Killer Peach Cobbler

I have a new, favorite peach cobbler recipe. I've been looking for a good one for years. Peach cobbler is hard to get right because the peaches are just so darn juicy (yum, right?) It's hard to get a topping that balances the filling out just right. Finally found one. I've made it 3 times now, and it works great every time. But (there is always a but, right?) it is NOT low sugar. In fact, it has lots of sugar. And white flour. And frankly, I'm not really interested in making it healthier. I only make peach cobbler a few times a year, because I think peach cobbler with canned peaches isn't worth the effort. I'd rather have apple if I have to use preserved fruit. I only make it during peach season. Given all that, I've decided to call it Killer Peach Cobbler. I promise it's not good for you. I promise you'll love it.

Killer Peach Cobbler

peaches, peeled and sliced, enough to fill your pan at least halfway
1 package yellow cake mix (I actually used lemon today. Yummy.)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cut in 16 pieces
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans because I have a pecan tree. Use whatever you love.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layer ingredients in order in a 10x14 baking dish (I like the dish larger than the 9x13 because it allows the cake mix to cover more area with a thinner layer. I felt like the 9x13 gave me too much topping for the fruit. Use what you have.) Bake about 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold, with whipped cream or ice cream.

Peaches:
Cake mix:Butter:
Brown sugar:Nuts:

Wilted Spinach Salad with Candied Pepper Bacon

I love this salad. I know it has too much sugar in it. (Any sugar in a salad is probably too much.) But as an occasional treat, it's fabulous.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Candied Pepper Bacon

8 slices bacon
2-1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

Bake bacon topped with brown sugar and pepper ~22 minutes in a 400 degree oven, until crisp. Cool and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Reserve grease.

12 oz. baby spinach
1 medium apple, cored and chopped
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped (or wedged)

Toss in a large serving bowl with the bacon. In a separate microwave-safe bowl combine:

3 tsp. apple cider vinegar
4 tsp. dijon mustard
salt and pepper
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. bacon drippings

Mix until well blended. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, until bubbly. Toss to coat salad and serve immediately. Enjoy.

Summer Salsa

I got a request for this salsa recipe, which always surprises me a bit, because it seems so simple to make salsa. I sometimes forget that I've been cooking (really cooking, and not just helping) for around 25 years now, so things that seem easy may only be so because of my experience. So here is my salsa recipe. Feel free to adjust the ingredients to what you have on hand.

Russ’s Salsa

1 large onion
3 serrano peppers
2 jalapeno peppers
1 t. chopped garlic
1 1/2 t. salt
3 large tomatoes

Prepare vegetables for salsa by removing onion skin, seeding peppers, and removing stems from tomatoes. Cut the items into manageable pieces. In a hand food chopper (rotary type), mix/chop onion, peppers, garlic and salt (be careful if you use a food processor, or you could end up with soup). When well chopped, remove to large bowl and chop tomatoes in chopper. When well chopped, add to pepper mixture and stir together. Flavor improves with a few hours sitting (in the fridge). I do not use cilantro in my recipe, as Russ hates it, but feel free to add a couple of sprigs, chopped, if you like it. Also - this recipe makes HOT salsa. If you want milder salsa, use milder peppers instead of jalapenos and serranos. If you like hotter, try a habanero or two. Zowie!

Tips: Use rubber gloves to prepare the hot peppers, and then discard. I usually only need one for my left hand (the one not holding the knife).

I made salsa with the pictured ingredients from the garden the other day. It turned out so pretty, with all the colors. Delicious, too.

Summer Salads

This is one of my favorite summer salads. Unfortunately, no ones else in my family likes it, so when I make it I have to eat it alone. Perhaps I will make it for picnic in the park next week. It's a great way to use up tomatoes and onions, which are often in abundance.

Tomato Crouton Salad

• 3 large tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped (I prefer a sweet onion, but use your favorite)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley or basil
• 2 cups croutons
• 2 Tbsp. Italian dressing

Toss tomatoes and onions and parsley with the dressing. Just before serving, add croutons and toss again. Serve immediately. (The croutons get soft quickly, so don't add them until the last minute possible.) So yummy! And easy. And I'm all about easy.

Anything Goes Muffins

This is a recipe I got from a friend, Jenny Chamberlain. It's a lovely recipe because it's so versatile. I have adjusted her original recipe, found here, for my humongous family and for the sweeteners that I use. Today I used vanilla yogurt and applesauce as the 2 c of anything. I also threw together a quick streusel topping (sorry, no recipe on that) to make them even more yummy. They were delicious.

Anything Goes Muffins

Preheat oven to 375.
4 c. flour (I like 2 c. white, 1 c. w/w, and 1 c. oats)
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. powdered stevia
1/2 c. sucanat
1/4 c. molasses
2 c. Anything (moist - such as bananas, shredded carrots, pumpkin...)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1-1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. oil

Sift dry ingredients. Mix all wet ingredients. Stir wet into dry just enough to moisten. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes. Makes 24 large muffins.

The real versatility of muffins lies in the plethora of moist ingredients you could use (the "Anything" of the recipe.) A favorite is 1 c. shredded zucchini and 1 c. cranberry sauce. Another fun idea would be peanut butter and banana. Or strawberry/banana, or applesauce/yogurt, or perhaps peaches/sour cream. How about squash muffins with some butterscotch morsels stirred in. Ooooh, and pumpkin/cranberry would be really good. Enjoy!!

(Here is a pre-cooking photo. I was going to be sure to take a finished product photo, but the kids ate them too quickly.)

Juicy roasted chicken

I have recently discovered that I can, indeed, roast a chicken. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that until a few months ago, I had never roasted an entire chicken before. It just seemed so advanced, so grown-up. Well, after becoming educated about how chickens are generally raised for slaughter (in horrendous conditions and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics) I had just about quit eating chicken altogether. I missed it. Chicken is so good, and healthy. Then I discovered that Costco carries a brand of chicken called Coleman's Natural that is organic, antibiotic and hormone-free, and that are fed no animal by-products. It's expensive, though. Really expensive. As one would expect, the full chickens are the cheapest per pound. So I needed to learn to either cook a full chicken or cut up a raw chicken. I went with the former. And guess what I discovered? It's easy. Really easy. Who knew? (Probably lots of people, actually, but not me.) I picked up a simple recipe from Allrecipes.com and made a few tweaks, and I couldn't be happier. Delicious, moist chicken. We always roast 2 at a time, one for eating and the other to cut up for other recipes. Finally, I am a real grown-up cook. (Don't tell anyone, but I've never roasted a turkey either. Maybe now I can take a stab at it. How hard can it be?)


Juicy Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, giblets removed.
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup butter
1 stalk celery, cut in sticks
1/2 of a lemon, quartered,
1/2 of a small onion, quartered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in roasting pan (a square Pyrex dish works great) and season inside and out with salt and pepper (be very generous). Place 3 Tablespoons of the butter in the chicken cavity. Then stuff the chicken with the celery sticks, the lemon and onion wedges. Arrange the remaining butter, sliced into pats, on the outside of the chicken (see photo below). Bake chicken for 1 - 1/4 hour to 1 - 1/2 hour in the preheated oven. Remove from oven and baste with the drippings. Cover with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes before serving. Delish.

Homemade trail mix

Yesterday I went shopping at Costco for the month's groceries, and when we got home, we made trail mix. We like to make our own trail mix here, for a couple of reasons. 1: It's significantly cheaper, even if you use the same ingredients, which we don't. 2: You can personalize it. I will not give you a recipe here, because I like to think anyone capable of reading this blog is capable of figuring out what they want in their trail mix. But I will give you some ideas.

Costco trail mix, which is my inspirational basis, has peanuts, almonds, cashews, raisins, and m&m's. It's a very basic mix, but good enough to have it's own facebook fan page. (These day, I wonder if that actually means anything.) As we have no allergies in our house, we use peanuts for our base as well. We also add almonds (the bags of baking almonds at Costco are cheaper than the roasted almonds, and you could roast them if you wanted to, but I leave mine raw.) We grow our own pecans, so they go in as well. Cheapo, and yummy. I have several in my family who do not like cashews, so I don't put them in. (I just buy them and eat them myself.) For the sweet, we put in raisins and Craisins. The Craisins add a bit of color, and they're well-priced at Costco. I don't want m&m's, because they're a bit pricey, and total sugar. I do like the sweet ingredient, though, so we also add chocolate covered raisins to ours. Finally, we add some sort of cracker-y thing. Pretzel sticks are great, or cheese nips. Whatever you like and find on sale. This month I splurged and bought goldfish to go in. That will drive the price up, but the kids thought I was a very cool mama. The trick to making it cheaper is to look at the per ounce price (so conveniently figured out for you at Costco. Use a calculator anywhere else.) If the per ounce price of the ingredient is lower than the per ounce price of pre-made trail mix, you're saving money. There are a lot of other ingredients you could add, if you liked. I've though of a few for future use: shredded coconut, gummy bears or Swedish fish, yogurt covered pretzels, sunflower seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds, skittles, cheese balls...the possibilities are vast. Good luck with yours. Once you get it made, the real trick is to keep it from disappearing too fast.