A Recipe for Rose Sangria

   Summertime... and the livin's easy... 

The best summer days begin with blue-sky mornings, carry on with sunny afternoons at the pool or the beach, and end with lazy, comfortable chit-chat among friends as the sun dips below the horizon.  Of course, summer afternoons and evenings are made inevitably better if you are relaxing with a cool, sweet drink in your hand.  So when one of my friends and readers asked on my facebook page for a sangria recipe, I was surprised to realize I had not shared one with you yet.  Naturally I could not let her question go unanswered, so put out a request on Twitter and got some great links to share from The Pioneer Woman, Eat.Drink.Smile, and Aggie's Kitchen. 

And then promptly got straight to work making my own batch of Rose Sangria.    

Next to lemonade, sangria is probably the most quintessential satisfying summer beverage, and I love it.  With a glass of sangria in my hand, and my friends and family by my side, I am a happy lady.  

Regardless of whether you make your sangria with white, rose, or red wine, the best part is definitely the wine-soaked fruit.  Don't you just love fishing out those boozy fruits from the bottom of the glass?  For my summer Rose Sangria, I love adding in ripe peaches and strawberries, sliced oranges, and plump raspberries.  The sliced oranges are so beautiful, but my favorite to eat are the peaches - they soak up the sugar and wine to become tender and just perfectly sweet. 

White Chocolate Layer Cake with Apricot Filling and White Chocolate Buttercream

I know.  You can't believe it.  You think you might be dreaming, or maybe having some sort of weird deja vu experience because I am posting yet another recipe with apricots and peaches.  Can you stand it?  I hope so, because this cake is actually pretty dreamy, and is an awesome Celebration Cake.  Just scroll down a little bit and you can check out all the goodies that are packed into this dessert.  That doozy of a title pretty much tells it all, but aren't we all visual creatures?  (Men, I am not just talking about you.)

Oh yes, there is that silky, sweet White Chocolate Buttercream.

One delicious layer of White Chocolate Cake on top of another. Plus, apricot filling and more buttercream. *sigh*   

Quick Peach Chipotle Salsa

Hi there!  Guess what? (this is a tricky one...) Its the weekend!!!  And even better, it is the weekend and it is still summer!  Yippee!  Does it get any better than this?  So, before you head out to your beach barbecues, backyard parties, or picnics in the park to enjoy these last beautiful days of summer, I wanted to give you a super quick recipe that you can take along with you.  

And guess what else?  Oh yes, it has peaches.  I warned you that I am obsessed. 

Since you can make this recipe in only a few short minutes, I am going to take only a minute to tell you about it.  Here is how it goes: Chop, chop, chop.  Mix, mix, mix.  Smoky, sweet, spicy.

Making (Organic!) Stone Fruit Preserves for Pennies

Alright friends, I have to admit it.  I have been obsessed with stone fruits lately.  And I mean OBSESSED.  I go the farmers market with the intent of picking up some healthy vegetables, maybe some locally baked bread, or even possibly shelling out the money for local, pasture-raised chicken.  And what actually happens?  Oh right, I come home with pounds and pounds of peaches, bags of apricots, and jewel-toned plums.  Not a huge problem I guess, because who says a girl can't live on fruit?

I think this whole obsession got a slow start around the end of July and is snowballing into August. You saw my lacquered peach, right?  I thought that was the pinnacle of my stone fruit season, but it just keeps going.  Next there were some apricots that were intended for a lovely cobbler, but somehow ended up in my stomach uncooked... I even put plums in my curry, and later this week I have an awesome peach salsa to share with you.  I hope you are willing to come along with me on this fruity ride, because there seems to be no end in sight as long as stone fruits are in season.  Apricots, peaches, plums, pluots, nectarines... I. Just. Can't. Stop!  And who says I have to?

A great way to keep enjoying fruits (and even vegetables) long after they are out of season is to make jam.  If you have never made jam before you might think it is difficult, and maybe not worth your effort.  You might tell yourself, "I can just scoot my little butt up to the grocery store and buy some apricot jam for $4 if the mood strikes me."  And this might be true.  But that mass-produced, preservative-laden, artificially-colored stuff in those jars will never, ever, ever compare to the real stuff made with your own two hands and fresh, in-season fruit.  Maybe you are worried about the cost of buying the fruit to make the jam?  Well, that is where I can share a little secret I learned with you.

Lacquered Peach with Honey Sage Ice Cream

I am not even going to try being humble here.  Not today.  

Because this dessert is the kind of thing where you want to shout from the rooftops that you have stumbled upon something of greatness.  It has a sort of ethereal beauty that seems to radiate from within.  And the taste... Oh lord, imagine a luscious, ripe summer peach, but softer... and sweeter... and warm.  Ladies and gentlemen, this dessert was phenomenal.   

Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the inception of this dessert; that belongs exclusively to Jean-Georges or Mark Bittman, whichever one of their masterminds dreamt up this simple stunner of a dessert.  Personally, I have been daydreaming about this dessert ever since earlier this year when I checked out Jean-Geoges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef from my local library.  You see, this book doesn't have photos for every recipe listed, but it does have insets with large glossy images of a few select dishes that occupy the upper echelons of Jean-Georges repertoire.  And this dessert was one of them.  Immediately when I saw that bright, shiny peach posting like a magazine model, I knew that I had to make this.       

Since then, I kid you not, I have been counting down the months until peaches were in season so I could make this.  I know, I know... I could have made it anytime, and just gone to the grocery store and picked up everything I needed.  But since this seemed like the type of recipe where having in-season, high quality ingredients (like perfectly sun-ripened peaches and apricots) would make a big difference, I waited patiently.  Or maybe not so patiently, but I still waited.