Bourbon Peach (or nectarine) Crumble with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Thanks to our CSA, we have a bounty of peaches and nectarines.  One of my favorite combos is bourbon and peach and last night just screamed out Crumble!

2 servings

Ingredients:

For Crumble:

1 1/3 c flour

1/3 c granulated sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

1 1/3 c pecans, coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 c cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes

Fruit:

3 ripe peaches (or nectarines)

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 Tbsp bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)

Whipped Cream:

1/2 c heavy whipping cream

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 Tbsp bourbon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

For crumble, mix flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, and pecans together.  Once combined, work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips, until you get a crumbly texture.  You will have tons of left over topping. No worries, this stuff stores great.  Refrigerate or freeze until next time (which I will assume is tomorrow

One of my favorite tricks for peeling peaches is cutting an X at the bottom of the fruit and placing in boiling water for 30 seconds.  Once cooled, the skins come right off (works great for tomatoes too!). When using nectarines, I like to keep the skins on.  Cut fruit into bite size pieces and place in a bowl.  Add sugar and bourbon and coat the fruit.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes.  

Place fruit into 2 ramekins and top with 1/4 c of the crumble mixture.  Place ramekins on a baking sheet to catch any drippings. This is a must because cleaning that burnt shit is a BITCH!  Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the juices have started to bubble, (Since there's only 2 of us, I made this in our toaster oven and it took closer to 45 mins.)  I've under baked this before and there is nothing more depressing than under baked soupy buttery mush on top of fruit .  Remove from oven and a allow to cool.  

While waiting for your crumble to cool, prepare whipped cream by pouring heavy whipping cream, butter and bourbon into a cold bowl.   Whisk until the cream reaches stiff peaks.   

Add whipped cream on top of crumble and enjoy.  However, we like to stay super classy and eat the whipped cream straight out of the bowl.  

   

Hubby's "Cherry Poppin" Bolognese

Bolognese over rotini

The Hubs and I are about to go on our belated honeymoon so,  of course this means we have to clean out our refrigerator before we leave.  After thinking about everything we had in there, all I could think was BOLOGNESE.  I am a Filipino with a crazy obsession with pasta. Hello I put effing pasta bowls on our wedding registry!  When I asked the hubs what he thought, he asks, "What is bolognese?'  I'm like WTF? You poor poor deprived boy (He did not have frosty and french fries or PB and bananas until the age of 30). Naturally I had to make sure that his first bolognese experience was a good one.  Mind you, this would be so much better on the weekend when it had 4 hours to simmer, but this was a Wednesday night, so all had to be done at a reasonable hour.

Simmering away

Bolognese Sauce
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1 yellow onion, small dice
2 carrots, small dice
2 celery stalks, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 oz bacon, diced (i had jowl bacon)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 lb ground bison (lean beef works too, just had this in the freezer).
1/2 lb ground pork (optional).  I did not have that on hand so its not in here
4 Hanover tomatoes, skinned, 2 diced, 2 pureed
1/2 cup sherry or any dry white wine.
1 cup milk
1/2 c red wine.

Heat oil and butter in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Once butter is melted, add onions, garlic, butter, and carrots and saute for 5 minutes.  Add the bacon and saute for an additional 5 minutes.  Add tomato paste and ground beef and cook until beef is browned.  Add tomatoes, sherry, and milk, and simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally (or if you have all the time in the world, lower the temp to low and simmer for 4 horus). Remember this sauce is about the meat, so dont be scurred of all the liquid  After an hour, and halfway though a bottle of wine, I checked on my sauce, and with glass of red wine in my hand I thought, why the hell not, and poured some red wine in there too.   I simmered it down for an additional 30 minutes until thickened.  I served this over some  Rozoni Garden Delights rotini, because you can't get enough veggie,s and grated some Trade Joe's Unexpected Cheddar on top.

Note - The Hubs was sooo happy about this that he ate two bowls full.  Not this smartest meal to make before going on vacay to a sunny locale.  Oh well, here come two beached whales!

T.T. also stands for Tummy Troubles

One of the worst parts about getting older is no longer having an iron stomach.  Growing up with my dad's cooking and eating all the greasy pre-packaged goodness while living in my sorority house and chugging a keg's worth of beer meant you had to have a stomach of steel.  However, after graduating college and moving out of my parents house,  my tummy has decided to become one of my worst enemies.    I've gone from eating every last morsel of yummy fried goodness to having to watch what I eat in fear my estomago will scream out "Viva la Revolution" in public.

Bridesmaids

Lets be honest for a minute, everyone has had a moment similar to that wonderful scene in the movie Bridesmaids where Maya Rudolf's character is running down a busy street in a full on wedding dress.  This may be TMI but mine always happens after I eat at Pei Wei.  UGH I just want some spicy noodles in my life!  Having these problems and being female is the WORST.  When men hit the shitter, there's no surprise whats going to happen there and they let it rip.  Heck, at work you see men walking into the restrooms with reading material in hand.  Women on the other hand are very poop shy. While my husband has no problem walking in the bathroom and taking a dump while I'm getting ready, even the idea of him walking in on me pooping makes me more uncomfortable than a wool sweater in the summer.

I miss working in my old office in Tampa.  We had one bathroom per sex, so no one really knew what you were doing in there besides the fine aroma of Febreeze that followed.  However, when I moved to Richmond, I had go back in my mental file to remember my pile of tricks dealing with pooping in public.  Living in a sorority house is a wonderful place of knowledge when it comes to this stuff.  So here ladies is my list of how to *discretely* do it:

1.  Try to train your body to go at times when the restroom is normally empty.  At my office its between 8:30 and 10 and at lunchtime.

2.  Place some toilet paper in the bowl before you start, it really helps muffle the "plopping" sound

3.  Lift your legs when pooping so no one can see your shoes and figure out who's doing what

4.  Wait until the lady next to you flushes or washes their hands.

5.  If you're in an office building, go to one of the other floors where no one knows who you are.

6.  Always keep Imodium, GasEx, and Tums in your purse.

However if its really a bad one, just let it go.  Yes its mortifying but EVERYONE has been in your shoes. We'll just run out of there as fast as we can.