I’m still on my summer flavors kick, with these Peach Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. They are, of course, made with dried peaches, so they aren’t really summer and you could make them year-round, but they are inspired by my love of summer and the amazing bounty available. Quick and easy to make; super healthy too.
Dinner. OK, I guess for most people it would be dessert, but I skipped breakfast AND lunch then had this for dinner. I think it was a good trade off! If you decide to make this as a dessert, will seriously the easiest one ever. It took me less than 10 minutes to make (the time to cut the apples and then mix together the crumble. Bake for 20 minutes and voila… by the time your guests have finished dinner, dessert is ready. Frozen blueberries work too (try to find the smaller “wild” variety instead of the larger cultivated ones). Delish.
Chocolate chip cookies. The good old stand-by. There must be at least 20 recipes on this site for chocolate chip cookies, but each with a variation. This time I’ve added cracked (but still fairly whole) hazelnuts and plump dried cranberries. Oh, and I browned about half of the butter, which give them a great, extra nutty taste. Not sure if this is tremendously summery, but hey, you can eat cookies year round, no?
Spoon sized (mini-muffin tin) little tarts are my “go to thing” when I have leftover pie dough — and goodness knows that I often have leftover pie dough! When it is a “last minute” thing, I just spoon in spoonfuls of jam (which I also usually have a lot of), but this time, because I had so many lovely blueberries from Maine in the kitchen, I decided to make these from scratch. Perfect bite size. And totally addictive; perhaps even more so than a full sized version, because you can pop a whole little one mouth with no drip from the super juicy berries. Store bought lemon curd, mini-mint sprigs from my garden. Perfect for my afternoon “Kaffeetrinken”.
I was up in Maine for the weekend (again, I know… it happens a lot in the summer), and right around August 1st, the blueberries are ready for raking. I prefer the Maine Wild Blues by leaps and bounds over cultivated ones — smaller, sweeter, bluer. And there is something about seeing the rocky fields just bursting with the color that makes it so wonderful Now I have a lot of blueberries. Some will be frozen, but I’m starting by making this pie for dessert tonight. Note that the one in the photo is smaller than the one described in the recipe (only a 7 inch tart).