Archives for August 2015

Game Changer Peach Cobbler

August 28, 2015

When it comes to peaches, I am a cobbler girl all the way.

Sure, I like peach pie, and I would never turn down a crumble or crisp. I also love peaches sliced over my morning yogurt, eaten straight out of hand, baked into bar cookies with a shortbread crust or turned into preserves and spread on hot biscuits.

But, in my book, nothing beats peach cobbler.

The thing about cobbler is that there’s no one definition for it. We Southerners can get pretty passionate about cobbler, but even in the same general region (or, for that matter, even in the same family) two people can have vastly different ideas of just what constitutes this homey dessert.

My dad is a big fan of cobbler made with pie crust, similar to a deep-dish pie, with the possible addition of little scraps of dough tucked into the filling, so that they will bake up like almost dumplings.

Meanwhile, I was always adamant that the best cobblers were topped not with pie dough, but with barely-sweet buttermilk biscuits.

This summer my allegiance shifted. …

Tomato Chutney

August 21, 2015

When we decided to move (much, much) closer to my parents, I expected the free babysitting to be a big perk and it definitely is.

But a little more than a year later, I’ve learned there are other benefits too, like being the lucky beneficiary of 15+ pounds of tomatoes my mom picked up on whim from a roadside stand.

Fifteen pounds is a lot of tomatoes, even for someone like me, who considers the archetypal tomato sandwich one of summer’s greatest pleasures and whose toddler pounds cherry tomatoes like candy….

Salted Malted Ice Cream

August 13, 2015

I have always been a big fan of milkshakes, but I might be an even bigger fan of malted milkshakes.

I rarely see these old-fashioned treats on menus around here, though, and I don’t make or go out for milkshakes very often anyway. So, for me, the malted milkshake has always been a once-every-few-years kind of pleasure.

But there’s really no reason for malt to be such an elusive flavor. I started thinking that if the rich, toasty flavor of malt powder works in a milkshake, why not just incorporate it into the ice cream itself?

So I did….

Summer Vacation Potato Salad

August 6, 2015

I know I’m a little late to the party, but Please Pass the Peas finally joined Instragram (@pleasepeas, in case you want to follow along).

Lately, my feed has been nothing but pictures of other people’s vacations: Hawaii, Maine, Michigan. Sun everywhere.

Not here though. Here the rain is pouring down, the lights are flickering and I’m racing to get this post up before the internet goes out.

Fortunately, we had much better weather for our own vacation a few weeks ago. We stayed in a beach condo owned by the parents of some friends and did nothing but swim, read and play board games for days….