New Webpage everybody! I dis not leave the Internet

Hello friends! It certainly has been a while since I visited this page. After setting up my new website http://www.proseccotopeacches.com on WordPress.org I thought all of my posts and traffic would move to the new site.

It appears it has not been the case. If you have subscribed to my page here and not been receiving any posts or updates, it’s because it has taken me THIS LONG to figure out the missing communications. I am so sorry to have neglected this space and my readers.

The whole website redo process was pretty challenging for me, I am such a technology noob that I struggled much more with to everything on the backend of the blog I am still playing catch up.

But I’m still here on the internets, sharing my food and anecdotes.

Please check it all out over on http://www.proseccotopeaches.com

I’ll see you there 😊

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This and That

I missed last week’s “This and That” because we were in Raleigh and I did not plan to post. We were in full vacation mode. Anyway, here is what I have been checking out this week.

My parents are visiting next week and I know they will love these cardamom and espresso shortbread.

Time to buy a popsicle mold. I’ve wanted to try making my own fruit popsicles but these tiramisu popsicles look out of this world.

I’m looking into buying a new laptop and am completely lost. Does anyone have any recommendations? The only thing I KNOW is that I do not want a Macbook. Suggestions?

This chopped salad is the only salad I need in my life. I’m over kale. Give me deli meats.

It’s my son’s birthday next week and I am going to try out marshmallow fondant for the first time. This will either be a huge success or a total disaster. There is no in between.

I’m nearing the end of The Office and am trying to decide what to start next. There are so many good shows! I wonder if the latest season of Top Chef is on Hulu yet…

Chipotle Salmon with Roasted Broccoli

Okay, so not my best photography, but this was dinner last night and it turned out so well I had to share it.

Seafood does not get prepared very often in our house, my husband does not like fish or shellfish, and cooking it tends to make the house smell decidedly fishy. However, salmon was on sale, the tiny human likes it, and I was in the mood for fish.

Once a week we go into town for my son’s swim lessons, and I like to swing by Whole Foods when we are there. While poking through the aisles I saw a Chipotle Powder I knew I needed for my ever expanding spice rack. Into the cart it went and I started to think about how I could use the spice.

How Sweet Eats BBQ Salmon opened my eyes to the fact that not only does BBQ salmon exist, its delicious. So I figured a spicy chipotle twist would also be tasty. Roasted veggies are a pretty standard side in our house, especially when I can take some frozen broccoli straight from the freezer, toss in olive oil salt and pepper and roast. So easy. Cauliflower is my favorite veggie to roast but today was broccoli.

If you grill, I think this would be fantastic grilled. I pan seared my fish, it was quick and easy, but also made my house smell like salmon. Worth it.

• Servings: 2 adults, or 1 adult twice and one toddler
• Time: 40 minutes
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Inspired by: How Sweet Eats

Ingredients

Chipotle Spice Rub

• 1 teaspoon Ground Chipotle Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• black pepper

Salmon

• 2 five ounce portions salmon (or however many you want, the spice mixture can definitely cover more than two portions)

Broccoli

• 1 bag frozen broccoli, stems and tops
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 425°F. Toss broccoli in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, maybe 2 tablespoons. Season with salt and pepper. Spread on a cookie sheet lined with foil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes, or until roasted to your liking. I like it a little burnt. (I prefer the term crisp but it may appear burnt).

Mix spices together in a small bowl or ramekin. Place a saute pan over medium high heat with some olive oil, like a tablespoon Take your salmon and pat the top dry. Rub a generous amount of the chipotle mixture on top of your salmon. Once the oil is hot, place salmon spice side down and cook for 5 minutes. Then flip and cook skin side down until you reach desired doneness. ( I like it well done).

This and That

Ya’ll know what time it is! Here’s a little bit of this and that for the week. The picture above is from our trip to Cinque Terre in 2015! It feels like both forever ago and yesterday.

I’ll be making this spritz by Half Baked Harvest for 4th of July for sure.

Cookies are really doing it for me at the moment and these are next on my “to try” list.

Prosecco and Pino Grigio are my go to wines for summer, but a friend came to visit and introduced me to this Sauvignon Blanc. Not only is it refreshing, but also super affordable.

Looks like I found my dream birthday cake for next year! Note to self “learn how to decorate cakes”.

Earlier this week on instagram I tried making quesadilla’s per this method and I will never pan fry quesadillas again.

I have been putting collagen in my hot coffee every morning but really want to try these make ahead iced collagen lattes.

 

If there anything new you have tried and loved? Link it below in the comments!

(As per usual, none of this is sponsored and none of these companies know I exist).

Blueberry Scones with Browned Butter Glaze

A few weeks ago I went to a tea room and had tea so delcious I almost wanted to become a tea drinker. Almost. What really left an impression on me were the scones. So much so, that as I ate a leftover scone I took home I felt the need to make myself a video review of said scone.

I stumbled upon the video and thanked one glass of wine Lauren for thinking so clearly. Because I DID love that scone and needed to recreate it. So here we are. 

Dense and slightly crumbly, dotted with sweet blueberries, I kind of couldn’t stop eating them. The scones from the tea room had demerara sugar on top of them, but I wanted something else (slash forgot to buy some).

Cue the browned butter glaze. I feel like browned butter had a huge moment in the food world a few years ago, and for good reason. Browning the butter in a pan brings a warm, nutty flavor to the butter that is highly addicting. Forgetting the sugar was the best thing that could have happened to these scones. Sometimes forgetting your grocery list can be a good thing!

These warm, crumbly, slightly sweet scones topped with a rich, buttery glaze are perfect for brunch at home. As written, this recipe makes 8 HUGE scones. Like the size of my hand. In the future I think I will make two disks with the dough to make 16 little scones verses 8 GIANT scones.

• Servings: 8 HUGE scones
• Time: 1 hour
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Crumbly scones, with bursts of blueberries topped with a rich browned butter glaze. Perfect for a weekend brunch or eating by yourself in two days flat.

Inspired by Bon Appetit’s Cream Scones

Ingredients

For Scones

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick), cut into chunks
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup blueberries (I used frozen)

For Browned Butter Glaze

• 1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)
• 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• whole milk to thin to desired consistency, I used about 2 tablespoons

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour. Whisk to combine. Throw butter into the bowl and cut into the flour, using either a pastry cutter or two knives until only small pea sized pieces remain. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add your egg and 1 and 1/4 cup of the heavy cream. Reserve 1/4 cup cream for brushing over scones.  Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in the center until a loose dough forms. From there, I just used my hands to gently bring the dough together in the bowl into a  firm disk shape.

Then transfer the disk to a piece of parchment paper and cut into 8 triangles. Transfer scones to a pan lined with a silpat mat or parchment paper, evenly spaced about 1 inch apart. These guys rise quite a bit. Brush with remaining cream and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

10 minutes before your scones are done, make your glaze. Place butter in a pan over low heat and melt. Once melted, continue to gently heat. occasionally stirring, until it turns a color similar to a light maple syrup. Add the powdered sugar and mix with a spatula. This should make a thick paste. Thin with whole milk until glaze reached your desired consistency. At this point your scones should be done. Pour glaze over your scones. Allow to sit for a second to let the glaze set, then eat.

 

Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean Ice Cream.

Originally I was going to post some tacos today but this coffee ice cream cannot wait.

So, my homemade ice cream journey has had its fair share of bumps in the road. Living in Italy we were spoiled by gelato, to the point where the store bought ice cream we grew up loving no longer satisfied us. (Okay, me. My husband is less particular.) However there was one little dilemma. They did not make my favorite ice cream flavor (chocolate peanut butter) in gelato form. To rectify this, my friend Beth gave me an ice cream maker and told me to get to work.

Well, I tried. However, not one recipe I tried produced satisfying results. Chocolate ice cream was drab. The pistachio ice cream I made was an insult to pistachio’s everywhere. (I won’t even allow pistacchio gelato to be in the same sentence). I was feeling really discouraged. I just accepted that homemade ice cream may not be a reality for me.

 

How wrong I was. After realizing I most likely had all of the ingredients in the house I decided to make some ice cream. A leap of faith and a few hours later here we are. Have you ever had chocolate covered espresso beans? This is exactly what it tastes like. Rich coffee flavor, crunchy “chocolate” and specks of coffee dot the creamy ice cream base.

I was hoping for a creamy chocolate ribbon, but A.) I didn’t research how to make it at all and B.)Elected to only use was I already had in our house, so instead ended up with sharp chocolate shards that are actually super satisfying. Rather than melting chocolate with cream, I used Ghiardelli Dark Candy Coating disks. After popping them in the microwave I drizzled the “chocolate” into the ice cream while it mixed, where it solidified the second it hit the frozen cream.  So good you guys. I have no regrets. I definitely think chocolate chips melted with warm cream would work well also.

Now that I have potentially figured out how to make ice cream, I can’t wait to try new flavors. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Let me know below, or on my instagram @processotopeaches. Go!

• Servings: 1 huge serving to like 6 reasonable servings
• Time: 1 hour active, 8 hours to freeze
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Intense coffee flavor with pleasant fragments of chocolate make for an ice cream sure to satisfy even the pickiest of ice cream palates.

Inspired by: TheKitchn

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup coffee grounds (I used a dark french roast)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chocolate candy coating OR chocolate chips

Directions

Pour your whole milk and heavy cream into a medium pot along with your coffee grounds. Bring to just barely boiling then cover and turn off the heat. Let coffee “brew” for ten-fifteen minutes. The longer it steeps the stronger it may be.

While that is happening, whisk your egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture loosens and becomes a paleish yellow. I was surprised by how thick it was at first but don’t worry it thins out.

After your “coffee” has finished steeping and cooled a bit, take about 1 cup and VERY SLOWLY drizzle it into your egg yolks. This is called tempering the yolks. By adding a little of the warm mixture to your eggs, you slowly raise the yolk’s temperature and prevents you from scrambling your eggs. Repeat twice and then add your egg mixture to your milk/coffee in the pot you used to steep.

Place the ice cream base back on the stove over low and slowly cook while stirring. You want it to thicken. It is done when the mixture coats the back of a spoon and you can draw a line through it with your finger and the line stays put.

Pour your custard through a fine mesh sieve and then place in the fridge to chill. The original recipe says to do so for a minimum of 3 hours but I was impatient and put it in the mixer after one hour. It was fine

Put in your ice cream maker per manufacturer directions. Once your ice cream has reached soft serve consistency melt your chocolate candy coating and pour into your ice cream while it mixes. You can eat it in this stage (my favorite) or freeze overnight for a scoopable consistency.

Strawberry Basil Lemonade

We have really enjoyed a mild spring (for Georgia) and the heat and humidity are starting to creep in. I loathe the summers here. Summer has never been my favorite season, and the oppressive humidity here makes it worse. But fortunately, we have swimming pools, air-conditioning, and this simple lemonade to help us cool down.

This recipe was inspired by a flavored water I started drinking when we lived in Italy. I would mash some strawberries with some basil and throw them in a pitcher of water in the fridge. The herbaceous flavor of the basil and the sweet strawberries perfectly complimented each other, delicately flavoring the water when sometimes plain ice water isn’t enough.

Being back in the Deep South summer reminds me of high school, sweating out on the porch next to the pool with icy lemonade trying to get the perfect tan. Though classic lemonade will always have a special place in my heart, I wanted to dress it up a bit, as well as use up some quickly decaying strawberries in my fridge.

This recipe starts with a simple syrup, both in name and execution. I brought one cup of sugar and one cup of cold filtered water to a boil, and gently boiled until the sugar dissolved. I threw in a handful of shredded basil leaves and refrigerated it overnight. I could (and did, just a bit) drink this syrup by itself. It is so worth the time and minimal effort, the cocktails you could make with it are endless.

Then I juiced some lemons, threw them into the blender with this syrup, some strawberries and a little water. A quick blend and it turned out better than I expected. Slightly sweet and tart, with a little something that doesn’t immediately identify as basil, but brings a smile to your face. My toddler also lit up when he sampled and quickly demanded “juice!” with a point to the blender. SO a definite crowd pleaser.

• Servings: 4 glasses
• Time: 20 minutes active, 8 hours of chilling time for syrup
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

 

Ingredients

• Juice from 4 lemons/a little over 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 5 strawberries, washed and hulled
• 1/2 cup basil simple syrup
• 2 cups cold water

For Basil Syrup

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 large basil leaves, torn

Directions

A day in advance, add your sugar and water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Gently boil, stirring occasionally until dissolved. Add basil leave, and let cool overnight.

When you are ready to make your lemonade, add the lemon juice, strawberries, basil syrup and cold water to a blender. Blend until pink and frothy, then strain into a pitcher or whatever you want. Add ice and enjoy!

 

Chocolate Zucchini Banana Muffins

Growing up my Mom always kept a bunch of bananas on the counter. When someone (me) would whine that we(me) were hungry, she would direct us to the bananas. “Have a banana.” Naturally, I did not want a banana. She would then reply that we were not really hungry. And she was right, usually I was just bored.

Its funny what follows us into adulthood, because now I too always have a bunch of bananas on the counter. They are gratefully grabbed when hurrying out the door, cut into bowls of cheerios and smothered in peanut butter for snacks.  So I was quite surprised when I saw this weeks bunch rapidly turning brown. Knowing I would be the only person to eat banana bread, I pondered what else could be made.

 

Peering into our fridge, I saw some forgotten zucchini and an abundance of greek yogurt. Knowing if I made zucchini-banana bread I would still be the only one who ate it. my thoughts turned to breakfast.  Cloaked in chocolate and disguised as muffins, there was a chance my husband would eat them. Plus, a muffin with my coffee in the morning sounded delicious.

These muffins, dense, rich ,and chocolatey hit just the spot. Perfectly moist, I enjoyed one solo fresh from the oven, no beverage required to wash it down. The next morning, it was an excellent compliment to my morning coffee.

I was disappointed that they did not form the desired “muffin top” but I’ll chock that up to the greek yogurt. Or because I am not 100% sure what I’m doing. Either way, I loved these,  and my husband did not even consider that zucchini could be hiding inside.

If you have some bananas wilting away, or feel the desire to hide vegetables in baked goods, these are for you!

• Servings: 12-14 medium sized muffins
• Time: 1 hour
• Print

Rich chocolate muffins with zucchini and bananas, excellent for breakfast or a snack.

 

Inspired by  Fork Knife Swoon

Ingredients

-1/3 cup All Purpose Flour

-2/3 cup granulated sugar

-1/2 cup cocoa powder

-3/4 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-3/4 cup greek yogurt (I used 0% fat vanilla)

-1 large zucchini, peeled and grated

-1 very ripe banana

-1 egg

-1/3 cup butter, melted

-1/2 cup whole milk

-1 cup chocolate chips (I bet walnuts or dried cranberries would be tasty, or cinnamon chips, or peanut butter chips! Or whatever you have hiding in your pantry).

Directions

• Pre-heat your oven to 375° F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners, or grease using softened butter/Baker’s Joy/whatever you like to grease pans with. I used cupcake liners, and then butter when I ran out of cupcake liners.
• In one bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until all ingredients are completely combined. You could sift them together, but I did not.
• In a large separate bowl mash the banana. To the same bowl, add the shredded zucchini, greek yogurt, egg, and melted butter. Mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two or three large increments, mixing just until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, being sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. The batter will be thick.
• Once mixed, scoop batter into muffin tins, filling until they are just about to overflow. Bake muffins for 20 minutes, if you press your finger to the top of a muffin it should feel firm, not gooey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Welcome.

Welcome to From Prosecco to Peaches!

Here it is. My first blog post. The adrenaline! The social anxiety! For  four years or so I have been building up the courage to start a food blog and here I am, in front of the screen, feverishly typing and deleting. To best sum up what I hope happens here on this blog, I want to share a story with you.

Picture it, Italy, some years ago. My husband and I have been in Italy a few months, and he is at work. I have not started working yet, and have made few acquaintances.  At this point all of the Italian I have learned is ” Ciao” and various names of food. The important things.

Our saint of a neighbor Giulia knocks on our front door and invites me to join her family for a bbq in their old neighborhood to watch the FIFA playoffs later that afternoon. I’m delighted. YES! Of course. Look at me, going to an Italian BBQ to watch FIFA. So adult.

As Giulia returns to her house ” we will leave in two hours!” I shut the door and immediately panic. What do I wear? More importantly what food do I bring?! You never go to a bbq empty handed and I have no idea what would be considered traditional Italian BBQ food, but something tells me potato salad is not it. Wracking my brain, I settle on The Pioneer Woman’s Texas Sheet Cake. Its quick, tasty and easy. Not to mention something I have all of the ingredients for in the pantry. Whipping up the cake and throwing on a maxi from H&M, I run out the door and hop in Giulia’s Fiat 500.

We arrive at an old villa in the countryside that had been converted into apartments. Giulia gives me a brief history including that the fields surrounding were used as landing strips during WWII. The sky is clear, the grass glows green in the golden afternoon sunlight, a large tv has been moved into the yard so everyone can enjoy the weather and the match as well. After introductions and being offered a spritz, the afternoon passes in friendly conversation (Giulia gamefully doing a lot of translating). Kids race about, men shout at the players on the screen and everyone is relaxed and happy.

The food is served (hamburgers and watermelon, totally shocking me, the hosts teasingly asking the American what she thinks of their hamburger). Afterwards, Giulia presents the cake, laughs. Everyone dives in and seems to be enjoying it when someone asks me why it is called Shit Cake. “This is delicious, but why is it called shit?” What? Shit cake? I’m mortified. Quickly I backtrack and ask why they think it is shit cake. Does it taste bad? Does it smell? What did I do? Giulia looks at me. “You called it Shit cake? Isn’t that what it is called? I assumed it is joke? ” That is when I realized in English the sound made by the double E’s in Sheet sound like the traditional I sound in Italian, so when I said “Sheet Cake” to Giulia, she heard “Shit Cake”. Giulia quickly explains, and everyone laughs and moves on.

This sums up my life. Good food, fond laughs, and me embarrassing myself in some fashion.  Here, I hope to share the food, the laughs, and few blunders. Thank you so much for taking the time to check this out, watch this space, recipes coming soon!

In the mean time, here is the recipe for the cake I made. The Pioneer Woman calls it the “Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever”, and I am inclined to agree.

The Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake