Blackberry Cheesecake with Fresh Peach Topping

(Printable Recipe)

When blackberries and peaches are at their peak, marry them together with this deliciously light cheesecake that showcases the fresh perfection of the season's fruit. (Yet not without a slightly decadent cookie crust!) 

Pick the sweetest, most fragrant peaches you can find, that give a bit when squeezed, but not so much that they are mushy. Peel and cut into bite sized pieces, sugaring them only enough to enhance their flavor. Reject any that aren't already flavorful without the sugar.  Just a few gratings of nutmeg - or the tiniest pinch - will enhance their flavor.

Start with crust. Melt 4 Tbs of Butter in the microwave, which we will add to one full bag of Pepperridge Farm Chessmen Cookies in the food processor. I know of no other suitable substitute for their buttery sweet shortbread flavor so don't choose anything else. Really. The cake and topping are both light on sugar and are balanced by the richness of this crust. Start the food processor running with all cookies first then pour in the butter and stop when all is damp and darkened by the butter. No sugar is added to this because the cookies are sweet enough.

Press into a Pam-sprayed 9 to 9-1/2" springform pan and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until just slightly browned and a bit darker around the edges.
When it smells irresistible, you'll know you're on the right track.

While the crust cools, let's start that cheesecakey filling. Either rinse the bowl of the food processor (superior method) or use an electric mixer to thoroughly blend the following into a smooth batter: 2 softened pkgs of Cream Cheese, 1/2 C Ricotta, 3 Eggs, 1 tsp Vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice, 3/4 C Sugar.


 A note about the cream cheese: it MUST be very soft to blend well. I heat mine, out of the pkg, on a plate for almost a minute in the microwave or until it is slumping off the plate, otherwise you will have unevenly blended pieces of white cream cheese bits throughout your imperfect cheesecake in the end.

The filling may seem fairly thin and liquidy, almost like pancake batter. That's OK. It will be just right when baked!
Now, to scatter and submerge the berries which will turn bright fuchsia-pink as the cake cooks. These are wild berries I picked from the fence row in our orchard and popped in the freezer on a cookie sheet for an hour or so. This keeps them from falling apart or bursting and staining the entire cake an ugly purple. If you purchase frozen berries, get the dry pack type and feel the bag to make sure they are individually frozen and moving around like little marbles in there, not one solid chunk.

Make sure they are pushed just below the surface of the batter. And yes, I'm using a fancy orange chopstick for this little chore.

You can use the back of a spoon if you prefer, just don't disturb the berries much and your reward will be a most lovely dotted slice of cake with luscious whole berries therein.

Bake at 375 checking it at 30 and 45 minutes. It may even take an hour depending on the exact size of your pan and temperamentality of your oven. The middle should be set and not wiggly at all when lightly shaken. Allow to cool several hours on counter (and even overnight in fridge) before cutting. If the sides have not pulled away from the edges, run a thin sharp knife all the way around before unbuckling the springform to remove, then slide onto a large platter with base of pan intact.

Ah, beauty. This only works if you're serving the entire cake immediately. (Unfortunately, you'll have a soggy cake the next morning if you store it topped, such are the powers of the juicy peach.) Just spoon some peaches over each slice as they are plated and store the remainder separately if you intend to attempt to make this baby last more than 24 hours!

SummerFest at the Food Network website is offering up the best ideas for your Farmer's Market finds all summer long. You'll find me right there and we'll be blogging together with the FN Dish to produce fabulous ways to enjoy your produce!  Next week watch for eggplant thoughts, but right now check out these other ideas for peaches:

Jeanette’s Healthy Living: Peach Kiwi Salsa
Chez Us: Upside Down Peach Bourbon Cake
The Heritage Cook: Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Filling
Virtually Homemade: Peach Cobbler Muffins
Made By Michelle: Mint Peach Popsicles
Taste With The Eyes: The BLP Sandwich (Bacon, Lettuce and Peach)
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Healthy Peach Crisp Smoothie
Red or Green: Spiced Peach Daiquiri
Feed Me Phoebe: Peach Lassi
Domesticate Me: Grilled Halibut Tacos with Peach Salsa
Weelicious: Kenya’s Peach Cake
Blue Apron Blog: Seared Trout with Peach and Arugula Salad
The Sensitive Epicure: Grilled Peaches with Greek Yogurt, Honey, Lime Zest and Vanilla
FN Dish: 5 Unsung Sides of the Summer Peach

Garden Veg Fresh Pasta Sauce

(Printable Recipe)

Vegetable lovers and vegetarians, this succulent sauce is for you. Loaded with chunks of fresh garden harvest, but made tastier and easier with the addition of prepared tomato sauce. Serve it over pasta or go all out veg crazy and have it on zucchini "noodles," as above, made with a julienne tool. (And meat lovers, don't despair, here's a link to the carnivore's version: Secret Recipe Spaghetti Sauce)

Ah, the lovely collection of veggie-licious delights for our wonderful sauce. We'll start with half the huge Vidalia onion (or all of a smaller one, the sweeter the better) and one carrot and 2-3 ribs of celery, broken into pieces suitable for the food processor so we can take just the three down to mulch.

I like to start with a tablespoon or so of olive oil and let this trio of onion, carrot, celery soften and caramelize a bit over medium heat. Give it 7 or 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the chopped and seeded tomato for another 7 or 8 until it looks more like this:

I do not add the rest of the vegetables until the sauce has simmered awhile to develop flavor. So for our next addition we'll be taking the lazy path toward sauce using several delicious and ready-made tomato products. My favorite brand is Muir Glen Organic for its unmatchable flavor, but if I'm shopping at a smaller store that doesn't carry it, Hunt's is my standby.

This is the perfect combo:
Sauce, Paste, Puree. You'll need to add about 1 cup or two of water also which will mostly cook out as the sauce concentrates and condenses over lowest heat for the next hour or so. You can simmer it less, say 30 min, but it will not be as good. There, said it. You choose.

Add some fresh thyme, if you have it, stripping the tiny leaves off the stem by sliding it through your fingers from the top of the stem downward (doesn't work well the other way, you'll see). If you don't have fresh use about 1 tsp of dried and twice that much oregano and basil. Also add 2-3 crushed garlic cloves at this point with 1 Tbs salt and 2-3 Tbs sugar. Now, your sauce is almost ready to very slowly bubble along, being stirred occasionally to be sure it isn't sticking. Don't cover it completely but you'll want to set the lid ajar or use a splatter screen unless you'd like a speckled kitchen.

You're very sharp, aren't you, and caught that I said it's "almost" ready? Now, I will tell you one of my favorite secret additions to oh-so-tasty sauces, soups, meat rubs - I could go on, but we have work to do here. This is dried mushroom powder, a powerful punch of "umami" which the Japanese consider one of the mysterious food elements that has the power to improve all the other flavors in a dish, sort of like a natural MSG. And if you're wondering about the mysterious packaging of this wonder product, it's because I made it myself and put it in a leftover toothpick bottle. Here's how you can do the same and perhaps choose a more elegant container:

Get yourself a dried mushroom blend and whir it in the coffee bean grinder. That's it. You'll have umami powder in about 30 seconds. It's easy to find these dried blends in little plastic bags at most any grocery, usually placed in or near produce, often close to the fresh mushrooms. If you've noticed the industrial size box I buy them in, then you've begun to realize their importance in my kitchen. Sort through the pieces and choose the crispiest, driest ones for the best grinding. *Note: this grinder is for spices and such only. Coffee beans never touch it for I fear their harsh oils will be impossible to remove.*

No, we haven't forgotten the vegetables! After you've added 1-2 Tbs of the mushroom powder to our sauce, it's time to chop. I like everything fairly uniform in size except the fresh mushroom, which is finer.

When the sauce has bubbled for about an hour, add the fresh vegetable and give it another 30 minutes or so, no more than another 60. Obviously this is a sauce I make on a day when I'm home piddling around in the kitchen or nearby doing other things since it simmers a good while. If you want it to be even better, make it a day or two ahead and let it improve in the fridge a bit more. Better yet, double the recipe and freeze several quart bags of it for a happy, later day!

And here's that crazy little julienne tool that will turn a raw zucchini into a lovely pile of pretend noodles, no cooking required! I still enjoy pasta, but there are days I'm feeling like an all veg meal, even if its spaghetti dinner, so here it is.

SHOPPING LIST:

Lg Sweet Onion

3 Ripe Tomatoes

1 Small Zucchini 

1 Small Yellow Summer Squash

1 Small Red Bell Pepper

1 Cup Fresh Mushrooms

1 Carrot

3 Ribs Celery

3-4 Cloves Garlic

28 oz Can Tomato Sauce

10 oz Can Tomato Puree

6 oz Can Tomato Paste

sugar

thyme, oregano, basil

dried mushrooms, optl not really

SummerFest at the Food Network website is offering up the best ideas for your Farmer's Market finds all summer long. You'll find me right there and we'll be blogging together with the FN Dish to produce fabulous ways to enjoy your produce!  Next week watch for watermellon ideas, but in the meantime, check out these other great tomato recipes:

Jeanette's Healthy Living: Juicy Summer Heirloom Tomato Fruit Salad
Dishing: Homemade Tomato and Herbs Pasta Sauce 
Taste With The Eyes: Pomodorini e Mozzarella Ciliegine 
The Sensitive Epicure: Tiny Insalata Caprese
Weelicious: Heirloom Tomato Pico de Gallo
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Slow-Roasted Tomatoes with Bruschetta
Red or Green?: Nachos with Fresh Tomatoes, Pinto Beans and Chiles
Domesticate Me: Spaghetti with Cherry Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella and Basil
Blue Apron Blog: Marjoram-Garlic Chicken with Jersey Tomato Panzanella
The Heritage Cook: Caprese Salad and Caprese Pizza
Pinch My Salt: 20 Tomato Recipes
Feed Me Phoebe: Bloody Marias
Dishin & Dishes: Pesto Rosso (Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto)
Devour: Five Fresh Tomato Salsa Recipes
FN Dish: Tomato Recipes Worthy of a Dinner Party

Secret Recipe Spaghetti Sauce

(Printable Recipe)

This is not by any means a complicated tomato sauce, but several little secrets make it one of the best I've ever tasted. It has evolved from the sauce taught to me in the Italian restaurant kitchen of a good friend, whose cooking I adore. Prepare to cook, for I am about to share with you!

In a large heavy pot, start with a pound of lean ground beef and one sweet onion that has been turned to mulch in the food processor. I want it to melt into the sauce, adding flavor but no detectable pieces to speak of. And yes, that's a potato masher you see in the pot because it's my favorite tools for mashing the meat into tiny pieces as it browns. Start this over medium heat and finely grate (or use food processor) one peeled carrot into the mix also as the meat browns. Add the crushed garlic cloves also and stir in well.

When the meat is completely brown and the juices have cooked away, it's time to make the sauce.

Use your favorite brand of the following. Mine is Muir Glen organic, but Hunt's is also good. Also add 1 can water to the pot.

Add some fresh thyme, if you have it, stripping the tiny leaves off the stem by sliding it through your fingers from the top of the stem downward (doesn't work well the other way, you'll see). If you don't have fresh use about 1 tsp of dried and twice that much oregano and basil. Also add 1 Tbs salt and 2-3 Tbs sugar. Now, your sauce is almost ready to very slowly bubble along, being stirred occasionally to be sure it isn't sticking. Don't cover it completely but you'll want to set the lid ajar or use a splatter screen unless you'd like a speckled kitchen.

Add 1-2 TBS of this magic powder

You're very sharp, aren't you, and caught that I said it's "almost" ready? Now, I will tell you one of my favorite secret additions to oh-so-tasty sauces, soups, meat rubs - I could go on, but we have work to do here. This is dried mushroom powder, a powerful punch of "umami" which the Japanese consider one of the mysterious food elements that has the power to improve all the other flavors in a dish, sort of like a natural MSG. And if you're wondering about the mysterious packaging of this wonder product, it's because I made it myself and put it in a leftover toothpick bottle. Here's how you can do the same and perhaps choose a more elegant container:

Get yourself a dried mushroom blend and whir it in the coffee bean grinder. That's it. You'll have umami powder in about 30 seconds. It's easy to find these dried blends at most any grocery, usually placed in or near produce, often close to the fresh mushrooms. If you've noticed the industrial size box I buy them in, then you've begun to realize their importance in my kitchen. Sort through the pieces and choose the crispiest, driest ones for the best grinding. *Note: this grinder is for spices and such only. Coffee beans never touch it for I fear their harsh oils will be impossible to remove.*

When the sauce has bubbled for about an hour, taste it, use it or give it another 30 minutes or so. Obviously this is a sauce I make on a day when I'm home piddling around in the kitchen or nearby doing other things since it simmers a good while. If you want it to be even better, make it a day or two ahead and let it improve in the fridge a bit more. Better yet, double the recipe and freeze several quart bags of it for a happy, later day!

THE SHOPPING LIST

Lg Sweet Onion

1 Carrot

5-6 Cloves Garlic

28 oz Can Tomato Sauce

28 oz Can Tomato Puree

10 oz Can Tomato Paste

sugar

thyme, oregano, basil

dried mushrooms, optl not really

Manchego Lime Roasted Corn

(Printable Recipe)

Now, it's hard to improve on a good fresh roasted ear of corn, but a squeeze of lime, the heat of just the right spice, and a great flavored cheese can do it. And don't think you have to roast this corn on the grill because 15 minutes in a 450 oven will work just fine.

Toss them on the grill or in the oven with husks intact.  After fifteen minutes set them aside to cool and go live your life doing something else awhile. I recommend the involvement of a hammock.

Or you can assemble the the rest of the ensemble:
2 TBS Olive Oil
2TBS Butter
1 Lime, quartered
Some Salt
1 tsp of Chili Powder (Allepo if you can swing it)
2-3 TBS Chives
1 cup Manchego finely shredded

Oil and butter go here. Medium heat until butter is melted, but wait! Need to shuck that corn and get it off the cob before we add it to the pan.

I consider this a two step process which involves both sides of the knife. I like to use a fine serrated edge knife. Lay it flat against the cob and cut straight down without digging into the cob itself, just cleanly cutting off the little corn kernels. Now flip that knife over to the dull side and give it one more scrape all around to bring out the remaining little sweet bits and some of the milky sweet starch that will flavor and thicken the dish. NOW it's ready to add to the pan over med heat. Stir, turn, and saute for 5-8 minutes and remove from heat.

If you have fresh chives, snip them in and add the chili powder. A note about that Allepo chili I mentioned above: If you're ever near a Penzey's Spice Store or are inclined to order online, get it! I don't know of where else to buy Allepo chili but it is such a lovely, slightly smokey, sweet and hot all-at-once sort of pepper, it's worth going the extra mile to get it. And, while we're at it, let's talk about the Manchego. You should be able to get it most anywhere, but I suppose Jarlesburg would be a close substitute for nutty flavor, though Manchego is drier and milder, not so gooey for this recipe.

(That is an honest to goodness lime spray; no Photoshop.)

Finally, toss on the cheese and squeeze all four lime quarters into the mix. You wouldn't think that citrus would have the power to sweeten corn, but that's the effect the lime seems to have.

My cookin' cousin, Lisa, enlightened me to the joy of limes as we worked up some shrimp and grits at the beach last year and I've had them constantly in my fridge ever since. Oooo, need to blog that particular shrimp n grits recipe we made, but ahh, that's another day! Stay tuned, y'all.

SummerFest at the Food Network website is offering up the best ideas for your Farmer's Market finds all summer long. Each week we'll be blogging together with the FN Dish to produce fabulous ways to enjoy your produce!  This week it's corn, next week tomatoes.  In the meantime, check out these other corny-licious recipes:

Jeanette's Healthy Living: Mexican Corn Salad "Esquites"
Virtually Homemade: Grilled Corn with Ancho Chili Butter and Fresh Lime
Domesticate Me: Campfire Chicken Packets with Zucchini, Corn and Cherry Tomatoes
Dishin & Dishes: Elote (Mexican Grilled Corn) Three Ways
Feed Me Phoebe: Corn on the Cob with Sriracha Lime Butter
Taste With The Eyes: Hello Summer Salad
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Fresh Corn, Roasted Tomato and Pickled Garlic Pizza with Cornmeal Crust
Red or Green?: Corn & Green Chile Corn Muffins
Made by Michelle: Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa
Blue Apron Blog: Summer Succotash with Cod and Pickled Grapes
Devour: Four Grilled Corn Favorites
The Heritage Cook: Fresh Corn and Tomato Salad
The Sensitive Epicure: Cilantro Rice with Corn, Black Beans and Avocados
Pinch My Salt: Grilled Corn Guacamole
Weelicious: Corn Salsa
FN Dish: Off the Cob Salads