Picking the Perfect Peach

I wait all year for peach season. Donut peaches, golden or white peaches...there's nothing sweeter or more "summery" than a good peach (although farm fresh corn on the cob or a garden tomato rank pretty high on the list as well). However, my search for a truly tasty peach is often met with frustration...which may now be completely solved. Read on...

It's been a while since I've been able to write and it seems only fitting that I would return with a peach of an entry. (see...bad puns...a sure sign that I've been away too long)

My day began with a surprise discovery of fresh peaches, tomatoes & peppers left at my door by a neighbor and friend of mine. Sweet. Suffice to say, it's been a rough summer but this is a delightful way to end it. I brought in the bundle of goodies and, as usual, did my mental battle with how/where to store the peaches and a slight pause as to why it's so difficult to find good peaches even in the heart of peach season.

Call it what you will, but on the way home from work, this story ran on WNYC and I knew it was time to get back to work. So, enjoy the link. Go out and get some peaches while you can. I've got some fresh ideas for peach recipes I'll be testing out on everyone. In the meantime, happy Labor Day.

Sweet for my...

Cooking for yourself is one thing. Cooking for someone you love (aside from yourself) is something entirely different. Every ingredient is chosen just for him or her. In fact, the entire dish should be a reflection of that person's favorite flavors.

That's what this dish is about. My sweetheart loves sweet potatoes...and correctly points out that this is one of nature's most nutritious foods. Now, while this dish still has plenty of "sweet potato value"...it also has plenty of other yummy ingredients that I know he loves as well. So, tonight, after our long day in the Catskills and the bumper-to-bumper traffic we endured all the way home, I thought I'd surprise him with this tasty dish from a cookbook that came with my cookware.

It's easy to pull together, uses basic ingredients you probably have on hand, and cooks quickly.

Sweet Potato Pecan Crumbles

What you need:

2 1/4lbs sweet potatoes

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spices

1/2 stick sweet butter, chilled, cut into small cubes

2 oz pecans

1/4 cup maple syrup

What you do:

Preheat over to 350 degrees

Lightly butter 4 mini cocottes (or a 9" pie dish)

In medium sized bowl, combine sugar, spice and flour. With finger tips, swiftly work the cold butter into the dry ingredients. It should look like corn meal. (Work quickly...if ingredients become too warm, put the bowl into the refrigerator for 15 minutes until all is very well chilled and begin again.)

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them diagonally into 1/4 inch slices. Divide these between the 4 mini cocottes, sprinkle each container w/half of the "crumble," add the balance of the sweet potatoes, finish with the remaining "crumble." Then, top with pecans and drizzle with maple syrup.

Cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. I also like to place these onto a cookie sheet before setting into the oven...just to be safe. Bake for 45 minutes. Goes great w/chicken, roast and...of course...turkey.

It's a joy to cook for my sweetheart. He seems to enjoy whatever I serve. His biggest complaint isn't about my cooking, just that there isn't enough food -- now that's the way to a chef's heart!

A Summer of Peaches

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Originally uploaded by PatPix2010

Every year when the peaches first come out, I am reminded of a special summer that started simply and became one of my fondest memories.

I was living at home still and neighbors who lived down the street had a peach tree in their backyard (which happened to be adjacent to ours). That year, the tree produced an abundance of peaches. So many, that our neighbor invited us to take as many peaches as we wanted because they would otherwise go to waste.

My mother knew how much I loved peaches so she went down to the yard one morning, picked a few from the tree, brought them home and sliced them up. Placing the slices in a bowl, she then poured a splash of milk over them and called me for breakfast.

It was heaven. Fresh, light, juicy and that sweet fragrance that is -- for me -- the scent of summer.

To my delight, my mother repeated this ritual every morning that summer. She never needed to ask if I wanted them...she just quietly did it. In a family of six, this kind of attention was rare, making this breakfast that much sweeter.

Today, just the sight of peaches at a Farmers Market...or word from Produce Pete that peaches are in season...reminds me of those wonderful 2 lazy summer months when a bowl of the freshest, sweetest fruit was lovingly prepared for me by my mother. No meal will ever top it.

Dinner Conversation -- #1

"Dinner Conversations" are weekly posts about food, food preparation, the history of food or random thoughts about food or food trends... Wow. Could be dull. Hope there's more spice to this than the description lets on.


There is...as I mentioned at the start of this blog...a competitiveness that's sweeping kitchens. I believe it's fueled by a number of things, including the competition shows on television. They can be fun to watch (to a point) but I don't consider this to be the nurturing spirit that "cooking for others" is all about. For me, cooking is about preparing food for someone else, creating something for that person to truly enjoy, not about preparing something to show off. I don't think cooking is as much about the "cook" as it is about the "cook-ee"...

I was thinking about this when I heard this program and thought I'd share it. Maybe this feels like "community building" to some, but to me it just seems unnecessarily stressful...even, dare I say it, OK...selfish. Pick a chef (or two) and call it a day. Doesn't anyone remember the ol' adage, "too many chefs..."?

Tomato Season!

This is one of my favorite times of the year...fresh tomato season! Not those mealy, sickly, mushy things you pay extra for when you order a deluxe hamburger. They should be ashamed! The tomatoes I'm talking about are fresh, sweet, juicy, red, ripe...you get where I'm going with this.

Eat them for breakfast, sliced and arranged on a piece of Italian bread that's lightly toasted. Add some cream cheese and some sliced radishes with cracked pepper and you have a meal. Pour a cup of hot coffee and go sit on the porch before the neighbors start mowing their lawns.

Breakfast the Easy Way

My girlfriend JennySwirl came to visit last weekend and we were psyched. We had plenty of things scheduled...dinner Friday night with my boyfriend, a trip to the city to see the Biennial at the Whitney, she had some special Egoscue exercises she wanted me to learn. Well...trust me...we were looking forward to all this.

But mostly it was a chance to get together and talk -- uninterrupted -- that made us so happy. Mostly. My next concern was -- "what am I going to serve"??? How can I relax and have fun if I'm fussing in the kitchen and doing dishes?

The answer -- "don't fuss." Things took care of themselves and this is how:

We went to dinner to this place that serves mega-meals. I mean it, the portions are enormous with calorie counts in the thousands and that's per dish! No wonder American's are so overweight. My sweetheart ordered the meatloaf dinner and I ordered a roasted eggplant dish. Both were very tasty but nothing to write home about. The Swirly one ordered a miso-salmon meal that was incredible. And, here's the best thing, there was plenty left over.

So, we wrapped up the extra salmon and the extra bread from the basket (also yummy, brown multi-grain) and the following morning, served it up with cream cheese and a bowl of fresh strawberries, raspberries and bananas. Add a pot of fresh coffee and we were set! Plenty of time for exercises! H'mmm...next time, I'll reconsider this part of the plan. Still, putting the seriously large dinner portion to good use -- for a second meal -- was a time saver and a waist saver. We even made it to the Whitney...but that's another story altogether.

Cheddar Cheese Muffins

Sometimes you just don't feel like cooking...at least, that's the case with me. Whatever the reason -- too tired, cranky, not hungry, forgot to go food shopping...you get the point -- there's still a way to make these meals less hum-drum if you plan ahead or can muster the energy to make this tasty side dish.

I first discovered these while shopping with my mother at Lord & Taylor. They have a little restaurant there and these muffins were excellent with a cup of tea. Now I enjoy them at home with soup, a salad, some turkey or ham or simply with a cup of tea. I guarantee you'll make these over and over again.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Dash fresh ground black pepper
1 cup (4oz) coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese*
1 large egg
3 - 4 tbs spicy prepared mustard**
1 cup milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted


Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or use foil/paper baking cups.

Thoroughly mix dry ingredients -- flour, baking powder, salt & pepper in large bowl.

Add cheese, tossing to distribute evenly (some people use their fingers to toss...I leave this decision up to you)

Whisk egg and mustard in a small bowl. Whisk in milk and butter. Pour over flour/cheese mixture. Fold gently until dry ingredients are just moistened.

Scoop batter into muffing cups & bake 20 to 25 minutes or until springy to the touch in center. Turn out onto rack to cool.

*The beauty of this recipe is that you can alter it depending on what you have at home. Substitute cheddar for Monterey Jack or prepackaged mozzarella & asiago cheese...as long as you can "grate" the cheese, this recipe should work. Avoid cheese like brie or ricotta.
**Also, use any mustard you have on hand -- honey mustard, spicy mustard, etc. Salsa can also be used as long as it's not too runny. The idea is to use what's on hand as long as they're ingredients that you'd enjoy eating anyway.

Nana's Kitchen

There's one place to start when it comes to recipes for me...my grandmother's apple pie. Yes, we called her "Nana" and so, yes, I'll be calling her that here.

Nana was known for her cooking and especially her baking -- pies, cakes, breads. She easily prepared any dessert you can think of and she largely did it without referring to recipes. I'm not like that. When it comes to baking, I need a recipe and I need to concentrate at least a little. Not Nana. She carried on conversations, rolled out dough and called out answers to game shows that played on the tiny TV on the shelf in the far corner of the kitchen. What's more, she not only would bake a pie for you...she would bake 5. She didn't believe in baking only one of anything. As she would say, "if you're going to go through the trouble of baking something...you might as well bake more than one." Truth is, it never seemed like trouble for her. It was like breathing.

So, I asked her to show me how to bake a pie and instead she showed me how to bake 5. Not what I had wanted but... We measured flour, sugar, butter (every family recipe I have has plenty of butter in it) and peeled and sliced apples until I thought the orchards were bare.

Her recipe for pie crust is here...from the Crisco jar. I could type it out but it's not the same as seeing the recipe she gave me with the added mention of 2 additional tablespoons of sugar which you need to sprinkle on the top of your pie crust when the pie is assembled.

Now, anyone can assemble a pie crust from a list of ingredients. The trick is getting the pie crust to behave...to roll out evenly...to not stick to the rolling pin...to not fall apart. This takes practice and patience and in all these years I still haven't mastered it although I'm pretty good. Flour your countertop and flour your rolling pin. Then, don't overwork the dough but let it know you're not afraid of it. Things should work out fine. Consider it an adventure and try to have fun.

The filling is officially "cooking apples"...I love it. Until recently, I barely ate apples at all...so figuring out what a "cooking apple" is was like unravelling a riddle. I use three kinds of apples -- Granny Smiths, Golden Delicious and Macs although Braeburn and Empire are also good choices. Experiment with the flavors and textures you prefer. Sometimes you'll be limited by the kinds of apples available in the store (or at the Farmer's Market) so you need to be flexible and understand what the apples taste like and how they bake (do they break down when baked? do they keep their shape? are they tart?). As you prepare and slice the apples, don't worry about keeping the slices a uniform size...you're not making an industrial, machine-made pie. Leave uniformity for the mass produced pies.

When mixing up the sliced apples for the filling, remember to be generous with the spices. There's nothing as wonderful as the aroma of an apple pie baking in the oven with the rich scent of cinnamon mingled in. My family tradition is to add pats of butter among the apple slices inside the pie for good measure.

Build the inside of your apple pie as high as you dare...but place a baking sheet on the level under the rack that holds your pie plate just to be safe. My mother and I didn't do this step once and found out what a mistake that was! As the cloud of smoke filled the kitchen and set off the smoke dector we still managed to laugh about it anyway and salvaged the pie.

The Basics

Food, cooking and kitchens.

These things have never been so popular. Is it the advent of the Food Network that has transformed everyone who’s ever held a whisk into a gourmet chef? With stainless steel kitchen appliances all the rage, granite countertops shipped to homes like the latest altars and recipes that include the likes of spicy gorgonzola pine nut herb butter, the once-humble task of preparing food for those you love has been edged out.

There’s a competitiveness pervading kitchens that's fueled by programming that forces cooks to prepare some outrageous dishes. Specialty kitchen shops and catalogs have transformed homes into five-star restaurants. Casual conversations about a weekend meal with friends reveal that all the people I know have mastered the art of fine cooking. In fact, it would seem that no one would be outdone by any of the current roster of celebrity chefs.

Now that’s fine if you like that sort of thing but my kitchen and this blog are about the art of nurturing through cooking. Don’t come here looking for recipes with black garlic. You’ll be disappointed. My kitchen is simpler and the food far less complicated. I’m just whipping up food that tastes good…is easy to prepare…and kind of reminds you of food you’ve enjoyed all your life. This is food that is shared on dishes that have been in the family for a few generations…with some laughter at the table…and the crickets outside.

The other reason I’m writing is this: it’s been pointed out that the dishes I make are tasty but they’re only served once. That’s because when I plan a meal, I start by thinking of the person/people I’m cooking for and then pull together specific ingredients that I know they’ll like. In the end, they’re served familiar, favorite food that’s just put together a little differently…unfortunately it’s put together differently each time. My friends and family were getting frustrated because they knew that even if they really liked something, they’d probably never see it again because I didn’t write it down. So now I’m going to try writing things down.