Peach Glaze & Drying Fresh Peaches

Drying Peaches for Peach-stuffed Pork Tenderloin


Today's Joy: Actively Producing.
Off again today, Reader. What a gorgeous June day! Blue sky, tons of sunshine and a good breeze is blowing, keeping it from being too hot while sending the scent of newly-opened lilies through the house. Aunt too, is home and has spent the afternoon scrubbing her lovely sun room top to bottom. While she is busy being industrious outdoors, I've been laundering linens and cleaning a bit. But mostly, I've been cooking.

Got the July issue of Martha Stewart Living yesterday and inside are the most delish looking peach recipes! Just looking at the Peach-stuffed Pork Tenderloin made my tummy grumble. Just so happens, we have some pork loin hanging out in the freezer, just waiting for a fabulous occasion. While the family is already booked this evening, I figured if I do all the meal prep today, I can simply pop it in the oven tomorrow. So, I invited the clan over on Thursday night for a gourmet dinner. In addition to the succulent pork, we'll be having fresh asparagus, oregano roasted potatoes and for dessert, grilled mango with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

For the pork, I need dried peaches. Of course, you can buy them at the store. But if you're feeling adventurous, you can also dry your own. MSL instructs us to slice pitted peaches into 1/8 inch thick slices and arrange them in a single layer on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 150 degrees for 3 hours. Or, you can shave an hour off that by baking them at 200 degrees for 2 hours. That's what I did with mine and they came out perfect (see above). These also make tasty and healthy homemade snacks. Mix 'em up with granola and you're all set! Stay tuned tomorrow for specifics on making the sauce & stuffing the pork.

Peach Glaze Simmering

In addition to stuffing the pork, we need to glaze it while it's roasting. MSL suggests a labor-intensive peach jam recipe (see July, 2010 issue) but I have a simple glaze recipe in mind instead.

Peach Glaze:
3/4 cup sugar

1 peach, pitted & rough chopped

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp coarse salt

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of black pepper

splash of lemon juice

Simmer all ingredients uncovered in a small sauce pan on low until peaches are soft and mixture is reduced to a syrup.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Refrigerate overnight.
Roast pork loin per recipe instructions.

Apply glaze during last 5 minutes of roasting.

Once pork loin is removed from oven and has rested 10 minutes, apply glaze again.

Love these cooking binges, Reader! It's so much fun to surprise everybody with delicious, homemade seasonal dishes. Can't wait to show you what I have in mind for other summer favorites later in the season...BBQ Grilled Sweet Corn, Cranberry Pistachio Chicken Salad and other deliciousness involving fresh blueberries and cherries...

Creme De Menthe Parfait w/Chocolate Mint Garnish

Today's Joy: Seafood Fest at Todd's.
Reader, just got home from another fun gourmet evening at Todd's. I am stuffed! This time, we prepared and sampled 7 different kinds of fresh fish: sea bass, grouper, red snapper, tuna, white fish, salmon and trout. Most were new to my palate except the salmon, white fish and tuna. Each fish was prepared in a different style, most with homemade sauces and fresh herbs.

Side dishes to accompany the fish included: a delish french potato salad made with white wine(recipe forthcoming), white asparagus and the rich deviled eggs with caviar pictured below. We finished all this decadent seafood fabulousness with creme de menthe parfaits, made with Mint Meltaway ice cream, chocolate syrup, creme de menthe liqueur, whip cream and fresh sprigs of chocolate mint. A-mazing!!


Deviled Eggs with Black Caviar


Fish Fest on a plate: (clockwise from top) tuna steak, steamed red snapper, crusted grouper, grilled trout with lemon, Chilean sea bass & Cajun-fried grouper

Honey Dijon Salmon w/Dill Cream Sauce

Cedar Plank Chilean Sea Bass

Trout with Lemon

Today's Joy: the Gourmet Cook-a-thon. Reader, one of the biggest perks of being back home in Chicago is being able to attend the monthly(ish) cooking sessions held by a group of family & friends. I've been waiting for that phone call with the magic words: dinner at Todd's. Tonight, it happened.

Todd Evanson, co-owner of Beef Villa (a delish chain of eateries in the northwest suburbs) and a good family friend, has a fabulously-appointed kitchen and usually hosts these over-the-top foodie nights. The gist is, we make dinner. But it's oh so much more than that. This group includes a restaurateur, a chef, a baker and several of us to eat the food and ooh & ahh. My job is to photograph the results.

What I enjoy most about it, is the fearless way these people I love try new dishes. They collaborate and read recipes to each other and put together a game plan. Then they dive in, sharing ideas & techniques, teaching as they go. It's like watching a culinary think-tank at work. When a dish works, they pull it off brilliantly and a delicious array of culinary creations parades across the table. On the rare occasion a dish isn't up to snuff, they sit down and taste it, inspect it and conduct a relaxed post-mortem round-table on how to improve the recipe. There is always laughter, stories to share and a signature cocktail.

I relish every moment of these decadent evenings and feel very blessed to be a part of this unique fellowship. May the love shared always be as good as the food!

Photos: Lemon & Herb Sauce Hand-Written Recipe; Part of the Table Spread.