Peach Crisp

In response to a post I wrote about missing home and my mother's peaches, that wonderful woman sent another whole box of them to me! I woke up Saturday morning and ran down the stairs like it was Christmas, to find my box waiting for me. We made pancakes with peaches, and since then I've been so excited to make peach crisp. Had to buy ice cream first, because come on, you can't eat peach crisp without ice cream. Here is the recipe I found. It was just perfect! Totally satisfied my craving. The crunchy topping is sugary and cinnamony and delicious.

Peach Crisp

6-8 medium peaches, peeled and sliced into thin slices
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest (or a few drops of lemon juice will do)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup white flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats, uncooked
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
8 tablespoons slightly softened butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mix first 4 ingredients until blended thoroughly. Spray a 2.5 qt baking dish with cooking spray and add peaches. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

While the fruit is baking in the oven, add flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and butter to a mixing bowl. Mix ingredients with your fingers until crumbly. Once the fruit has cooked 20 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle the crumble evenly over the top of the peaches. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes longer. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Recipe found on For the Love of Cooking.

Burgers and Fries

Klane and I really enjoy a good burger with fries. We also enjoy saving money. Therefore a burger for $6-10 at a restaurant sometimes isn't the best answer. We like to make burgers and fries at home. It is easy and fun, so here we go.

Burgers (for three-four people)

1 lb ground beef
Worcestershire Sauce (1 Tbs?)
Seasoned Salt (a few good shakes)
Pepper (less shakes)
Soy Sauce (1 tsp?)
Minced garlic (1/4 tsp?)
Slices of cheese
Buns, Lettuce, Tomato

Kind of funny that I'm posting this as a recipe. You just squish the seasonings into the meat, use as much of them as you want. Then form them into patties. The cook them in a pan (a grill pan would be better but whatever). Top with a slice of cheese at the end of grilling. We like to mix it up and copy things from restaurants. Mushroom + swiss? Bacon + cheddar? Add some avocado? Caramelized onions? Just go wild. It'll be greasy and delicious.

Fries (for two)

2 Baking Potatoes (we used Idaho)
Oil (I've heard Peanut oil is best, we used vegetable)
Salt
Mayo + Ketchup = FRY SAUCE

Peel the potatoes and slice into 1/4 inch sticks. Fill a large bowl with cold water, soak the potato sticks in water in the fridge for at least an hour. It pulls the starch out and allows them to fry better. Take them out of the water and dry them off thoroughly with paper towels. Heat oil over med-high heat on stovetop. Fry the potatoes in a single layer until just slightly crispy (not brown yet), turning once. Remove from pot to paper towel lined plates. Turn the heat up a little and fry them again till golden brown. Serve with fry sauce and lots of it!

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

Made our favorite Banana Cupcakes. (I almost want to let my bananas go brown, just for an excuse to bake with them.) Decided to mix it up and try a different frosting when I found this one on Smitten Kitchen. I've never seen a frosting with brown sugar. Since it has a higher moisture content than powdered sugar, cornstarch is added to lighten it up and thicken it a little. It was really yummy!

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread or dollop on cooled cupcakes.

Recipe found on Smitten Kitchen. Her pictures are much prettier than mine too, I think it's a combination of light brown sugar and natural light.