House Spouse

Who doesn’t love noodles dressed with peanut sauce? (I mean, other than the very unfortunate who suffer from peanut allergies…) Imagine such noodles accompanied by grilled fruit, greens and really really tasty tofu. This is one of those dishes that makes you crazy glad that you’re not opposed to meatless (or even vegan) dinners because those suckers who think you need an animal protein to complete a meal are so wrong.

After returning from the farmers market with a bag of baby bok choy, I did a little research for some inspiration and discovered this fun recipe on Epicurious, but I wanted to make something vegetarian and more substantial. Still, the idea of a peanut sauce sweetened with peach nectar was intriguing so I began collecting ingredients to re-fashion the recipe to my liking. I followed the instructions for the peanut sauce almost exactly, omitting the butter entirely. I substituted the shrimp with marinated tofu and pared down the rest of the ingredients to make enough for two (although, there were plenty of noodles for leftovers).
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Thank you Mark Bittman for reminding me that I don’t have to lug out the ice cream maker to make a cold treat.

I’m not sure why it never occurred to me to make paletas at home before they were featured on The Minimalist. I have a record of making somewhat adventurously flavored popsicles (i.e., flavors that go beyond fake strawberry, lemon, grape, etc.), but for some reason had never ventured into the ice-y treats con leche. There’s no time like the present, so I ventured away as soon as I got my hands on some fruit that would pair perfectly with one of the dried guajillos currently occupying a hefty space in my pantry.

If you do a search for paletas made with chiles, you’ll find that most of your results will be recipes for mango lime and chile paletas. I read a few to figure out what ingredients I’d need and set about to concocting my own.

Mango Lime and Chile Paletas

Ingredients
2 ripe, medium mangoes, peeled and cored
juice of 2-3 limes
sugar (start with less than 1/4 c; how much sugar you use will depend on the sweetness of your mangoes and your own taste)
1 dried guajillo chile, seeded and stemmed
1 tsp Mexican chile powder
approx. 1/2 c. water or milk

Combine ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Taste, adding sugar and liquid as needed. Pour into a popsicle mold and freeze.

I can’t think of anything more quintessentially Georgian than peach cobbler. So, in a thinly veiled attempted to prolong the feeling that we were still vacationing down South, I made one. I’m not terribly into baked fruits and have little (no) experience baking cobblers. I love to make crisps, but wanted to keep it real. These peaches, after all, were bought directly from an orchard in Peach County. I used a recipe from a cookbook that I reviewed last December when I was still writing and editing for Drive Thru. The book is called A Love Affair with Southern Cooking and the recipe is titled “Country Peach Cobbler.” Perfect.

Unfortunately, between just Andrew and me, we’re having trouble polishing off this thing! We’ve got that strawberry pie (which I’m more drawn to) and being that it’s bathing suit season, I’m trying really hard to be disciplined (although I should have been worrying more about that about three months ago). I’ve rarely had a dessert stick around for more than a day or two, but here we are, four days later…

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