Broiled Summer Peaches

A friend of mine brought me a bag of peaches fresh from her orchard. Is there anything better than succulent peaches, juicy and ripe, and picked at their prime? I ate two for breakfast just as they are. Sweet and drippy and a little warm. So good.

For dinner, I felt a little more creative. I know, how can you improve on a perfect food? And maybe you can't, but you can certainly be different. Broiled Summer Peaches with goat cheese, honey, and pecans. Amazing. It can be an appetizer or a dessert. Or like me, just make it dinner.

If you want it to be a more savory appetizer you can slice the peaches on some fried slices of crusty french bread before you follow this recipe. You can top with a little less honey or a little more goat cheese to add to the savory idea. For dessert, you can add a bit more honey if you like your desserts sweet. Cinnamon would go well too. If you're not a goat cheese nut like me, you could try cream cheese instead. You could use other choices of nuts, as well. Walnuts, slivered almonds, pine nuts or pumpkin seeds would all taste wonderful.

Broiled Summer Peaches
INGREDIENTS
2 fresh, ripe peaches, halved, pit removed
4 tablespoons goat cheese
4 pecan halves
honey

1) Preheat broiler.
2) Place each halve on a broiler pan. Top each with 1 tablespoon of crumbled goat cheese and 1 pecan half chopped.
3) Broil until the cheese is melty, lightly browned and the nuts are toasted, about 15 minutes. The time is only a guess. Watch carefully; you don't the nuts to burn. 

4) Carefully remove the peaches from the broiler pan and plate. The skins may peel easily from the peach. Drizzle with a desired amount of honey, a little goes a long way. 

Serve. Makes four appetizer-sized servings or two dessert-sized servings. The peaches would also be fabulous served on a bed of baby arugula as a salad with a little light lemony dressing.

Broiled Summer Peaches

Monday Treats, Mini Cheesecakes

At my work, we all take turns bringing treats for the staff on Mondays. It's a nice way to ease ourselves back into the work week, a little something to look forward to on Monday. We are such a small staff we all have multiple turns to bring snacks.

This kind of thing is right up my alley. I love to cook (obviously if I have a food blog). But this year I am an empty-nester. Cooking for myself just isn't very fun. Monday treats provides an excuse to try out new recipes and not be the only one eating it.

These cheesecakes are super easy, only six ingredients. And they are light and fluffy, mildly sweet. They are
an excellent spring treat. They'd be great to take to a potluck.

Mini Cheesecakes

INGREDIENTS
12 vanilla wafers
2 8 oz packages of regular cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Desired topping such as cherry or other fruit pie filling, chocolate chips, pecans, any variety of jam, caramel, whipped cream, etc.

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place 12 foil cupcake cups in a cupcake pan.
2) Place 1 vanilla wafer in the bottom of each cup.

3) In a large electric mixer, place cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. (If you want you could also add lemon or orange vest for flavoring.) Beat together until well blended and smooth. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides.
4) Turn the mixer on medium and add one egg at a time. Blend until fully incorporated and smooth before adding the second egg.

5) Mix on medium high for another 2-3 minutes. 

6) Use a spoon to scoop the cream cheese batter to fill each foil cup about 3/4 of the way full. Share it out evenly between the 12 cups. 

If you are using chocolate chips, nuts, jam, or caramel topping, now is the time to add about 1 teaspoon to the top of each mini cheesecake. You can swirl in the jam or caramel a little with a toothpick. If you are using canned pie topping, as pictured above, or whipped cream save it until after the cheesecakes are cooked and cooled.
7) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Cheesecakes will puff up a lot. They will sink back in as they cool creating a perfect little divot for pie filling or whipped cream. Cool completely before topping with pie filling or whipped cream.

Easy Mini Cheesecakes

Monday Treats, Asian Chicken Salad

I love making new recipes. Often I come across a new recipe. Fix it. It turns out wonderful. And I never make it again. There's just so many recipes to try, there's not really time to make recipes more than once.

And then there are my reliable stand-bys. The recipes that I make over and over. The ones that I just have to have from time to time. This Asian Chicken Salad is just one of those recipes. About once a month, I eat Asian Chicken Salad. I have a wide range of variations I make. You can use lettuce or cabbage or both. You can make it with leftover grilled or roasted chicken breasts or thighs. I like to buy a cold rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to make it quick and easy. You can add cucumbers, snow peas, green onions, orange segments, bean sprouts, cooked ramen noodles, blanched broccoli florets. You can top with cilantro, mint, basil, ramen noodles, wonton strips, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts, chow mien noodles. The dressing can be store bought Asian style dressing. Or you can make your own with rice wine vinegar, canola oil, and sugar and any add-ins such as the flavoring packet from one package of ramen noodles, juice from canned mandarin orange segments, grated fresh ginger, lime zest, a few drops of sesame oil.

Here is a basic recipe for Asian Chicken Salad. Feel free to make any variation you like from it. Just think of your favorite flavor combination from any Chinese, Japanese, or Thai dish, and add those ingredients.

Asian Chicken Salad

INGREDIENTS
1 small Napa cabbage
1 small savoy cabbage
6 green onions
1/4 pound snow peas
1 grocery store rotisserie chicken
2 packages chicken flavored ramen noodles
(Save 1 flavoring packet)
1 cup slivered almonds

Dressing: 3/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup juice from canned mandarin oranges, 1 flavor packet from chicken flavored ramen noodles

1) Put all of the dressing ingredients into an empty, clean medium-sized jar. Shake well for 1 or 2 minutes until well blended.
2) Thinly slice Napa and savoy cabbages. Slice green onions and snow peas on the diagonal.






3) Take all of the chicken off of the bone from the rotisserie chicken. Dice.







4) You can toast the ramen noodles in a pan over medium heat until they start to turn light brown. Add the almonds at this point and toast a little longer until the almonds turn light brown as well. You don't have to do this step, but it does add a nice toasty flavor. Just be careful to stir a lot and watch the pan carefully. Ramen noodles and almonds can go from too light to way too toasted very quickly.
5) Add everything to a very large salad bowl. Give the dressing a good shake again. Pour over the salad and toss.

Asian Chicken Salad, delicious, versatile recipe