Daring and Adventuresome Cooking

Nearing the end of summer is so bittersweet. I love the fall but it is so short and ends in winter. In keeping with the bittersweetness of the season, how about some spicy sweet recipes that jazz up the end of summer fruits? I love watermelon when it is fresh, cold, crisp and juicy. Normally, this is my dessert of choice but recently I made it into a spicy side dish to my BBQ chicken and potato salad with fantastic results. Simply squirt lime juice over the watermelon cubes and sprinkle with salt and chili powder. You can eat it just like that, or skewer it and toss it on the grill or campfire if you have one going. If I have a grill going I like to put BBQ sauce on pineapple and sweet potato wedges on skewers too...or lime and chili pepper if you have no bbq sauce...whatever. I like to cut peaches in half and grill them too. You don't need to add anything at all. They are tangy sweet and perfect just the way they are.

I have been loving curries and earthy smells in my vegis, like oyster sauce or lime soy sauce. Whatever is coming out of the garden goes in a wok and gets sizzled awhile and thrown on a plate for lunch. Recently, that means a lot of green and red tomato, okra, eggplant and various summer squash and zucchinis, sweet onions, and apple slices.

If after all this spicy, earthy, tangy, bittersweetness, you have a sweet tooth that is complaining of neglect, it is the perfect season for making all those perfectly ripe red haven peaches into super easy, cheesecake stuffed peaches.

Cheesecake Stuffed Peaches

A dozen peaches, cut in half and pitted, with a little trimmed off the round side so they lay flat on a cookie sheet without rolling around (make it easy on yourself and get freestone peaches)

one melted stick of butter

½ Cup sugar plus 2 tsp. cinnamon shaken together

half pound of soft cheese (I use Fromage Blanc made from goat milk...but cream cheese works too)

½ cup of sugar

2 egg yolks

1½ tsp. Vanilla

1. Coat peaches in butter, lay on a cookie sheet so that the indentation where the pit was is up. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mix
2. Combine cream cheese, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla with a medium speed mixer.
3. Fill the peach centers with cheesecake filling and bake at 350* for 30 min. or till browned lightly and soft. Cool and serve.

I would give credit to the magazine my friend clipped this from, altered slightly and sent to me, who doubled the recipe and made it out of goat cheese instead...but I don't know which magazine it was and for that matter...it isn't really the same recipe as when she clipped it. So, try it, feel free to experiment with it...can you make it on a grill or add a squirt of lime, or use almond extract instead of vanilla? I have no idea till I try...and neither do you. (: Don't be confined by the boundaries of a written recipe or you will never discover anything fantastic and new. Tell me how you changed the recipe, and how it turned out...maybe add a touch of raspberry jam on top of the cheesecake filling? Wrapped them in pie crusts like dumplings, omitted the cheesecake entirely and filled the with caramels? Use this as a spring board. Get adventuresome and let me know how it turns out....and save me one to try.