Tag Archives: Peaches

Betsy’s Famous Black Bean Mango Salad

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With such a fiesta of color, this dish just has to be good!

Why famous? Well, it started many years ago when I was making pottery and taking classes on a regular basis at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center.

I specialized in handbuilding and loved to Raku-fire pots outdoors. At the end of each quarter, we would have a party, appropriately named “pot luck raku.” Each person brought a dish to share. We’d set the food out on long tables outdoors next to the raku kilns and eat, drink wine, fire pots, pull them out of the kilns at red hot temperature and throw them in the sawdust to absorb the smoke! There were some amazing dishes—both from a food and a pottery perspective—that showed up at these events, and I have such fond memories of these times. It was at one of these parties that I first tasted the dish Fesenjan, the Persian chicken and pomegranate stew, as well as some other worldly delights. Continue reading →

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A Star Spangled Cherry Berry Peach Crumble

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The 4th of July all wrapped up in a dessert. Happy Independence Day!

As Independence Day in the U.S. rolls rapidly towards us in the form of our annual July 4th celebration, it only seems appropriate to share a festive recipe to go along with all the fireworks! This traditional and delightful dessert is a rift on one that I make all the time and in many forms, because it’s a favorite of mine and it has universal adult and kid appeal.

I am, of course, speaking of the fruit concoction known by many names…cobbler, crisp or crumble. By definition, this version can be called either a crisp or a crumble, and it’s quite versatile in terms of the fruits you can use. For the patriotic colors and for the mix of sweet-tart flavors, I chose a combination of peaches, cherries and blueberries, but any mixture of fruits you enjoy together will work. You can feel free to substitute blackberries or raspberries for cherries (as you’ll see in my baking dish version), omit blueberries or use all of one fruit. In the winter months, for those of you in winter right now, I make a variation of this with apples using orange zest and adding a bit of lemon juice, and sometimes I throw in some walnuts or pecans into the crumbled topping. Continue reading →

Three dishes to Celebrate!

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“Three more recipes…what’s going on here? Why not break this up into three posts if posting more than once a week is a problem? Is she crazy?”

Yes, I can hear the thoughts and no, I can’t blame you for thinking them. But you see, there’s cause to celebrate. Have you figured it out from the photo yet?

That’s right, it’s my 100th post!

Thank you all for being with me on this wonderful blogging journey so far, and for reading and commenting. Your dialog with me via comments was, and is, one of the things I love the best about blogging and I hope you’ll be with me for the next 100 posts, to infinity and beyond, and continue to chat with me, share your experiences, thoughts and feedback. Continue reading →

Two Taco Tango: How One Thing Leads to Another

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A two taco tango. These lively and loaded vegetarian tacos tick off all the flavor boxes! The cool plate is by the talented local clay artist, Gwen Fryer.

During last weekend’s holiday cookout involving the peach ice cream for dessert, our friends brought over some fantastic homemade pico de gallo that featured heirloom tomatoes, mango and mint. It was so delicious and such a nice blend of flavors that a desire for more haunted me into this week. And of course, I had peaches on hand and needed to use them. Continue reading →

Just Peachy: A Holiday Weekend and Possibly the Best Peach Ice Cream Ever!

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Luscious homemade peach ice cream. I mean really, can there be anything better than this? (A daylight picture perhaps?)

For those of us in the United States, we are celebrating Memorial Day today and, whether you are here or abroad, I hope you all have had a lovely and safe weekend. Memorial Day is a day set aside in our country to honor those in the United States Armed Forces who have given their lives and their service in defense of our country and our allies, and I bow my head to those brave men and women. Today many memorials are taking place around the country in the form of parades, the laying of wreathes and tributes. Continue reading →

A Very Short Little Peach Cake

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Peaches! We have them…the first of the season from south Georgia, and boy are they a welcome sight. It seems like forever since peaches were in season, and now at last they’ve arrived, even a bit early, like everything this year.

After the first week of eating them in a few juicy bites, or with some Greek yogurt and granola, I began to calm down once I realized that these were early peaches and we should have peaches for a while to come. And that’s when I started thinking about baking. Now, I don’t bake a lot…mainly because there are just two of us and, well, if I make it, we will eat it…rapidly and until no crumbs remain. But peaches do inspire me to start trying some new ideas.

My first thought was something cake-y. More so than a crisp or a cobbler, but maybe more versatile than a muffin. I love shortcakes…why not combine the idea of fruit and shortcake into one…besides the fact that I’ve never seen it done? And hence the result: a very short little peach cake! Continue reading →

We’re Jammin’

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Each year I see all these wonderful recipes for canned goodies—homemade pickles, relishes, chutney, jams, marmalades, conserves, preserves, jellies, sun-dried tomatoes—and I SO long to make my own and try them out, give them as gifts to friends, and have a bit of summer sunshine stored for my own winter pantry.

But there’s been a problem: contemplating the process has caused great fear and trepidation in my soul. Even though it’s one of the most common ways to preserve homegrown foods, and is quite a simple process handed down through generations of folks, I just have not been able to bring myself to attempt it. So why all the angst? In three words: sterilization, pasteurization and the worst thought of all, botulism. Doing anything connected with those words made me want to run in the opposite direction. Continue reading →