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Peaches are a favorite Summer fruit.  Martha Stewart’s crew at Everyday Foods has a simple and delicious Peach Cobbler that you can make as individual portions in (4) 8 ounce custard cups or in a 2 quart baking dish.  Aaah!  Yum..Summer!

Peach Cobbler

Prep:  20 Minutes

Total: 1 Hour 20 Minutes

Ingredients

Serves 4

FOR THE FILLING

1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending on sweetness of fruit)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 1/2 pounds peaches, halved, pitted, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices, and cut again in half crosswise (about 4 cups)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

FOR THE TOPPING

1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Make the filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Add peaches and lemon juice; toss to combine. Divide filling evenly among four 8-ounce custard cups (or one 2-quart baking dish); transfer to a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Make the topping and bake: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, blend in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir just until a dough forms. Drop dough onto peaches, using about 1/3 cup dough for each custard cup. Sprinkle dough with remaining teaspoon sugar. Bake until fruit is bubbling and biscuit topping is golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes; serve warm.

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The thing about hurricanes are that you have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.  Tropical Storm Fay has decided to take her sweet time crossing the state.  We keep getting updates that the weather will worsen soon, but now we are stuck inside.  Fortunately my boys have discovered the love of Lincoln Logs so, Daddy has had an easy time keeping them busy.

Storms like this are always good, because it reminds you of all those things you don’t have prepared.  All those things you really need to do to be prepared for a bigger storm or emergency.  I have a food supply that consists of bottle water, bread, peanut butter, chips, cookies, pop-tarts and bananas….had to get fruit in there somewhere.  My sister lives in South Florida and her and her husband were smart enough to get some MRE’s a few years ago.  I actually think that everyone should stash away a few in case of any sort of emergency.  If you are really smart you can set-up an emergency kit that fits in one large container that is good to go when you have to bolt in a hurry.

Hopefully are electricity and cable will cooperate so that I can spend some time on the computer today.  It stinks being cooped-up, but it is much brighter idea then what some people decide to do during a major storm.  The video below is off of You Tube.  Watch carefully and remember this isn’t really considered a major storm.  Good news I don’t think that he suffered any serious injuries…except for maybe his pride.  You Tube Kite Surfer.

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Gordon Ramsay is third with earnings of $7.5 million.  Joining them on the Forbes list are Paula Deen, Alain Ducasse, Mario Batali, Wofgang Puck, Anthony Bourdain, Bobby Flay, Tom Collichio and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa.

The biggest secret to making it on the list…not just being a chef…but a great celebrity as well.  From the TV Squad:

Therefore, you better believe that all that exposure on Food Network, Bravo, Travel Channel, Fine Living, BBC America, and Fox — not to mention syndication and appearances on talk shows and demonstrations on the Today Show — makes a big difference.

Read all the details on the Forbes List.

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The Olympics have really gotten me in the mood for some Chinese food.  I would like to try and come up with a little tasting menu for home.  Ming Tsai shared a great recipe that would be great to chow on while cheering on the USA.

Bings are a type of flatbread, similar to a pancake, crepe or tortilla.  Ming Tsai gave it a little twist with his East Meets West flare.  He takes the basic recipe, stuffs it and cooks it up in some oil.  It is a sort of potsticker/pancake/slider.  The great thing about bings is it looks like you could play around quite a bit with what you want in it.  You could even have a filling and make it more like a burrito. 

Traditional gingered pork and scallions bing

Ming Tsai

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

Water dough

• 2 cups (16 ounces) all-purpose flour

• 8 ounces hot water

Traditional gingered pork and scallions bing

• 1 pound naturally fed ground pork

• 1 tablespoon minced ginger

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

• 2 tablespoons naturally brewed soy sauce

• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

• 1 recipe bing dough

• Iceberg lettuce leaves

• 1 large tomato, sliced

• Pickles for serving

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• Canola oil for cooking

DIRECTIONS

Hot water dough
In a stand mixer fitted with dough hook, gradually add water to flour. Once dough forms a ball and all the dry ingredients are incorporated, remove from mixer. Dough should not be sticky, if it is, add more flour, tablespoon by tablespoon. Very lightly flour a flat surface and bring dough together into a disk. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for up to 48 hours. Alternately, you can make dough in a bowl and bring together with chopsticks.

Traditional gingered pork and scallions bing
In a large bowl, combine pork, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and scallions. Season with salt and pepper and cook a small amount of filling to check flavor. To make the bings, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and shape each into a rough ball. Flour a work surface, and roll the dough into 1/8-inch rounds. (Tip: Roll the outer edges of each round to about 1/16-inch thick.) Form about 1/3 cup of pork mixture into the shape of a hockey puck and place in center of dough. (Dough round should be about 2 inches larger than pork filling.) Bring up the sides of the dough around filling and twist ends into a spiral to seal. Cut off as much as extra dough as possible while still keeping sealed. Slightly flatten the bings. Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Add oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the bings, sealed end down, and cook until bottoms crisp and turn golden, then flip to sear other side. Add about 1/3 cup water and cover immediately. Allow bings to steam for about 6 minutes. Remove cover and allow to recrisp on both sides.

Serve each bing with tomato slices, iceberg lettuce and pickles.

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 image:  www.freeimages.co.uk

I am still in shock, but the start of school for us is next week.  I am sending my oldest to the big bad world of Kindergarten and think that I may need a stiff drink with a Valium chaser to make it through the day.  The funny thing is…he will probably head straight for the classroom and never look back.

Epicurious has some suggestions for healthy snacks to put in their lunches or even for after-school.  They have separated into three separate sections, “Fruity”, “Crunchy and Savory” and “Cookies and Bars”.

Fruity snacks include Kopali Organics Dark Chocolate Covered Mulberries:

 ”These are superfancy Raisinets,” proclaimed ten-year-old William. The dark chocolate and mulberries are packed with antioxidants, and 20 pieces have just 140 calories and 3.5 grams of saturated fat, making them a great snack for kids and adults alike. Plus, Kopali Organic uses only fair trade, organic ingredients. The company also makes dark chocolate–covered bananas, goji berries (a very of-the-moment superfood), cacao nibs, and espresso beans, though the latter two are probably best reserved for Mom and Dad’s lunch box because of their caffeine content. (kopaliorganics.com)

From Peanut Butter Pretzels to Odwalla Bars they have some great information to help you put together some great lunches for your little ones this school year.  Read more.

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Jennifer 8. Lee, blogger for the New York Times and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles visited the Today Show to set people straight.

It seems that egg rolls, fortune cookies, duck sauce, soy sauce packets and General Tsao’s Chicken have no connection to the “Motherland”.  General Tsao really existed, but descendants were at a loss regarding the dish.  Now egg rolls are a bastardized version of the Chinese Spring Roll.  China does have a product they refer to as an “egg roll”, but it is an sweet egg-based pastry.  It seems that take-out boxes are purely an American invention.  In China they just put the take-out in plastic bags.  The take-out boxes were originally created to hold shucked oysters, but Chinese restaurants began using them after World War II because they worked so great.  Lee said the funny thing is that in Asia they see those as iconic-ally American because of American television shows life Friends and Seinfeld.

Read more and watch the video of Jennifer 8 Lee on the Today Show.  Oh, and in case you were wondering…8 really is her middle name…it is a very lucky number in Chinese.

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Some of you may be wondering, “what happened to Robert Irvine?”  Well, if you missed the story…it is a doozie.  Almost as amazing as what has become the tall-tales he placed on his resume and bios. 

Robert Irvine had taken a trip to St. Petersburg in Florida, found a business partner and began plans to open a restaurant.  After the dust settled on stories of Chuck and Di’s wedding cake, Knight Hood, White House parties, tyraids at watiers and castles came the lawsuits, anger and the unraveling of a web of lies that has not only angered a variety of business people in Florida, but some not too amused Food Network execs.

The story is detailed and sadly sorted.  He flashed his muscles and British accent to begin his laundry list of lies.  It is actually quite amazing what so many people, including the Food Network suckered into.  The ultimate story is that the truth caught up to him, he has lost his shows and Food Network ties.  Irvine’s cookbook and biography are no longer available on the Home Shopping Network and his restaurant is gone along with his reputation.  It amazes me that people who should no better don’t even bother to check the accuracies of a resume anymore.

Irvine has offered his apologies and has a tale of a simple man who got carried away by a moment.  A tale that the many people who he owes money to I am sure won’t buy.

From Reality World TV:

“I remain committed and enthusiastic about my work with Food Network and other future endeavors. I am truly sorry for the errors in my judgment,” said Irvine in a Friday statement obtained by the Times.  “To all my family, friends and loyal fans, I will work tirelessly to regain your trust and continue to use my show and life to benefit the less fortunate.”

“I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experiences regarding the royal family,” he continued.  “I am proud of my work while serving in the Royal Navy and on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, also as part of the guest chef program in the White House with the United States Navy, in addition to my culinary accomplishments. I should have stood on those accomplishments alone, without embellishment.”

The article in the St. Petersburg Times lays out the story and you have to read so not to miss a single detail.  A bit of humor lies with an individual seeking compensation for a number of things she helped him create, including his resume that has a quote from Robert Irvine, “My passion is to reach beyond inspiration - to be spectacularly creative.”  OH, my, my.

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Maria Blackburn from the Baltimore Sun wrote a piece about the trend, relayed some tips from the experts and corralled her children as well as some from the neighborhood to take a swipe at some of the children’s cookbooks that are out there.

Tips are simple and pretty much what you would expect with any activity you would undertake involving children…be flexible.  From Blackburn:

…the book needs to be both simple enough for kids to follow, but ambitious enough to give a sense of adventure, too. “There’s a problem if kids can’t find some steps they can do independently.”

Even the best children’s cookbook can’t make cooking with kids a success if the grown-ups in the bunch are too focused on perfection, said Lauren Bank Deen, a TV producer who spent more than five years with Martha Stewart Living Television and is the author of last year’s Kitchen Playdates.

“You need to be flexible,” Deen said. “What doesn’t work is being really rigid and overly concerned [about] getting everything perfect.”

Hopefully, cooking with your kids won’t be a passing trend, but a lesson which parents will want to continue to embrace.  Read more of Blackburn’s article.

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Sandi at the b5 Olympic Center has compiled a list of several bloggers who have given some of their own insight to the Games.

From hosting an Olympic party and having the right decorations to books for young readers about Olympic athletes and a look at the athletes of these Summer Games, there is a lot of interesting perspectives for your Olympic read.

Read more at Talking About the Olympics.

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 image:  www.freeimages.co.uk

Whole Foods has issued a voluntary beef recall.  The beef originated from Nebraska Beef Ltd, and they are recalling 1.2 million pounds of beef due to possible E. Coli infection.  Several people have already become ill.

Nebraska Beef Ltd, had recalled over 5 million pounds of beef a month ago due to the same problem, when over 40 cases of E. Coli illness had surfaced.  Whole Foods has received reports of patrons falling ill and recalled meat that has been sold between June 2 and August 6.

Read more about the recall on MSNBC.

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