My Mom's Peach Cobbler

I grew up in a farm family. My father and grandfather farmed several hundred acres of peach and apple orchards.  My mom made peach everything... from frozen peach mouse to peach barbecue sauce and peach muffins (my personal favorite!) But the one thing that showed up most often was peach cobbler.  Here is my mom's recipe, as published in The Richwood Cookbook, one of those small-town, spiral-bound cookbooks containing some of the best recipes ever!

Peach Cobbler
5 cups peaches
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons instant tapioca (usually found with the pudding and Jello at the store)
2 1/2 cups biscuit mix
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1 egg and milk to measure 1/2 cup

In a sauce pan, bring peaches,  1 c. sugar anad tapioca to a boil.  Pour into a 9" square pan.
In a bowl, combine biscuit mix, 3 tablespoons of sugar, oil and egg-milk mixture and mix until blended.  Top the hot fruit with 9 large spoonfuls of batter.  Bake at 375 degrees F.  for about 20 minutes until biscuit are golden brown and fruit is bubbly.

Note:  The 5 cups peaches, 1 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of tapioca can be prepared and frozen for winter use.  To use, remove from freezer to thaw. When thawed, proceed as directed above.

Recipe courtesy of Pat Young.

A Friday Night Experiment

Savory Chicken

It’s always hard on a Friday night to come up with something easy for dinner, and this particular Friday night I didn’t even feel like eating.  But the other residents here get a little testy when I don’t cook, so cook I did.  This is what I came up with.  Served with broccoli steamed in a bag and  baked potatoes, it wasn’t to hard to handle after a long week.

Savory Chicken

-Enough boneless chicken for 4 servings.  I used chicken tenders, because that is what I had in the freezer.  You could use boneless breast or thighs, whole or cut in bite sized pieces.

Olive oil

-½ teaspoon dried savory

-½ teaspoon dried marjoram

-2 teaspoons dried chives

-a pinch of granulated garlic

-salt and pepper

-about ½ Chicken broth and a splash of lemon juice for deglazing

Mix the herbs together in a small bowl.  Heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil in a sauté pan. 

Put the chicken in the hot pan and sprinkle with the mix of herbs. 

Cover pan.  Cook on medium-low heat until chicken is nearly done.  The timing will depend on what kind of chicken you use. 

Turn chicken and cook through with the lid off. 

Put chicken aside to keep warm and deglaze the pan.  

  

To deglaze a pan pour off most of the fat in the pan There shouldn’t be too much with boneless chicken, but this is the first step in deglazing a pan.  Turn the heat up to high. Add cold liquid to the hot pan—the liquid will come up to boiling very quickly, bringing up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  For this particular recipe I used about ½ cup chicken stock and a splash of lemon juice.  Using a spoon or spatula, scrape up the fond as the liquid boils. Once all the browned bits are off the bottom of the panturn down the heat .   

You can then “finish” the sauce with a little butter or you can thicken it as you would for gravy.  

 I am sure a proper chef would cringe at the thought of that, but I cook at home and we’re trying to avoid butter!

Then return the chicken to the pan with the sauce and make sure it is heated to serving temperature.  

Ina Garten's Lemon Pasta with Roasted Shrimp

This was a great recipe from "The Barefoot Contessa", Ina Garten. I think we could be kindred spirits. I would live barefoot if it was socially acceptable and didn't make my back hurt so much!

This is a great meal that is quick and easy to prepare. It takes about as long to make as it does to boil pasta. It actually takes longer for the pasta water to heat than it does for the whole meal.

Some variations we might try would be to make this with leftover grilled chicken, or to make the pasta with sauted summer vegetables for a light meal when the heat and humidity soar. I also wonder if it might be good cold as a pasta salad, but we haven't tried that yet. It's a good recipe to use as a springboard for creativity!

This recipe serves 6.

Shrimp

2 pounds (17 to 21 count) shrimp, peeled and deveined

Good olive oil

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Pasta

1 pound angel hair pasta

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cip olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 - 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 medium sized lemons, zested and juiced (about 1/3 cup juice)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the shrimp on a sheet pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Toss well, spread them in 1 layer, and roast for 6 to 8 minutes, just until they're pink and cooked through.

Meanwhile, drizzle some olive oil in a large pot of boiling salted water, add the angel hair, and cook al dente, about 3-6 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Quickly toss the angel hair with the melted butter, 1/4 cup olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and about 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Add the shrimp and serve hot.

Since I had frozen, cooked shrimp on hand I simply thawed the shrimp and added it to the pasta for a minute of heating through (be VERY careful not to overcook if you are using pre-cooked shrimp). Then I tossed it with the pasta and some Parmesan cheese. A hint of garlic might be a nice addition too...