Picking Peaches

Summer just isn't summer unless there's peach pie. But for the first time in my life, I actually got to pick the peaches that went into my annual summer fling. For some of you reading this, that may not seem like such a big deal because, well, picking fruit at various farms and orchards has been something you've done growing up, or that you've recently done with your kids. I've noticed that it seems to be the thing to do with your kids ever since I moved to Virginia. That, and picking strawberries, which I fully intend to do sometime.

Well, I've picked my fair share of apples from an old apple tree that grew in our big backyard of the house I grew up in. Mostly it was apples that had fallen to the ground already because the tree was so tall, but my family and I still ate them so it's as close to the real thing as you can get.

So my first time picking peaches was also Claire's first time as well, although she probably won't remember it much since she's still a little person. But she did get to ride in a red wagon at the orchard for the first time, letting out squeals of delight along the way. (See picture below.) My excitement was a little different. It was when I got to pick my first peach from the tree, when I realized how cool it was cool that peaches could grow on trees. It's just not a sight I see every day. A slow smile crept onto my face. Satisfaction.

So after Chris and I had picked a few pounds worth, we headed home while I contemplated what I would make with our bounty. I furiously researched peach recipes on my iPhone, finding some good ones at Whole Foods and on the AllRecipes app, and put out a call to my friends on Facebook for their ideas. I knew I wanted to make a peach pie and came across a fairly straightforward one at TheCityCook.com. By the time we got home, I decided to make a peach salsa and the peach pie. Both turned out well, much to my delight, though I'm not sure which I enjoyed more - picking the peaches or eating them.

Claire taking her first wagon ride at the orchard.

Peach Salsa
(Courtesy of Chiles Peach Orchard)
http://www.chilespeachorchard.com/in-the-kitchen/recipes/peach-salsa-recipe-2

Ingredients:
3 large ripe peaches (for about 3 cups diced)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large ripe tomato (for about 1 cup diced)
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeno pepper (for about 1 tablespoon minced)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves (or less, depending on how much you like cilantro!)

Method:

Peel and pit the peaches, and cut them into roughly 1/4 inch dice. lace pieces into bowl, and squeeze the lime juice over the peaches and sprinkle on the sugar and salt. Stir to coat well.
Core the tomato, leave peel on, and cut into 1/4 inch dice. Add it to the bowl.

Peel and finely chop the garlic. Rinse and seed the jalapeno (might want to wear gloves), mince it finely and add to bowl. Rinse and dry cilantro, and mince finely. Add it to the bowl. Stir well. Taste for sweetness, add more sugar if necessary.

Classic Peach Pie (shown above) 
(Courtesy of The City Cook)
http://www.thecitycook.com/cooking/recipes/data/000229'

Ingredients:
6 to 8 large fresh peaches, peeled and sliced into thick, 3/4-inch slices, enough to produce 6 cups
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar (use a little more or less depending on how sweet your peaches)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small bits
Pastry dough for two-crust pie (I used Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts for simplicity's sake.)

Method: 

Pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Prepare the pastry dough and roll into two 10-inch circles; reserve one circle and keep it refrigerated.

Line a 9-inch glass or metal pie plate with the other circle of pastry dough, leaving about 1-inch of dough along the rim.

In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, cinnamon and flour, using a fork to blend together. Add the peeled and sliced peaches and lemon juice and stir gently to completely coat the peaches. Try not to do this step too far in advance of assembling the pie because you'll get too much juice.

Spoon the peaches into the prepared pie plate. If there are juices already in the bowl, leave them behind and don't add to the pie. Scatter with the pieces of cold butter.

Cover the pie with the second rolled-out crust. Carefully seal the edges by crimping it by hand or with a fork. Cut 4 steam vents in the top crust.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until the crust is golden brown. If the edges start getting too dark before the pie is finished cooking, gently wrap strips of aluminum foil around the edges to protect them during the last minutes of baking. Remove from the oven and let cool completely -- at least an hour -- before cutting. Serve warm with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream.

My New Kitchen Partner Makes Hummus

Hummus

Just looking at this picture makes me hungry for hummus. I love this stuff.

Chris surprised me with a new toy - a food processor - for Christmas. I had been playing with the idea of getting one for a few years now, but living in a small space makes me really think before buying something. That said, Chris figured out how to make our space issue work so that this new Kitchen Aid would fit. Awesome!

I've been happily working through recipes requiring a food processor, and since I had never had the proper equipment to make hummus before, I had to try. The hummus turned out wonderfully, and the food processor made it happen with ease. I liked this hummus recipe, although next time I'm going to try it without the parsley just for simplicity's sake (the parsley tasted just fine in the hummus).

This is a great recipe for any Super Bowl parties next weekend since it makes a lot (3 cups worth)! Go Steelers!


Hummus Bi Tahini
(Courtesy of Elisabeth Rozin, "Ethnic Cuisine: How to Create the Authentic Flavors of 30 International Cuisines")


Ingredients:
2 to 2 1/2 cups cooked chick peas (reserve cooking liquid), or 20-ounce can chick peas (reserve liquid)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 tsp. salt
dash freshly ground black pepper
1 T. olive oil
pita bread, for serving



Method:
Drain chick peas, reserving liquid. Puree in blender or food processor with lemon juice, garlic, and parsley. If more liquid is needed to blend properly, use some of the reserved chick pea liquid. (I didn't need much.)

Place pureed mixture in a serving bowl and stir in tahini, salt and pepper.  Mix to blend thoroughly.

Just before serving, pour olive oil on top of the hummus. This can be prepared a day ahead and refrigerated. Serve with pita bread.

Makes 3 cups.

Cute Little Appetizers for Baby Showers

It seems that many of my friends are having a baby these days, as is the Clarendon Cook, whose bun will be finished baking come mid-June. :)  That has given us ladies ample opportunity to host baby showers, which in many ways are much more fun than wedding showers given all the "oohs" and "aahs" from the guests as the moms-to-be open cute little baby clothes, cute little books and various cute little things that will ensure the baby becomes successful at an early age.  But even more fun is being a hostess for one of these events (for me at least) because it's a great opportunity to make cute little appetizers and desserts which I may not normally get to make.

A few of us from my church hosted an afternoon baby shower for our friend Carrie on Valentine's Day.  We opted for appetizers and desserts because it was Valentine's Day, after all, and we figured that most people would want to eat light because of dinner plans with their Valentines that evening.  I'm including some of those recipes below (be sure to scroll all the way down the page).  While I can't promise that these recipes will make the baby smart and successful (though that's certainly possible), it appears that they may have the power to coerce the baby to make his or her appearance sooner rather than later. It was only two days after Carrie's shower that her cute little baby daughter, Helena, came into the world (though only a few weeks early).  I suspect it was all the sugar that enticed her...

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

(Courtesy of the Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 1/3 cups milk
2 t. vanilla
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
4 large eggs
fluffy white frosting (I used store-bought.)
red and blue food coloring (or whatever color you want the icing to be)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line thirty-six 2 1/2-inch muffin pan cups with fluted paper liners.

In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.  In measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla.

In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat sugar and margarine until blended.  Increase speed to high; beat about 2 minutes, until creamy.  Reduce speed to medium-low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

Pour batter into prepared cups, filling each cup about three-fourths full.  (Bake only as many cupcakes as 1 rack in center of oven can hold.)  Bake 25 minutes, or until toothpick in centers comes out almost clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool completely on racks.  Repeat with remaining batter.

Once cupcakes are cooled, you can ice them.  Since I used store-bought white icing, I added a few drops of red food coloring to the icing until I got the desired shade of pink, and the same with the blue food coloring until I got the blue shade of icing that I wanted.  Keep in mind that it doesn't take much food coloring, so add a few drops and then stir, adding more if you need them.

To ice them, I used two different decorating bags with tips and layered the icing on...feel free to be creative with the type of tip you use...that's part of the fun of decorating cupcakes!  I made half pink and the other half blue.  I also found some clear food glitter and sprinkled them on these cupcakes as well to give them an extra sparkle.

Cucumber Dill Tartlets

(Courtesy of Kelly Oliver, adapted from Oxmoor House's Little Book of Holiday Appetizers)

I doubled this recipe in order to have enough filling:

Ingredients:
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (if doubling, use the whole block)
3 T. frozen minced chives (fresh works well too)
3 T. sour cream
1/2 t. dried dillweed
1/4 t. garlic salt (may need more to suit your taste)
1/8 t. ground white pepper
2 packages of frozen small phyllo dough tartlet shells (or something similar that you can fill)
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
Fresh dillweed

Method:
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread cream cheese mixture in phyllo dough tartlet shells. Top with 1 cucumber slice and and a sprig of fresh dillweed.  Freshness note: These are better eaten closer to the time they're filled.

Stuffed Tomatoes

(Courtesy of Paula Lively, Ariel Lively's MIL)

Ingredients:

1 lb. bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled (equates to about 3/4 jar of Hormel real bacon bits)

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

2 T. chopped fresh parsley (Ariel used cilantro for the ones pictured above.)

2 T. grated Parmesan

1/2 cup mayonnaise

24 cherry tomatoes (equates to about two mesh bags of the vine-ripened cherry tomatoes)

Method:

Remove stems from tomatoes and rinse them.  Place tomatoes stem-side down to cutting board.  Cut thin slice off top of each tomato (opposite end of stem side).  With small melon scoop or sharp grapefruit spoon, carefully hollow out tomato, leaving shell.  Invert tomatoes on paper towels to drain for several hours.

In a bowl, combine bacon, onions, parsley, Parmesan and mayonnaise.  Stir until well-blended. Refrigerate for several hours to let flavors blend, then fill the tomatoes with the bacon mixture.

Tip:  Ariel saved the tomato tops and guts into a plastic bag and froze them to use for soups, etc., that call for tomatoes.