Another Great Pasta Dish

I suspect that there are lots of 5-year olds like little j who would like to eat pasta every day. Big J left for Texas on Friday to help out with the hurricane and we've had pasta twice in three days. Tonight I decided that I had to come up with something other than my standard tuna, garlic, and caper pasta dish.

This was perfect, especially if, like me, you love garlic.

Pasta with Broccoli and Garlic

4 oz dried pasta (any shape you like)
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
Parmesan

As pasta cooks, steam broccoli until tender crisp.

In the meantime, heat olive oil in saute pan over medium heat. Add garlic, anchovy paste, and red pepper flakes. Saute until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes. Add steamed broccoli and heat through.

Toss cooked pasta with broccoli and garlic mixture. Top with fresh grated Parmesan. A delicious variation would be to add fresh toasted breadcrumbs to the completed dish.

Serves 2.

Peach Overload

A couple weeks ago little j's summer camp went peach picking. Like I imagine most 5-year olds do, she has a fascination with all things small, as in, "Can you make me little baby pancakes?" So of course her bag was filled with peaches the size of plums. We don't seem to eat a lot of stone fruits in our house, for whatever reason, so they'd been around a while when I cleaned out the fridge today. I knew I had to do something with them.

Last summer little j fell in love with apple butter and I thought that she would love peach butter even more. Okay, that turned out to be the understatement of the canning season. She LOVED it. After her first taste she said, "Could I have a bowl of that?"

Ordinarily I would have canned, but because I only had a little over 3 pounds of fruit I ended up with about 12 ounces which will definitely keep in the fridge until little j eats it up.

Spiced Peach Butter

4 pound of peaches, peeled, pits removed and cut into chunks
1/2 cup water
Juice and zest of one lemon
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Put peaches, water, and lemon juice and zest in large pot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil stirring frequently. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until peaches are soft.

Run peaches through a food mill or in a food processor until smooth and consistent in texture (about 10 one second pulses in a processor).

Put puree into clean pan. Add sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Set over medium high heat stirring constantly until sugar has melted and puree begins to simmer. Lower heat to medium low and allow to simmer for up to 60 minutes, until desired consistency is achieved.

Place into jars. Process for canning if desired.

Camp Cooking

When it comes to camp cooking I am not an expert, although there are a few things that I do well: paper bag fried eggs, banana boats, campfire stew, and, of course, s'mores.

To my way of thinking, roasting marshmallows is an art form. It takes patience to hold a blob of sugar on a stick and roast it to ooey, gooey, toasted perfection. You have to find the right place over the coals and you can't let it roast too quickly or else it won't warm all the way through. Ideally, you want it nearly falling off the stick but not so much you lose it in the fire or in the dirt before you put it on the chocolate and graham cracker.

I am very picky when it comes to s'more ingredients. Jet Puffed marshmallows are far superior to any other brand. They puff up better and roast more evenly. Honey Maid graham crackers have just the right thickness and crunch. Only Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars in the 1.55 oz size will do.

And the correct proportions are as follows: two graham cracker squares, two squares of chocolate, and one perfectly toasted marshmallow. The chocolate should be melty and the marshmallow should squish out the edge and get all over your face and hands. Yum!