Kay Wheeler Moore

Welcome to my blog

Hello. . .

The Newfangled Country Gardener is for anyone who has a garden, would like to have a garden, or who simply enjoys eating the garden-fresh way. I don't claim to be an expert; in this blog I'm simply sharing some of the experiences my husband and I have in preparing food that is home-grown.

About the author

Kay Wheeler Moore is the author of a new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, that features six generations of recipes that call for ingredients that are fresh from the garden. With home gardening surging in popularity as frugal people become more resourceful, this recipe collection and the stories that accompany it ideally will inspire others to cook the garden-fresh way and to preserve their own family food stories as well. The stories in this book center around the Three Red-Haired Miller Girls (Kay's mother and aunts) who grew up in Delta County, TX, with their own backyard garden so lavish that they felt as though they were royalty after their Mama wielded her kitchen magic on all that was homegrown. Introduced in Kay's previous book, Way Back in the Country, the lively Miller Girls again draw readers into their growing-up world, in which a stringent economic era--not unlike today's tight times--saw people turn to the earth to put food on the table for their loved ones. The rollicking yarns (all with recipes attached) have love, family, and faith as common denominators and show how food evocatively bonds us to our life experiences.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Peach Dumplings dessert a delicious reminder of upcoming garden season

The peach season is so near at hand, I couldn’t resist jumping the gun. Besides our “faithful four”—the four trees that are the regular peach producers in our garden—we have two new peach trees this year. They popped up from random seeds in the oddest places: one in a gravel walkway near our greenhouse and another near our back fence, far from our orchard area. Can’t wait to see what they do.

We have a few weeks to go before those green knobs that are showing up among the bushy leaves begin to yield yummy, cook-worthy fruit. But I saw a peach recipe I had to try, so I used a package of frozen ones and imagined what life will be like a few weeks hence when fresh peaches are piled high in our garden baskets.

Peach Dumplings was an easy recipe because it relied on packaged refrigerated piecrusts, rolled out and cut into 4-inch circles. Into each “bundle” went peach slices; the bundle edges were gathered around the peaches and pinched to seal. With the peach packets lined up in a 11-inch-by-7-inch glass baking dish, a syrup of sugar, melted butter, ground cinnamon, and water was poured over.

The recipe says you can substitute canned or fresh biscuits for the piecrust rounds. This was a great little dessert that assembled quickly and held a terrific promise of one of my favorite times of year—peach season.

Peach Dumplings

1 (14.1-ounce) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 (20-ounce) package frozen sliced peaches, thawed and divided, or 4 ripe peaches, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll piecrusts on a lightly floured surface. Roll each into a 10-inch circle. Cut 5 (4-inch) circles from each crust. Roll each circle into an approximately 5 1/2-inch circle. Coarsely chop 2 cups peach slices. Divide chopped peaches among dough. Place fruit in center of each circle (about 1/4 cup per circle). Pull dough edges over peaches and gather in center. Pinch to seal and form a bundle. Place in a lightly greased 11-inch-by-7-inch baking dish. Arrange remaining peaches around bundles. Stir together sugar, next 2 ingredients, an 1/2 cup water until blended. Pour over bundles and peaches. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until golden brown; cool 10 minutes. Makes 10 servings. Can be served with sugar-free whipped topping. (Source: Southern Living, February 2013)

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