Peach and Arugula Salad

It's peak season for stone fruit and we're getting beautiful peaches and nectarines lately. Sinking your teeth into a sweet and juicy ripe peach is one of summer's great pleasures. Sweet, ripe peaches can also star in a lovely light summer salad; and practically all of the ingredients for this salad were in today's box.

1 bunch arugula
1/2 - 1 C microgreens
1-2 peaches
1-2 T thinly sliced sweet or red onion
2 T toasted walnuts or pecans
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
1-2 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 - 1/2 C crumbled goat cheese
salt and pepper

1. Wash and dry the arugula and microgreens. Trim off the tough stems from the arugula and break into bite-sized pieces. Put the arugula and microgreens in a large bowl.

2. Halve the peach(es) lengthwise. Remove and discard the pit. Slice the peaches lengthwise. Add to the bowl.

3. Add the thinly sliced onion and the nuts. Drizzle the oil and balsamic over the salad and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Add the crumbled goat cheese and toss again. Serve.

You can substitute blue cheese for the goat cheese, if you'd like. You can also substitute toasted pine nuts for the walnuts. I like to add a little fresh mint to this salad sometimes. It gives it a bright and fresh taste.

If you're firing up the grill this weekend. You might try grilling the peaches for this salad. Cut them in half. Rub with a little olive oil and grill, cut side down for a few minutes. Cool before slicing for the salad.

Today's bounty included:

From Underwood Family Farms: Ofelia eggplants, heirloom crookneck squash, Valencia oranges, romaine lettuce, arugula, spring onions, French breakfast radishes, jalapeno, broccoli florets, and yellow carrots.

From Sage Mountain Farm: yellow zucchini, yellow wax beans, green bell pepper, Hungarian pepper, bi-color corn, and orange carrots.

From Sweet Tree Farms: peaches, nectarines and mixed heirloom tomatoes (Cherry, Armani Orange, Red Zebra and Purple Russian).

And arugula and mustard microgreens from Silver Lake Farms.

Enjoy!

Shelley

Stuffed French Toast

If you happened to get some of those super ripe white peaches this afternoon and you don't eat them up in the car on the way home, you might want to use them to make this lovely dish over the weekend.

Stuffed French Toast is a simple and delicious treat that makes a wonderful breakfast or brunch dish. This version uses the peaches from today's box, but you can substitute your favorite fruit. If you don't have any fruit, you can substitute jam; and if you want to make this dish even richer, you can add a few crumbles of cream cheese or goat cheese to the filling.

For 4 servings:

Start by preparing the fruit for the filling. If you're using peaches, peel 1-2 peaches with a knife or use the blanching method described in last week's recipe on Peach Clafouti. Thinly slice the peaches and set them aside.

4-5 large eggs
1/2 C whole milk
1/2 t vanilla
pinch salt
butter for frying

1. Beat the eggs with a fork in a small bowl until well blended. Beat in the milk, vanilla, and salt.

2. Pour this mixture into a shallow flat-bottomed dish. Arrange 4 slices of bread in the dish (or work in batches - 1-2 slices at a time).

3. Place several thin slices of peeled peach on top of each slice of bread. Cover fruit with another slice of bread.

4. When the bottom slice of bread has become well-soaked with the egg mixture, gently flip each piece so that the top slice of bread can soak up the remaining egg mixture. Be sure each slice of bread is soaked through.

5. Melt 1 T butter in a large skillet. Using a spatula, gently place as many pieces of stuffed French toast in the skillet as will fit without crowding. Fry on medium heat until the bottom is brown. Gently flip and fry until the other side is brown. Add more butter if necessary to fry the remaining pieces of stuffed French toast.

Serve hot with syrup or powdered sugar.

This recipe is wonderful with slightly mashed bananas and/or berries instead of peaches.

A Few Thoughts on Goat Cheese

There are so many things you can do with goat cheese:

• Crumble it into salad (it's great with roasted beets)


• Crumble it into an omelet (it's delicious eith asparagus)


• Stir some crumbles into hot pasta with cooked crumbled Italian sausage and/or your favorite sauteed vegetables


• Spread it on little toasts and top with chopped fresh herbs for a delicious crostini


• Make wonderful sandwiches such as goat cheese with roasted red pepper and basil pesto on your favorite bread

Here's today's harvest:

From Underwood Family Farms: red leaf lettuce, green cabbage, Japanese turnips, yellow carrots, Texas sweet onions, zucchini, mizuna, French radishes, leeks, and blackberries.

From Cottgae Grove Farms: white corn, asparagus, pluots and peaches.

Chevre from Drake Family Farms; and mustard microgreens and edible flowers from Silver Lake farms.

Enjoy!

Shelley

Peach Clafouti

Don't be daunted by the name of this wonderful dish. A clafouti is a lovely, fruity, custard-y dessert that's great plain or with a scoop of your favorite ice cream. It's easy to make and works well with many fruits. In the fall, it's often made with apples or pears. In the summer, stone fruit such as cherries, peaches and apricots are delicious with this batter.

It's best to peel the peaches for this dessert. The easiest way to accomplish this is to blanch them in a pot of boiling water for about 60-90 seconds. Drain. When cool enopugh to handle, remove the skins. If your peaches are hard, they may require slightly longer blanching or you just may want to wait until your peaches have ripened a bit. Don't use peaches that are super soft; between the blanching and the baking, they'll just disintegrate.

1-2 t butter

1/3 C + 1 T granulated sugar

4-6 medium peaches, peeled, pit removed, and sliced into eighths

3 large eggs

1 t vanilla

1 C whole milk or half and half

pinch salt

1/3 C flour

1 t amaretto (optional)

powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Generously butter a 9" pie pan with 1-2 t butter and sprinkle 1 T sugar over the bottom of the pan.

3. Arrange the peeled and pitted peaches artfully in the bottom of the prepared pie pan.

4. Beat together the eggs, vanilla, milk (or half and half), salt, flour and amaretto. You can do this in a blender, or in a bowl with an immersion blender or an electric mixer, or simply by hand, beating vigorously until the ingredients are very well combined to make a smooth batter.

5. Pour the batter over the peaches in the pie pan and bake until set (when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean) - about 35 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before serving. Dust the top generously with powdered sugar before slicing and serving.

If there's any leftover, it's great for breakfast, too.

Here's today's bounty:

From Underwood Family Farms: romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, orange carrots, sugar snap peas, arugula, bok choy, Easter radishes, Napa cabbage and blueberries.

From Sage Mountain Farm: yellow carrots, Swiss chard, Tuscan kale, fresh green garlic, baby leeks, collard greens, and green onions.

From Cottage Grove Farms: strawberries, peaches and apricots.

From dear SLF friend Zan: lemons and tangerines

and from Silver Lake Farms: mustard and arugula micro-greens.

Tara says: Welcome back Rachel and Katy-Kate-Kate and welcome on board Nik! To Sherry, our conductor: you are THE BEST! Thank you for finding Cottage Grove.

Middle pic: Rachel and Sherry (R)

3rd pic: Nik

Enjoy!

Shelley