Food goodness

From: Mad About Martha I would say this probably makes about 6 servings. I thought it was really delicious, but I also think that next time I might cut back on the butter and sugar for the topping - there was quite a bit of topping and, while it was really delicious, it would still be good with a bit less. 8 ripe peaches, pitted and sliced (I used 10 because my peaches were smallish) Juice of 1 lemon Large pinch of ground cinnamon Large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into thin pieces 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats (I used old-fashioned and it was fine) Heavy cream (optional) (I served with vanilla yogurt) Preheat the oven to 375F. Arrange the peach slices in a buttered shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with the lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a small bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar. With your fingers, blend the butter into the flour-sugar mixture until it resemble...

Check my counting, cooks; I think Alissa's Baked Kale Chips were our thousandth post on Food Goodness!! I will send a goodie in the mail this week!

Gwen and I were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Elise's recipe on g-chat recently and I finally made it for a dinner guest last night. I exclaimed "mmmm!!" when I tasted a spoonful straight from the food processor. Easy, delicious, nutritious, cooling...what more could you ask for? >> The recipe calls for stale bread because this soup is an excellent use of old bread that is too hard to eat. Sometimes when we buy freshly baked bread we don't eat it all, and the leftovers get dry and hard within days. We keep the bread to make bread crumbs. So, this is what you would typically use. If you don't have any old bread lying around, you can use white bread, with the crusts removed. Use a good quality white bread, such as a French or Italian loaf. Ingredients 2 cups of crustless stale bread, broken into pieces [half of a baguette worked perfectly and now I will make another batch tomorrow with second half of loaf!] 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (use vegetable stock fo...

from Real Simple Hands-on time: 15 minutes Total time: 20 minutes Serves 4 12 ounces spaghetti (3⁄4 box) 3 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup walnut halves, roughly chopped 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 1 1/2 pounds small zucchini (4 to 5), cut into thin half-moons 3/4 cup raisins kosher salt and black pepper 1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1 ounce) Cook the pasta according to the package directions; drain and return it to the pot. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the walnuts and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, about 1 minute. Add the zucchini and raisins to the skillet, season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cook, tossing occasionally, until the zucchini is just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the zucchini mixture to the pasta and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the Parmesan before serving.

from Real Simple , May 2010, page 242 The Ritz crackers make the crust nice and crispy. I don't think it would reheat well, but that's just a guess on my part. Hands-on time: 15 minutes Total time: 45 minutes Serves 4 16 buttery crackers (such as Ritz), crushed (about 3/4 cup) 6 ounces sharp Cheddar, grated 1 clove garlic, finely chopped kosher salt and black pepper 4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted Heat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine the crackers, cheese, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Dip the chicken in the butter, then in the cracker mixture, pressing gently to help it adhere, and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. (Note from Becky: don't forget the foil! The chicken stuck to the foil; I can't imagine scraping it off a pan.) Sprinkle any remaining cracker mixture on the chicken and drizzle with any remaining butter. Bake until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes.

This is Ernie's nirvana -- a cross between a cheesecake and a lemon square. I adapted this from a recipe on Cookie Madness -- basically, I doubled the filling because it seemed to need more filling. And I didn't bother with the sour cream/whipped cream topping. I bet it's good, I just didn't bother. This would be really good with a blueberry compote on top. Maybe next time. Shortbread Crust: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/4 scant teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter) 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1 stick unsalted butter Filling: 8 oz cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup evaporated milk 4 tablespoons lemon juice 2 packed teaspoon lemon zest 2 large egg, room temperature 1 tablespoon flour Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour, powdered sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl or bowl of food processor. Cut in butter with pastry blender or use the food processor and pulse until crumbly. Press into 8 inch pan and bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges are ...

Made with gooseberries bought at Hefk's Baltimore farmer's market this morning! I wasn't exactly sure what to do with them, but this non-recipe recipe (based on some weird old Gordon Ramsay recipe ; is he British?) made it worthwhile to turn on the oven for the first time this summer. A pound or so of gooseberries; I didn't have that many and augmented with elderly apricots and frozen blueberries Enough sugar to make the fruit sweet, and it's more than you think you need, because those gooseberries are tart little guys Old stale granola A little more sugar Cinnamon and nutmeg Butter or Earth Balance or whatever Preheat oven to 400 F. In a saucepan, mix together fruit and sugar and stir on medium heat, until everything is saucy and delicious. Pour into a loaf pan. In a bowl, mix together the granola, about another T of sugar, and the spices. Spread evenly over the top and dot with butter substance of your choice. Bake for about 20 minutes or until fruit is bubbling a...

by two of our favorite ladies... I made Sandwiches ' version last night and I like several things about it. I love the gravy texture and flavor - smoky, spicy and smooth. I also love the chopped onions in the filling that cook only slightly in the oven. flavah! I did a couple things differently to suit my whims. I didn't fry each tortilla, I filled and rolled them as-is and then served the dish with tortilla chips to crumble on the top for the missing crunch. I schmeared a layer of refried beans on the tortilla before sprinkling on the cheese and onions. I also think the oil in the gravy nicely crisps the baked edges that stick up out of the sauce. I also added a can of Rotel to the gravy to get some tomatoes in there and stretched the gravy over 12 enchies. After baking, I served portions over chopped lettuce, sour cream and PW's restaurante salsa. (I'm getting so chubby, but at least I'm happy at dinnertime!) tex-mex cheese enchiladas (Recipe adapted from ...

'Tis the season for zukes and summer squash. Adapted from Nigella's Forever Summer. 6 medium zukes and summer squashes, thinly sliced or cut into ribbons 1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced 3 T olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 C pine nuts, toasted 1/4 C golden raisins 1/4 C feta cheese, crumbled S&P to taste I used my fancy new food processor to slice my squashes. It makes for perfectly sized slices so everything cooks at the same time. In a large pan, add olive oil and onions and cook over medium heat until onions are soft and starting to turn golden in color. Add garlic and stir. Add squash rounds and raisins and stir until slices are well coated in oil (add more if need be). Allow to cook, stirring periodically, until squash starts to wilt a bit and some pieces become a bit browned. You want the squash to cook a bit but you don't want it overly mushy. When reached desired doneness, season to taste with S&P and add pine nuts and feta. Serves 4 as a m...

Um...is that title long enough, you think? I really changed very little from Joy's original recipe save this: *use peanut butter in lieu of the yogurt (I used natural) *use half peanut butter chips and half chocolate chips for the cookie dough It's peanut butter-y and chocolate-y and so delicious. OMG, yum. Anyway, a great "no bake" treat for the hot days of summer. Also, I'm hoping to score a few brownie points at my new job. Note: I made smaller balls and did them more like truffles instead of sticking forks in them and dipping them only halfway into the chocolate. I used a small cookie scoop to help me portion them out into about 24 tablespoon-sized truffles. I say "about" because I conducted a couple of quality assurance tests along the way to ensure the integrity of the final product.