Grilled Chicken Breasts with Spicy Peach Glaze

Start the grill and pit the peaches. Chop the garlic and get some cold drinks ready, because it is summer time, and that means it is grilling time! This recipe is awesome. Not only is is another chicken recipe to add to your grilling repertoire, but it is easy and you get to grill peaches too!

Orange Jello Salad

Yup, it's a classic creamy jello salad. The one that you always laugh about, but when it presents itself at a party always gets gobbled up quickly. If you want to make it look a little fancier go ahead and put some cut fruit on top right before it finishes setting. Yesterday, I decided to make one for my Book Club later in the evening to add to a tropical themed buffet table. I hoped everyone would love it...

Dump Cake (Cobbler)

Back and forth, back and forth. I had a hard time deciding if I should post this recipe on our little cooking blog here. Because while it was a tasty treat, I have to admit, it wasn't the best dessert I've ever had, don't get me wrong, it was good, just not the best dessert we've ever posted. But it does have several redeeming qualities.

Raspberry Pie

This weekend is a good weekend because I get to be home. My real home, the place I grew up, where there's always food in the pantry and my momma cooks me dinner. Or dessert. Or almost anything I ask because she loves when I come visit (and so do I, of course!) So this visit I told momma I was craving pie. Berry pie.

Specifically raspberry pie. So that's what momma made. I'm not really sure how she manages to roll out pie crust in the most perfectly round and even shape, pinching the crust into a beautiful rippled edge with such long (and vibrant!) nails. Probably because she's amazing, I'm guessing. I certainly can't do much of anything with nails that reach the end of my finger tips...

Cookie Salad

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: this really isn't a salad. So don't go thinking you can eat piles of it without spoiling your diet. And second of all, it's not just made of cookies, so it's not exactly a dessert. It is, however, so tasty it could melt your socks off.

The first time I had Cookie Salad, I think I may have consumed well over half the bowl. I actually think that nearly every time my friend Lindsey has made it for us, I definitely eat more than my fair share. I just can't help myself. I know you might be skeptical as you scan through the list of ingredients--I realize it seems like a strange combination--but I promise it whips into the loveliest of concoctions.

Melon Slush

One of us two chefs has moved (me- Kelly). And while I grew up in upstate NY and used to be accustomed to all sorts of humidity, I've become too comfortable in the nice dry heat of the west. The kind where it can be 95 degrees outside and you're hot, but not melting into a puddle. But now I live in DC. And it's hot. Really hot. But even worse than that- it's STICKY. So sticky that the thought of turning on an oven (if I had one) or even the stove (if I had one of those) makes me shudder.

How do I cook, you say? Our teensy weensy little studio apartment comes equipped with a hot plate and toaster oven. Be expecting creative dishes with limited amounts of actual cooking until the end of the summer when we move into a bigger place. I can't wait.

Fruit Slump

We're back, and yes, still alive. It seems that no matter how prepared you think you are or aren't, the start of a new semester never ceases to be a 2 week flurry of activity. I suppose you might say that this slump represents how we've been feeling lately. The kind of feeling that makes you want to fall into a warm pile of fresh laundry. And stay there.

So aside from a form of bad posture, what is a slump (prepare yourself for a brief lesson on American Food History): stewed fruit topped with a biscuit. It is thought that a slumps were an early attempt by English colonizers to recreate English steamed pudding without the proper cooking utensils to do so. I'm glad their attempts weren't successful because without them, we would be without the slump.

Nancy Baggett, author of The All-American Dessert Book, says "Slumps are the plain-Jane cousins of cobblers. Slumps differ from their better-known relatives because they are covered and usually cooked on the stove top, so the dough steams and becomes fluffy and dumpling-like, instead of browning and crisping as a cobbler crust does." Slumps may be so named because the dough slides, or slumps, down the side of the pot as the fruit softens. They are also known as grunts (HA!), possibly because of the noise the berries make as they stew...or because of the noise people make when they eat them? Now really, people.

Apricot-Plum Fruit Leather

I heart fruit leather. And to my great delight, I discovered that it's ridiculously easy to make. AND since I have a neighbor with a tree full of apricots, it's very cheap. And tasty. 
 

The "recipe" that I posted here I feel guilty even calling a recipe. Notice I didn't claim it as my own. There are fancier recipes for fruit leather out there, but the most basic type involves picking, cleaning, and blending your fruit together. Then dehydrate, end of story. You can use any variety of fruit in any combination; the important thing is to make sure you have about 1/4 inch of puree in the pan before you start to bake. If you have a dehydrator, you can use that instead of your oven. My dehydrator is teensy weensy so I opted for the oven.

Your fruit leather should be a little more...picturesque than mine. I may have slightly burned this batch that I photographed (I ate the other tray before realizing it would have been much more photogenic), and then I let it sit too long before peeling it off the foil, which meant all the pieces came off in shards rather than nice strips...I realize it now looks like beef jerky, but it tastes significantly better. Just don't overcook yours.

Apricot-Plum Fruit Leather
Picture by Kelly

makes 2 large trays
5-6 medium sized plums*
8-10 cups apricots

1. Wash, pit, or core your fruit. Peel, if desired (I like to leave it on- it's faster and more nutritious). Puree the fruit.
2. Pour about 6 cups onto a large cookie/jelly roll pan lined with foil or parchment paper (the fruit puree should be about 1/4 inch thick on the tray). Bake 8-12 hours at 150 degrees F (if your oven's lowest temperature is 170, leave it opened just a crack with a towel). The fruit leather should be soft, but firm to the touch. Store up to 3 weeks at room temperature, or several months in the freezer.

*If you don't prefer plums or apricots, try apples, pears, peaches, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.

Apricot-Blueberry Rustic Pie

I never ate a whole lot of apricots growing up. I have an inkling that they were one of those fruits that my momma loathed...but that could be my imagination. I was reintroduced to them in dried form, replumped on the stove with a bit of sugar and water, and then topped with cream. Simply delicious.

These apricots were sneakily picked from my neighbor's tree. His house being vacant and the tree bursting with bright orange balls of goodness, I felt it was my civic duty to relieve the tree of some of its weight. The resulting galette was a perfectly summery, surprisingly juicy simple pie. 

Blueberry Crisp

To my great delight, I found blueberries on sale this week at my current favorite grocery store Sunflower Farmer's Market. But they weren't just any old blueberries. They were firm and sweet and popped when you put them in your mouth. In a word, perfect. I think I've purchased and eaten 5 pints thus far (and the sale continues until Wednesday!), and I surely plan on buying a few more to stock up.

I made this crisp for an evening event that Caroline had planned for some friends. The moment I arrived, I realized that I should have made a double batch. An 8 x 8 just isn't enough dessert for 7.5 blueberry crisp loving people (.5 because my sister only eats the crisp- she actually requested that I double the crisp next time, which you could definitely do, but in my opinion, the higher the blueberry ratio, the better). My small serving left me wanting more. My advice is if you're going to invite people over to partake, be sure to make a larger pan. Or just eat it all yourself.

Lemon Cheesecake Squares

It's official: I'm ready for spring. The weather lately has been taunting me with unnaturally high temperatures, melting snow, and occasional sun shine. It's making it so that I can't bear the thought of one single snowy day until next December. So, to celebrate my summer-in-the-middle-of-winter, we decided to make some spring-y cheesecake. These little cheesecakes are baked in a square pan and cut into bite-sized pieces (ok, ours might have been a little bigger than bite-sized...but they were tasty and we couldn't help it).

Being the middle of winter (oh dreary, dreary winter, why aren't you spring yet?), we didn't exactly have access to the freshest of berries. Instead, we thawed some frozen strawberries, added a pinch of sugar, and made a thin sweet syrup. I can't wait til summer when I can afford to make these with some fresh blackberries.

Lemon Cheesecake Squares
Recipe from Bon Appetit July 2009
Pictures by Caroline

Crust
9 whole graham crackers
5 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with tin foil (leaving some extra on the sides). Grease well with butter.
2. Place graham crackers in heavy-duty plastic bag. Using rolling pin or mallet, crush crackers until very fine. Melt butter and add crumbs and toss to coat. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until deep golden, about 12 minutes. Cool crust while preparing filling.

Filling
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fresh berries

1. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and sour cream, then lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla. Spread batter over crust.
2. Bake cheesecake until slightly puffed and set in center, about 30 minutes; cool completely in pan on rack. Chill cheesecake until cold, at least 2 hours. (DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled).
3. Using foil overhang as aid, lift cheesecake from pan. Cut into 16 squares; arrange on platter. Top each square with berries. Chill until ready to serve, up to 3 hours. Serve chilled.

24-Hour Fruit Salad

This recipe was submitted to us from one of our readers, Jessie. It is a delicious variation on fruit salad, and will make a great summer desert. The recipe calls for pineapple, bananas, mandarin oranges, and grapes. However, I would suggest that you could use almost any type of fruit that you have in your refrigerator. The custard is simple to make, not overly sweet, and very...for lack of better words, fluffy. A great treat to have in the fridge on a warm summer day.

*As a warning, Jessie warns that her husband could probably eat the entire fruit salad in one sitting, so make sure you get your share before you divvy it up to anyone else!

24-Hour Fruit Salad
Recipe submitted by twolittlechef's reader Jessie
Picture by Caroline

3 eggs
3 T flour
12/ t salt
1/4 dry mustard
6 T sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup water

1 cup whipping cream

2 cups diced pineapple
4 1/2 sliced bananas
4 cups mandarin oranges
2 cups grapes

1. Beat eggs and add dry ingredients, then add lemon juice and water.
2. In a small to medium pot over low heat, cook slowly and stir constantly until very thick dressing forms. Beat 2 minutes; let cool in refrigerator.
3. Whip cream in a frozen bowl until peaks are stiff (the stiffer the peaks the better) Combine custard and cream in a large bowl (add some reserved pineapple juice here to make the cream the consistency that you want, and a bit sweeter).
4. Gently mix fruit into cream dressing. Refrigerate overnight or at least a few hours. The longer it rests the better.