Recipes

Fresh Peaches

At our house, May equals fresh peaches. Generally, and depending on the weather, the first two weeks of May is when our peach tree is abundant with warm, juicy fruit. The only downside is that the fruit tends to ripen all at once. If you don’t glean it from the tree, then it becomes bird food.

Peaches may be firm one day and ripe the next. And unlike store-bought peaches, we pick these fuzzy fellows when they are soft and juicy. We call them the “bend over and eat” peaches because if eaten upright, you will need a face wash and a shirt change from the abundant juices.

I cringe when I try to squeeze a peach at the grocery store and find it hard and an odd color. But, with fresh peaches, they need to be used quickly~~or canned for storage.

We use the peaches in many things~fresh pies, peach crumble and cobbler, and peach jam. But one of my favorite recipes is for Peach Salsa.

This recipe uses the freshest ingredients. I’m not one who likes really hot things-that are so spicy that you can’t feel your lips. Instead, this one is just plain flavorful.

Simple ingredients and the rest is just chopping. I like to leave the peaches in slightly bigger pieces for texture and flavor, while finely chopping the onions and serrano chiles. Also, I don’t peel the peaches, however, you can if you’d like.

For those of you who have rubbed your eyes or elsewhere after chopping chiles, you know how important it is to wear gloves. The seeds are the hottest and it’s easy to get the chiles’ juices in the wrong places. You can adjust the heat to your personal preference by adding more chiles or red pepper flakes.

Toss all ingredients into a bowl and mix. Serve with your favorite tortilla chip.

Doesn’t this look delicious? It is another winning recipe. I didn’t need to can any of it as it disappears quickly.

In addition to tortilla chips and tacos, this salsa is great with grilled pork loin, fish or chicken.

The inspiration for this recipe was found in Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff. A few years ago, I spent the summer learning how to can the abundance of fruits and vegetables from our garden. This is an excellent addition to your pantry and the recipe can be easily doubled.

Peach and Cilantro Salsa

Sweet peaches, tart lime, spicy serranos and fresh cilantro

5 from 5 votes

Print Recipe

Servings 5 pint jars

Ingredients

5 pounds ripe peaches peeled, pitted and diced (about 9 cups)
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
6 ounces sweet onion diced, about 1 cup
3 ounces bell pepper diced, about 1/2 cup
2 TBSP serrano chiles minced and seeded
4 to 6 TBSP sugar to taste
4 tsp pure kosher salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar 5% acidity
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (see notes)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 TBSP chopped fresh mint

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients into a bowl. Let flavors combine. Serve with tortilla chips. If you do not can this salsa, refrigerate immediately.

Notes

I didn’t have any red pepper flakes so I did a shake of cayenne pepper. If you want to preserve the salsa using the water bath canning method, put all the ingredients except the cilantro and mint into a 6 to 8 quart preserving pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower and simmer for 30 minutes, until the onion and peaches are tender. Stir in the cilantro and mint. Make sure your jars and lids are prepared for water-bath canning. Ladle the hot salsa into jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace at the top. Wipe the rims of the jar with a damp paper towel and add the lid until finger tight. Return the jars to the water in the canning pot and make sure the water covers the jar by at least 1 inch. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes to process. Remove the jars to a folded towel and do not disturb for 12 hours.

Have a happy Tuesday. I am finally back in town and will share my story on my Saturday Meanderings. In the meantime, it feels good to be home. Enjoy!

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Since we are a border state to Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is often celebrated here on May 5th. Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexican Independence Day and it isn’t a federal holiday in Mexico either. So why do we acknowledge this holiday? Cinco de Mayo was first celebrated in the United States in Southern California in 1863 as a show of solidarity with Mexico against French rule. This holiday is more of a general celebration of Mexican heritage and culture. A unusual fact: Denver, Colorado has the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration.

I love to cook but I can honestly say I really don’t make many Mexican recipes. The reason is because we have SO many great restaurants who serve authentic south of the border food. We take the accessibility of this cultural food for granted. But if you are interested in participating in this fiesta, here are some quick tips.

What You Need

Here is a relatively easy way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and enjoy some of the tasty foods available. Some important items to have on hand are:

Carne Asada~ is a dish of grilled and sliced beef, usually skirt steak, sirloin steak, tenderloin steak, or rib steak. It is usually cooked with a marinade and some searing to impart a charred flavor.
Tortillas
Guacamole
Cilantro
Cojita Cheese
Chopped white onion
Lime slices
Salsa
Corn on the Cob
Watermelon

Fortunately, we have some grocery stores who offer a full variety of ethnic and Hispanic food choices. We are able to purchase carne asada, already marinated and ready to go. Food City provides everything we need for this meal. And their produce department is off the charts!

Preparation

It takes minimal prep work to dice the onions, slice the limes, crumble the cheese and chop the cilantro.

The best basic guacamole recipe is from Serious Eats and takes 15 minutes to make. See the recipe here.

Best Basic Guacamole recipe from Serious Eats

Another FABULOUS recipe is Elote which is grilled Mexican Street Corn, again from Serious Eats. You will LOVE this! Recipe here. I have made this multiple times and it is a winner.

Easy Cooking

A quick grilling of the carne asada and cutting into bite sized pieces, is all it takes to prepare the meat.

Put all the fixings into bowl so your guests can help themselves to the cheese, onions, cilantro and limes.

Warm the tortillas in an oven or microwave and wrap in a towel until ready to serve.

This is such an easy, simple and delicious meal to serve anytime, but definitely for Cinco de Mayo!

For dessert, slices of cold watermelon and cookies are a great option.

For more Cinco de Mayo ideas, a group of blogging friends create a Cinco de Mayo Virtual Supper Club. See my friend, Rachel’s Cilantro Lime Black Beans side dish. Rachel also has wonderful ideas for Cinco de Mayo table setting too! Click here to see more.

My friend, Chloe from Celebrate and Decorate makes a fabulous tissue paper garland which is perfect for this holiday. To see her post, click here.

I hope you are inspired by all the festive table decorations and delicious food. May is just around the corner and remember, Cinco de Mayo is May 5th.

Happy Wednesday, my sweet friends! I am traveling this week and hope to get a Saturday Meanderings out to you. Enjoy the rest of April and we will chat again soon.

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For many years I did cook for large groups of high school athletic boys, in addition to my family of 5. However, since we are now empty nesters, a meal may consist of cheese and crackers and a glass of wine. Funny how one adapts! But having a house full of guests this week, with healthy 25-26 year old young men, I am quickly reminded of how much they love to eat. Here are a few of my “go to” recipes for feeding a crowd.

Breakfast

Generally, I like to do a breakfast spread that can stay out for a few hours to allow our guests to come in and eat when they want. This egg casserole is delicious either hot or cold.

Depending on the size of the piece, it can feed a lot of people. Since it is an easy recipe, it is generally served at our July 4th brunch and holiday weekends. See blog post and recipe here.

We are also blessed with having a lot of oranges from the orchard. The trees need to be gleaned when the first orange blossoms occur. So there is a wheel barrow full of them and perfect for squeezing fresh orange juice~again something that can be made ahead of time. Or it’s fun to engage your guests into squeezing the fruit too.

For beverages, everyone gets a quick tutorial on how to use the Nespresso machine so they can help themselves to coffee, espresso or lattes in the morning. The coffee station has everything you need from German rock sugar to Torani flavored syrups. Coffee cups are handy and available.

Other Breakfast Ideas

Homemade granola (see recipe here).

Quiche (use store bought pie crusts for extra ease).

Breakfast pizza with store bought pizza dough (add bacon/sausage, eggs, cheese, herbs).

Lunch

Lunch has been relatively easy with this group of friends because they love Arizona tacos~something difficult to find in Washington, DC. Taco crawls to different places are a way to taste the authentic Mexican food which is abundant here.

But if I need to prepare something, I would suggest a sandwich bar with deli cuts of meat, lettuce, tomatoes, spreads (mustard, mayo, pickled onions) and a great bread or bun (or homemade sourdough bread)! A few bags of different chips and you are good to go.

Another easy solution is the heating up the pizzas I recently found from Naples, Italy. They come directly from the source, packaged beautifully in quantities of 8 and a wonderful item to keep on hand in your freezer. Add some more toppings and 10-12 minutes in the oven and you have an authentic Italian 10″ wood-fired pizza. I am getting ready to order another batch from Talia di Napoli. See resource here.

Dinner

You can’t go wrong with steaks on the grill and a big salad. I also just tried Rachel Ray’s lemon smashed potatoes, which can be made ahead of time. Everyone said they were delicious as I could not indulge being on my Fast Metabolism diet. Here’s the recipe and sorry, I failed to take any pictures of them.

One recipe that is simple to make and does feed a crowd is lasagna. Using store bought tomato sauce and oven-ready lasagna noodles (see here) helps with the quick preparation of this dish. The tomato sauce I always use is Rao’s, if I don’t have any homemade sauce available. You can find it at most grocery stores, Costco and on Amazon here. It does not contain any sugar (check the label as most pasta sauces have lots of sugar).

What makes this recipe flexible is that you can make it with zucchini instead of pasta. Also, you can add beef, turkey or sausage if you like or not. I find it helpful to make a smaller casserole of vegetarian lasagna at the same time. Both freeze well too.

Lasagna, a big salad, garlic bread and a nice bottle of red wine and dinner is served.

Desserts

Whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies takes me approximately 17 minutes from start to finish. How do I know this?

While in high school, my son would ALWAYS ask me to make cookies. One night, I was very tired and getting ready to head to bed and he made another cookie inquiry. I suppose I could have said no, but I knew he had more studying to do. With his help, we made them together very quickly….about 17 minutes.

Having the ingredients on hand makes a difference! I sprinkle the top with Maldon smoked sea salt flakes for an extra flavor. You can source it here.

Another easy dessert is a Fruit Crisp. Apples, pears, peaches, cherries…really any fruit works. With a crispy, oatmeal/brown sugar/butter topping, all you will need is a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Here is the recipe to my favorite peach crisp. Just substitute another fruit and double the recipe if you are serving many.

Hopefully with the world opening up you will be entertaining with lots of people soon. Fresh food sources are the key to making great food! Do you have any tried and true recipes for feeding a crowd? If so, please do share.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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