Cook's Country Peach Melba Crisp

This is time intensive (like most ATK stuff), but OH so very worth it.  I think the crisp topping will be our new stand-by topping for apple crisp as well.  It's perfect.  Wish we could invite you all over for a dish this evening!

Filling:
2 T instant tapioca
2 1/2 lbs fresh peaches, peeled, in 1/2" slices, or 1 3/4 lbs frozen sliced peaches, thawed
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/8 t salt
1 T lemon juice
1 t vanilla
10 oz (2 c) raspberries

Topping:
1/2 c flour
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t salt
6 T unsalted butter, but into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled
1/2 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c pecans, chopped

1.  For the filling:  Grind tapioca in spice grinder to fine powder (can sub 2 t cornstarch, but it will yield different flavor).  Toss peaches with sugar and let sit, stirring occasionally for 30 min.  Drain peaches through colander set inside bowl; reserve peach juice.  Return drained peaches to original bowl and toss w/ 2 T reserved peach juice, ground tapioca, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Transfer to 8 in square baking dish and press gently into even layer.  Top peaches with raspberries.

2 For the topping.  While peaches are macerating, combine flour, sugars, spices, and salt in food processor and process until combined, about 15 seconds.  Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles wet sand, about 8 pulses.  Add oats and pecans and pulse until mixture forms marble-size clumps and no loose flour remains, about 15 pulses.  Chill mixture for at least 15 minutes.  Adjust oven rack to opper-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.

3.  Distribute topping evenly over fruit.  Bake until topping is well browned and fruit is bubbling around edges, about 30 minutes, rotating dish half way through baking.  Cool on wire rack for at least 30 minutes.  Serve.

Fennel Cucumber Salsa

1 english cucumber, diced (we used regular)
1 large fennel bulb, diced
1 avocado, diced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 C pickled banana peppers, diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 T. honey
3 T. lemon juice
S & P to taste

Combine everything. Let sit 20 minutes before serving to let flavors meld together. Absolutely delicious!

French Toast Casserole

OK, so NOT healthy, but YUMMMMMmmmmm!

1 loaf french bread, torn up (if using a lighter french loaf, use less liquid below)
1/2 C melted butter
cinnamon
8 eggs
4 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
2 C milk
3 C heavy cream or half&half
1 T. Vanilla
1 tsp nutmeg

Topping:
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C melted butter
2 T maple syrup

Grease 9 X13 pan. Put bread in bowl. Pour over melted butter and stir to make sure every piece gets buttered. Sprinkle cinnamon to taste on top. Beat eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together until light yellow in color. Add milk, cream, vanilla and nutmeg and mix well. Pour over bread and stir to make sure all the bread has been coated. Cover and place in fridge over night. In morning preheat oven to 350 F. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, and syrup. Pour evenly over bread. Bake about 40 minutes until puffed and golden.

We had this at a breakfast and i could NOT stop eating it! It was sooo good! We made a healthier modified version at home (of course--at Nate's urging!) and it was fine too. Yum.

NYTimes Soup Article

Hi guys --

I probably should experiment with these before posting, but the article sold us on the recipes before we even tasted the end results. Supposedly, these are "the last 4 soup recipes you'll ever need." Creamy, Brothy, Earthy, Hearty, with infinite variations. We're going to give it a try. If anyone else tries any of these, let us know what you think!

Jennie

Grandma Wooly's Beef Barbecue

So, I've been wanting to make a pulled pork or barbecued beef recipe for a little while now and found this one in Cooks Country--it's a magazine put out by America's Test Kitchen. It's easy AND I got to use my new dutch oven for it. It's very simple and I thought it might be a little bland, but we both really liked it--very tasty.

1 T pickling spice

2 pounds boneless beef chuck-eye roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

Salt and Pepper

2 T vegetable oil

2 1/2 c water

1 1/2 c ketchup

1 T cider vinegar

1 tsp dry mustard

8 hamburger buns, toasted

1. Brown Beef

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Tie picking spice in cheesecloth to make a sachet (or borrow a coffee filter from a friend--that's what we did). Pat beef dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 T oil in large Dutch oven over med-high heat until just smoking. Cook half of beef, turning occasionally, until well browned all over, abt 8 min. Transfer to large bowl. repeat with remaining oil and beef.

2. Braise Beef

Stir water into pot, scraping up any browned bits. Add beef, along with any accumulated juices, to pot and bring to boil. Transfer pot to oven and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until meat it nearly tender, about 1 hour. Stir ketchup, vinegar, and mustard into pot. Add picking spice sachet and continue to cook, covered, until meat is fork-tender, about 1 hour longer.

3. Shed and Serve

Discard sachet. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to plate. When cool enough to handle, shred beef into bite-sized pieces. Return beef to pot and stir until coated with sauce and warmed. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on hamburger buns

Stroganoff and Lasagna

So, we've been trying a lot of new things from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and love it. We recently made the Crockpot Curried Chicken, the Vegetable Lasagna with Mushrooms and Spinach, and the Beef Stroganoff. The Lasagna and Stroganoff were faboulous and the crockpot chicken (my first crockpot recipe) was pretty good as well. The Stroganoff calls for Filet Mignon, which was a little pricey, but it only calls for a little, so it's not that bad and it was DELICIOUS! A far cry from the very heavy, ground-beef Stroganoff I remember growing up. I've been looking for a long time for a good lasagna recipe, and we loved this one--it calls for fresh basil and the tomato sauce that they have you make is quite tasty. We froze half of it after baking as well and it reheated perfectly---I didn't notice any texture differences. Anyway, if anyone doesn't have that cookbook and would like the recipes, I'm happy to post, but wanted to let you know that they were successes.

Paella

We had a few friends over the other night to make a Paella! We, also, had bunuellos and a platter with crusty bread, fig jam, dates and manchego cheese to keep with our Spanish theme. The Paella was from the "Best International foods" cookbook--the one you should all have. We made it with Chorizo, Shrimp, and chicken and it was lovely. We decided to skip the mussels since they were expensive and a little chewy for our taste. The crust turned out beautifully in the oven. A nice dish and not too complicated to make.