Peach Cake

I am a lover of fresh fruit. It's true. You put fresh fruit in front of me and I get super giddy.

Lately, Little Butt and I have been eating watermelon like nobody's business.

And let me tell you, eating that much watermelon at 7 1/2 months pregnant does not help in the bladder issue if you know what I mean.

But what can I do?? I love the stuff!!

I also love fresh cherries, apricots, kiwi, STRAWBERRY (my favorite) and, of course, peaches. What is your favorite fruit??

A few weeks ago, I picked up the June issue of Food Network magazine because it had a bunch of different hot dogs on the cover. If there is one food I can NEVER pass up, it's hot dogs. Especially straight off the grill. Just the bun and the dog and I'm happy.

Oh my gosh...focus! This is not about hot dogs. Silly girl!

This is about a thick, fluffy, coffee cake-esque, cake with sliced, fresh peaches. YUM!

Anyway. I was looking through the magazine and I came across this recipe for peach cake. I knew immediately I had to make it. I have baked with fresh peaches before and was more than excited to bake with them again. But this time, in cake form.

So I bought some peaches and the rest of the ingredients I didn't have...and time got away from me. My peaches started to turn and I ended up using them for something else.

But I still had this cake in the forefront of my mind so I bought peaches again. And this time I would not let them go without making this cake.

I am so glad I made this cake. It does taste like a coffee cake with sliced peaches strewn throughout it. It's both light and hearty. It can be enjoyed on a Sunday morning for brunch or a Tuesday evening as an after dinner treat.

If you want a taste of summer, I highly recommend you make this cake at your earliest convenience.

Let's bake!

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

Cream together your butter and 1 cup of the sugar.

Add your eggs and keep beating.

Now dump in the sour cream and vanilla; mix. (Please ignore the black specks...I'm using homemade bourbon vanilla a friend gave me for Christmas and I'm reaching the bottom of the jar where all the vanilla bean specks lie)

Now slowly mix in the dry ingredients.

In a separate, small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and remaining half cup of sugar.

Evenly spread half the batter into the bottom of your pan.

Layer with half the peaches.

And sprinkle 2/3 of the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the peaches.

Evenly spread the remaining half of the batter over the peaches. Be careful!

Then top with the rest of the peaches, cinnamon sugar and the pecans. Bake it up until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Pull it out, let it cool.

Then slice it up and serve it. Enjoy!!!

Peach Cake
Retrieved from Food Network

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Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x9 inch baking pan with baking spray.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, with the beater on medium high speed, cream together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. With the mixer on low, beat in the eggs, one at a time. 
5. Then mix in the sour cream and vanilla, mix until the batter is smooth.
6. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary, and mix until just combined.
7. In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.
8. In the pan, spread half the batter in an even layer. Top batter with half the peaches and 2/3 of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Carefully spread the leftover batter over the peach layer. Top with the remaining peaches, cinnamon sugar mixture and the pecans.
9. Bake the cake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool slightly or completely.
11. Slice, serve and enjoy!!!

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Okay y'all!

It's confession time...yet again.

I need to tell you something.....

The Hubble may not like this....

Here goes...

I may never leave Central Texas!!

The Hubble may not like this because that means his whole military career thing is going to become much more...interesting.

Surely he wouldn't mind if we didn't tag along all over the country/world with him right??

I mean, if it means that I have to go back to some place like the Middle of Nowhere Missouri...I'm sorry buddy, NO. CAN. DO!

Of course, he probably knows that I'm full of hot air because he knows I'd follow him to the ends of the Earth. Stupid love.

Oh well.

At least I can enjoy Texas for now.

Why am I so excited??

Because I found basil!!!!

And not just the dried stuff....or the occasional single use serving of the stuff.

No. I found BASIL!!!! Fresh basil! In bulk!

It was amazing.

And that means...I was able to make pesto! Woohoo!!

Not only that, but I got a wild hair and decided to roast my own peppers for said pesto.

And let me tell you, if you have never roasted your own peppers, you need to go grab some and get to it.

Roasting peppers is probably one of the most awesomely fun experiences I've ever had.

And it was easy too! How can you beat that??

I ended up making this pesto for a savory cheesecake that I will share with you next week.

But since I didn't use it all, I threw together some pasta that I'm going to share with you Thursday.

And you will NOT want to miss Thursday's post because this pasta was pretty much the best stuff I've ever made!!

Anyway. I guess I should stop waxing poetic about Texas and get on with the recipe right??

Here we go...

Ingredients: Fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, fresh Parmesan and red peppers.

Toss your peppers, one at a time, straight on the burner of your gas stove. If you don't have a gas stove, you can use a grill or your oven on broil (use the top most rack).

Continue to turn the peppers as they start to char. They will catch fire a bit but since they are so juicy, the fire doesn't really ignite. But please make sure you are wearing short sleeves and using tongs!

See how pretty and black they get??? Try to get as much of the pepper to blacken as you can.

Then immediately toss them into a large Ziploc baggie. Let the steam for about 20-30 minutes (I took a shower while mine were steaming).

When you are done with your shower or whatever you did while the peppers steamed, take them out of the bag and slip the char off the pepper using your hands or a paper towel. By now the black stuff should just slide right off the pepper. It's messy, but fun! And resist the temptation to rinse the pepper. The char gives it that extra roasty flavor.

Now chop off the tops and cut the peppers in half. Scrape out the seeds. Honestly, when the tops were chopped off, the juices and seeds poured right out of the pepper. There was minimal scraping required.

Now toss the roasted and cleaned out peppers into a food processor with all your other ingredients. Pulse a few times, then let her rip! Process until the entire thing is nice and smooth (scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Isn't it gorgeous??? I think pesto always needs a bit more cheese. Now, stop by on Thursday to check out the most AMAZING pasta that I've ever made. I'll give you a hint...this pesto has something to do with it!

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto
Retrieved from Cooking Light

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted (either throw these on a baking sheet in the oven or on a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring/shaking often, to toast)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 pounds red bell peppers (about 4 large), roasted and peeled

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth, scraping sides of processor bowl occasionally. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week. 

Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Peppers

Psssst! Do you want to hear a secret?

I like books!

LOL! I know...you probably already know that if you've been hanging around for a while.

But if you haven't...now you know!

Now you are probably wondering what the heck my little secret has to do with these stuffed peppers.

Well. Let me tell you.

I don't just like books. I love books. It's a real problem. Especially when you live in the middle of nowhere (an hour and a half away from the nearest book store!).

Since we are a military family, we tend to move a lot.

In every town I've lived in, I usually start up a book group. Except for here that is.

When we were in Syracuse, NY I had a great book group. It was so much fun to have the ladies come over and we would sit around talking about books, drinking wine and eating great food.

Here's another little reveal of mine. I hated cooking!

The Hubble was the cook in the household back then. He would slave away and make dinner for me and my book group ladies. When we were all happily eating and chatting, he would slink away into the office and play with his music while we continued to do our thing. Wasn't he the sweetest??

One of my favorite things to have him make were stuffed peppers. The man makes a mean stuffed pepper.

Sadly, I haven't had The Hubble's stuffed peppers in years! So when I saw this recipe in Food & Wine magazine I immediately set out to make it. And boy am I glad I did!

These were so flavorful and the stuffing was so moist and just delicious. And what's even better is that they are simple to make as well! A few days after we ate these, I was making our weekly menu and asked The Hubble for ideas. He wanted me to make these again!

And guess what...we are having these for dinner tonight! So I thought I would share them with you so you can enjoy them soon as well!

Here we go...

Ingredients: Peppers (the recipe calls for Italian frying peppers, I used Poblano peppers), white bread, extra virgin olive oil, low sodium chicken broth, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, pine nuts, an egg, red onion, sausage, fresh spinach, tomato sauce, milk, salt and pepper.

Start by tossing the spinach into a large skillet and cooking it on high heat until it wilts (about a minute).

Once wilted, press all the water out of the spinach then chop it up.

In a large bowl, add the chopped up bread, milk, cheese and egg. Knead it all together to form a kind of paste.

Slice a slit down one side of each sausage and remove the casing. Add the sausage to the bread mixture. Toss in the onion, spinach and pine nuts to the mixture as well. Salt and pepper to taste.

Using your hands, mix everything up together until it is all well combined. And...ummm...don't forget to take off your wedding rings...otherwise you will be cleaning sausage out of the crevices for days afterward. Eeeewwww!

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise. Leaving the stem on the pepper, remove the seeds and membrane from inside the pepper.

Then stuff 'em!!!!

In a very large skillet (hopefully the one you wilted the spinach in, I used an electric skillet) heat your olive oil until shimmering. Then place the peppers, stuffing side down, in the skillet and cook over high heat until well browned, about 4 minutes.

Flip them over and cook for the same amount of time on the back side.

Mix together the chicken broth and tomato sauce. Pour it over the peppers. Cover and cook until the stuffing is cooked through and the peppers are tender, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Serve them topped with extra sauce and accompanied with French bread. Enjoy!!

Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Peppers
Adapted from Food & Wine

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Ingredients:

• 1 (5 oz) bag baby spinach leaves.
• 2 slices white sandwich bread, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 Tablespoons pine nuts
• 2 Tablespoons chopped red onion
• 1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage (I used sweet turkey Italian sausage)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 large or 8 small poblano peppers
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup canned tomato sauce
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Directions:

1. In a very large skillet, cook the spinach on high heat until just wilted, about 1 minute. Drain and press out the excess water; chop. 
2. In a large bowl add the chopped bread, egg, milk and cheese; knead into a paste.
3. Slice the sausage casing and remove the meat from the casing. To the bread mixture add the sausage meat, pine nuts, onions and spinach. Salt and pepper to taste. Knead all ingredients together with clean hands until well combined.
4. Slice peppers in half lengthwise, leaving stems intact. Remove seeds and membranes. Stuff with meat mixture.
5. In large skillet, heat oil until shimmering. 
6. Place stuffed peppers, filling side down, in skillet and cook over high heat until well browned, about 4 minutes. Flip peppers over and repeat on bottom side, cooking another 4 minutes.
7. Combine chicken broth and tomato sauce, pour over peppers in skillet. Cover and cook until meat is cooked through and peppers are tender, about 5-8 minutes.
8. Serve with sauce and French bread.
9. Enjoy!!