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.

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.

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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P.S. Just a reminder that any words that are italicized bring you to the source. If it is a product on Amazon, please note that I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you purchase something through my website, I receive a small (very small!) stipend, which doesn’t affect the price you pay at all. My goal is to make sourcing the items easy for you. Thank you for your continued support.

Happy Easter (or Passover) weekend! The weather is certainly warmer in Phoenix but hoping it will get back down to something less than 88 degrees. Our Easter dinner will be small but we will do all the traditional family events just the same. Welcome to Saturday Meanderings where we chat about all things good and wonderful this week.

Amazing Online Magazine

I just discovered Chic & Country magazine and I am SO impressed. This virtual magazine comes out quarterly (I think) and you can access it anytime.

Chic & Country is a magazine about country style interiors with a touch of French chic and Nordic whites, featuring house tours, home stories, decor ideas, food recipes, flower design, gatherings’ styling, gardens and unique travel destinations. The subscription is $20.00 a year. This is my new go-to read just before bed. Here is the link.

Doing a 5K

My daughter has a goal to do 52 hikes annually. And she’s added a few 10Ks as well. As a result, I am supporting her efforts to be more active so I am participating by signing up for the same races~but only the 5Ks. I can no longer run, as my knees cannot tolerate the impact after multiple knee surgeries. In completing the Shamrock Run last month, I received this Mr.T-like medal and cool t-shirt, so I am looking forward to participating in the Hippity-Hop run today.

A 5K sounds impressive but it is only 3.11 miles and my fast walking time is about 50 minutes. The good news is that I can log my time and get another t-shirt and medal!

Disappointed with Results

One of my garden goals this year is to grow abundant amounts of strawberries. Typically I will buy starter plants from our local nursery, but this year I purchased strawberry starter roots online from Gurneys. Twenty root stock and crowns arrive and I plant them according to the instructions.

All the strawberry plants showed good signs of growth for a few weeks and now nearly 50% of them are dead. Literally. No reason, as I am taking care of them. Every day I go out to my garden another plant has died. So I am supplementing with locally grown starter plants from Whitfill. Live and learn, I guess.

Best Cake Ever

Hands down, my new favorite cake! I made this for my daughter’s birthday in March and am excited to make another for this weekend. It is a London Fog Cake~ a chocolate cake with coffee, smothered in Earl Grey tea infused buttercream and then drizzled with salted caramel sauce. Oh my.

The recipe is from my favorite cake cookbook, Layered, by Tessa Huff. Truly a winner. And if I have shared this with you before, it’s worth repeating…..it’s that good!

New Eating program

My metabolism is very slow, unfortunately. Unlike my son, who has an extremely fast metabolism, mine just chugs along. Barbara, from Mantel and Table, recommends this program to me to jump start my metabolism. We are both doing it for the next month.

I am completing my first week and love it so far! Grounded in real science and written by nutritionist, Haylie Pomroy, it’s a 28 day program. The hope is to mix things up and get my metabolism working at an optimal level. Will let you know how it goes! Here is a link to the book if you are interested.

Annual Lamb Cake

As a child, I have fond memories of Mom’s lamb cake at Easter. Made in a cast iron mold, this cake is now an annual tradition in our home. I will be baking it on Saturday, with an orange blossom cake recipe. So excited to try this new cake as right now, our orchard is filled with orange blossoms. If you would like to see a post on how the lamb cake is made, click here. Isn’t he cute?

Easter Dinner table

Since we are expecting a few more guests, Easter dinner will be in the dining room. A few weeks ago I did a post on a yellow and blue Easter table (see here), but for Sunday, this one is more blue and pink.

If you missed the post this week on these sweet decoupage eggs, click here. The block print tablecloth is just the right shade of blue for Spring. The bunny plates from Pottery Barn connect the patterns and colors in the Royal Doulton Juliet plates. Scattered about are birds, bunnies, and even a stone frog.

That wraps it up for Saturday Meanderings. I hope you have a glorious and blessed weekend. My goal is to stay away from my phone and social media and just relax a little. I know I will be making adjustments to the Easter dinner so I do not stray from my new eating plan, but it will still be wonderful to share it with family and friends.

This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursdays #654

Top of the morning to you! Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and time to make a special meal. Typically, corned beef and cabbage is served on St. Patrick’s Day, but a few years ago I discovered two recipes that are winners. Thanks for joining me today to get some St. Patrick’s Day dinner ideas.

Guinness Pie

If you love pot pies, you will definitely find this recipe from the New York Times exceptional. Beef with tender vegetables is cooked and reduced in stout beer for hours. Then it is laden into a flaky crust and baked. It is truly incredibly delicious.

This year I am making 3 pies~one for my daughter in college, one for my neighbor who is having hip surgery and one for us. Using a cookie cutter, I will add decorative pastry shamrocks to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Last year, I did use green food coloring on the pastry dough. Surprisingly, it worked out well ! May branch out and do a pot of gold design this year!

Every year I make this recipe, I ask myself, “Why am I not making this all the time?” So good and hearty especially on a cold night or rainy afternoon.

For the complete tutorial and recipe, click here to see last year’s post.

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheesecake

Boozy, sinful and decadent, this Bailey’s Irish cream Cheesecake is topped with a thick layer of chocolate ganache. This is a great St. Patrick’s Day dessert and your friends and family will love it! Recipe from Oh My Goodness Chocolate Desserts.

Most of the ingredients I have on hand, with the exception of the Oreo cookies. Since I am also making 3 cheesecakes, I did need to buy more Bailey’s and cream cheese.

Crumb the Oreos and mix with melted butter. Push this mixture into a 9″ springform pan, partially up the sides. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Perhaps the most challenging part of this recipe is wrapping the pan with two layers of aluminum foil. Make sure the foil is tight and secure so no water gets in during the baking process.

Pour in the cheesecake mixture into the prepared pan. Bake, rotating once halfway through.

You will need to refrigerate the cheesecake at least 5 hours or overnight, before adding the ganache.

Look how beautiful this cheesecake is!

I suppose a good glass of red wine or an Irish stout will be perfect with the main course. And you won’t need a drink during dessert because there is plenty already in the cheesecake.

Hope you have a fun and festive St. Patrick’s Day. If you did not see my St. Patrick’s Day table, click here.

I have missed writing to you these last few weeks. Technological problems are fixed on my website so we are back in business. Happy Saturday and thank you for joining me for Saturday Meanderings~where we discuss all good and exciting things!

Fun New Finds

Eufy Plug-In Lights

Our home is a two story house, with all the bedrooms on the second level. Navigating downstairs in the middle of the night feels treacherous to me. By the time I find the light switch in the hall, I am precariously close to the top step of the staircase.

Recommended by Annie from Most Lovely Things, these little lights can plug in anywhere. They are bright enough to light a path for you. There are four in an order. Illumination occurs when there isn’t enough ambient light. Their small size doesn’t obstruct the second outlet.

With one placed at the top of the stairs and one in the front hall, they provide the perfect amount of glare free light. It feels so much safer now without being too bright. You can find them on Amazon here.

Orchid Pot

I am always in search of items that are pink toned to go in the dining room. You can find blue and white just about anywhere, but it is so much harder to find pottery with these softer colors.

This coral orchid pot from Dear Keaton is just so pretty. Even though I am beyond the stage of adding more things to my home, this purchase did not disappoint. It is the perfect size for my dining room mantel and the orchid fits into it very nicely. BTW, it is a faux orchid!

I don’t recall who turned me onto Dear Keaton. Their style is a bit more contemporary than mine, but they do have some unique pieces. Check them out here.

Updates!

Pizza from Italy

We are experimenting with the Talia de Napoli pizzas from Italy (see blog post here). Now I did master the cook time (10 minutes in our convection oven). By adding some additional tomato sauce (I prefer my homemade one), freshly grated mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and a few slices of pepperoni, this is now our favorite pizza. My husband likes sausage on his (not mine). Here is the link to Talia de Napoli. Nothing like a pizza made in Naples, Italy to have on hand in your freezer.

Foster Dog Update

A few weeks ago our daughter had a foster dog, Peaches. Peaches, now Freckles, is living with our wonderful neighbors, David and Nancy. She is literally right next door. Freckles hit the jackpot as she is loving her new home and her sister, Luna. Don’t you love a happy ending?

Gardening

I have a dilemma. For quite some time now, I am battling worms in my geraniums. They bore holes into the young blossoms, destroying their ability to bloom. Literally, I hand pick these creepy worms off the flowers. Some plants are worse than others.

We have several huge pots of geraniums located on the front porch. It is so time consuming to search all blossoms and squish the predators. Does anyone know how to get rid of these pests? We have tried sprays to no avail. Help, please!

The tulips are just now blooming in the bulb garden. This bright, cheerful red flower, coupled with the purple hyacinths, is a joy to behold. To see the entire bulb garden in bloom last year, click here.

Right now I am harvesting all the greens in the garden. The minute the temperature goes up, the lettuces bolt and become bitter. Last week our temperatures were in the 80s and this week it is chilly and in the 50s. Typical strange spring weather.

Just want to share with you a view of my garden from a different perspective. The flower garden in the foreground is abundant with petunias and nasturtiums. Hollyhocks are wildly growing everywhere. Inside the picket fence is my vegetable garden and the sweet building beyond is the hen house.

In the Kitchen

We are still plowing through all our citrus and will need to glean our trees very soon. The new blossoms are filling the air with the most heavenly scent. In the meantime, I made another Candied Orange Olive Oil Cake with Cornmeal and Rum. This cake is divine. There is something about the dense texture that reminds me of a peasant type cake.

You may recall I did make this for the first time in 2018 for a luncheon with friends. See that post here. This recipe is a good use of our oranges and kumquats and I do want to make it again before the season is over. Recipe is from The Kitchen McCabe and can be found here.

Fortunately, my friend, Donna gave me a bag of Meyer Lemons so another batch of marmalade is complete. Fresh bread with marmalade~it doesn’t get much better than that! To see the recipe, click here. I cannot rave enough about this marmalade.

At the top of the post is a picture of my homemade crackers/flatbread. Here is another recipe I just love and use often. Rolling fresh edible flowers in the dough makes them extra special. For the recipe and tutorial, see the post here.

Well, that wraps it up for another Saturday. I hope everyone is happy and healthy as it appears the world is slowly opening up again. Hope you have a relaxing weekend!

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