Cobbler is easy!

I just couldn’t escape peach week without doing a peach cobbler. Before we get into the deliciousness of this cobbler though, let’s do a bit of a recap on Peach Week:

Baked Peaches – Easy and delicious baked breakfast dish.

Summer Peach Salad - Get those veggies in. The dressing in this recipe is fantastic.

Peach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin – The most ambitious peach dish of the week.

Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream – This turned me into a huge buttermilk ice cream fan!

But yea… the week just wouldn’t be the same without a cobbler recipe. It was necessary.

White Chocolate Peach Cobbler

Yield: 9x13 Baking Dish

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

5 pounds fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
2/3 Cup sugar, divided into 1/3s
1/3 Cup brown sugar
1 lemon, zest and juice from half the lemon
2 Teaspoons vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
2 Cups all-purpose flour + 3 Tablespoons flour (for filling)
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
3/4 Cups unsalted butter, cold
2/3 Cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt

White Chocolate Topping:
4 ounces white chocolate
1/2 Cup heavy cream

Directions:

1) Peel peaches by cutting an "X" in the bottom of each peach and dunking them in boiling water for 30 seconds. The skins should then easily peel off. Slice the peaches keeping the slices pretty thick.

2) Mix peaches with sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, cinnamon, and some flour. Let sit for 30 minutes or so.

3) Make topping by mixing together flour, baking powder, the pinch of salt, and sugar. Cut in cold butter with your hands for a fork until there are pea-sized balls of butter throughout. Stir in cream until evenly combined. It should be crumbly.

4) Add peach mixture to the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Top with crumbled topping.

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until topping is lightly brown and peaches are bubbling.

6) Make chocolate topping by melting together the chocolate chips and cream. You can use the microwave (15 sec bursts stirring frequently) or a double boiler over steaming water.

7) Once cobbler is done, drizzle with chocolate sauce.

8) Serve warm or cold!

Prepping the Peach

If you’ve been reading peach week all this week, you’re probably sick of hearing about how to deal with peaches. Let’s make it quick.

Cut an “X” on the bottom.

Dunk them in boiling water for 30 seconds.

The skin slides off like so…

Naked peaches!

Since we’re baking these guys, keep the slices pretty big otherwise you’ll end up with a big dish of peach mush.

Keep the slices pretty big.

Combine the sliced peaches with the 1/3 cup sugar and brown sugar. Stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest along with the vanilla, cinnamon, and a few tablespoons of flour.

Let this sit for about 30 minutes so the peaches have time to release some of their liquid which will make a delicious syrup.

Yummy filling.

The Topping

The topping for this cobbler is really simple. It’s basically like a pie crust with some sugar in it. The nice part is that you don’t have to worry about rolling it out!

Just mix the flour with the baking powder, 1/3 cup of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Then add your cold butter.

Kind of like pie dough, only easier.

Just use your fingers or a fork to mash the butter into the flour mixture until it is in pea-sized pieces. Then stir in your cream. The topping should be clumpy but probably not firm enough to make a real dough out of.

Then just pour all your peaches into a 9×13 baking dish!

Millions of peaches!

Evenly distribute your topping on top of the peaches. There’s no need to cover every inch of the peaches. It gives the cobbler some character to have some peaches showing through.

Topping on top.

Bake this bad boy for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. It’s done with the topping is lightly browned and the peaches are bubbling.

The Topping

Ok. So the white chocolate topping is pretty optional, but I think it’s a fun touch. Peaches and chocolate taste delicious together.

Can't go wrong with chocolate!

Just add the chocolate chips and cream to a bowl and either melt it slowly in the microwave (15 second bursts – stirring in between) or melt it in a double boiler over some simmering water.

Both ways work fine. Once you get the chocolate completely melted, you should have a really smooth chocolate mixture that you can then kind of drizzle over your finished cobbler.

Kind of fun!

If you serve the cobbler right away, the chocolate will be kind of gooey and melty which is delicious.

I equally like it after the cobbler cools though because the chocolate gets crispy then which adds some nice texture to the dish.

Serve this up with a big old spoon. Ice cream is optional, but always a good idea.

I opted to not do ice cream on this particular day.

Big plate of cobbler.

PHEW! Peach week has officially come to a close.

Hopefully you guys liked all the peach dishes. Which was your favorite? Leave a comment!

Easy ice cream.

Peaches and cream! One of the most classic combinations that I can think of. Well, it’s at least a classic R&B song (sound) if nothing else.

When it comes to ice cream, I’m usually a traditionalist. I like really good vanilla ice cream. Just plain with maybe a bit of cinnamon on it. Don’t mess with it too much, ya know?

But for peach week, I had to change it up a bit and my huge box of peaches was practically yelling at me: “CHURN US, DUDE!”

So churn I did. The fun part about this recipe is that there isn’t any custard base so it’s a really simple ice cream recipe. Perfect for the beginner ice cream maker.

Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream

Yield: About 6 cups

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes + freezing time

Ingredients:

2 pounds whole peaches (5-6), peeled and diced
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 Teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon bourbon (opt.)
Pinch of salt
2 Cups heavy cream
1 Cup buttermilk

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Ice Cream Maker

Directions:

1) To peel peaches, cut a "X" on the bottom of each peach and dip them in boiling water for 30 seconds. Let them cool and then the skins should just peel right off.

2) Dice peaches and add them to a bowl with other ingredients except cream and buttermilk. Let macerate for at least 30 minutes, but up to one day.

3) Puree 2 cups of peach mixture and stir in with cream and buttermilk.

4) Churn cream mixture with ice cream maker.

5) Once ice cream is a soft serve consistency, stir in other peach pieces. Mix well.

6) Freeze ice cream, stirring every 30 minutes to break up ice crystals and make sure ice cream is freezing slowly. After stirring a few times, you can let it freeze solid.

Adapted from a Homesick Texan Recipe.

Dealing with Peaches

We’ve dealt with a lot of peaches this week and we aren’t done yet. What’s always fun about doing a week of recipes around one ingredient is that I completely learn that ingredient by the end of the week. I know its oddities and flavor profiles.

As far as peaches go, I can peel them, dice them, pit them, and pair them without any problem these days. Besides the fresh peaches, this recipe has some other great flavors going on as well.

No eggs needed!

When it comes to peeling peaches, the easiest way to do it is to cut an “X” on the bottom of each peach and then dunk them in boiling water for 30 seconds. When you pull the peaches out and let them cool off, you should be able to just rub off the skin. They literally just slide right off.

Pretty cool stuff.

Easy peeling.

Last minute I decided to put some bourbon in this ice cream because, hey, why not right?

Don't forget the bourbon!

Once your peaches are peeled, just cut off as much flesh as you can and dice up the peaches. Then add the peaches to a bowl with the bourbon, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Let the peaches sit and macerate in this liquid for at least 30 minutes, but you could make this part of the recipe hours before you want ice cream.

Churning the Cream

If you’ve ever made ice cream before, you’ll know that it usually involves making a custard with eggs and milk. This recipe has none of that business. It’s just cream, buttermilk, and our peaches. I was worried that the consistency would be a bit off, but it was completely fine. Maybe not quite as smooth as a custard based ice cream, but I liked it all the same.

Other stuff you'll need...

Take about two cups of your peach mixture and add it to food processor. Process it until it’s a puree. You don’t want any chunks at all at this point. You’re going for a really nice puree.

For the mix.

Stir this puree in with the cream and buttermilk and get it all churning in your ice cream maker. Personally, I’ve used the Kitchenaid attachment a few times now with pretty solid results.

Follow the instructions for your ice cream maker to make sure you let it churn long enough. Mine needed to churn for about 20 minutes before it was set up enough.

KItchen aid mixer works okay!

Finishing the Ice Cream

Once your ice cream base is a nice soft serve consistency, pour it into a large dish and stir in the other peaches and all the liquid.

This is when this recipe gets awesome!

The mix-ins!

To be honest, I thought this recipe tasted the best as a soft serve ice cream. It was perfect like this if you ask me.

But, assuming you aren’t a weirdo, you’ll want to freeze your ice cream solid. While it’s not completely necessary, I recommend taking the ice cream out of the freezer ever thirty minutes and giving it a good stir. This will just make sure that you don’t have any huge ice crystals in your ice cream. Stirring it up will help it freeze slowly and your final ice cream will have a better consistency.

After you stir it two or three times then you can just let it freeze solid.

Stirring is important.

This recipe makes a lot of ice cream, but that definitely wasn’t a problem for me.

I eat it three scoops at a time.

Good lookin' dessert.

This is the perfect ice cream for someone who wants to start making their own. There’s no custard to make or anything too tricky about it. Just mix some stuff together, churn it up, and you’ll be well-rewarded.

Has anyone tried buttermilk ice cream before? I thought it was really good!

Well look at that!

Ok people. It’s time to get serious for peach week. We’re done with making baked peaches and peach salads. It’s time to kick it up a notch.

Or twelve.

This recipe features a trifecta of flavors that go really well with peaches: pork, maple syrup, and bourbon. All of them are slam-smashed into one thing, rolled up, and grilled.

This might shock you, but it was really tasty.

Peach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 3-pound pork tenderloin or 2 1.5 lb tenderloins
1 ripe peach, diced
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons bourbon
2 Tablespoons chicken stock
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
2 Cups breadcrumbs (approx.)
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Meat Tenderizer
Kitchen Twine
Meat Thermometer

Directions:

1) If you're making your own bread crumbs, toast bread in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes until very dry. Then crumble.

2) Stir other filling ingredients together and set aside until needed.

3) Slice tenderloin down the center (but not all the way through), then use a sharp knife to carve it open until it lays flat. Once it's mostly flat, cover it with plastic wrap and pound it out to an even thickness.

4) Add filling to tenderloin in a small layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Leave about 1/2 inch of room around the outside of the tenderloin.

5) Roll the tenderloin up and secure it with kitchen twine.

6) Grill the tenderloin over medium-high heat until it registers 135-140 degrees in the center. This should be around 16 minutes total. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature occasionally.

7) Cover the tenderloin with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.

8) Slice up the tenderloin into 1/2 inch coins and serve!

The Filling

When it comes to stuffing something like a pork tenderloin, you don’t have a lot of room, so you want to make sure to maximize the flavors in the small amount of stuffing that you’ll be using.

So I grabbed some of the most flavorful stuff I could think of.

Goood flavors here...

Besides those flavors, you need a good absorbant base for the stuffing. You could use store-bought breadcrumbs but I like to make my own so they have some texture to them and aren’t all the same size.

Just roast 5-6 slices of your favorite bread in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Then let the bread cool down and should be able to pretty much crumble it with your hands.

Use any bread you want!

Stir all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl and you’re all set!

I wish mine would’ve been a tiny bit dryer (I adjusted the recipe from what I used). Since the pork tenderloins cook relatively quickly, the stuffing won’t have time to really absorb or lose much moisture. So what you put in is pretty much the texture that you’re going to get.

I wish mine would’ve been just a tad bit dryer.

A bit too mushy...

The Tenderloin

This looks like an intimidating dish, but it’s 100% doable. The key part is to not rush cutting open the tenderloin and having a nice sharp knife. To start, slice the tenderloin down the center, being careful not to cut all the way through it.

Then carefully run your knife along the bottom of one side of the tenderloin. You kind of want to unroll it if that makes sense. Here’s one of my sides after being “unrolled.”

A steady hand helps...

Do that to the other side as well again being careful not to cut through the tenderloin. Then put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the tenderloin and lightly pound it out with a mallet. This just makes sure that it’s a nice even thickness. There’s no need to bash the thing to pieces. Light strokes will get the job done.

No need to bash it in.

Now it’s time to fill it! Depending on the size of your tenderloin, you’ll need different amounts of filling, but basically you want a nice even layer all over the whole tenderloin. Try to make sure that it’s not too thick in any one part and leave about a 1/2 inch around the outside of the tenderloin. Sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper also before rolling it up.

Basically, just make it look like this:

Not too thick...

Then, starting with the end closest to you, just roll it up! Try to make it as tight as possible without ripping the outside layer of tenderloin.

My first one had a small rip in it which will happen sometimes because, well, it’s not everyday I stuff a tenderloin.

One tiny rip there...

No worries though if yours has a small rip. It should still cook up just fine.

Tying the Tenderloins

Unfortunately, these tenderloins will NOT keep their shape on their own (although they will after they are cooked). So you’re going to need to tie them with some kitchen twine to get them to stay in the right shape. It’s always a good idea to tie stuff like this just to make sure everything stays in place.

Just cut off a big piece of twine and wrap it around each tenderloin a few times, criss-crossing it as you go. No need to do anything fancy with it. We’re going for function over fashion here.

A very important step...

Grilling the Tenderloins

You could definitely roast these guys, but I prefer the hot heat of the grill. Just heat your grill up to medium-high heat and then toss on your tenderloins. Tenderloins cook pretty quickly, but this will take a bit longer than your average tenderloin due to the stuffing.

Mine took right around 16 minutes to get to the right internal temperature (135-140 degrees). In reality though, for something like this the only way to really know if your tenderloin is done is to use a meat thermometer, which I highly recommend.

Smells good already.

When the tenderloin comes off the grill, wrap them up with foil and let them rest for about 10 minutes. They’ll continue to cook in the foil and the temperature will rise another few degrees.

Done deal!

Once the tenderloin is rested, you can cut off the twine and slice it up! I like to shoot for about 1/2 inch coins of the tenderloin.

Assuming you don’t overcook the tenderloin, there’s no sauce needed for these guys. They are really moist and flavorful.

Really tasty!

There’s a few tricky parts about this recipe (wrapping the tenderloin, not overcooking it, etc), but if I can do it anybody can do it.

Just remember to give yourself plenty of time so you aren’t rushed and maybe have a swig or two of that bourbon to calm the old nerves.

Then you can cook up a storm!

Doesn't get fresher than this!

This is what I refer to as a Flavor Bible salad which is something that happens frequently at the Macheesmo household. Usually, it means that I have one ingredient that I want to throw in a salad… say… peaches. I flip open my Flavor Bible to the peach section and pick four or five other things that go with it.

Toss them in a bowl with some dressing and it’s almost guaranteed to be delicious.

To kick this salad up a notch, I also passed on the store bought dressings and shook up some homemade lemon-tarragon dressing.

Summer Peach Salad

Yield: Serves 4 as an app.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large peach, pitted and diced
1/4 red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cucumber, seeded and sliced thin
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
Arugula or a mix of greens
Handful of fresh basil

Lemon-Tarragon Dressing:
1/3 Cup oil (I like a mix of light olive oil and canola oil)
1 lemon, juice only
1/4 Cup tarragon vinegar
1 small shallot, diced
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
1 Teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1) Take your time dicing up the veggies. Slice the red onions thinly, Seed the cucumber and slice it thin. Pit the peach and roughly chop it.

2) Add greens to a large bowl and add crumbled feta. Then top with veggies and peaches. Dice basil and add to top of salad.

3) Whisk or shake dressing ingredients together.

4) Let people dress their own salad.

The Veggies

The veggies for this salad are nothing exotic, but all the flavors work really well together. So just go with it.

Salad Basics.

The hardest thing to dice up is actually the peach. I’ve seen people absolutely mutilate peaches when trying to get the pit out. Assuming you are working with a ripe peach, it’s a fairly straightforward operation though.

Start by finding the small crease in the top of the peach next to where the peach was connected to the tree. This crease shows you the direction that the pit is facing. If you don’t cut along the crease you’ll have a hard time getting the pit out.

Just follow the crease and run your knife all around the peach.

There's a science to the peach.

Then just as if you were cutting an avocado, lightly twist the two peach halves and they should easily pop apart. Once half will be ready to dice up and one half will have the pesky pit in it still.

Perfect!

You could use your knife to pry the pit out of the peach half, but honestly, I find it easiest just to grab the edge of it where it meets the peach skin and lightly pry it out of the peach. If your peach is ripe, it should pop right out!

Then you can just dice up the peaches. For this recipe, I recommend leaving the skin on so don’t worry about peeling them.

For the onions and cucumbers, just slice them up pretty thinly.

Big pieces are good.

Add all the veggies and peaches to a large bowl with the crumbled feta and greens.

This is a very colorful and pretty salad.

Almost done...

As a final touch, chop up some fresh basil and sprinkle it on top of the salad. Don’t skimp on the basil either. It’s an awesome flavor when paired with the peaches.

Don't skimp on the basil!

The Dressing

I originally just wanted to make a lemon dressing for this salad, but it wasn’t quite flavorful enough for my liking so I added some tarragon vinegar to kick it up a notch.

Store bought dressing sucks.

If you’re a longtime Macheesmo reader, you might remember that tarragon vinegar is my secret ingredient in my house salad dressing!

This stuff is really flavorful and perfect for salad dressings.

Secret salad dressing ingredient!

When serving this salad up just make sure to get a bit of everything in each bowl and I recommend letting people dress their own salads.

Delicious.

For a salad with only a few ingredients, it has a lot of flavor and you can really taste summer in it. The peaches are obviously the star, but they have a pretty awesome supporting cast also.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a main course for peach week. There will be pork involved. And bourbon.

Oh I'll take that!

This week is an entire week of peaches here at Macheesmo! How excited are you?

If you don’t like peaches, probably not very excited.

But seriously, who doesn’t like peaches? I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t at least think they are okay. A perfectly ripe peach, in my mind, is a lot like a ripe tomato. They suck when they are out of season, but when they are in season, they’re one of the best things out there. I try to eat my weight in them every year and usually get pretty close.

This is a simple dish, but one that’s guaranteed to please. Stick half a peach in a ramekin with some oatmeal, cream, and spices. Then bake it with brown sugar on top. What’s not to love?

Baked Peaches

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ripe peaches, halved with pits removed
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 Cup cream
1 Cup milk
2 large eggs
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/4 Cup dates, chopped (optional)
Pinch of Salt
Sprinkle of brown sugar
Butter (for baking dish)

Helpful Equipment:

Individual ramekins (although you can also bake the whole thing in a large casserole dish)

Directions:

1) Mix oats, milk, cream, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in chopped dates or raisins.

2) Let oat mixture sit for at least 20 minutes to absorb the liquid.

3) Cut peaches in half and remove pits.

4) Butter ramekins or baking dish well.

5) Spoon about 2/3 cup of oats mixture into each ramekin. Push a peach half in the center and sprinkle with brown sugar.

6) Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees for ramekins. You'll probably have to add on 15 minutes if you're using a large baking dish.

7) Let cool for a minute before serving.

Prepping the Oatmeal

You can just stick a peach in the oven and bake it for a few minutes if you want. Then eat it with a spoon. It’ll be delicious. This is just a bit of an elaborate version of that.

The oatmeal base for each ramekin is loosely based on my baked oatmeal recipe which, if you didn’t know, is freakin’ delicious.

All the basics.

Start by mixing in the oats with the milk, cream, eggs, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.

If you’re an observant reader, ignore the portions in the below photo (1 egg). I halved the recipe because I didn’t need four servings of this.

The base of the thing.

I had some dried dates on hand so I threw those into the oatmeal also. They are completely optional and you could also use raisins or something. They just absorb some of the liquid and give the oatmeal some texture.

If you do use them, dice them up pretty small.

Tasty things.

Add the dates (or raisins) to the oat mixture and stir it together well. Let this sit for about 20-30 minutes. You could even make it the night before if you wanted to. You just want to make sure that the oats have some time to absorb some of the liquid and flavor.

All mixed up!

Peachy.

When it comes to halving a peach, I usually just run a knife around the pit of the peach. Then lightly twist the peach and half of it should pop off, leaving the pit in the other half of the peach. If you have a super-ripe peach, this might not work though and you’ll have to kind of dig around with a knife to get the pit out.

If you have to cut the pit out that’s okay too. There’s no reason why these halves have to look perfect.

Expert pit removal.

Prepping the Ramekins

Whether you’re using ramekins or a large casserole dish for baking these guys, make sure to butter the dish really well. If you don’t lube them up well, the oatmeal will stick to them really badly.

Then add about 2/3 cup of oat mixture to each ramekin and push a peach half right down in the center. Then sprinkle it with brown sugar and it’s ready for the oven!

Ready to bake!

Baking this Peach

If you’re using ramekins, bake these guys at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. If you poured everything into one dish, then you’ll need to add probably 15 minutes onto the cooking time. The oatmeal should be pretty set.

After these cool for a bit, you can serve them up! The oatmeal is really rich and the fruit flavor in the peach cuts through some of the sweetness. It’s a pretty awesome combo!

CHOMP.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I just kicked off Peach Week with a real winner of a recipe.

These were just out of this world and not too hard to make! In fact, you could prep the whole thing in advance and then just toss them in the oven. Done deal.

Do your taste buds a flavor-favor and try this out.

PS. Flavor-Favor would be a cool name for a food blog…

I can do romantic sometimes!

Betsy and I had a whirlwind month over the last four or fives weeks. We were both out of town a lot, but not traveling together. When we are in town together, we’ve both had really busy work schedules.

So it kind of felt like we were two ships passing in the night.

We decided to right the problem a few weeks ago by having a dedicated date night. No movies or dinner out though because that’s exactly what we had been doing too much of over the last few weeks. So we stayed at home, came up with a fun menu together, and just relaxed.

I thought I’d share some of the stuff we ate on our very fun date night!

It Was Betsy’s Idea

Betsy came up with a great idea for a date night menu. Instead of having one big meal, she wanted to have a bunch of smaller plates. Kind of like tapas I guess, but mostly appetizers that we could just kind of snack on all night long.

This sounded like a great idea to me! We went to a few stores together during the day and shopped for fun snacks that we would eat later in the night. Betsy never goes grocery shopping with me so it was a nice change to shop together.

For kind of a starter dish to our meal of starters, I set out some olives, roasted, marinated garlic cloves, a wedge of soft truffle cheese (Betsy loves truffles), and some crackers.

Basic starters

I also prepped one of my favorite appetizers: Radishes and butter.

It might sound strange, but it’s really good. Make sure to use a really good European style salted butter. It’s an awesome dish.

Simple but good.

The Mosto Cotto

One of the fun things you can do if you want to plan a night like this is pull out special foods that you might have from trips. We pulled out a small bottle of this stuff called “Mosto cotto” from our honeymoon to Italy.

From what I could tell, to make this stuff they just take a bunch of Sangiovese wine and slowly simmer it down for about 18 hours. The result is a thin syrup that’s sweet and tangy at the same time.

Hard to find... sorry.

You could pour this stuff on your shoe and eat it, but it’s really tasty on cheese.

I cubed up some romano cheese and drizzled the mosto cotto over the top. Tasted just like it did in Italy!

One of my favorite things!

The Crostini

The most substantial parts of our date night meal was a bunch of different crostini that I made. I pretty much took most of these ideas from the most recent Bon Appétit issue which gave six or seven really great crostini ideas.

One of the most important parts of making good crostini is to make sure the bread is cooked well.

Ideally, you want a very crusty exterior and a soft interior. The best way to do this, that I’ve found, is actually on the grill.

Just get your grill super-hot, rub the grates with some olive oil, and toss on the sliced bread. Any baguette will work great for this.

Important!

I made three different kinds of crostini. The nice thing about these is that they all took just a few minutes to prepare once the bread was ready.

The first was a Mexican inspired crostini with Mexican crema (basically sour cream except a bit lighter), grilled corn, and fresh cilantro.

The second one was a standard caprese style crostini with mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes.

Light and tasty!

The most ambitious one that I made had fresh ricotta cheese, ripe peaches, prosciutto, and honey.

It was pretty amazing.

Set all these plates out with some fresh cherries and a big bottle of red wine and date night is served!

Quite the spread!

I was worried that I wouldn’t be full after this, but it worked out fine. The crostini were all pretty filling and since we had been snacking all afternoon on cheese and olives and stuff, it was the perfect amount of food.

The nicest thing about doing a date night like this is that all of the dishes were really quick to make (and clean up). I wasn’t toiling away in the kitchen for hours or anything.

Hopefully, this gave you all some ideas that you can use for a date night or just as a fun appetizer for a party or something!

One of my favorite photos!

I was really itchin’ for a grilled cheese over the weekend but after my last sort of failed grilled cheese, I needed inspiration from others. So I sent out a Tweet and figured I’d get some delicious ideas from the Tweople. I got some really great suggestions!

Here’s a few of the suggested ideas:

• @christianrock28 a caprese salad grilled cheese. Like tomatoes mozzarella cheese and basil. -Anita
• @vanillakitchen love it w corn relish in middle
• @rosscott Smoothie! (I thought and thought about it but couldn’t master the physics of it…)
• @onmaggiesfarm maybe something sweet? like challah with ricotta or chevre honey and sliced peaches.

The peach theme was close, but at the end of the day, the winner was:

• @floridagirlindc ooh yeah- grill w peaches, arugula & gruyere!

I wanted it immediately.

Peach Grilled Cheese

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

4 slices of rustic bread (I used a sourdough loaf)
2 very ripe peaches, peeled and sliced
4-6 ounces Gruyere cheese, sliced
Handful of arugula
Butter

Directions:

1) Peel and slice your peaches, slice the cheese, slice and lightly butter the bread.

2) Using a large skillet or non-stick pan, add a slice of bread, buttered side down for each sandwich. Put a layer of peaches and cheese on each slice. Top with arugula and the top piece of bread, buttered side up.

3) Cook over medium to medium-low heat, occasionally flipping until the bread is browned and the cheese is really melted. Gooey melted. Keep an eye on it to make sure the bread doesn't burn. This will probably take 8-10 minutes.

4) Serve immediately.

The Ingredients

The flavors in this sandwich are kind of out of this world. There are only three ingredients, but they go perfectly together.

Accidental Face!

You’ll also want some really sturdy bread for this sandwich. Wonder bread will not do the trick. Hunt out a good rustic loaf of bread or use some no knead bread if you have some. I found a really nice loaf of sourdough from my local farmer’s market (also got the peaches from there).

Wonder bread is a no-no here people.

Peeling the peaches

Peaches can be kind of tricky to peel because they’re a bit slippery. There are two techniques for this.

First, you can brave them with a good veggie peeler or a paring knife. This is what I did and it works okay. You just need a steady hand.

Second, you can dunk the guys in boiling water for a few seconds and then run them under cold water. The fuzzy peel should slide right off. Of course, for this technique you have to boil some water which adds on to your time.

Either method will work though.

In any event, get all your ingredients ready before you start making the sandwich. That means slice the peaches, slice the cheese, and lightly butter one side of every slice of bread.

All ready to go!

Cooking the Sandwich

You can cook a grilled cheese in almost anything (or even on a grill). I’ve done it in a normal skillet, a cast iron skillet, and a non-stick pan. I used a large non-stick pan for this sandwich.

The key, in my opinion, to a good grilled cheese sandwich is to use medium to medium-low heat. If you crank up the heat too high, then the bread will be completely burned before the cheese is melted. A low heat allows time for the heat to transfer through the bread and melt the cheese.

I started by putting my pan over medium heat and then added two slices of bread, the peaches, and then the cheese.

Just kind of layer it so it looks nice and even.

Not really rocket science.

Then add a handful of arugula and the top piece of bread, butter side up.

Keep a close eye on your sandwich. Baby it. It’s probably the most important thing you’ll cook all day.

After a few minutes, give the sandwich a flip with a big spatula. The sandwich will be sturdier as the cheese melts, but this first flip might be a little tricky. You might need to use your extra hand to hold the sandwich together as you flip it.

If things slide around a bit, you can fix it after the flip.

I flipped out.

These sandwiches will probably take anywhere from 8-10 minutes to cook. Again, don’t get in a hurry. If you’re bread is browning too much on one side, flip it over to give that side a rest and turn down the heat a bit.

As with any grilled cheese, the sandwich is done when the cheese is gooey!

Eat this as soon as possible!

No big deal. I just rule.

As with any sandwich grilled cheese I make, I need to rate this bad boy.

Cheesiness: 9. Melted Gruyere is one of my favorite cheeses. Sure it’s a bit expensive, but it’s really delicious and melts perfectly.
Bread: 9. Sourdough is a great grilled cheese bread. It easily held up to the fillings and browned nicely.
Fillings: 9. Perfect. Summer. Fillings.
Overall: 9. This was one of the best grilled cheeses I’ve made. As good if not slightly better than the Brie and Pesto Sandwich.

If you can get your hands on some good peaches, this is a solid use for them!

A pie in the hand...

I was pumped when I randomly selected peaches last week. They are in prime season right now so I knew I’d be able to find some good ones and make something delicious.

I’ve been pretty busy lately and while I wanted to make a peach pie, I also wanted to have something I could eat on the go! I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried to eat peach pie (or any pie) when walking around, but trust me. It doesn’t end well.

These awesome little hand pies, almost like empanadas, gave me my peach fill and kept me moving!

Portable Peach Pies

Yield: Makes about 10 pies.

Prep Time: 45 minutes + freezing time

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Pie Dough: (I adapted a Smitten Kitchen recipe for Galette pastry. I subbed Greek yogurt for the sour cream.)
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Teaspoons salt
16 Tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cubed
1/2 Cup Greek yogurt
4 Teaspoons fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1/2 Cup iced water

Filling:
10 medium peaches, about 2 pounds
1/2 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon fresh mint, chopped (optional)
1 Tablespoon bourbon (optional)

Egg Wash:
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon water

Raw sugar for topping the pie(s)

Directions:

1) To make the dough, add the dry dough ingredients to a large bowl and mix them up. Cube your butter and cool it off in the freezer for a few minutes. Then add your butter to the bowl and cut it into the dry ingredients, using your fingers, a food processor, or a pastry cutter.

2) Once your butter is in pea-sized pieces, add your liquids and stir the dough together until it forms a loose ball. Then turn it out onto the counter and form two even balls with the dough. Wrap the dough balls in plastic wrap and store them for at least an hour in the fridge. You could make these a few days in advance without a problem.

3) For the filling, peel your peaches with either a veggie peeler or dip them in boiling water for a few seconds. The skins should just peel off. Then chop your peaches up into small cubes, add your other filling ingredients, and drain the filling in a colander or strainer for 10 minutes.

4) After your dough is chilled, pull out a ball and roll it out into a 12-14 inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Use a 6 inch bowl to trace perfect rounds in the dough and then cut them out. You should be able to get 6 or 7 smaller rounds for each dough ball. You'll have to re-roll it once.

5) Stick your rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to re-chill the butter.

6) To Make the Pies: Take out each round and put about 2 Tablespoons of filling in the center. Brush around the edges of the round with egg wash and gently fold the dough over forming a semi-circle. Press out as much air as possible and use a fork to seal the edges around the pie.

7) Brush each pie with egg wash and sprinkle on raw sugar. The sugar is optional.

8) Using a sharp paring knife, cut a few slits in the top of each pie to let steam escape.

9) When all the pies are formed, put them back in the freezer for an hour at least to freeze.

10) Bake the pies on parchment paper (you can use the same pan you used to freeze them) in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes until they are golden brown.

11) Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Making the Dough

This was a really excellent dough. As with most pie doughs, the key is to keep everything as cold as possible through the process.

Yep. Yogurt.

Start by mixing your dry ingredients (flour and salt) in a large bowl. Add your cubed cold butter (put it in the freezer for a few minutes even). Using your fingers, a food processor, or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into pea-sized balls.

I actually like using my fingers for this normally. Work quickly! You don’t want your butter to get too warm.

The butter should be a bit smaller pieces than the butter in this photo.

A bit smaller than this...

Once your butter is cut in, add your liquid and stir it together with a fork until the dough just comes together. Don’t overwork it!

Turn the dough out onto a counter top and form two even balls of dough. Wrap these in plastic and stick them in your fridge for at least an hour. You could make these the day before though and that would be even better!

Ready for the chill box.

Making the Filling

I kept my version of the filling very standard. Just peaches. You could add a bit of mint or even, gasp!, bourbon to it to spice it up a bit.

Start with nice fresh peaches!

Millions (6) of peaches!

There are two generally accepted ways to peel peaches. Take your pick. First, you can just peel them with a normal peeler. I find that this is the fastest way if you’re peeling under a dozen or so.

If you’re doing a lot of peach peeling though, you can also dunk them in boiling water for a few seconds and then the skins just slide right off the peaches!

Whatever method you choose, peel them and then chop them up into cubes and add your other filling ingredients.

Important

Drain your peach filling in a colander or strainer for at least 10 minutes before using it.

You might think that it’s a travesty to lose those peach juices, but trust me, there’s plenty of residual juice in the peaches. All of that extra juice would just make your pies very runny and soggy.

Draining the filling is very important.

Making the Pies

Once you’re ready to make the pies, grab one of your dough balls out of the fridge and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Roll it out gently and slowly until you have a large disc. You should be able to work out a 12 or 14 inch wide disc of dough.

Using a bowl or other round shape, trace out 6 inch rounds on the dough. You should be able to get 6 or 7 rounds out of one dough ball. I got six by pressing out four on my first roll, then re-rolling the scraps and pressing out two more.

Use a bowl for perfect circles.

Chilling the Rounds

This might sound crazy, but after rolling the dough and cutting the dough and everything, your dough will be room temperature. You want to keep it cold. So put all your small circular rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and stick it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This will chill it down again.

Making the Pies

Finally! Time to make some pies. Take your rounds out of the ice box and add about 2 Tablespoons filling in the center of one. You want to make sure to leave yourself plenty of room to close the pie up. This is just about perfect.

Don't over-stuff these guys!

To finish off each pie

Brush the edges around the circle with a bit of egg wash and fold it over into a half-circle. Try to squeeze out as much air as you can. Next, use a fork to seal around the edges of the pie.

Then brush the top of the hand pie with more egg wash and sprinkle on some raw sugar if you have some. Also, cut a few slits in the top with a sharp knife.

Kind of a lot of work, but look at this beauty!

Ready for the oven!

Back to the chiller!

I know. Lots of chilling involved here. But the problem now is that your filling is room temperature. If you put this in the oven now, your filling will be boiling by the time your crust is cooked. In other words, your pie will explode.

Exploding pies are fun if you’re Gallagher, but not after you just spent all that time rolling and cutting and filling and pressing…

So put your pies in the freezer on the same baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about an hour. This should basically freeze them solid.

Baking the Pies

Finally! Bake them in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes. You can bake them on the same sheet you froze them on.

They should be a nice golden brown color.

Flaky and delicious!

Want to eat it now?

Can’t. Sorry. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack. Trust me. That filling is really hot and it’ll burn your mouth.

Plus you want to give a chance for some of the sugars in the filling to set-up which means when you bite into the pie, everything will stay in place.

Like this:

Damn near perfect.

These were awesome. I remember buying the little apple, cherry, or peach pies at the gas station as a kid and these are kind of like those, but about 100 times better.

Do they take some time and patience? Yes. I won’t lie to ya. But the results are pretty delicious.

And if you’re really worried about it, you can of course just bake an entire pie. It’ll cut out some of the steps and the final result will still be pretty delicious.

But if you’re feeling ambitious, make some hand pies! You can eat them on your way to work and impress your fellow commuters.

I confirmed a few things last Saturday night:

1) Never, ever start a land war in Asia. You will LOSE THE GAME.

2) Sangria is really good. Especially white sangria in the summer.

3) The sangria recipe below is not intended for two people unless you don’t mind being bedridden the next day.

Here's to a good night!

The thing I don’t like about some white sangrias is that they end up being really sweet. If you look up other recipes, a fair number of them have simple syrup in them which I don’t really like to add to mine. I think it makes it too sweet and less boozy and who wants that?

So let’s make some the real way.

White Sangria

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bottle white wine. I used a pinot grigio.
1/2 Cup Citron vodka
1/2 Cup Peach brandy
1 peach, peeled, diced
1 apple, peeled, diced
2 plums, diced (skin is cool)
Handful of grapes, halved
1/4 Cup orange juice
Sparkling water (club soda)

Directions:

1) Peel the peach and apple.

2) Chop fruit into about 1/4 inch cubes.

3) Mix peach brandy and citron vodka together. If you want your fruit to be really tasty though, mix your vodka and peach brandy with your fruit and let that sit for about 30 minutes. You could let it sit for an hour or two though without a problem.

4) Mix fruit mixture, white wine, and orange juice in a large pitcher.

5) In each glass add a few ice cubes, pour in some of sangria mixture and then top with a splash of club soda or sparkling water.

Prepping the fruit

There’s a lot of fruit in this recipe. I like to pretend that I’m being healthy while getting drunk. I think you should do the same.

Healthy!

I peeled the peach and apple just because the skin on those can be kind of cumbersome. I got a bit lucky with my apple peelings. I couldn’t replicate this if you paid me:

First try.

For this recipe, chop your fruit into about 1/4 inch cubes. For the record, you don’t need to use all the fruit I used. I just really like to eat the fruit when it is all booze filled. Call me crazy but I find it delicious.

If you do you all the fruit that I did, you’ll end up with a bowl like this.

Fruit.

So some sangria recipes call for simple syrup which is basically sugar and water. For this recipe I substituted that for peach brandy which is sweet enough but has peach flavor and alcohol. Basically it’s an all around win.

Instead of adding lemon or lime juice, I added some citron vodka which gives the sangria a necessary bite.

Fruit next to booze.

Now it would be fine to mix all these things together and let them mingle for an hour or two. If you want your fruit to be really tasty though, mix your vodka and peach brandy with your fruit and let that sit for about 30 minutes. You could let it sit for an hour or two though without a problem.

Fruit in the booze.

After that, basically just mix your fruit mixture, your white wine, and orange juice in a large picture.

In each glass add a few ice cubes, pour in some of your sangria mixture and then top with a splash of club soda or sparkling water.

Whatever you do, don’t drink this (and eat all the fruit) between two people. It’s seriously a bad idea.

Hangover in a pitcher.

In all reality though, this is an amazing sangria recipe. I highly recommend it.

Feel free to substitute liberally for fruit additions and white wine varieties.

If you have some good suggestions, leave a comment!

For this peach salad you can grill the peaches or saute them slightly if you were so inclined, but honestly, I like mine ripe and fresh. This salad only has a few ingredients, but let’s face it, some of the best salads only focus on a few key ingredients. This one is no exception.

This my friends, is a good salad.

If I’m left on my own, I always cook chicken with the skin on. I buy it like that and I cook it like that. I’m willing to eat a few more calories for the incredible amount of flavor it brings. If I were cooking this for Betsy though, I would do hers without skin because that’s what she likes. Personal preference really, but we know who is right about this. :)

Fresh Peach Salad

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ripe peaches, cored and cut into 1/8 sections
2 chicken breasted
Baby greens, spinach, or arugula
4 ounces goat cheese
1/2 Cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped

Molasses Vinaigrette:
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Teaspoon molasses
1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon shallot, minced
1 lemon, juice only
1/3-1/2 Cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients or shake them together in a jar.

2) Cook the chicken by liberally seasoning two chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in an oven safe pan. Once the oil is hot, set the chicken in the pan, skin side down. Let that cook for about 7 minutes and then flip it. Cook for 7 more minutes and then transfer to an oven to finish cooking at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

3) Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes and then slice it up!

4) Toast the pecans by setting them in a dry pan until they are warm and fragrant.

5) Wash and dry the greens if they aren’t pre-washed.

6) Add a few handfuls of greens along with cheese to a large bowl. Pour a few tablespoons of dressing in the bowl and tossed everything for a bit until all the greens were well coated.

7) Sprinkle on the pecans, lay down your sliced peaches and chicken.

Adapted from Cooking Light.

The dressing in this salad is awesome. To quote my coworker, “I could drink the stuff.”

An interesting dressing.

Making the Vinaigrette

Please note the empty mustard jar above. I keep one or two of these on hand just for making dressing. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I actually purchased a salad dressing. Also, I’ll be honest, I never measure ingredients when it comes to making a vinaigrette. If you have a small jar like this, you don’t need to know measurements. It’s all about proportions!

These were my basic proportions for this recipe which I roughly translated into amounts for the above recipe:

Get it?

Cooking the chicken

You could cook the chicken any way you like really. I chose to pan sear it and finish it in the oven. If you were being really healthy, you could even poach it.

I liberally seasoned two chicken breasts with salt and pepper and then heated 2 Tablespoons of oil in an oven safe pan. Once the oil is hot, set the chicken in the pan, skin side down. Let that cook for about 7 minutes and then flip it. Cook for 7 more minutes and then transfer to an oven to finish cooking at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

My chicken breasts were very thick so I cooked them for an extra 5 minutes just to make sure they were cooked through. Let them rest for 5 minutes and then slice them up!

Simple stuff.

Other stuff

If you are toasting your pecans you can do that while your chicken is in the oven. You can just set them in a dry pan until they are warm and toasty. You’ll be able to smell when they are done. Don’t burn them though!

I guess optional.

Prepping the greens

Wash and dry your greens if they aren’t pre-washed. For this salad, I chose the “bowl method” for dressing. This means that I added a few handfuls of greens along with my cheese to a large bowl. Then I poured a few Tablespoons of dressing in the bowl and tossed everything for a bit until all the greens were well coated.

This is a great way to dress salads because it makes it basically impossible to overdress a salad. The extra dressing, if there is any, will be left in the bowl after you remove your greens with tongs!

The bowl method.

Then just sprinkle on your pecans, lay down your sliced peaches and chicken and go to town!

Just peachy.

I ate this salad for two meals in a row: dinner and lunch the next day. Honestly, I could have eaten it for ten meals in a row I think. It was that good. And when I finished it, I just felt… healthy.

Peach salad. Give it a shot.