Deanna's Daughter

Brock was in the garage when Marlow hollered for him out the back door and I heard him reply, ‘Just one second!’.  Well, Marlow waited exactly one second and then turned around and hollered to me, ‘Mom! Dad said he’d just be one second, and it’s been two and he’s not here!!’.

This is the recipe from Mom that was originally from Chatelaine that I turned into the Nectarine and Raspberry Crisp because my peaches weren’t ripe yet.  As I mentioned, if you’re going to get out your food processor and make the topping, just make a second batch and keep it in the freezer for a quick fresh fruit dessert later.  That’s what I’d done so all I had to do for this was peel peaches and I had dessert prepped in about 10 minutes.  We had this last night and since I’m not cooking tonight, it’s a good day to post an extra recipe…

Peach Crisp

8 ripe peaches (just a guideline), peeled and sliced

Topping

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. cubed, cold, unsalted butter

1 1/2 c. oatmeal

To peel peaches, slice a small, shallow ‘X’ into the bottom of each one and then plunge the peaches into a bowl of boiling water for several seconds before quickly submerging them in a bowl of iced water.  I found that with a sharp knife, they peeled very easily.

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a medium sized casserole dish – I used a 2.5 L Corning Ware dish.  Slice the peaches into a large bowl and set aside, then put the sugar and flour in the food processor and blend for a bit, then add the butter and pulse a couple of times until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add in the oatmeal and pulse a couple of more times then take out about a half cup of the mixture and stir it into the peaches.  Pour the peach mixture into your prepared casserole dish, and then cover everything evenly with the rest of the topping.

Bake for about 45 minutes and serve warm with ice cream!

Doesn’t the name just want you to make them? it worked for me.  We had them for dinner tonight with Vegetarian Chili (more zucchini from our garden – it’s going to be a theme for a while), and the recipe is borrowed from an Everyday Food magazine.

I also attempted some pickled carrots today for the first time – we have so many carrots!, but I have to wait for a couple of weeks to see if they work and I’ll definitely post them if they do.

Last night was Winkler’s sausage (from Manitoba – very good!), banana bread (that I always seem to have in the freezer) and a Greek salad.  I don’t really use a recipe for my Greek salad, just chopped up red onion, tomatoes, cucumber, an orange or yellow pepper, kalamata olives if I’ve remembered them, and feta all doused with plain old balsamic vinegar – it’s how we’ve always made it, something that most likely started out of laziness and stuck – but it’s good!  I also made up a couple of lunch ready containers of salad – without the balsamic – for Brock and I for lunch today.  Lunch tomorrow will most likely be chili…

Make the turnovers!  Waverly thought they should be called ‘honey treats’ and both of the girls loved the fact that they were having dessert with dinner.

Honey Ricotta Turnovers

1 c. ricotta (ideally as dry as possible)

3 T. sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

zest from 1 lemon (or orange)

1 egg

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. unsalted butter

3 T. honey

12 sheets of phyllo dough, thawed

Preheat oven to 350 and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment.  In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta, sugar, vanilla, zest, egg and salt and set aside.  In a microwave proof bowl, melt the butter and honey, checking it and mixing it every 30 seconds or so.

I just used my counter and had everything ready so the phyllo didn’t really dry out at all.  Lay out one sheet and brush it with the butter and honey mixture, lay another over top the first and brush it as well and then repeat this a third time.  Cut the sheets crosswise into 4 rectangle sections and spoon about 2 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture at one end of each rectangle.  Fold over like a flag until the entire strip of phyllo is used.  Repeat with all of the turnovers, using 3 layers of phyllo each time and cutting the whole into 4 sections, for as many as you’d like (I made 16) and place them on the parchment when complete.  These could also be made ahead and frozen and then cooked from frozen.

Use any remaining butter and honey mixture to brush the tops of each turnover and bake for about 20 minutes.  They’ll be beautifully puffed and brown when done and they are best served warm.

‘Waverly, you left your scissors on the floor!’, I pointed out as she tried to run by me…’I know Mom! I won’t step on them!’, she explained.  ‘Someone else might’, I replied, ‘but you can see them right there!’, she answered.  It was easiest to just put them away myself when she wasn’t looking…

There will be a similar posting to this one in a few days…Mom gave me a recipe for peach crisp but the peaches weren’t ripe yet.  She also suggested that I make a second batch of topping while I had the food processor out – so I did, and it looks like the original recipe came from Chatelaine, but I’ve obviously adapted it.  It ended off a perfect summer Sunday dinner of new potatoes, zucchini (from our garden) sauteed with some red onion, garlic and a red pepper and Yogurt Marinated Chicken.

Nectarine and Raspberry Crisp

6 nectarines, skins left on and thinly sliced

1 1/2 – 2 c. raspberries

Topping

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. cubed, cold, unsalted butter

1 1/2 c. oatmeal

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a medium sized casserole dish – I used a 2.5 L Corning Ware dish.  Slice the nectarines into a large bowl and set aside, keep the raspberries separated for now in their own bowl.  Put the sugar and flour in the food processor and blend for a bit, then add the butter and pulse a couple of times until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add in the oatmeal and pulse a couple of more times then take out about a half cup of the mixture and stir it into the nectarines.  Pour the nectarine mixture into your prepared casserole dish, cover the top with the raspberries and then cover everything evenly with the rest of the topping.

Bake for about 45 minutes and serve warm with ice cream!