Ricotta Peach Dutch Baby Pancakes

Once school gets back in session, Saturday morning becomes our morning for slowing down and enjoying the day. We put away the industrial strength jolt-you-awake coffee that we both desperately need throughout the week, and bring out the good coffee.

It's the equivalent of bringing out the good china on a Sunday night, if you ask me.

Just significantly less breakable.

Right now, weekend coffee consists of something from our Hawaiian stash, but once that goes, we tend towards beans from Balzac.

I've expressed my deep and abiding love for the hands-off features of the dutch baby pancake, and threw together this today in order to use up two overly ripe peaches from the farmer's market.

The most frustrating part of the pancake is flipping it out - I had a little bit that didn't feel like leaving the warm comfort of the pan, but thems the breaks, huh? Perfection is for people who have too much time on their hands and aren't hungry.

If you have some lemons handy, I suspect some lemon zest would not go amiss here.


Ricotta Peach Dutch Baby Pancakes

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
2 peaches, pitted and sliced
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup flour (I used spelt this time with great results, but usually use all purpose)
½ cup ricotta cheese
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Heat a large cast iron frying pan over medium heat. Once warm, add butter, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan as it melts. Throw in peach slices and cook for about 2 minutes, or until peaches release their juices. Add in brown sugar and stir until it dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. While pan is heating, whisk together remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour over peaches and put the pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until pancake is puffed and golden.

3. Remove from oven, run a knife around the edge of the pancake and invert onto a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar if particularly ugly looking. (Ha! We've all been there!)

Grilled Peach Tiramisu with White Chocolate

I feel like I'm peaking my head out from under the large rock I've been hiding behind for the past two weeks. In retrospect, I should have known that the first week back at school would be a total gong show. All the sun, sea and surf must have fried my brain, because I remained blissfully in a fog about how little sleep I would get and how much stress I would be under.

Have I mentioned that I have to teach grade seven math this year?

I haven't been in a math classroom since my OAC finite class back in 97/98.

Sigh.

Those poor children.

So, I'm still dreaming of the summer, the cottage and kayaking. With the temperatures still hovering at a blissfully warm 23º during the day, a day out on the water would be just what this stressed out teacher could use right now.

Or, perhaps, one of these:

I'm not usually a huge tiramisu fan. I find the flavours and texture a little too soft for my liking sometimes. But this one has the smokiness from the grill combined with the sweetness of the peaches and the softness of the mascarpone. The whole thing is lightened up with yogurt in place of whipped cream and made adult by a generous inclusion of amaretto.


Grilled Peach Tiramisu

(serves 6)


Ingredients

4 large, peeled peaches, cut in half (it's best to use slightly under ripe ones here)
½ tbsp canola oil
1 cup mascarpone cheese
2 cups full fat yogurt, drained in a cheesecloth lined strainer for at least 1 hour
1½ tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp granulated sugar, divided
12 lady finger cookies, cut in half horizontally
1/3 cup amaretto liqueur
3 oz white chocolate, shaved


Directions

1. Heat a grill over medium high heat. Grease bars well. Brush peaches with canola oil and place on grill. Grill for approximately 2 minutes per side, or until peaches are tender and have grill marks in places. Remove from heat and thinly slice. Set aside.

2. Beat together mascarpone, yogurt, vanilla and 3 tbsp sugar. Set aside.

3. Whisk together amaretto and remaining 2 tbsp sugar until sugar is dissolved.

4. To assemble each tiramisu: Place a little of the mascarpone mixture in the bottom of a 1 cup mason jars. Top with a few peaches slices. Sprinkle with a bit of white chocolate. Dunk 2 lady finger halves in amaretto and place on top of white chocolate. Repeat layers once more. Top the whole thing with a final layer of mascarpone and white chocolate shavings. Repeat with remaining 5 mason jars. Let sit in the fridge, covered, for at least 2 hours, and up to 6.

Quick & Easy

Sometimes you want your dinner in a hurry.

And you have peaches that are quickly moving toward over-ripe.

This is the recipe for you: Pepper Jack, Chicken and Peach Quesadillas

Don't skimp on the honey-lime sour cream! Extra tastiness ahoy!

 We served this with the spinach salad (okay, so it was spinach and red peppers) with Cooking Light's recommended dressing:

Cumin-Lime Dressing

Combine 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin in a large bowl. Toss with your desired salad ingredients.

Quick, easy, tasty. Works for me!

Summer Markets

Wednesday is the day for my local farmer's market, and to tell the truth, today was the first time I've gone all year. My husband and I mozied about last year once, but I just thought it was too expensive at the time. Given the threat of the termination of my employment, it probably was.

I had 15$ in my pocket today, so I decided to flee the air conditioned glory of the front room of my house and brave into the 40 degree heat outside to see what was available.

I spent the 15$.

Purchases:

1 mixed basket of peaches, plums, pears and apricots - 6$
1 pint of heirloom grape and cherry tomatoes - 5$
1 pint of fresh field peas - 4$

Mixed Fruits (crisp pears, peaches, apricots and yellow plums)

Huh. That 15$ went very quickly. Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with it.