut into 8ths
• 3 peaches, peeled and sliced
• 3-4 boneless pork loin chops
• 1/2 C Peach Nectar
• 1/3 C Orange Juice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 dash of hot sauce
• few drops of sesame oil
• Dash of white rum
  
• Handful of Thyme
• pinch of salt
• Handful of fresh ground pepper

Directions:

• Mix the sliced peaches and onions together in a small bowl; set aside
• Mix the Peach Nectar, Orange Joice, Ginger, Rum, Hot Sauce, and Sesame Oil in a small bowl or measure cup and set aside.
  
• Mix the thyme, salt and pepper together in a small bowl
• Pat the pork chops dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle both sides liberally with thyme mixture
• Add 1 Tbl of oil to hot pan. Add pork chops and brown, around 3-4 minutes each side; remove from pan and cover to keep warm
• Add onion and peach mixture to pan, reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until the peaches caramelize
  
• Add peach nectar
• Return pork chops to pan
• Cook until nectar reduces down to a syrupy consistency
• Top pork chops with glaze and serve.
  

Good Ol'Standbys

In response to this blog, a friend of mine asked what cookbooks would I recommend, particularly to someone who maybe doesn't consider herself a good or imaginative cook. I don't have an extensive collection of cookbooks, having culled many of them in a maniacal cleaning effort a few years ago. I only kept the books that I frequently go back to for inspiration and guidance. So, here is my list of good ol'standbys. Not all of them are cookbooks per se, but I find them essential to good, no frills cooking:

1. Williams Sonoma Kitchen Companion: The A to Z Guide to Everyday Cooking Equipment and Ingredients.
This isn't a cook book, but its great cooking reference guide. It provides information from with what temperature means a chicken thigh is safely cooked to how to peel a serve a mango

2. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombaer and Marion Rombaer Becker
This is a veritable tome of recipes. It will tell you everything from how to boil an egg to how to cook a snipe. The one down side is that it doesn't have any pictures.

3. Sara's Secret for Weeknight Meals by Sara Moulton
Great chef with great simple recipes for the busy cook. I love love love the food processor pizza dough and the frittata recipes.

4. Cooks Illustrated Magazine.
The recipes are EXCELLENT and very easy to follow. Their special holiday issues are great. I love the inserts that will compare food or food-related items, like the best store bought pasta sauce, or the hints and tricks for making food preparation faster.

5. Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson
Nigella is a beautiful, British foodie who makes comfort food with a kick.