Sign of a good recipe

Want to know the sign of a good recipe? Your mom calls and offers to send you her recipe before realizing she got the recipe from you. So on to some recipes...

I found a link on Twitter to a peach cupcake recipe from smittenkitchen, and she recommended cutting the sugar and the icing and treating them as muffins. They turned out great, just the right amount of peach. Here's the recipe:

Peach muffins

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups full-fat yogurt (or buttermilk or sour cream) 
• 3 large peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped smallish (1/3-inch dice)

 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 28 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition, and then the vanilla. Gently mix in the yogurt. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the peach chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

And here's another good peach recipe from Southern Living: Peach enchiladas.

I had okra from my share and needed a side dish for a Fourth of July picnic, here's what I made from AllRecipes:

Un-Slimy Okra

• 1/2 pound fresh okra, cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• olive oil
• kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
• garlic powder to taste
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs 

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Place the okra and tomatoes in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Stir until the vegetables are coated with oil. Add the panko bread crumbs and stir. Spread the vegetables on to a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and the okra is lightly browned.

Back in the kitchen

I don't even know what happened last week. It just felt like life took over, and the blog took a backseat. But after a fun trip to a women's conference and some much needed rest, I got to spend most of Sunday in the kitchen. Something I was actually looking forward to.

I tried a couple of new recipes, so I wanted to get them posted.

In my pickup this week, I got some beautiful tomatoes. Lately I've been feeling like my tomatoes have gone to waste, and my sister suggested a tomato pie. My mom sent me her recipe, and it turned out pretty well. Here's the recipe:

Tomato Pesto Tart

• 1 sheet package refrigerated pie crust (I used one of my pie crusts from this recipe that's been in my freezer.)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 5-6 plum/roma tomatoes, sliced (One large tomato thinly sliced works, too.)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbs. jarred Pesto (I used my homemade pesto.)
• 1/2 tsp. ground pepper
• 1 Tbs. fresh basil, chopped

Fit piecrust into a lightly greased 9 inch tart pan, trim off excess piecrust along edges. Prick bottom of crust with a fork.
Bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with 1 cup mozzarella, let stand 15 minutes. Arrange tomato slices over cheese.
Stir together mayo, next 3 ingredients, and remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Spread mixture evenly over tomato slices.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil.

For the first time in a few months, I didn't have anything in my freezer to pull out for breakfast. I finished my last peach scone Sunday morning, so I had to come up with something to eat this week.

My peaches were a little rough this week, and I figured the best way to use them before they were unusable was to put them in something. I found this simple peach muffin recipe in a Google search. It reminds me of my zucchini bread recipe, and it tastes good but the peaches don't have a strong flavor. I got white peaches this week (at least that's what I think they are), so that may have something to do with it. But the muffins taste good to me.

Peach muffins
    •    3 cups all-purpose flour
    •    1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
    •    1 teaspoon baking soda
    •    1 teaspoon salt
    •    1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
    •    3 eggs, lightly beaten
    •    2 cups white sugar
    •    2 cups peeled, pitted, and chopped peaches

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 16 muffin cups. (Mine made about 2 dozen medium muffins.)
In a large bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, eggs, and sugar. Stir the oil mixture into the flour mixture just until moist. Fold in the peaches. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.
Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

I'm looking forward to a quiet week, and maybe even more time in the kitchen. I've got some green beans and peppers I need to do something with.

A drop of golden sun...

One of the advantages of moving here last summer was getting to be within two hours of my best friend from high school. This is the closest we've lived since I graduated from high school, and it's so great to be able to visit each other for a weekend or even meet halfway to catch up in person.

The Sound of Music gave her an excuse to visit this weekend. The musical is part of series performed here in the summers. I'm not sure why or how, but it was an excellent production with very talented actors who could sing!

In addition to the play, we got to go peach picking with some friends. I had found a recipe that used the last of my blueberries and peaches, and since I hadn't gotten peaches in my share last week, I was willing to pick a couple of pounds to try some recipes. I also found some tips on pitting a peach that I have found to be successful. 

It turns out the lack of rain has meant smaller peaches, and they were still a bit hard but they are starting to ripen and taste pretty good. And my peach and blueberry muffins turned out pretty well.

(And yes, I do a lot of fruit picking here. I missed cherries but will soon have apples to pick. Come visit and with the exeception of winter, there will be fruit to pick.)

Since I've started getting my shares, I haven't been eating out as much. But having a visitor gave me a good excuse to eat out. And I found that the co-op has changed my eating out habits as well. We went to a sandwich place and I got the same sandwich I got last fall, but this time I didn't pick off the cucumbers. (The red onions and sprouts did have to go though.) And then we went to a restaurant for dinner that is known for making all of their dishes with local ingredients. Normally, I would have ordered a salad or chicken, both with ingredients that pass my pickiness test. But this time I ordered one of the day's specials (this never happens). It was veggie pasta with spinach and zucchini, and it was amazing. It also made me miss my zucchini and spinach.

Anyway it was great to get to hang out with such a good friend and enjoy what turned out to be a great weather weekend!