A berry, berry nice Berry Sauce makes great topping for ice cream

Remedy for a hot, 105-degree summer night: ice cream (sugar-free, of course) with a smooth topping of Berry Sauce. Delicious all the way down; the berries (combination of raspberries and blackberries in a thick, sweet sauce) are healthy and the topping wonderful.

“Celebrating a Healthy Harvest” furnished this recipe and suggested it could be used atop ice cream, biscuits, or shortcake. Hubby immediately began asking whether this could be served on toast or whether it had to be confined to ice cream (not that that would bother him, Mr. Ice Cream Man himself).

I combined the two berries (our grocery has oodles of both varieties right now; they’re on sale) to make the sauce, which keeps well in the fridge. Anything (especially a welcome blessing like this ice-cream topper) that helps us get through these hot summer days is terrif.

Berry Sauce

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

4 cups raspberries or blackberries or combination

1 tablespoons corn starch

3 tablespoons cool water

In a saucepan over medium-low heat cook berries and sugar until mixture is bubbly; simmer for 20 minutes. In a small cup mix together corn starch and water. Add slowly to berry mixture; stir gently. Simmer and stir until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat when the sauce is the desired thickness. Cool. Makes about 1 1/2 cups of sauce.

Thanks to grocery circular for this citrusy summer meal idea

Hooray for the Kroger grocery circular for providing another spectacular recipe that yielded a tasty, ingenious summer meal for us. I never know where the next clever idea will crop up. The recent Kroger mailing showed me how to cook these Baked Chicken Tenders with Citrus Rice. Our homemade peach preserves, already blogged about, and the zest of an orange and a lemon tanged up some ordinary chicken strips and rice and made them memorable.

I like to get the chicken stock for the recipe by covering, in a saucepan, some chicken breasts in water and boiling until the chicken no longer is pink and is cooked through. This provides ample broth for the recipe instead of my having to use the canned varieties. Low-sodium chicken broth now is available, but it still has higher sodium levels than are best for me and Hubby. The whole-wheat bread crumbs used for dredging the chicken tenders are full of fiber and health. We pulled out some honey mustard for dipping sauce, but you also could use sweet chili sauce or even barbecue sauce.

The recipe makes oodles of rice that outlasts the supply of chicken tenders. Hubby just loves leftover rice for breakfast (sometimes he adds a little skim milk), so he was a happy camper for several days: first because he enjoyed the entrée recipe and then because he was amply supplied with breakfast rice well into the week.

Baked Chicken Tenders with Citrus Rice

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons apricot preserves (I subbed my own homemade peach preserves)

2 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into small strips

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat bread crumbs

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups brown rice, rinsed

1 orange and 1 lemon, zested

1 bottle citrus vinaigrette dressing (I used Maple Grove Farms of Vermont brand)

salt (or salt substitute) and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl combine honey and preserves. Brush honey mixture on both sides of chicken; dredge chicken in bread crumbs. Place chicken on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake 20 minutes on each side until chicken is lightly browned. To make rice, over medium-high heat bring chicken stock to a boil. Cook rice in broth according to package instructions. Fluff the rice and place in a large serving bowl. Add orange zest and half the lemon zest. Toss well with 1/2 cup of the vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with remaining lemon zest. Refrigerate any leftovers. Serves 4 to 6.

No partridge, but Pear Cake with its chunks of fresh pears is super-yummy

Our pears are emerging by the basketfuls now. When we go out to pick them, we no longer bring in just a handful, but our little straw basket (that once sat on my mother’s hearth to contain her sewing projects and now is our gathering basket as we approach our garden) brims when we return. Usually, at that point, the pears are too hard to carve into, so for several days we house them in a plain brown paper bag until they ripen.

In my cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, I included a Pear Cake recipe that always has been a favorite. A neighbor’s gift of a sack of fresh pears from his farm once inspired me to find this recipe for this cake, which freezes extremely well. Now having pears from our own garden, I baked two loaves: one to serve recently when my brother- and sister-in-law visited and another to take with me as a hostess gift on our recent trip to Colorado.

The cake, with its 3 cups chopped pears, is hugely moist. The cinnamon, cloves, and allspice make it spicy and good. After I took the baked cake from its loaf pan, I poured an optional Brown-Sugar Pear Glaze atop it. The pear syrup for which the glaze recipe specifies I obtained by mashing a small amount of reserved pear slices until 2 tablespoons of pear puree formed. The cake is moist enough without the glaze, but I'll have to say that the glaze as a topping is a pure delight.

No partridge, but a wonderful pear tree that is giving us its beautiful gifts to enjoy ourselves and to share with others.

Pear Cake

3 cups chopped pears

2 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 cup canola oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground allspice

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix first three ingredients; let stand for one hour. Beat eggs and add them to pear mixture. Sift all dry ingredients together and add to pear mixture. Add chopped pecans. Pour into greased and floured tube pan or two loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. If desired prepare Brown-Sugar Pear Glaze (below) and pour on top of the loaves.

Brown-Sugar Pear Glaze

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons pear syrup (can be obtained by mashing up a few pear slices until it forms a liquid puree)

1/4 cup brown sugar (or 1/8 cup brown-sugar substitute)

1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

Melt butter; stir in pear syrup and brown sugar. Bring just to a boil. Stir in powdered sugar. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over Pear Cake loaves that have been removed from their baking pans and cooled.

Summery Green Tomato Salsa adds tangy-sweet burst of flavor to grilled items

Here’s a great one to try as you look for ways to dress up grilled chicken and other items you cook outdoors: Green Tomato and Peach Salsa. The tangy-sweet taste of this quick, colorful salsa pairs perfectly with grilled chicken or pork or even fish.

I adored finding this recipe in the “ways with green tomatoes” section of the recent Southern Living magazine I’ve been mentioning. Not only did it give me some more green tomatoes ideas, it also went into my peach-iana file because one large peach is part of the mix.

Other fresh additions are sliced green onions and fresh cilantro, along with a dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar, honey, salt, and ground red pepper.

You’ll love this summery, sensational topping as much as we did!

Green Tomato and Peach Salsa

2 large green tomatoes, diced

1 large fresh peach, diced

3 green onions, sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

Stir all ingredients together. Cover and chill 1 hour before you serve. Makes about 4 cups.

Whip this one up quickly! Chilly Peach Soup cools from head to toe

What a shocker to the old system! All our days last week were involved with a family trip to beautiful, colorful Colorado, in which the temps, though warm for this time of the year, weren’t 105 degrees as we are experiencing in Texas. One evening as we left for dinner, the thermometer registered 72. Talk about pleasant! When we exited the car at the Denver restaurant, the most exquisite cooling breeze blew about around us. People seemed generally happier; drivers were more courteous. No one had that, “It’s-been-triple-digits-for-days-with-no-end-in-sight-what-are-we- gonna-do?” look on his or her face.

Quick re-entry help was needed when we returned to the Texas furnace. I whipped up some Chilly Peach Soup, which had been on my must-make list to broaden my peach-recipe repertoire. You can’t imagine how soothing this dinner-starter dish was—the most delicious blend of peaches and nectarines with honey, nonfat plain yogurt, lemon juice, and cinnamon stirred in. The only difficult part was the peeling of all the ripe peaches and nectarines; I persuaded Hubby to do this tedious step. Then I stuffed the peeled fruit in the blender to puree until everything was mashed and liquid-y. After all the ingredients were folded in, I let the mixture chill in the fridge for about an hour. Not a long chill-time is needed, since the yogurt and lemon juice already are cold. I garnished with a few peach slices and a few sprinkles of cinnamon.

I could have been dining while seated in a meat locker and not have been more chilled. Chilly Peach Soup cooled from head to toe. Oh, and did I mention that the taste was absolutely divine? In this inferno, no one should be surprised that identifying cooling properties precedes the flavor attributes when one writes about a recipe. But the blend of pureed peaches and nectarines was memorable indeed.

Chilly Peach Soup

3 cups ripe peaches, peeled and sliced

2 cups ripe nectarines, peeled and sliced

2 cups vanilla nonfat yogurt

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Puree the peaches and nectarines one batch at a time. Add yogurt, honey, lemon juice, and cinnamon; stir well. Pour into bowls; garnish with peach slices and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Chill well before you serve. Makes 4 servings.

Make some summer days lazy with this Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew

Lazy summer days? Well, any more, they’re hardly lazy. Summer has its own hectic pace, with so much to do within so little time. After all, July 4th is already passed. Time marches on toward Labor Day and back to school.

But a recipe such as this one, furnished by the Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services, is just the simplest, so go ahead and be lazy! Throw all ingredients into a slow cooker. The chicken doesn’t even have to be browned beforehand. Open a package of chicken breasts, cut them into chunks, toss in some peeled sweet potatoes and a few other items. Three hours later, dinner’s ready. The chicken, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms make a dandy combination. A few blogs ago I mentioned that I had served Black Bean and Corn Salad alongside this recipe and promised to feature it later. With so many peach dishes to write about in recent days, I almost forgot, but here is it—truly the makings of an easy, healthy dinner to remember.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew

4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks (approximately 1 pound)

2 pounds sweet potatoes, cut into chunks

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 garlic cloves minced

1 cup white cooking wine

1/2 teaspoon rosemary, dried

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Place the chicken, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onion, garlic, white wine, rosemary, pepper, and vinegar in a 6-quart slow cooker. Stir to combine. Put the lid on and cook on high for 3 hours or until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through. Makes 7 1-cup servings.

Pears in a pear tree (minus the partridge) stir up into a memorable breakfast muffin

I’m just not believin’ these delicious pears are really ours—well, not exactly ours, but God’s. He loans us our garden to tend and cultivate. But we sure are having a good time tending and cultivating. And to look at our pear tree, only in its second season, and see all those gorgeous pears dangling from its limbs as though they were Christmas ornaments—well, it just takes my breath away.

I’ve got just the recipe in which to use them, too—Pear Pecan Muffins, clipped from a 2002 Taste of Home magazine that featured every kind of muffin under the sun. Any time I have some pears on hand, I whip these up. The pear chunks merged with our homegrown pecans stir into what becomes a marvelous breakfast treat—terrific with a glass of cold milk or a steaming cup of coffee or tea.

When you first mix up the batter, you may wonder why it doesn’t seem more moist. The batter doesn’t pour into the greased muffin cups. You kinda have to massage it in, just as you might spoon cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and sorta shape it as you go. What happens is that as the muffins bake, the juice from the pears oozes into the batter. This actually produces a very moist muffin. If it’s somewhat on the crumbly side, don’t despair. The muffin itself is like an all-over streusel topping that has baked around the pears.

I used this as a Saturday morning treat to jumpstart a busy weekend with kinfolk visiting. I wanted to share with them some of our backyard garden’s finest.

Pear Pecan Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups chopped peeled ripe pears (about 6 medium)

1 cup chopped pecans

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl combine the eggs, oil, and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the pears and pecans. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick emerges clean. Cool for 5 minutes before you remove muffins from pans to wire racks. Makes about 2 dozen.