I hope you’ve finished all your dinner BECAUSE IT IS DESSERT TIME.

PEACH PRALINE CRUMBLE PIE
Time: about 2 hours
Amount: 1 pie

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 11 tbsp unsalted butter (seriously)
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup & 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 cup & 2 tbsp white sugar
• 5 large peaches, cut into thin slices
• 1 tub ice cream

DIRECTIONS:

Crust:

1. Combine the flour, salt, finely chopped pecans, and 8 tbsp butter in a large mixing bowl. Work the butter into the dry ingredients until it is all well combined.
2. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Start working on the pralines. Idle hands are the devil’s playground.
3. Lightly flour & knead the dough, then roll out. I used half for the bottom crust which rolled out pretty well, but I could not for the life of me get the top crust to roll out, so I just crumbled it up a little bit and sprinkled it on top of my pie.

Pralines:

1. In a sauce pan on medium-low heat, put the milk, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. Stir until it starts to boil.
2. Add the roughly chopped pecans. You could use whole pecans, but they do get a little unwieldy when you’re stirring them.
3. Keep stirring until the syrup starts to thicken up. I’ve never used a candy thermometer, so I don’t really know what temperature they should hit. Sorry. It shouldn’t be hardening at all at this stage.
4. Take about 1/3 cup out and store it in a microwave safe bowl. This is going to be the best drizzle you’ve ever tasted. Let it cool before covering and refrigerating it.
5. Keep cooking the rest until it starts to stick to your spoon or spatula, then add 1 tbsp of butter. Keep stirring until it bubbles up and is thick on your spatula.
6. At this point, pour it onto a piece of parchment paper. You can spoon out individual pralines instead, but I prefer to just chop it up and sprinkle it on top of the pie: your call.

Pie:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. On your crust layer your peach slices. I used both white and yellow peaches because I like the two flavors mixed together, but it is up to you.
3. Sprinkle the last two tablespoons of white sugar on top and cut up the last two tablespoons of butter and sprinkle them as well.
4. Put your top crust (or crumble in my case) on the pie.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
6. Let it cool, add the crumbled pralines, cut, and serve with ice cream.
7. Microwaved that praline drizzle we reserved for about 20 seconds and slather it on top of the vanilla. Perfection.

Now my pie was a little bit dry, so I HAD to serve it with vanilla ice cream.  So. Good. If you get a little worked up because your dough isn’t staying together, feel free to add an egg yolk and a touch more flour. It should firm up nicely then. Also, if you want to go sans top crust, feel free, but you might want to blanch the peaches first.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Get ready.

BAKED MAC AND CHEESE WITH APPLEWOOD SMOKED BACON
Time: 1 hour cooking, 1 hour cooling
Amount: 4 cups

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 slices applewood bacon
• 2 cups uncooked pasta
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1/2 pound mild cheddar, grated
• 1/2 pound medium cheddar, grated
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1-2 cups half and half
• 1 egg

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut the bacon into 1” slices and cook your bacon. Crispy. Make sure it gets all dark and delightful. You’re going to put the bacon into a liquid, so it is going to get a little more chewy. If you don’t like bacon, I’d suggest cubes of ham or a thicker cut of pork. Reserve the bacon, save the fat for something else.
2. Cook your pasta to al dente; it should double in size. Season the water with salt. You’re cooking this again, so don’t overdo it. If you cook it too long the first time, the pasta will break down in the oven, and you’ll have a pot of cheesy mush. Now a note on the type of pasta: I don’t tend to use macaroni in my mac and cheese. Because the holes in macaroni are a kind of small, it is harder for the cheese to get inside. I use rigatoni instead. It’s bigger and makes each bite perfection.
3. Preheat the oven to 350.
4. After cooking the pasta, drain and immediately put the pasta in a bowl with the butter. Then add all but one cup of cheddar and all of the bacon; stir. All of the cheddar may not melt, but this will allow the pasta too cool enough that it doesn’t scramble the egg when you add it.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the salt, pepper, ricotta, 1 cup half and half, and egg until well blended.
6. Put the macaroni/cheddar blend into a corning-ware or pan, then slowly add the milky mixture. Add additional half and half until the pasta is just covered.
7. Bake for 15 minutes. Stir in order to keep the macaroni from drying out.
8. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.
9. Add the rest of the cheese on top, up the heat to 375, and bake for 10-15 more minutes, until the cheese on top starts to brown.
10. Remove from the oven to cool for almost an hour. If you don’t allow the mac and cheese to cool properly, the cheese sauce won’t be set, and it will not bind together.

Now, whenever I’ve talked about my mac and cheese, there have been a lot of criticism (critics who all shut their mouth after the first bite), about two parts of my recipe.

The first is always the fact that it is a baked mac and cheese instead of a macaroni and cheese sauce. I take great umbrage with anyone who suggests that a béchamel sauce is better (anyone ever call the comfort food macaroni and mornay sauce? no.) clearly just hasn’t had proper mac and cheese. There’s no flour in here for good reason: you don’t need it when you make it right. Sauce Mornay (béchamel and cheese sauce) may have its place in fine cuisine, but it needs to stay out of my comfort food.

The second is that it is really unhealthy. I pretty much have nothing to say about this. It is completely true. There’s over a pound of cheese, about 2 cups of half and half, 1/8 cup of butter, and an egg. Every bite is a gloriously unhealthy forkful of perfection, and you won’t even want to share. You’ll demand each morsel of cheddar-y deliciousness for yourself, completely forgetting about fat and cholesterol contents.

So just try it. If you don’t love it, you probably hate fun.

I am going to Georgia tomorrow. I went to a farmer’s market on Sunday. These two events bring big things! Also, after so many savory dishes, I guess I owe you something sweet, don’t I?

Well, I’m not going to let my southern roots down by giving you some frou frou french ganache. I’m going to give you something proper Georgian. You’d better get ready because this is guaranteed to bring out your southern drawl.

WHITE PEACH AND BLUEBERRY PIE
Time: <2 hours
Amount: A pie’s worth. Weren’t you listening? 

INGREDIENTS

Shell:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract/flavor
• 3 tbsp, 1 tsp cold water

Filling

• 1 pound peaches. I used white peaches because they were on sale at the farmer’s market that USF just started.
• 6 ounces of blueberries. They should be sweet and juicy.
• 1 tbsp butter.
• 1 tbsp sugar.

DIRECTIONS

Shell:

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt, and butter until dough is crumbly.
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolk, water and vanilla.
3. Add wet mixture to dry, and knead until it is a solid piece of dough. Refrigerate for about an hour. Start working on your filling; no reason to waste time, is there? Unless there’s something great on TV. Or you have to tend to your laundry. Or you’d like a nap. Who am I to judge your life?
4. Preheat Oven to 350. 
5. Cut dough in half (make it like the halves in that peanut butter commercial where the one greedy asshole gets his comeuppance when his younger brother gets to choose the halves, and he is stuck with the tiny sliver he was going to foist off on said bro), and roll out one piece into a large flat disk. Place one the bottom of your pie pan. I used a 1.6 liter corningware ceramic, because I don’t have a pie pan.
6. Poke the crust repeatedly with a fork. Then bake the crust for 15 minutes.
7. Turn down the oven to 350.

Filling:

1. Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.
2. Add peaches, blueberries, and sugar.
3. Cook over medium to medium low heat for 20 or so minutes until the peaches are soft to the touch, and the blueberries have given the sauce a great purple color. If the filling has reduced too much, add a few teaspoons of water.

Pie:

1. Put the filling into the crust.
2. Roll out the second, smaller half of the dough and place it on top. If you cover the entirety of the top, be sure to poke a few holes in top. Using only a few strips (and cooking in a smaller vessel than a standard pie pan), I had plenty left over. You can save it or you can roll it flat and turn it into shortbread cookies.
3. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until top crust is golden brown.

Serve it still warm with ice cream, whipped cream, custard, or sweet yogurt (I live in California now, so I apparently I feel the need to supply healthy additions to a dish that has over a 1/4 cup of butter in it). If I had anything to choose, I’d pick a lightly sweetened gelato; in actuality, I ate mine plain for dessert, breakfast and dessert again because ice cream isn’t in my budget.

HERE IS A LIST OF IMPORTANT THINGS.

1. I was born and raised in Atlanta.
2. I currently live in San Francisco.
3. I can count the decent southern food restaurants in San Francisco on one hand.
4. I love southern food.

Because of the predicament in which I have placed myself, I am often forced to try and recreate my southern favorites in the kitchen whenever I get a little homesick.

Today I tried to get a California license (with an appointment at 9:10 in the morning… terrible planning on my part), but when I got to the DMV, my Georgia license and social security card was apparently not enough personal identification to begin the process, so I was sent home. After the long walk home, I decided that maybe today was a perfect chance to celebrate my southernness (along with a chance to plan use up some of the pork sirloin I got on sale last week). And that is why I spent seven hours making barbecue sauce this afternoon.

Now, I am well aware that BBQ sauces are regional (Eastern Carolina style is runny and vinegar-based, Lexington is a tomato and vinegar based sauce, mustard based sauce calls South Carolina home, Texas BBQ sauce is smoky and thin, and Kansas City sauces are super sweet and thick tomato sauces), but those different types all lack a little something, so I combined a few different styles in order to make something that was my very own.

RECIPE: Barbecue Sauce
Time: 7+ Hours
Amount: 2 cups plus 1 cup Marinade

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tbsp Paprika
• 2 tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tsp Ground White Pepper
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Mustard
• 1 tsp Ground Ginger
• 1 tsp Crushed Garlic
• 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 1/2 cup White Vinegar
• 2 Small Sweet Apples Cored and Sliced
• 1 Can Diced Tomatoes
• 1 oz Bourbon
• 3 tbsp Light Brown Sugar
• Water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat Paprika, Chili Powder, Peppers, Cumin, Mustard, Ginger, Garlic, and Red Pepper Flakes on medium heat for 1-2 minutes until spices start to stick together and garlic starts to brown. Turn heat down to low.
2. Add Vinegar, Apples, Tomatoes, and about 1 cup Water. Stir together and reduce. Cook on low for about an hour. The tomatoes will start to break apart and apples will soften.
3. Remove Apples and put them in a blender with 1 cup water. Blend until everything is liquid. Add liquid to your sauce. This natural sweetness will temper the heat from the peppers.
4. Add 1 oz Bourbon to add a little smokiness. Stir. As sauce reduces and starts to boil, add more water. The key is to cook the sauce slowly on extremely low heat.
5. After about 4 hours, and with about 4 cups of sauce in the pan, I reserved about 1 cup of thin sauce for a marinade for my pork. Remember to let it cool before you start to marinate.
6. Add Brown Sugar and continue to cook and add water. I don’t add the sugar before I take the marinade out because the sugar will burn when you cook it with the pork on a hot surface. If you taste the sauce and want it sweeter, add more sugar. This is your finishing sauce, and you can have it however you like it.
7. Cook for a few more hours until the sauce is a deep red/brown color and is a little thinner than ketchup.

FINALLY we have something great. All it took was a few different spices, tomatoes, vinegar and some booze and you’ve got a fantastically rich barbecue sauce and marinade that you can use to impress everyone at your next BBQ. In a few days, I’ll let you know how the pork I’ve got marinating turns out. Also: pictures!