Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...

Millions of peaches! Ok, maybe not millions.  Two pints a week for 4 weeks is still a lot for just two people to nom through. So when we got our produce box last week, with two fresh pints, and I was still staring at one, slightly wrinkly now, pint from the previous week; it was clearly time to make cobbler. I mean really, I had no choice.

Now, cobbler, when it's all said and done may look easy, but there's a reason that your grandmother's is the best you've ever had.  She's had 50+ years to perfect not just her recipe, but also her technique.  It takes practice people. Peaches are slippery little buggers.  And before you ask, yes, I still have all my appendages.

 Fastest way to get rid of peaches EVAR!

Onto the Howto:

What you need:
-1/2 Stick butter, room temp
-1/4c Sour cream
-3 lbs peaches, skinned-- see here for easy technique, just below the tomato picture
-1/2c sugar
-1/2c AP flour
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-Smidge salt
-1 Egg
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

What you do:
Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a 8- or 9-inch square or round baking dish. Peel, pit and slice your peaches.  Place in bowl with 1/4c of sugar and 1/4c bourbon :) Toss.  Set them aside.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and remaining 1/4c sugar and beat in your butter and sour cream.  I used my food processor which worked great.  Put your peaches in your baking dish and spoon your sloppy batter on top of it.  Don't worry about spreading it, just glop it on there.  Proceed to baking and let it go for 35-45, until golden brown and not soupy in the middle.

And as always, enjoy!

P.S. This makes amazing breakfast.

Fluff cakes for my sweet heart

The thesis is done. I am officially a Master of Food Science. Do you know what this means? I might actually have time to cook again! And cook I have. On this particular weekend morning I woke up with pancakes in mind but a true craving to get creative in the kitchen (something I hadn't done in quite some time). I pondered over this whilst making coffee and it suddenly struck me that what I really wanted was extra fluffy pancakes. But how to achieve that? Well, as any good food scientist worth their salt knows, foam makes for fluff. And what better way to make foam than to use your handy-dandy stand mixer to make meringue out of the egg whites that are already part of your recipe?

Empty meringue bowl.

Batter with meringue *gently folded* into it (must maintain the fluff!)

A cross between pancakes and Soufflé these cakes made for a divine breakfast treat. At the last minute I decided to take half the batter and make them in these silicon heart shells that I got for valentines day. They are officially sweet heart cakes now, all they need is a bit of red food coloring and they'd be almost too 'sweet' to eat. ;)

The results were pretty amazing. Somewhere in the process my wonderful husband (did I mention I got married?) woke up and decided bacon was necessary. Isn't it always? Silly me.

Now, if you are wondering how you might make your very own fluff cakes see directions below.

1) Pull out cook book with pancake recipe (yes you do need to make these from scratch, but trust me it's easy and oh so worth it)

2) In stead of adding whole egg to your batter, separate them and whip your whites into soft peaks

3) Gently fold peaks into the rest of the batter you've prepared in another bowl

4) Cook on in a hot pan just like regular pancakes or in a muffin/cute shaped baking tin*

*if using muffin tins bake a 350 for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes clean

5) Serve to your family and listen carefully for phrases like "Oh my god these are the best things ever."

6) Smile and enjoy your awesomeness

Applesauce

Do you know what you need to make homemade applesauce?  Apples.  Water.  Heat+time.  A potato masher.  (Maybe a scale, but if you weighed the apples when you bought them that's close enough.) That's all!!

Peel, core, and slice the apples into small chunks.  Add to a pot with 2 ounces of water per pound of apples (or so).  If you'd like, add some cinnamon and/or a splash of lemon or lime juice.  Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.  Mash.  Eat.

I used two very large apples, which was about 1.5lbs of apple, and got about 2.5 cups of applesauce from them.  Yum, yum, yum.

Eggs Florentine

A decadent and more indulgent breakfast you will not find...at least not today! In an effort to teach my fiancée how to poach an egg we ended up with this breakfast classic. Though it has garnered a somewhat snooty reputation, this is actually a fairly simple dish to make, and make your own at that. The basic recipe is as follows:

Stack in this order:

-Toasted English Muffin

-Sautéd Spinach

-Poached Egg

-Hollandaise Sauce

That's it. Hollandaise, a simple emulsion of egg yolks and butter, may sound scary, but I assure you, so long as you keep stirring and don't over cook it, you can't screw it up.

I will say that we added a bit of garlic and fenugreek to the spinach which gave the otherwise bland vegetable a bit of a kick. All around it was a terrific learning experience and a completely delicious success.

Cinnamon Rolls

Unfortunately, the blog that this came from (What Geeks Eat) is down! And I didn't write the recipe down anywhere...hopefully it'll be back up soon.

Cardamom Bread

I might christen this carda-yum bread! It's easy and delicious and it makes the kitchen both warm and wonderful-smelling! (All of these things are pluses.)

This recipe comes from the Razor Family Farms blog-- http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/ and has only slight alterations, but I'll repost it anyways...

Cardamom Bread (ala http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/cardamom-bread-sweet-and-rustic/)

4 c. AP flour

1/2 T. cardamom

1 1/2 T. yeast

1 1/4 c. warm milk (soy or dairy) or water or some combination-- I usually use 3/4 c. soymilk and 1/2 c. water

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. oil

1 shy t. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

Mix flour and cardamom in a large bowl (of your mixer, if you'd like). Dissolve sugar and then yeast in warm liquid. Pour into dry stuff and mix until doughy. Add oil and mix until doughy again (and oily--it won't all absorb yet). Cover with a plate and let rest for 20 minutes.

Thoroughly knead in the salt (I use my hands, but you could use the dough hook), and extra flour as needed to achieve the right consistency. (Like most dough, it should feel like an earlobe-- warm and elastic and soft.) Oil a baking sheet. Divide dough into thirds and place far apart on the baking sheet. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes, or until almost doubled in bulk. (This will take many hours if your house is chilly-- try preheating the oven for just 30 seconds and letting it rise there, with the oven light on-- ideal rising temperature is around 90 degrees F.)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll each dough lump into a long snake and braid together. Pinch the ends together firmly and fold them under.

Brush the braid with beaten egg and bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Sometimes I make two smaller braided loaves and they only take about 20 minutes. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes before you cut into it (it's torturous) for best texture later on. Enjoy!

The picture doesn't really do it justice...

Cranberry Walnut Muffins

It's too hot to turn on the oven, in case you were wondering! (A high of 90F today.) This recipe will proceed Cooking For Engineers style, because it's so simple... (Adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.)

Preheat oven to 4ooF. Grease 12 muffin cups (or use muffin papers).

1 egg
--> Beat for 30 seconds

3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. oil
1 c. chopped cranberries (frozen is fine)
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
1 t. orange extract
-->Stir into egg

2 c. flour, a combination of AP and whole wheat pastry (or whatever you've got)
3 t. baking powder
-->Stir into wet ingredients just until moistened, batter will be lumpy. Fill muffin cups half-full. Sprinkle tops with sugar, if desired (you desire).

Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. Betty Crocker rules that muffins should be golden brown, with a slightly-domed top and an irregular but not craggy texture. I think she would be proud. Serving suggestion for a perfect muffin: warm from the oven with a cold glass of milk or lemonade.

Aw nuts, not granola!

Homemade granola is simple and delicious. And now you have no excuses! It's easy to scale this recipe up or down for what you need-- a half batch makes enough for two people for a few weeks. Humidity disclaimer: like the biscotti, granola won't get crunchy if it's too humid. (No pictures today, sorry!)

The Basics:
5 cups rolled oats (NOT quick-cooking)
1/2 c. canola oil
1/3 c. honey (or maple syrup)

Fancy-Pants Additions:
3/4 c. nuts of your choice, chopped (pecans are excellent, as are walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts...you can't really go wrong here)
dash or two of cinnamon
small dash cardamom
1 t. vanilla or almond extract
2 T. flax seeds (you can't taste 'em but they're good for you!)
3/4 c. dried fruit (ideas: raisins, cranberries, apricots, apple, prunes)

Preheat oven to 350F. Stir together everything EXCEPT the dried fruit. Don't be tempted to use your hands; it's super sticky. Add more nuts, because if you're like me you'll eat them out of the granola as it cools. Maybe a bit more cinnamon too, what the heck. (I've also been known to lightly coat a handful of extra pecans in oil and honey and cinnamon and bake them alongside the granola; voilà, candied pecans!)

Spread on two greased cookie sheets in an even layer--no more than 1/2 inch deep. Place in oven on center rack and set the timer for 5 minutes. When it goes off, take the trays out and stir gently but thoroughly-- make sure all the oats get moved around so they don't stick. Back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Stir. Repeat 2-3 times. Don't be tempted to set the timer for longer than 5 minutes because the granola doesn't cook linearly-- it cooks slowly for a while (15-30 minutes, depending on your cookie sheet and the humidity) and then browns (and burns!) very suddenly towards the end. A good indicator is it starts to smell heavenly when it's almost done.

Remove from the oven when it's golden brown and stir again. [Turn the oven off.] As the granola cools on the cookie sheets, stir it every 10-15 minutes to avoid serious sticking. When it's completely cool, add the dried fruit and store in an airtight jar. Our favorite breakfast around here is plain yogurt with blackberries and granola, yum!!