Assuming that you are in the northern hemisphere, it's summer -- time for fresh beans and tomatoes and eggplant and squash -- hundreds of squash -- and peppers. It's time for quick, light meals that don't take hours to cook, don't heat up the kitchen, and don't leave you feeling like the Staypuft Marshmallow Man.
At casa Petersen tonight, I'm grilling hamburgers for the guys and a chicken breast for me. I'll slice the breast into thin strips, serve it over fresh lettuce with some of the tomatoes that are ripening in my front garden, and call that dinner. If dessert is called for afterward, I'll slice one or two of the fresh peaches I bought at the market today, splash a little milk on them, and eat them with a spoon. Simple, delectable, heaven.
I'm lucky to live not far from Chilton County, Alabama, home of the Big Peach Water Tower and some of the most delicious peaches on earth. We had a very odd spring this year -- quite warm in March and early April followed by a late freeze and quite cold late April-early May, plus conditions of extreme drought over much of central Alabama. The peach crop was seriously affected, with fewer and smaller peaches than normal. But there are still peaches, a bit more expensive this year, but sweeter than usual as if to make up for it.
My mother often made peach cobbler in the summer. Hers was an elaborate, highly sweetened affair with a pie crust top and bottom, heavy syrupy filling, granulated sugar dusted over the top, and usually whipped cream to finish. I can't believe I ever ate something like that. My peach cobbler is much simpler:
Kate's Fresh Summer Fruit Cobbler
Filling:
- 6 cups sliced fresh peaches (save the juice they exude while you are peeling and slicing)
- about a cup of unsweetened apple juice
- honey to taste -- maybe 2 tablespoons
Mix the peach slices, juice, and honey together and spread in a 9" x 9" casserole dish. Top with:
Crust
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 cups Bisquick
Mix all ingredients together to make a thick batter. Spoon over peaches and smooth out top. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until slightly browned on top.
Serve warm. I spoon a portion into a bowl and pass the milk to pour over as desired.
This basic recipe can be varied using other fruits and berries, too -- whatever is in season in your neck of the woods.
Here's another cool fruit idea that showed up in my email box this week, courtesy of the Crescent City Farmer's Market weekly newsletter:
Cantaloupe - Blueberry Salad
- 1 (8 oz.) carton vanilla low-fat yogurt
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds
- 1 tsp. grated orange rind
- 1 med. cantaloupe, peeled & seeded
- 24 Boston lettuce leaves
- 2 c. fresh blueberries
Combine first 4 ingredients; stir well. Cover and chill thoroughly. Cut cantaloupe lengthwise into 32 slices. Arrange 4 slices on each of 8 lettuce-lined serving plates; top each with 1/4 cup blueberries. Spoon yogurt mixture over salads.
Makes 8 servings.
One final idea for peaches comes from a column of Steve Gilliard's News Blog dated September 23, 2004. Steve was experimenting with grilling peaches because he wasn't fond of the raw fruit and Jen had suggested the idea of cooking them.
As you know, I don't like raw peaches, so I decided to grill them in my new toaster oven. Why a new toaster oven? Because my toaster burns things and traps creepy crawlies. It was the cheapest decent one I could find, around $20.
So, last night, I decided to broil the peaches to have with toast and tea.
So I took the white peach I bought, quartered it, skinned it, put a little cinnamon sugar and butter on them and grilled them for about 10 minutes or until the sugar melted.
They were incredibly juicy and sweet and fork tender.
So I'm going to thank Jen for introducing me to the idea of grilled peaches.
I'd do these, of course, on the outdoor grill because I don't have a toaster oven. I'd skin, quarter, add a little butter and cinnamon and a dusting of nutmeg (no sugar), wrap them in a foil pouch and grill for probably 8 minutes while the burgers were cooking. Your grill, depending on the heat level, may take a little longer. Et voila!
And to finish this summer grilling diary on a rather absurd note, here is an entry from the desk of The Marketing People Are Completely Insane (and no, this is not a joke!):
It's an outdoor grill! It's an iPod! It's a ...
George Foreman iGrill!!!
Turn your backyard BBQ into an instant party with the iGrill from George Foreman. The iGrill has a 200 square inch nonstick grilling surface that is covered with George's Tough Nonstick Coating. The included 10 watt speaker system plays your favorite tunes from your iPod, MP3 or other USB music system.
Features
* Indoor/Outdoor Electric Barbeque Grill ipod ready
* 10 Watt speaker included
* 200 Sq Inches Cooking Surface
* George Tough Nonstick Coated Cooking Surface
* Adjustable Temperature Control Probe
Wonder if it's compatible with the iPhone?
Be sure to join us next week, as Asinus Asinum Fricat has promised a What's For Dinner episode on tapas. I'm looking forward to that!