Oven Roasted Peach Butter

3 pounds yellow peaches
1 to 2 cups granulated sugar, or as needed
1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut peaches in half and remove pits. Arrange cut-side-down in a single layer in a nonreactive baking dish (glass or ceramic is best). Roast 30 minutes, or until skins are loose.*

2. Remove dish from the oven and (carefully) remove skins from peach halves. Discard skins. With a fork, mash softened peaches in the baking dish. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees. Return to oven and bake an additional 2 to 3 hours, checking often to stir and prevent burning, until all wateriness is gone and peaches are dark in color.

3. When peaches have broken down sufficiently, taste the fruit and stir in 1 cup sugar. Taste and add more sugar to taste. When sufficiently sweet, stir in butter, vanilla and almond extracts, and cinnamon. Return to oven for 15 minutes.

4. Transfer to a tight-sealing jar and refrigerate.

*It's not 'necessary' to remove the skins, but more a matter of preference. We like the rustic feel to the finished peach butter when the skins are left on: they are quite soft and not at all stringy.

Adapted from: Judy Walker, NOLA.com.
http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2012/06/oven-roasted_peach_butter.html

Hiatus Over -- Here's What's New

2013-05-06T11:52:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it seems impossible to find the time to blog. My latest hiatus included nearly two months of 3-year old living with us (not a minute of which I regret) and two weeks of non-stop editing of a client's e-book for publication. Whew!

With homeschool co-op ending this week (boohoo), I am planning our summer schedule. Although past summers - including our one and only homeschool summer - have been relatively school-free, this summer I'm changing things up a bit, in part to limit the amount of video games and electronics Matthew uses. He already knows that he'll be working on science and math this summer, and he's agreed to take an online Beginner Photography course through Florida Virtual School starting June 3! It's his first online class, and his first organized class at all (other than co-op classes) since we left public school more than a year ago. I'm nervous, but he's looking forward to it.

We're eating a bit healthier these days too. While the GFCF diet has never showed much promise for solving Matthew's particular challenges, we are significantly reducing our processed wheat and sugar intake for healthy eating purposes, and adding more veggies and good proteins. I've found some really awesome recipes on Pinterest that I'm excited to try, that even Matthew may eat. I'll let you know how that goes.

This week, though, I wanted to share an incredibly delicious-looking, really-bad-for-you recipe that I found that I think you will love. (So much for healthy eating!)

Photo and recipe for Chocolate Chip Cheesecake are credited to Mr. Food Test Kitchens.

I plan to make this as a cookie-cake instead of a traditional cake for Matthew's 11th Birthday Ice Cream Shoppe Party (his choice, lol).

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Serves: 15
Cooking Time: 45 min

Ingredients:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (16.5-ounce) rolls refrigerator chocolate chip cookie dough

What To Do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract until well mixed; set aside.

Slice cookie dough rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Arrange slices from one roll on bottom of a greased 9- x 13-inch glass baking dish; press together so there are no holes in dough. Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over dough; top with remaining slices of cookie dough.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden and center is slightly firm.

Remove from oven, let cool, then refrigerate. Cut into slices when well chilled.

Susan

www.susancalistri.com

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Hiatus Over -- Here's What's New