Poached Peaches and Cream

"Poached Peaches?" you say with a squirmish little face? It's ok, so did I when Mr. Chef presented his "appetizer" one night. Well, let me just tell you...Wipe that worried little look off your face and dig in! These babies are yummy yummy yummy and fast and easy and really pretty healthy!
My creative husband came up with these on a whim one night because we needed to use my COSTCO size tub of sour cream that I bought on a whim one night. Who buys Sour Cream at Costco when you don't have something specific to use it for and there are only 2 of you (i'm leaving out my 1 yr. old, she doesn't eat enough sour cream to count)? Well, apparently I do :)
So, go buy your sour cream at Costco, just for fun, and get your poachin' on!

source

{Ingredients}
1 15.25 oz. can peach halves in heavy syrup
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp. Allspice
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Sauce:
1 C Sour Cream
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

{Directions}
Drain peach syrup into shallow pan. Add lemon juice, vanilla and brown sugar. Cook on medium/high heat until warm, stirring until sugar dissolves completely. Add spices (Allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon).
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add peach halves, flat side down. Cover the pan but leave the lid open a crack. Allow to boil until sauce is about 1/2 it's original volume.

While boiling prepare sauce. Whip sour cream, 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp vanilla together until soft peaks* form.

Serve sauce on top of peaches.

*Soft Peaks: When you turn your whisk upside down, the peaks are just starting to hold. They're soft and melt back into themselves after a second.You can go a little longer if you prefer and make "firm peaks" that are still soft but hold their shape.

Hope you all enjoy this as much as we did!

**serving suggestion: Make and serve these in individual ramekins with one peach half in each ramekin. This is the way we usually do it and it creates a more sophisticated feel. Kind-of fun :)

Hazelnut Cream Soup

This one's from La Tienda

"A light starter with an original flavor. The smoothness of the cream contrasts with the texture of the chopped hazelnut garnish."

Jared and I want to go to Spain more than anywhere else in the world right now. We have been talking about it since we were dating and one day, hopefully sooner than later, we will go and love it. Our budget right now, however, doesn't have a "Spain" section so, I improvised.

I was in charge of one of our date nights and I decided that we were finally going to go to Spain. I made quite a spread of Spanish food and we had so much fun. It wasn't even close to the real thing but we got a little taste (ha ha pun intended!) of our dream vacation.

This was the appetizer, and it was a GREAT start to a very fun evening!

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 30 min.

Ingredients:

• 4 1/4 cups chicken stock
• 3.5 oz hazelnuts
• 3 leeks
• 1/2 onion
• 6 tbsp oil
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tbsp single cream
• Chives and chopped hazelnuts for decoration

Roast the hazelnuts and chop into small pieces. Set aside 2 tbsp and crush the others to a
powder. Wash the leeks and onion and stew slowly in the oil (5 minutes
in the microwave on high). When soft, add the hazelnuts, fry lightly
and cover with the stock. Cook for 10 minutes. Blend, then check for
salt and add the cream. Serve in cups sprinkled with the chopped
hazelnuts and chives.

When we made this it wasn't quite as thick as it was supposed to be. Our guess is that it was because our hazelnuts weren't quite to a powder stage.