Recipe: National Margarita Day!

Rumor has it today is National Margarita Day so in honor of that I'm going to share my husband's delicious recipe of one of my favorite drinks. We used to make it frozen with a can of limeade and it tasted just like Chili's frozen 'ritas. But over time it didn't taste as amazing as I used to remember it. Maybe my taste buds were growing up but it just wasn't as good.

Plus when I started eating the Trim Healthy Mama way, I didn't want to drink that much sugar. So I asked my hubby to create a more on-plan indulgent drink for me. Now I love them again and prefer to drink them at home, on the rocks.

One thing he did to make them more on-plan is to use real limes and sweeten with my homemade on-plan sweetener. Then to reduce the amount of sugar even more he substitutes part of the triple sec with fresh orange juice. Have you heard of Cara Cara oranges? I just recently discovered them at our BJs and they are ah-MAZ-ing!

 I admit that it doesn't taste like the traditional margarita this way but in my opinion it's even better. Plus I get real vitamin C this way so it's practically good for me, right?? Interested? Here's what you'll need to make it!

juice of one lime
juice of one Meyer lemon
juice of two Cara Cara oranges
1 T sweetener (can use sugar if you'd prefer)
2.5 oz gold tequila
1 oz triple sec

Mix all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Pour into a frosty salt-rimmed glass and serve.

Today, we decided to try it frozen. It turned out great! Here's what you do.

First you squeeze the fruit. We love this squeezing tool.

Add the juice and the sweetener to the blender.

Add the alcohol and ice then blend.

While the concoction is blending, use a lime or orange rind to wet a frozen glass and then it dip in salt.

Pour into glasses and enjoy! Salud!

Pineapple Soy Pork Scallopini

Chops on the grill

This recipe came about because I had pineapple juice I wanted to use up from the champagne punch from our Christmas Eve party. It was quick, easy and very tasty!

1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup white wine
2 garlic cloves, sliced
pork scallopini (I made 8) or thin cut pork chops

Place first 5 ingredients in a large bowl or zip lock bag. Add meat to marinade and allow to sit 10-30 minutes. Grill until done. Place marinade in a small saucepan and cook until reduced.

Cook the marinade to make it safe to eat.

Serve the chops with sauce and your favorite sides. I served it with roasted cauliflower. 

Roasted cauliflower is an easy side dish. 

Enjoy!

Linking to Skip to My Lou's Made by You Monday

Apple, Bacon, Caramelized Onion and Brie Pizza

It was pizza night, but rather than making our usual homemade pizza we decided to mix it up a bit. I remembered a recipe for an apple and brie pizza but I couldn't find it anywhere so I decided to just do my own thing. Since I didn't want to add a tomato sauce but thinking it needed something "wet," I decided to brown up some onions. The sweetness of the onion would complement the sweetness of the apples. I was initially going to use prosciutto to add a little protein and a salty element but the two stores Michael went to didn't have it so we made the switch to bacon. I recently discovered Hormel Black Label bacon (the link has a coupon) and it is my new favorite! I love it when the grocery store has it on BOGO and I have a coupon! I stock up and throw it in the freezer so I always have this yummy bacon on hand. This past Christmas we went through 8 packages of it! (I made a LOT of bacon wrapped dates!)

Onion and bacon

Back to the topic at hand. I sliced up the brie and the apple while the onion was slowly cooking in some olive oil and the bacon was cooking away in the microwave.

Apples and brie

When all the different elements were ready (mis-en-place), it was time to assemble the pizza. We were initially thinking of grilling it but now that we are using a cold fermented dough, it comes out really wet and hard to work with; it wouldn't transfer well to the grill. I stuck with baking it on a Pampered Chef  stone cookie sheet. First, I spread out the onion, sprinkling the bacon on top of that. Then I arranged the apple slices and finally, the brie.

Ready for the oven!

Since I didn't know if Timothy would like this "fancy" pizza (Annie was at a sleepover), I made a small regular pizza (sauce, mozzarella, bacon and onion) in small cast iron frying pan (picked up that tip recently somewhere but can't remember where). 

Personal pan deep dish delish!

Both came out beautifully. And tasted really great! 

The final product!

If you follow THM, this is on plan but a crossover since the dough (which was fermented for 5 days) and apple are E and the bacon and brie are S. Plus the onion (E) is cooked in oil (S). Regardless, it was tasty AND on plan!

Linking up with Skip to My Lou.

Black Currant Mustard Vinaigrette

Are you familiar with Aldi? We just recently got one in St. Augustine, about 40 minutes from where I live. About a month ago, several girlfriends, my mom and I decided to go on a field trip to check it out.

Aldi pride themselves as being different than other stores. If you've never been to Europe then it might feel weird, but I just felt like I was shopping in an Italian supermarket.

One thing that is different is that you pay to use a shopping cart. You put a quarter in the cart and then when you return it, you get your quarter back. That means that store workers don't have to go around the parking lot gathering up carts. Because if you're lazy and abandon your cart (and your quarter), you can bet your coin purse that there'll be someone who will return it and make a quarter! (*cough* mom)

Another thing you'll notice, when you check out, they only accept cash and debit cards. No credit. And no bags. You either bring your own or you can purchase a reusable bag.

While you're shopping you'll see items that look vaguely familiar but they won't be your conventional brands like Nabisco and Kelloggs. The packaging is identical except for the name. (I bought Peak Bars rather than Cliff Bars.) And you'll also be able to get in and out quickly because the store size is significantly smaller. Rather than stocking 30,000 items, they only carry about 1,400 of the most popular products.

On my trip, they had some seasonal items so I bought a nice 4-pack of mustards imported from France. Unfortunately when I got home I found one of the jars had broken. So it then became a trio.

Trio: the one that got away was basil mustard

When cooking dinner the other night, I decided to use one to make a mustard vinaigrette. Since I had just purchased raspberries and wanted to add them to my salad, I decided to try the Black Currant Mustard. Success! 

It was super simple. First I took a teaspoonful of mustard...

Then I added champagne vinegar (but any wine vinegar would do) and extra virgin olive oil. Added a couple of pinches of kosher salt, gave it a good whirl and BAM! Deliciousness! 

So yummy!

A perfect accompaniment to a salad of greens, feta, pecans and raspberries.

Try it! Fresh ingredients, no preservatives, super fast. Why wouldn't you? I'll try the same thing with the other mustards I got too: honey mustard and tomato and olive mustard. Don't those sound like they'll make lovely vinaigrettes?

Lemon Chicken Piccata

When your Meyer lemon tree provides you with lots of lemons, how is a gal to use them all up? The first thing that came to mind was Lemon Chicken. So I jumped on the trusty ol' Pinterest and did a quick search. Yup. LOTS of ideas came up! As I scanned the recipes, I wanted something that was not complicated and that did not have a lot of ingredients. Bingo. Found it! But I also wanted it to be "on plan" so I had to make a few adjustments to make it so. First of all, I eliminated the flour. I could have subbed some other on-plan flour but I just didn't want to. I pan fried the chicken cutlets (I made 8) in a tablespoon of butter.  

Cooked them in batches of 3

Then once they were all cooked (but not necessarily cooked through), I removed them from the pan and added a sliced shallot and let that brown up a bit. Then I deglazed the pan with some chardonnay (about 1/2 cup I reckon...I eyeballed it). Added in the juice of one Meyer lemon and then added the chicken back in, sprinkled it with salt, added a tad more wine and placed the lid on top. Simmered it about 15 minutes so that the insides were cooked through. [Side note: I love my Le Creuset pan that my dad found at a thrift store for $5.]

I served the chicken with zucchini fries and a salad dressed with black currant mustard vinaigrette. Tomorrow I'll share that quick and easy recipe with you!

Buon appetito!

One of my favorite sayings: "I love cooking with wine! Sometimes I even add it to the food!" certainly applies here. Salute!

Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our church is hosting a Harvest Festival and we've invited World Relief to attend. They are bringing three bus loads! We are busy preparing for this influx of visitors, many of whom are of different faiths and do not speak English. We will have games and things for the kids to do, among which is a cookie walk. I baked 4 dozen cookies for it. Boy are they yummy!

A great way to fit more cookies on a pan: stagger them!

I based it on this recipe but made a few modifications. In retrospect, I would cut back on the amount of sugar as they are rather sweet or, at the very least, use unsweetened coconut flakes. I might also try using half coconut oil and half butter. But they were quite delicious, I must say! Here's my version:

Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flaked sweetened coconut
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14/ teaspoon salt
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Arrange coconut in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring once. Set aside to cool.

3. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour,  baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir until well blended.

4. Place sugar and butter in mixer bowl and beat until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla then add the flour mixture, beating at low speed until combined. Stir in toasted coconut and chocolate.

So much yummy goodness!

5. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (or do like I did and use a small cookie scoop) 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, a silpat mat or coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks. Yields 4 dozen cookies (if you don't sample too much cookie dough!)

Perfect size using small scoop.

Homemade Truvia

One of the points in the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle is eating in such a way as to keep blood sugar from spiking. Since diabetes runs rampant in my family, this is a concern of mine. That is why I have tried to eliminate most sugar from my diet. However I will not resort to artificial sweeteners like aspartame to do it. I have learned about stevia, xylitol and erythritol which are all natural sweeteners that do not cause blood sugar spikes. I have heard that some people have adverse reactions to xylitol but I, thankfully, have not.

Homemade Truvia

My favorite is a homemade version of Truvia. The actual truvia has "natural flavors" as one of the ingredients which in my opinion leaves a strange aftertaste, almost like vanilla. The homemade one does not have any mysterious natural flavors added and is the one that most tastes like sugar to me.

The good thing is that it's easy to make. The bad thing is that it isn't subsidized by the government so it isn't cheap.

The ingredients you'll need are either xylitol or erythritol. Either will work. I cannot find erythritol locally but it can be ordered through Amazon. However, I CAN find xylitol in a local healthfood store, Native Sun. I buy the biggest bag they carry. And the other ingredient is stevia extract powder.

Xylitol and stevia extract

 I like the KAL brand from Native Sun but they recently changed their formulation and added maltodextrin as an added ingredient. That is NOT on plan. You want to be sure that there are NO added ingredients.

Other ingredients: None

If the KAL brand has added ingredients then try NOW. That can be ordered online. And that's it! 

1cup : 1/2 teaspoon

The ratio is 1 cup of xylitol or erythritol to 1/2 teaspoon stevia extract. Mix well. You can use it like sugar. 1 teaspoon homemade truvia = 1 teaspoon sugar. You can even bake with it.

"Nutella" Shake (FP)

I came up with this deliciously easy morning treat!

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 scoop whey protein powder (read about the right kind to use here)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I like mine DARK!)
3 tablespoons homemade truvia (I like mine on the sweeter side)
1/2 teaspoon hazelnut extract

Add to blender. Quick mix of the ingredients. Then add ice and process till smooth. Enjoy your delicious FUEL PULL THM treat!

I usually fix mine for breakfast but this works well for satisfying a sweet craving or for a mid-day snack.

Enjoy!!

Black olive pesto

I threw this recipe together in desperation last night after working all day in the garden. I didn't have any meat defrosted. I wanted pasta (quick! easy!) but I didn't want to do a tomato sauce. What I really wanted was pesto since I had been planting basil seeds that day but in the absence of fresh basil I thought of sun-dried tomato pesto. But when I went to the pantry I was OUT of sun-dried tomatoes!! 😱 I had already pressed two garlic cloves so I quickly shifted gears and switched to black olive pesto.

Into the Cuisinart went two handfuls of pitted black olives, a half cup of sliced almonds, a tablespoon of capers. A quick whirrr. Hmmm...what else? It needed something green but the only fresh herbs in the garden were sage, thyme (both pretty strong flavors) and oregano! Yes! That would work! A few springs, then added some extra vergin olive oil and about a quarter cup (ok more like a half cup) of freshly grated parmiggiano. Perfect! Dinner is served!

Today mom used the leftovers to coat artichokes. So delish!

Coconut Lime Muffin (THM - S)

Our family loves the muffin in a mug from the Trim Healthy Mama book! We have experimented with lots of different flavors. This is one of my favorites!

Here's how I did it:

Take the basic "MIM" recipe on page 256 of the book (page 257 explains how not to make it chocolate) and add 1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract, 1/2- 1 tablespoon unsweetened shredded coconut, and lime zest (about a lime half). I also use about 1/2 tablespoon rather than one tablespoon of oil. I often substitute EVOO in place of the coconut oil. It's just easier to pour.

You might notice that this muffin is not in a coffee mug. I found that the Pampered Chep prep bowls are a perfect size. I prep 6 bowls at a time with the dry ingredients. Then in the morning we just have to add the wet ingredients and the special flavorings. One morning I might have a coconut lime MIM and another day I'll have pumpkin spice.

This ONE muffin holds me all morning! It's amazing! And delicious! If you follow THM, this is an S.

No-fat granola (THM - E)

One thing that I've missed on my THM plan is my homemade granola. I don't really care for oatmeal (okay, I'll be honest. I don't ever eat it.) but I do like oats in the form of granola, bars and cookies. I looked around as to how I could remake my granola recipe to be THM friendly. As it is right now, it's in crossover territory because it mixes carbs (the oats) with fats (the nuts). The book has a recipe for an all-nut granola, making it an S but I really wanted an all-oat granola, making it an E. The problem, besides eliminating the nuts, was eliminating the oil. Although I have reduced the amount of oil in the original recipe, it still has quite a bit of oil in my granola recipe. I needed to find a way for the sweetener to bind with the oats. I decided to try egg whites. That would keep it in E territory and add some much-needed protein to the recipe! (I eat it with 0% fat Greek yogurt for even more protein.)

Here's the recipe, in the rough. I plan on tweaking it some more but it wasn't bad for the first go round. I think it could stand to be a little sweeter and I might consider adding a teaspoon or two of coconut oil next time to help make it more "wet". I'd have to run the numbers to see how that would affect the fat grams. Gotta stay under 5 grams of fat to keep it an E!

No Fat Granola (E)

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
2 tablespoons nnsweetened coconut flakes
1 egg white (was a little dry, will try 2 next time)
1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
2 teaspoons truvia
dash of Kal stevia extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spray a baking pan with Pam. Mix first two ingredients together. Mix egg white through vanilla extract in a bowl. Pour over dry mix. Spread out in a pan and bake, 30 minutes, stirring every 10 mins.

Serving size: 1/2 cup

173 calories, 30 gr carbs, 4 gr fat, 7 gr protein.
With two egg whites: 179 calories, 30 gr carbs, 4 gr fat, 8 gr protein.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Years ago, I ran out of pumpkin pie spice. I took a peek at the ingredients list and realized I already had everything in my pantry. So I had an idea! I could make my own!

I found a recipe for pumpkin pie in a cookbook that didn't call for pumpkin pie spice. Rather, it had all the separate spices listed. I used that for my ratios, increased them and voila'! I had created my own spice mixture!

Below is the recipe in case you want to create your own! I like to add several dashes to my coffee grounds in the morning to make a tasty (not artificial) latte in the mornings!

(photo credit Anna DelCharco)

Pumpkin Pie Spice

2 T cinnamon
1T ginger
1T allspice
1Tnutmeg
1/2 t cloves

Mix well. Store in a cute jar. Because that's just fun! Don't forget to label it!

Coconut Chicken Curry

I had a taste for curry tonight. Coconut curry to be exact. But my favorite recipe site didn't have what I was looking for. I didn't have any curry paste on hand, only powder. So I went searching. I ended up blending this recipe with this one and came up with my own. Here it is if you want to give it a try. I don't want to forget what I did so I'm going to Pin It in order to be able to make it again! Below is the recipe, the way I made it.

Ingredients:

Olive oil (about 1 T)
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cups cauliflower florets
2 T grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, pressed through a garlic press
1-2 thai chilis or 1 large pinch cayenne pepper
2 t cumin seed
1T curry powder
2 tomatoes, chopped (can use canned with some juice)
green, red or yellow pepper, diced
1/4 - 1/2 cup water (depending on how juicy the tomatoes are)
salt to taste
1-2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1/4 in cubes
1/2 can (14 oz) coconut milk
2 T sugar

1. Heat oil in a 12 in skillet.

2. Add onion, garlic, ginger and chilis. Cook until it begins to brown, about 5 mins.

3. Add cumin seed and curry. Stir to combine, 30 seconds.

4. Add cauliflower and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly about 1 min.
5. Add chopped tomatoes with juice, water, salt and peppers.

At this point, I decided to cook the chicken in a separate skillet as I wanted to brown it first and not just boil it in the sauce. Then I added the cooked chicken to the pan with the veggies. After a few minutes I added the 1/2 can of coconut milk and sugar and let it simmer on very low until the rice was finished cooking.

I served it over jasmine rice. This would be great with some cilantro, but since I didn't have any I had to leave it out. It's still very yummy!

Making pizza!

We love homemade pizza and bread! I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer and used it often, with the dough hook, to make pizza dough. But then I discovered no-knead dough, and it's even easier! It only takes 4 ingredients, a bowl and a spoon. How much easier do you need, right? And better yet, with the same dough you can make delicious artisan bread, the kind with a thick crust and chewy center. Want to know how? Keep reading!

Artisan Bread

Makes 4 1-poundloaves.  This recipe is easily doubled or halved.

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast ( 1 1/2 packets)

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Cornmeal for pizza peel

Mixing and storing the dough:

1.       Mix the yeast and salt with the water in a 5-quart mixing bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2.       Mix in the remaining dry ingredients without kneading, using a spoon. You may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3.       Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at roomtemperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4.       The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold.  Refrigerate in a lidded(not airtight) container and use over the next 14 days.

To Make Bread - On Baking Day:

1.       Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough withflour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit sized) piece.  Dust with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go.  Allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 40 minutes.

2.       Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450ºF, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack.  Place an empty broiler tray (or aluminum pie plate) on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the baking bread.

3.       Sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and slash a cross, scallop, or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.  Leave the flour in place for baking; tap some of it off before slicing.

4.       Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone.  Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door.  Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top crust is deeply browned and firm.  Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time. Allow to cool before slicing and eating. (I tried a larger loaf and it didn't cook well. The outside was VERY done but the inside was wet. Better to keep them smaller.)

Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out! Buon appetito!

Homemade Christmas Presents

I like to try to make gifts to give whenever possible. It just feels a little more special to have made something for someone. Is is just me?

Tomorrow is our last day of co-op so I needed to come up with something to make for my children's teachers. I thought about baking something but this is such a rough time of year for trying to keep weight off that I didn't want my gift to end up being a curse rather than a blessing! So I had to come up with something else.

I had bought some cute bags and little wooden scoops from Pick Your Plum. I had pinned several receipes for a salt or sugar scrub but these are all made with oil and I didn't think my little bags would hold up. I wanted something dry, so I hopped on Pinterest and searched for bath salts. I found several different recipes but I based mine on was this one. I made up my own version, however. Here are the ingredients I used:

2 cups epsom salts
1 cup baking soda
lavendar flowers
chamomile tea mix

I mixed the salts with the soda and added a small jar (think McCormick's) of lavendar flowers that I had bought years ago for a project Annie wanted to do but never did. They smell so good! Gave that a good mix. That filled two bags but I needed to make more and didn't have enough of the flowers so I had to come up with something else.

I had seen a recipe for a tea soak and thought about adding some black Chinese tea leaves I had. But then I ran across a jar I had of Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea. It's my favorite tea! Tastes great and smells wonderful as well! At my husband's work they have a Keurig with an assortment of teas. No one was drinking the Sleepytime (who wants to be sleepy at work, right?) so my husband brought the K cups home to me. I had opened them up and poured them into a jar (we don't have a Keurig) and was planning on using it as loose tea. However, I sacrificed my tastebuds and added it to my second batch. I just added the Sleepytime tea to the salts/soda mixture and gave it a good stir.

Then I bagged them up in the little bags with a peek-a-boo window, tied on a little wooden scoop (also from Pick Your Plum) with green and red ribbon (that I had bought on clearance last Christmas at JoAnn's). I'm so happy with the way they turned out!

Cute, festive, useful and calorie-free! Merry Christmas teachers! I appreciate what you do for my children!

Crockpot: Asian flavored chicken

I came up with this easy yet TASTY recipe (again, no picture! sorry!) which we served over rice. Man was it good.

Place chicken pieces (I used legs) in a crockpot. Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, 2 pressed garlic cloves, grate some fresh ginger (I keep it in the freezer which also makes grating really easy), mirin. Cook on low for 7 hours, stirring a few times throughout the cooking time so that the chicken on top gets into the liquid.

Chicken will fall off the bone. You can thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch/water mixture. I didn't but it would make a nice thicker sauce.

Chicken Legs in Wine Sauce

I needed an easy chicken recipe the other night so I was trolling through my favorite website, My Recipes when I found this recipe. The flavors were wrong for what I needed, so I decided to swap out some ingredients and come up with my own version. It came out great! (Sorry I don't have a picture...we dug in and there was nothing left!)

Chicken in Wine Sauce

Slice an onion and a pepper (I had a cubanelle but any green/red pepper would do or you could even leave it out as the original recipe does) and saute' in olive oil in a non-stick pan for 3 mins. Remove from pan. In the meantime, create the following spice mixture:

1 t onion powder
1 t garlic salt
1 t summer savory
1/2 t paprika

Sprinkle on chicken legs (or any other cut) and cook in pan, browning on all sides.

Add 1/2 cup red wine and 2 T red wine vinegar. Bring to a boil. Add 1 cup chicken broth (or water mixed with bouillon which is what I did). Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins. This makes a nice sauce which would be great over rice or mashed potatoes.

Peach Blackberry Cobbler

I'm still on a cooking spree with all the produce I bought at the farmer's market yesterday. Today I canned more banana peppers and 3 jars of petite diced tomatoes. I cooked up another batch of oven roasted cherry tomato pasta. But the best thing I made today was the cobbler. I'm not sure why it's called a cobbler because I think of it more as a crisp. A cobbler has a more dough-y topping whereas a crisp has a streusel and this is definitely a streusel. Whatever you wanna call it, it's so tasty!

Start by assembling the topping. The recipe says it needs to sit for 20 mins. I reduced the butter by 2 tablespoons to lighten it up a little. Letting it sit did allow for the dry stuff to get all wet.

Then add your cut peaches (I didn't bother peeling mine because the skin has fiber! But some people don't like the way the skin feels when they eat it.) to a pan with sugar, flour and nutmeg. The recipe said to cook for 6 minutes but I didn't let mine cook that long. It was pretty dry and I was afraid it would burn. I'm not even sure why this step is even in the recipe. In other crisps I've made you add those ingredients to the fruit and place it in the baking pan. I think I'll try it that way next time. It may need to bake a bit longer but that's ok with me! One less sticky pan to clean!

Spoon the fruit into a baking dish. The recipe called for a 9 inch square pan but I had increased the amount of peaches so I used a 9 by 13.

 Sprinkle the streusel topping over the fruit. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Alas, we were out of vanilla ice cream. It would have been PERFECT with that but I did have whipped cream and so I added a squirt of that. Hubby judged it the BEST cobbler I'd made in a while (it HAS been a while since I made ANY cobbler!) I had to concur. The kids are off doing charity work. We'll see what their opinion is when they get home. Below is my adaptation of the Southern Living recipe. If you try it, let me know what you think!


I still have some blackberries left. I think tomorrow I am going to try a blackberry, strawberry, cherry crisp. Stay tuned!

************

• STREUSEL
• 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 6 tblsp butter
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• FILLING
• 6 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (about 6 large)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups fresh blackberries

1. 1. Prepare Streusel: Stir together sugar and butter in a large bowl; place in microwave and heat, stirring every 15 seconds until butter is melted. Add salt, flour and almonds, and stir until blended. Let stand 20 minutes or until dry mixture is wet through.
2. 2. Meanwhile, prepare Filling: Preheat oven to 375°. Stir together peaches and next 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and boil, stirring occasionally, about 5 mins or less or until juices have thickened. Remove from heat, and spoon peaches into a lightly greased 9-by-13 inch glass baking dish.  Top with blackberries then sprinkle streusel topping over hot peach mixture.
3. 3. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.
4. 
   

Melanzane al funghetto

Yesterday I told you about my trip to the farmer's market and all the produce I bought. With the tomatoes I made this dish also using eggplant from my garden.

This is what I picked from my garden after being gone for a week. The tomatoes are wonderful but the plants are all dead. Too much rain!

Anyways...what do you like to make with eggplant? Most people know about eggplant parmigiana. I never make that. It has melted cheese and I don't like melted cheese. But I *LOVE* this dish! It's pretty easy but not super good for you because the eggplant is fried. In oil.

Then drained on paper towels. When it's all done frying, remove most of the oil, leaving just a little bit in the bottom. Add a clove of garlic to the oil (I like to press mine in a garlic press but you can leave it whole and then remove it once it's lightly browned.)

Then add chopped fresh tomatoes. Canned will work in a pinch, but fresh is always best. Oops. The steam off the tomatoes messed up the picture. You get the idea...

Let the tomatoes cook about 10 mins, then add the eggplant back in and mix it all together gently. Add salt to taste and some fresh basil leaves. All done! Buon appetito!