Oreo Peach Cheesecake

As promised, here is the second installment of my favorite peach delights. This is a recipe I have been developing for two years. Last year was catastrophic for the South Carolina peach industry. Due to very severe weather conditions, South Carolina lost over 80 pecent of its peach crop. Since peaches are a seasonal fruit, and I refused to attempt developing this recipe using canned or frozen peaches, I was forced to experiment only during the peach growing season. Finally I am pleased to say that I have perfected my recipe. I hope you will agree.

Oreo Peach Cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust:
1 ¾ cups Oreo cookie crumbs
5 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
Filling:
1 pound peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
4 - 8 ounce packages Cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon rind, grated
1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla
Glaze:
½ cup peach preserves
1 ½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Blend cookie crumbs, butter and sugar and press firmly against bottom and sides of a 9 inch spring form pan. Cover bottom of pan with aluminum foil.
Filling :
Combine peaches, 2 tablespoons sugar and lemon juice in a heavy sauce pan. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and peaches are juicy - about 5 minutes. Cool.
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add lemon rind and beat until smooth.
Pour half of mixture into prepared crust and spoon in peaches, spaced evenly. Top with remaining cream cheese mixture.
Place pan in another larger pan and fill halfway with hot water.
Bake for 60 – 70 minutes or until firm. Turn off oven; leaving door slightly ajar, allow to cool in oven for one hour.
Remove from oven and cool completely in pan. Chill in fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
Glaze:
Combine peach preserves and lemon juice in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Strain into a small bowl. Remove side of pan and spread glaze over top of cheesecake, leaving a ¼ inch edge around cake. Chill until glaze is set – approximately 2 – 4 hours.

Peach-Stuffed Pork Chops

Ahh, the beginning of summer! Nothing symbolizes this more profoundly than biting into a juicy, ripe peach fresh off the tree! I am lucky enough to live in the heart of South Carolina’s peach country and home to the annual Ridge Peach Festival, held the third Saturday of June. This time of the year, Highway 25, which connects our numerous peach-producing counties, is dotted with peach stands overflowing with fruit. Over the weekend I drove this stretch of back roads and returned home with a trunk filled with these seeded delights. Throughout the next few days I will share with you some of my favorite peach recipes.

Peach-Stuffed Pork Chops

Ingredients
4 1-1/2” Thick-cut Rib Pork Chop, frenched
1-½ cups peaches, peeled and diced
1 cup Diced Vidalia Onion
Salt & Pepper to taste
¼ cup Flour
4 T. Olive Oil
1 cup White Wine
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon. Cardamom
3 cups Peaches, peeled and sliced

Preparation
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut pocket into pork chop, but only leave 1-1/2” opening for
stuffing. Have the butcher do this for you. Season chops
inside and out. Add two tablespoons of oil to a sauté or frying
pan that can go into oven. Sauté onions until soft and
translucent.. Remove and cool slightly. Mix onions with
peaches and stuff in chops. Dust chops with flour. Add remaining olive oil to pan.
Place stuffed chops in pan and brown on both sides. Add wine,
cover pan and put into hot oven. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting at least once. Remove cover for the last 15 minutes of baking. When done remove pan from oven. Put chops on a platter and keep warm until served.

Sauce:

Put pan on stove and bring to a simmer. Using a wooden spoon, scrape bits from bottom of pan. Simmer until juices are about one-half cup. If necessary, add more wine. Add brown sugar, cardamom and peaches and simmer until peaches are soft, but not mushy. Spoon over chops and serve.

Zucchini Nut Cupcakes

I am an avid vegetable gardener. Few things make me feel as productive as tending my garden; and nothing makes me feel as proud as harvesting the fruits of my labor! However, some vegetables like zucchini can hijack your garden. Before you know what happened, you can have more zucchini than you can eat or give away to your friends and neighbors. And if your neighbors are like mine, after a few weeks of having zucchini left on their doorsteps daily, every time you approach their houses the sprinklers come on. Funny how that happens!

Here is a recipe that will help you “manage" your zucchini production and at the same time put smiles on some of your favorite faces. I tested this theory today on some of my neighbors and not one sprinkler system malfunctioned. I think I am on to something.

Zucchini Nut Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups zucchini, grated
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin pans.
In a large bowl combine sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and mix. In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and baking soda. Add to sugar/ butter/egg mixture. Fold in zucchini and walnuts.
Scoop batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake 25 – 30 minutes. Makes 17, 2-inch cupcakes.

Icing
Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon rum (optional),

Preparation:
In a mixer or food processor mix the cream cheese and butter together. Add the vanilla and mix. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until the desired sweetness. Fold in the rum, if used. Makes 2 cups.
Decorate cupcakes using a spatula or piping bag.

Note: This same batter can be used to make zucchini bread. Pour into two 9X5 inch loaf pans and bake for 60 minutes.

Sangria - It's "Bloody Good"

This past weekend ushered in the summer season. With the warmer weather comes an increase in our beverage intake. For some of us that also means an increase in our wine and beer consumption. For a refreshing change, try this citrusy alternative.

Ingredients:

1 orange

1 lemon

1 lime

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brandy or cognac

1 bottle dry red wine

1 cup orange juice

4 ounces club soda

Preparation:

Thinly slice orange, lemon and lime. Place in a container and sprinkle with sugar and brandy. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Put ice in a large pitcher and add citrus mixture. Pour in red wine and add orange juice and club soda. Pour into glasses filled with ice and garnish with orange slices.

Salmon Asparagus Quiche

There is nothing more relaxing than Sunday brunch with your family and friends. It is a leisurely way to connect with those who mean the most to you. Want to show those you care about how special they really are? Say it with quiche. And oh, don't forget the champagne!


Ingredients:
1 - 9 inch pie crust
3 large eggs
1 cup half & half
1 teaspoon fresh dill weed, chopped
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg, grated (optional)
salt & white pepper - to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
8 asparagus spears, trimmed
1-1/2 cups gruyere cheese, grated
2 ounces smoked salmon, sliced

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie crust into a 9 inch quiche pan or pie plate. Cover crust with parchment paper and weight with beans. Prebake crust in oven for 1o minutes. Remove from oven and discard beans. Set prebaked crust aside until ready to assemble.
Whisk eggs, milk, salt, white pepper, dill and nutmeg together. Melt butter in a small skillet or pan and saute onions until soft. Bring water to a boil in a sauce pan. Blanche asparagus for 2 - 3 minutes; remove and immediately shock in a water bath. Drain and set aside.

Assembly:
Sprinkle half the cheese in the bottom of prepared quiche pan and cover with sauteed onion. Next, layer on salmon slices, then arrange asparagus like the spokes of a wheel. Sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese and cover with the egg mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cafe Femenino: Female Produced Coffee

If you are a serious coffee drinker, there is no better moment than the one when you deeply inhale the aroma of the first cup of the day. But have you ever thought about where your coffee comes from or how it is produced and who's making it?

Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, and women coffee producers account for 30 percent of the 25 million coffee growers. In Peru, female coffee producers have united and are producing their own coffee brand, Café Femenino. Imported by Organic Products Trading Company, Café Femenino is sold only to companies who are either women-owned or have women in upper management positions.

The Femenino project began with 464 women in Northern Peru. At the first gathering of Women Coffee Producers in 2004 sprang this new idea of "separating their coffee from the rest of the production." Cafe Femenino's concept: women produce the coffee, then the consumer plays a key role in giving right back to the earth in which the beans were grown. With the help of organic and Fair Trade premiums, much progress has been made in recent years to improve life in the expanding number of rural coffee growing communities. Improvements range from better diets, improved sanitation, new wet-processing mills and many, many miles of new roads. Cafe Femenino's goal includes improving general standards of living for rural communities, but especially focuses on women's rights.

Out of the Café Femenino coffee initiative was born the Café Femenino Foundation, a social program whose purpose is to support these women in their efforts to achieve equality, build social and support networks and earn incomes through the production and sale of their coffee. Café Femenino is distributed to more than 80 roasters who pay a premium above the fair trade price. Through the fair price/fair trade certification program the coffee producers are guaranteed a minimum and reasonable price for their certified organic products and are able to establish themselves as not only working women but stable individuals. Today, more than 1500 women in Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru are active in the project.

RL Grill - The "It" Place to Lunch in Chicago

When I think of Ralph Lauren, images of Polo shirts and navy blue come to mind. But if you live in Chicago, the famed name means lunch at the hottest spot on North Michigan Avenue. The RL Grill opened 10 years ago and is more popular than ever. If you don't think so, try making a lunch reservation. All I can say is be patient and flexible.
A friend and I ate lunch there last week. We were impressed with the entire experience - including the ambience, wait staff, menu and especially the food. We left with happy faces and sated stomachs. Put this on your "must do" list for your next visit to the Windy City!