Homemade Ready

Peaches are so ripe and juicy this time of the summer, I just can’t resist them. They are one of those fruits that I enthusiastically eat my fill of when they are in-season, and when the season is over, I leave the fresh ones alone until next year. None of those rock-hard peaches found in supermarkets in the dead of winter for me!  I also like to freeze and can a bunch of peaches in the summer, so that I can use them in cobblers and other recipes, as a reminder of warm, sunny days during those cold months of winter.  I don’t limit peaches to desserts only - they work well in savory dishes, too. One of my favorite ways to use them is on a homemade pizza. It may sound strange, but the combination of the sweet peach with the salty cheese and spicy sausage is just so good! It’s budget-friendly, too, using just a handful of simple ingredients and a homemade crust (of course you can just buy a crust, if that suits your needs better). The crust I use for this pizza is adapte...

In my mind, succotash is kind of an old fashioned dish. It was popular in our grandparents' generation (especially if your grandparents lived in the Northeast U.S. or parts of the South), but doesn’t seem to make much of an appearance on menus today. It was also a popular dish during the Great Depression because it was cheap and made from common ingredients (just the kind of thing we like around here). Its simple goodness of is exactly what makes it a perfect side for a family meal. I like to make it as an easy side dish full of fresh, summer vegetables, and topped with a little bit of bacon, just to make it extra good. (It's also great for holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas). There are actually many versions of succotash, but because of its Native American origins, it almost always includes two vegetables native to the Americas – corn and lima beans. Now, I know that the first inclination may be to dismiss this recipe because of those (oft-dreaded) lima beans, but ...