Fun and Different Ways To Eat A Peach

Along with insanely hot summer temperatures and bulldogs as college mascots, Georgia is well-known for its affinity for peaches. A lot of people only think of peaches as snacks and breakfast items, but we know they are much more useful than that. To illustrate this, I'm going to give you a recipe involving peaches for every meal, including dessert.

Breakfast-

Peach Muffins

2 cups peaches-peeled, pitted and chopped. You can also use canned peaches in their own juice.

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups white sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

½ cup milk (optional)

Lightly grease 16 muffin cups and preheat the oven to 400 F. In one bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, oil and sugar. Add the mixtures together and stir until moist. Stir in the peaches and spoon into the muffin cups. Now, bake them until you can poke them in the center with a toothpick and it comes out clean, roughly 25 minutes. Once out, let stand for about 10 minutes and turn out on a rack to cool.

Lunch-

Chicken Salad with Peaches and Walnuts-serves 4

2 cups grilled chicken, chopped (rotisserie chicken without skin works as well)

6 cups mixed salad greens

1 large fresh peach

½ cup red onion, thinly sliced

½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped

½ cup poppyseed salad dressing (raspberry works too)

Chop one peach into ½” pieces. Toss the peaches, onion and chicken in a large bowl with just enough dressing to coat. Now, add the greens and walnuts, toss again, and spread onto a large plate. You're done, so serve! Some people also cut up second peach to use as a garnish.

Dinner-

Baked Chicken with Peaches

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

4 fresh peaches-pitted, peeled and sliced

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/8 tsp cloves, ground

1/8 tsp ginger, ground

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9”x13” baking dish, place chicken pieces and sprinkle with ½ cup brown sugar. Then, put the slices on top of the chicken ans sprinkle with the rest of the brown sugar, lemon juice, ginger and cloves. Bake for about 30 minutes, basting with the juices several times.

And finally, here's a nice dessert recipe I got from Harry & David in this month's 'Fruit Of The Month' club package:

Peaches Castellano-serves 6

6 peaches, pitted and halved

12 tbsp pecans or almonds, crumbled

1 tbsp blue cheese, at room temperature (they recommend Rogue Creamery, but other brands will do)

12 tbsp honey

Brush the grill lightly with oil and pre-heat it to medium-high. Place the peaches face-down and lightly cook until you see grill marks. Then, place the peaches on a plate and fill the pit with a tablespoon each of nuts and blue cheese. Drizzle the honey over the peaches and serve.

Now you know a few fun ways to use peaches. Enjoy!