Peaches, Cream, & Summer Oh My!

I love Peaches! Especially during hot summer days.  

If I were a fruit I would most likely be a peach.  

Nothing is better than Peaches and Ice-Cream, especially on warm summer nights.

Another thing I love is French Food, especially French baking.

I would live and work in Paris as a baker if I could...chocolate, butter, fruit, custards...

just sayin'

What if I told you that you could make a traditional French dessert effortlessly.

Impress your man, your momma, or your nosy neighbor...

Wanna try it? You know you want to.

Get to the store and get your peach on!

PEACH CLAFOUTI {kla-foo-TEE}

Recipe adapted from Juila Child

"Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

Ingredients

-1 tablespoon butter, softened

-1/2 cup sugar, divided

-2 cups peach slices

-3 large eggs, room temperature

-1 cup heavy cream

-6 tablespoons all purpose flour

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1/2 teaspoon almond extract

-1 teaspoon lemon zest

-1/4 teaspoon salt

Confectioners' sugar

Make it

1) Preheat Oven to 350*

2) Butter a 10 inch baking dish; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar evenly over bottom and sides of dish

3) Peel and Slice peaches...(I actually leave some skin n some of the slices for color and texture)

4) Arrange peaches in a concentric circle over bottom of prepared dish. 

5) In the container of a blender, add: eggs, cream, four, extracts, zest, salt, and remaining sugar; process until well blended.

6) Pour batter over peaches, and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

*Serve warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar or serve with scoop of fresh vanilla ice-cream on top!

Summer Squash Tart with Cornmeal Crust

     I am often looking for recipes that don't require too much culinary skill, look beautiful, and are absolutely scrumptious! I found exactly that in this Summer Squash Tart. I recently baked 3 of them for a Bridal Shower I co-hosted. It is an excellent dish that can be made ahead, frozen, and perfect for a luncheon or picnic. For the shower we plated the individual size portions on top of  a mixed greens salad (lightly dressed with Champagne Vinaigrette, salt & pepper). Then placed a mint and basil fruit Kabob next to it. 

    One thing I always try to do with recipes is find ways to make the preparations easier. This helps when you have limited time to whip up something fantastic. Which is always the case when you have a 3 1/2 year old and a 6 month old at home! For this recipe I bought a package of pre-diced onions from the grocery store.  The original recipe called for only Swiss cheese, but Trader Joe's sells a pre-grated package of a Swiss and Gruyere mix that is superb, so I substituted 5 ounces of that instead. I also made the crust up the day before and put in ziploc bags in fridge, then brought to room temperature before I pressed into pans.

Summer Squash Tart with Cornmeal Crust (recipe adapted from Paula Deen's Best Dishes 

July/August 2010 issue)

Ingredients 

Crust Preparation

1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon dried dill

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

2 egg yolks

3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

To prepare crust:

1) Preheat oven to *350

2) In the work bowl of a food processor, add flour, cornmeal, salt, dill, and baking powder; pulse to combine

3)Add butter; process until mixture is crumbly.

4) Add egg yolks; process until combined.

5)With processor running, add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. 

6) Press dough into bottom and up sides of a greased 11x8 inch rectangular removable bottom tart pan. Bake for 15 min!

Squash Filling

1/4 cup butter

4 cups thinly sliced zucchini (about 3-4 medium)

4 cups thinly sliced yellow squash (about 3-4 medium)

1 cup chopped yellow onion

2  1/2 ounces grated Swiss cheese

2  1/2 ounces grated Gruyere cheese

1 (5-ounce) package grated Parmesan cheese

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon dried dill

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

To prepare filling:

1)In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat.

2) Add onion and saute for 8 to 10 minutes or until soft and translucent. Then add zucchini and squash, saute for another 8 minutes until tender.

3) Remove squash, and drain on several paper towels for 15 minutes.

4) In a large bowl, stir together cheeses, egg, salt, dill, and pepper. 

5) Add squash, and gently stir. Spoon Squash Filling evenly into prepared crust.

6) Bake 35-40 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool and cut into squares.

Can be made a day ahead and re-heated in a *300 for 15  minutes or so.

This recipe received rave reviews and I will definitely be adding it to my permanent recipe book. Let me know how yours turns out!

Enjoy!

Beachy-Keen!

If you go to the Beach at all during the summer then you know that sand is just part of the deal! When your ready to come home though, if your anything like me, you would rather leave the sand at the beach.  We all know sand and sunscreen are like two lost lovers. They stick together so perfectly, that even rinsing off just doesn't cut it. That is where my secret weapon comes in......Baby Powder! Yep you heard right, Baby Powder is the best sand remover ever. Any beach going momma needs a container of it in her beach bag. It is most necessary for removing that stubborn sand that clings in the rolls and crevices of those cute beachy babies and toddlers. Just towel dry off your love bug, and then sprinkle on the baby powder over the sandy area and brush it off, the sand brushes off almost magically! Remember to towel dry off first, because wet skin, sand, and baby powder do not mix. It's not just for kids though, I use this trick for my feet before I jump in the car, and on my hubby too! Who can argue with the baby soft skin that follows.     So the next time you take a trip to the beach, remember the Baby Powder! I would love to hear if you found this tip useful.

Happy Beach Going!

Green Tips

  OK all you Swiffer people out there! Have I got a tip for you! In fact it's such a genius idea I came up with that I should call the company and tell them about it. For now I will just share with you. I am about to save you some serious cash and help the environment too!

   Here's the deal. If you own a Swiffer Wet-Jet..which most homes in America do, then you probably buy the costly disposable pads that stick to the bottom via Velcro. Then throw them in the trash to head to our landfill! Well I discovered that you can buy a reusable micro fiber pad that sticks right to the bottom of the Wet-Jet just like the disposable ones, but when done you throw this one in the wash.  It's so easy and simple! Plus it cleans better too!

                 The pad is by Method Home (see pic below) *Sometimes Target will have these in stock.

   

One pad usually last about 6-8 months, depending on how much you use/mop your floors. My whole kitchen gets done 1x a week and then for the occasional clean-ups. The cost of this product online without shipping is $6.00. The cost of a box of Swiffer Wet Jet pads is roughly $8.00 for 12 or 

$12.00 for 24. *these were prices found at Walmart.

This is an easy, no fuss way to "Go-Green" and it doesn't take a lot of effort.

Happy Cleaning!

A Photograph is only as good as the person taking it!

Everyone wants to take great pics of their kiddos am I right? Recently I purchased a new camera. I thought I wanted one of those fancy DSLR types, so I could take professional style pics on my own. After countless hours of internet research I headed to Ritz Camera store to take inventory on what was available. I am here to tell you that 1. A DSLR will not fit nicely into your Diaper bag! ( it practically needs it's own bag!) 2. If you don't have a whole uninterrupted week to read the manual you won't really know how to use it. 3. Lastly... unless your a professional photographer you really don't need a DSLR to take great pictures.

So what did I leave with? I discovered a whole new arena of cameras called "bridge" cameras. These are cameras that have auto and manual settings. So when and if I get the time to take a photography class then I can manually adjust the aperture settings and etc, but in the meantime it has auto settings that are better than your traditional point and shoot. These cameras boast a longer zoom, anti shake, multiple picture shots (meaning it will take up 10 shots in 5 seconds) which means your bound to get somethinguseable!

Even so a picture is only as good as the person taking it. So what to do, so you don't get those boring staged family photos every time? Well I have been following the tips from "Photography with Kristen Duke" she is doing a series of tips for the blog: "The Idea Room". One of the first tips I played around with is lighting. Below is a picture of my daughterI took without much thought about lighting, she was pulled into the room with the window light behind her.

See how there is a shadow on her face, I can't see her eyes or her cute face very well.

In the next shot, I turned her into the light. Rotated her just a bit and Pow! She comes to life!

It's almost as if there is a flash, but it's just simple daylight coming in through the doors. Granted her face also turned towards me, but you can see how much more light the photo has. Before I read Kristen Duke's posts and tips I would not have changed her position, and I would have ended up with the first shot as my only shot and been not so happy. So next time you take a picture, think about the lighting! Also check out Kristen Duke's tips at : "The Idea Room"! Happy Photos!