Red Chile Mango Pork Chops with Peach Salsa

The grill was once my husband's domain. I blame the fact that the button for the starter on our gas grill broke a couple of years ago and I really didn't want to risk sticking the lighter into the slot to start it. Maybe it *was* dangerous, but it was also a convenient excuse to not…

ByMichelleAugust 30, 20160Comments

Beverages Cooking Recipes

Working for the Weekend: Gingery Peach Bellinis

Something about a bellini feels infinitely more luxurious than your usual mimosa. You can get pretty decent freshly squeezed orange juice almost year round, which makes a mimosa standard. But the bellini is something special, something summer, something more than, especially with your own peach syrup. After this, you’ll never want a can of peach nectar again.

ByMichelleAugust 26, 20140Comments

Recipes Restaurants

Scenes From Cafe Juanita’s Alfresco Pig Roast

Hold on, the headline says pig roast. Why am I looking at soup? Because a pig roast, while delicious, is ugly gorgeous. As the sunny season winds down at Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, Washington, this soup is one of the things I've been looking forward to all summer. Pappa al pomodoro. You know this soup? Tomatoes, hand crushed. Garlic, basil, cayenne, olive oil, balsamic, sherry vinegar, bread. Served at room temp, it is the essence of summer. At Sunday night's Pig Roast, pappa al pomodoro was a pre-dinner summer sipper. This is perhaps the one Cafe Juanita recipe that gets shared the most, but I've never actually made it. Why? It's a destination dish. I'll just say, it's worked out really well that we got married in late summer. If I plan it right, I can have it at the restaurant. If you can't, the recipe is here. So what about that pig roast?

ByMichelleSeptember 14, 20121Comment

Baking Dessert Fruit Recipes

Summer Desserts: Cornmeal Biscuit Peach Cobbler

One of my all time favorite summer songs is DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's SummerTime. It's a head-bobbin', windows rolled down song that takes you right back to the summer of 1991, but is still a jam 20 years later. You know the one: Summa, summa, summa-time. Time to sit back and unwind... Here it is... the groove slightly transformed just a bit of a break from the norm just a little somethin' to break the monotony of all that hardcore dance that has gotten to be a little bit out of control it's cool to dance but what about the groove that soothes that moves romance give me a soft subtle mix and if ain't broke then don't try to fix it...

ByMichelleJuly 5, 20121Comment

Baking Recipes

Pretty As a Peach and Nectarine Cobbler

When I went to the farmers market on Saturday, I already had peach cobbler on the brain, so I picked up some beautiful Sweet Scarlet peaches from Tiny's Organic. They cost almost twice as much as the going rate at other stands, but it was worth it. Sweet Scarlet is a yellow-fleshed peach, and it's lower in acid, so you get the pretty color of a yellow peach with the sweetness of a white one. I swear the sign said they were freestones (the Internet appears to differ on that point), but when I got them home...they just weren't. Those little guys were clinging to their pits as if holding on for dear life. And then I uttered what may be one of the saddest sentences spoken on a summer Sunday afternoon, second only to, "The grill is out of propane."

ByMichelleAugust 9, 20110Comments

Recipes Salads Side Dishes

Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad

Leave it to Jeremy Fox, who did amazing things with vegetarian cuisine at Ubuntu in Napa (and maybe soon at a joint called Smith?), to come up with a different, maybe better, spin on panzanella. I've had the recipe for this peach panzanella tucked away for safe keeping (since 2007!), until some hot weather and good peaches came my way. That was this weekend...it's been a scorcher everywhere. Here in the PNW, we're thanking the weather gods. Across the rest of the country, everyone else is wondering, when will it ever end?! I think I first had a traditional tomato panzanella at Caffe Centro in San Francisco, just across the street from where I worked. Their version had diced tomato, cucumber and corn with a balsamic dressing. A great summer salad. If the name is anything to go by, it's the stale bread that makes a panzanella. But after having this version, I'd say it's the peaches.

ByMichelleJuly 25, 20111Comment