Saturday, August 15, 2015

Sweet and slightly spicy Peach Pepper Sauce - over grits.





 
saute in a couple tablespoons of ghee one chopped sweet onion, then add two chopped green peppers, and one head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped. Cook until soft. Season with salt. Then I peeled/loosely pulled apart 7 or 8 ripe peaches, tossed them in, a bit of apricot jelly, some chipotle powder, dash of lime juice, little more salt ...
 




















if you do NOT have a shellfish allergy at your house this could easily be made into a shrimp and grits recipe.  - Just pop in some peeled, cleaned shrimp into the completed sauce and simmer until finished.    Shrimpy or not, serve over cheesy grits.    I put a bit of smoked gouda into the grits, along with large quantities of cheddar, because there is no smoked meat in the sauce.   

I served with some crispy pork (pressure cooked pork belly, then fried in a pan) and garnished with heirloom cherry tomatoes: 

 

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Soft Sugar Cookies


What to do on a rainy day with four young children to entertain?   (I was borrowing a couple of them for the morning)    Make cookies!     We didn't have quite enough time to make rolled cookies, wait for them to cool and then frost/sprinkle them, so I needed a recipe that added the sprinkles before baking.    These also TASTE very, very good. 

 
Soft Sugar Cookies

~ 2 dozen 


  • 2 cups  all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar 
  • 1 T brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 t double strength vanilla 


Preheat oven to 375 standard/350 convection.   Whisk flour with baking powder and salt.    In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar.    Then add in egg and vanilla (use the good stuff).       Much like when making peanut butter cookies, roll balls of dough in sugar (maybe bourbon/vanilla bean infused raw sugar?) or sprinkles, and place on parchment lined pans - far apart!    I was doing 8-9 cookies on a half sheet pan.     Bake 10-12 minutes until lightly browned on edges, allow to cool a few minutes on the parchment before removing from tray.