Peaches The Unconventional Way

Peaches… so much to do with them.  A co-worker brought fresh peaches from her tree to share with all of us, so right away I thought my little Chef Sydney would want to make something fun with these.  There was only one obstacle… not much time to cook since this weekend was her annual Dance Recital in Downey, CA with shows to prepare for.

Her first choice was peach cobbler, as was mine.  However, given that on Saturday there wasn’t much time and we needed a hearty lunch instead of a luscious dessert we started weighing our options.

We settled on a spin to a Martha Stewart Grilled Peaches Pizza recipe (link to recipe below) we found on her website, simple enough to prepare for a late lunch or early dinner before heading to the Downey Theatre.

Now it is widely know that Martha Stewart is... well Martha Stewart Queen Bee of all things crafty, tasty, etc … with that said, I have to admit that we were going to skip the part altogether of making our own pizza dough.  As much as Sydney wanted to tackle that one, there truly was no time to venture in that direction given the fact that we would’ve had to do several takes.

We stopped at the local market (Fresh & Easy) and picked up the remaining of our ingredients; their ready pizza dough, along with some fresh mozzarella and flavorful prosciutto, which happens to be one of Sydney’s favorite snack.  

We start our adventure by slicing our peaches and grilling them for a couple of minutes on each side.  As much as Sydney wanted to be the one turning them over, I let her have fun with the camera instead while I did the hard labor on the stove.

 

 

We set the peaches aside and preheat the oven as directed, rolling out the pizza dough turns out to be a whole lot of fun and and whole lot of mess...

 Here comes the twisting of the recipe a bit.  Since our dough was not previously baked as in Martha's recipe (we're on a fist name basis by now), we needed to bake the dough for about 10 to 12 minutes prior to laying down our toppings.  We take the dough out of the oven and lay down our fresh mozzarella.  Since we felt it needed a bit of a bite we add some feta cheese along with the mozzarella for a tasty combo and we pop it back in the oven for about 7 to 8 minutes more.

By now Sydney the little Chef is super anxious to lay all her yummy toppings down...she starts with the prosciutto, then the peaches, and then the fresh basil.

 

At this point some good old shredded Parmesan or Romano Reggiano cheese would be great but what I thought would give it that final KICK would be some freshly shredded Aged Gouda cheese and so Sydney proceeded to lay it on top.

And so here it is, the finished product, just in time to get ready for Dance Recital after having a healthy and satisfying meal.

http://www.marthastewart.com/856414/grilled-peach-pizzas-prosciutto
I recommend this delicious pizza anytime this summer!

My little Chef gives it a Thumbs Up!

Decorating with Strawberries

Sunday morning comes and right after breakfast we are excited to tackle our strawberry project… a sort of Strawberry Meringue cake which originated from Monterrey, Mexico.

We first came across this recipe watching a rerun episode of Chef Marcela Valladolid’s show on the Food Network “Mexican Made Easy.”  I have included a link to the recipe at the bottom of the blog.

We start out by rinsing the strawberries and thinly slicing them to reveal the beautiful pattern inside.  We chop walnuts into fine pieces and Sydney’s favorite part comes along… crushing the Maria cracker.

 

 

Pulling out our Kitchen Aid mixer we throw in 4 eggs whites and start the beating at high speed while slowly adding the sugar until the mixture forms soft peaks … add in the vanilla and we are ready to move on.

 

Mixing together the meringue with the Maria crackers and the walnuts is tricky but it sure is quite a beauty when it comes out of the oven.

I do have to say the frosting is super simple and tasty, I could eat the strawberries with just the frosting anytime.  The combination of the cream cheese with sour cream and sugar, oh and don’t forget the vanilla extract goes well with many other dishes that incorporate fresh fruit.  Spread on top of the baked meringue and Sydney was ready to lay the strawberries on.

Sydney found a heart shaped strawberry and decided to put it in the middle since in her words… this is a dessert full of love.

 

The finished product is a light and yummy dessert perfect for any occasion.

Strawberry Meringue Cake (Mostachon)

Recipe credit to Chef Marcela Valladolid