Love Me Some Peaches

Alex and I have been enjoying the products of our fresh peaches for a few days now and loving every peachy morsel.  First up: summer soup, grilled peaches, and pork chops smothered in peach grilling sauce.  Our townhouse complex delivers a monthly newsletter that includes a few seasonal recipes.  This month, the summer soup caught my eye, and I knew I wanted to make some as soon as I got some fresh peaches.  Simply mix about a quarter of a cantaloupe, one peach (no pit!), some lemon juice, a bit of white wine, and a dash of sugar in the blender, chill for an hour or two or three before serving, and garnish with raspberries.  I'm not usually a fan of cold soups, but this was refreshing and delicious.

 I put Alex to work cooking up the rest of that night's menu, and I must say he did a fabulous job.  If you've never had grilled peaches, I highly recommend them!  They may be my new favorite summer treat.  So easy.  Soooooo good.  I just made a little foil 'boat,' sliced up a couple of peaches, and handed it over to Alex who let it sit on the top rack of the grill while the pork chops finished up.  They were like having dessert at the same time as your dinner.  The grilling sauce on the pork chops turned out great as well.   A little spicier than I expected (keeping in mind that I am a WIMP when it comes to spice, so for the majority of people it would have been perfectly mild), but it worked out fine when accompanied by the cooler tastes of the soup and grilled peaches.

Truly a summer feast!

The next day I decided to attempt what we could consider my first real cooking experiment.  By that I mean, cooking something that was not labeled 'easy' in the cookbook nor that I had assisted my mom with in the past: peach cobbler!  I found the recipe from the dessert section of my Better Homes cookbook (featured in a previous blog post) and got to mixing.  It wasn't that complicated.  The most time consuming part was slicing the peaches (messy too!), and I was slightly stumped at the direction to cook the peaches until "bubbly and thickened."  How bubbly?  Boiling?  Why didn't it say boiling?  Would boiling ruin the mixture? And thickened?  Can I get a time frame here?  Or an estimated description of the desired consistency?  In case you didn't notice, I'm a bit detail oriented.  But I took a deep breath, kept stirring, guesstimated that it was 'thickened' enough, and..... Delicious!  If I made it again, I might add to the peach mixture to improve the dough-to-peach ratio.  But otherwise Alex and I were both very pleased.

 Thickening...

 Golden-browned to perfection!

And, of course, I served it with vanilla ice cream.  Because it's just not really peach cobbler otherwise.

Just Peachy

 When you've grown up in southeastern Michigan as my husband and I have, there are certain elements connected to the change of seasons that become an indestructible part of your genetic make-up.  For instance, eleven months out of the year, I can pass by peaches in any grocery store in the country without even a passing thought.  But as soon as mid-August rolls around, I can't get the thought of fresh peaches out of my mind.  And peach pie, peach ice cream, peach cobbler.  You get the idea.  Even more important, these peaches must come from Romeo, Michigan.  Anything else goes against my upbringing.  It was indeed fortunate timing then that earlier this week I had to drive back to Michigan for some name change paperwork and to pick up a few straggling items that didn't make it in the first round of moving.  My mom accompanied me out to Romeo, and we stopped at one of my favorite orchards, Westview, to do some exploring at their roadside stand.  (Incidentally, I've noticed a serious lack of roadside fruit/vegetable stands in Ohio.  I drive through endless farms along I-75.  Endless.  But not a stand selling their products anywhere in sight.  What gives?)  We got a bit wrapped up in all the goodies they had to offer: jams, jellies, butters, salsas, sauces, breads, tarts, and ice creams in addition to the plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables.  In the end, we got a bushel of fresh peaches each, and I got a jar of peach grilling sauce.  I've been enjoying the fresh peaches with breakfast, lunch, and snacks for a few days now, and I can't wait to start cooking up some peachy treats!

There's No Place Like Home!

Since our wedding just three weeks ago, my husband and I have traveled more than in the rest of our relationship combined!  After our dream honeymoon to the Caribbean, we flew into Detroit, packed up and drove down to Cincinnati, were home for less than a week, then flew out to California for a family wedding!  I love to travel and these were incredible trips, but I also really like being home.  On our way home from the airport (at 1:00 am, ugh!), Alex mentioned in passing that "we could probably just have take-out tomorrow, so you don't have to worry about going to the grocery store."  He was just being thoughtful, which I love.  But he will soon learn that when I come home from vacation, I need to detox from higher than usual amounts of sugar, grease, alcohol, and all sorts of other tasty treats...  I knew I wanted some good home-cooking, but I definitely did not have the energy for anything gourmet, so I grabbed a cookbook we got at a bridal shower from an amazing cook and very good friend and flipped right to the '20 minute meals' section.  Perfect!

After flipping through the section between loads of vacation laundry catch-up (double ugh!), I found a recipe that sounded perfect: smoked turkey and tortellini salad.  I'm usually skeptical of quick and easy meals being as quick and easy as promised.  I've seen Rachel Ray, and there's no way I could create those meals in 30 minutes.  But this one did deliver!  Prepare a package of tortellini according to package directions.  (I substituted whole-wheat tortellini, and we both loved it.)  When done, put the tortellini, 1 cup smoked turkey, some sliced cherry tomatoes, half a chopped green pepper, and some sliced black olives in a bowl.  Mix with 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing and add pepper to taste. 

My kitchen hard at work!

The result is colorful, summery, fresh, and delicious! Detox from decadent vacation delights day #1: successful!

Company Came!

Alex and I had our first official house guests since getting married: my parents.  They drove down from MI on Friday afternoon and arrived just in time for my next foray into home cooking.  Again, this was a recipe Alex and I had made once before when dating: sloppy joes, not from a can, his mom's recipe.  It's one of those recipes that worries an inexperienced cooker like myself as there are no exact amounts.  Brown some ground meat and add tomato sauce, mustard, relish, and barbecue sauce 'as needed'....  I used one of my new pans for the first time and found an exciting new feature: all of the lids are equipped with a steam hole, which really comes in handy making a recipe like this as a novice cook adding too much liquid then needing to cook some of it off.... ;-)

Imprecision aside, I think it turned out great, and my parents enjoyed their first meal in our home.

The next morning, it was time for the real purpose of their visit: helping with our home-improvement projects!  We spent a large portion of Saturday at various hardware and grocery stores.  Among other things, we purchased a new grill, a patio table and chairs, a cabinet for storage in the kitchen (seriously a need - tiniest kitchen cabinets ever!), and some mums for my new pots.  I registered for these beautiful pots from Crate and Barrel and have been excited about getting some pretty flowers in them for months now.  Never having done much outdoor work before, I had no idea where to start, so it was a good thing my parents were here for input.  I don't think I will ever be a gardening lover, but I do love the result!

Things are starting to come together around here.  Maybe the next time my parents make their way down for a visit, we'll be able to just enjoy their company rather than put them to work...

The First Meal

I've been tossing around the idea of a blog to chronicle this year ever since the decision to move to Cincinnati became final.  Do I expect many people (besides my mom) to read and / or follow?  Nope.  But I think someday I will enjoy looking back on my thoughts during this journey, and I know if I just start a paper and pen journal, I won't keep it up.  Will I post every day?  Doubtful.  But without lessons to plan, papers to grade, and school events to attend I anticipate having more free time than well, ever (and likely more than I will ever have again).  If you're interested in my musings, read on...

After the magical wedding of literally all my dreams and a luxury honeymoon to Sandals, St. Lucia, reality hit hard!  We landed in Detroit, MI at 1:00 am Tuesday, managed to crash into bed by 2:00 am, and were up again by 8:00 am for a long day of packing and the dreaded drive down to Cincinnati, OH...

After almost two weeks of decadent delights (and several fast food stops once we left paradise behind), last night my digestive system was ready for some home-cooked food!  Usually, my mom delivers on this in outstanding fashion, but she is now 4.5 hours away (more whining about that later, I'm sure), so I had to step up to the plate myself.  I have all sorts of fabulous new cookbooks that I actually cannot wait to dive into, but I was pretty exhausted from all the travel and unpacking and laundry and organizing and... You get the idea...  For sanity's sake, I turned to a recipe that I had made for Alex once before when we were dating: salmon with rosemary and tomatoes.   The salmon is drizzled with olive oil; sprinkled with salt, pepper, and rosemary; and tucked into foil packets along with lemon slices and cherry tomatoes.  I'm hungry again just thinking about it!  The cooking time took a bit longer than it should have.  Still getting used to this new oven I guess.  But the end result didn't disappoint - hubby (he he - I had to throw that in) even went back for seconds!

Tucked into their foil packets and ready for the oven.  Can I hear a cheer for easy clean-up?

Careful when opening - steam pours out!

And... I used lots of my new kitchen materials in the process!