Have kids? If so, this is a hard combo to beat; pizza and bacon cheeseburger in one easy-to-eat package.  Adults are pretty crazy about it too.

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Buffalo wings: check. Macaroni and cheese: check. Happy kids: check.  But, put the two together –  and Wow!

Another kid-favorite combo tomorrow…  oh, and Happy 4th of July!

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Once I ran out of ideas and energy for the remaining peaches in my refrigerator, I used them to make peach bread.  The mini-loaves actually fit in my freezer, so they were the perfect and delicious solution.

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The 4th of July weekend is here and here is a festive, fun, and tasty watermelon flag bowl perfect for that fruit salad you need to bring to the party. The recipe for the actual salad and dressing is way down at the bottom of the post. 

Leading up to it are step-by-step pictures to help you make the patriot melon.  Here we go….

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As I’ve mentioned several times recently, we are in our fifth and final week of summer cooking classes. And coincidentally, today is the last day of this last week… no more kids’ classes until Summer 2012 now. Well, way back in weeks 1 and 2, we had a day called Wrapper Magic, where we used either egg roll, wonton, or spring roll wrappers for each course.  One of the most popular dishes on Wrapper Magic day was these quick and super tasty appetizers.

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Just in case you missed Valley Dish and the seriously awesome dish we made, here is the LINK… and the recipe for the dish will be posted in the next couple of days… it’s so good!!!

If I’ve ever led you to believe that mistakes aren’t made here at Les Petites Gourmettes Cooking School, please forgive me. Although not necessarily every day, certainly at least every other day!  Eggs are cracked, not into the bowl as intended, but rather onto the floor. Flour has been thought to be powdered sugar when making frosting… easy to fix, just start over. Things burn, they are undercooked or overcooked, you get the idea.  Most are minor and easily repaired or corrected… while others… not so much.

Let’s see, there was a time a couple of years ago when a pair of young boys added 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper to a pot of chili, instead of 1/4 teaspoon. That went directly into the trash. Thankfully, that’s actually rare, when something ends up in the garbage, although I was certain it was going to happen again last week…

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Sometimes my friends and neighbors comment that a few of my recipes are too complicated or time-consuming. For you lovely ladies, I offer this…

On my quest to use up a bunch of cubed peaches left over from cooking classes, I stumbled upon a cole slaw “kit” in the produce department at my neighborhood Safeway. It not only included the usual julienned carrot and shredded red and green cabbages, but also a little packet of “sweet & creamy” dressing.  I added in some diced red bell pepper for color and crunch, my peaches, and then dressed up the dressing with a little Dijon and had the perfect easy-breezy side dish.

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Before we get to today’s recipe and before I forget, I need to tell you that I’ll be on NBC – Channel 12 Valley Dish tomorrow – Wednesday, June 29th.  It’s going to be an especially important and good show, so tune in at 3:30, if you can… or there’s always TiVo! xoxo

They say that spicy food cools you off in the summer. Strange, but true; hot spicy food makes you sweat, then your body temperature actually dips. But then you’re sweating, not my favorite cup of tea. In hot weather, I generally gravitate toward cool and refreshing foods like yesterday’s grape cooler cocktail, or ice cream, or watermelon.

If you lean more toward spicy food to bring your body temps down, give this grilled dish a try. And even with the addition of all that spice, just the sight and idea of sweet juicy peaches sounds nice and cool!

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I had planned on posting one of the several peach dishes I made over the weekend, but instead, I must share this totally fab and oh-so-refreshing grape cooler. Remember these lovely grapes my dad brought me from the garden of a friend of his? Well, I put them to their highest and best possible use… a cocktail, of course!

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These grilled peaches are the epitome of easy-breezy and oh so delish! Between this dessert I served on Father’s Day and classes last week, I’ve finally used all the peaches from my tree. But that doesn’t mean we’re done with peach recipes, far from it. One of the desserts for the teen graduation lunch on Friday was peach shortcakes, and there is SO many juicy cubed peaches leftover from that… I’ll be making “peach-fill in the blank” all weekend… recipes to follow, of course.  No quantities for this recipe, just make as many or as few as you need.

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