Peach Upside Down Cake

Since we apparenlty love cornbread-related desserts, Z and I this week made a Cornmeal and Peach Upside Down Cake from Martha Steward (recipe here). We thought it was very delicious, although with a stick and a half of butter, it was certainly not healthy! I followed the recipe exactly (baking is not normally my strength, so I don't like to take too many chances!), but I will make some minor changes next time. Specifically, the recipe calls for too much butter to be melted in the cast iron skillet to form the top-crust/cook the peaches, at least for the size skillet we have. If you make it yourself, I'd suggest starting with about half the butter, and melting it, and, based on how thickly it coats the bottom of the pan, you can add more until it seems like an appropriate amount for your skillet.

Grilled asparagus and onion pizza / chicken marsala pizza

I have to start by apologizing to my loyal reader for not posting in quite some time. Before Z was here (permanently), I was very busy, and now that she is, I've just been lazy about blogging (or have been using previously-blogged recipes).

My most recent new recipe was taken from the May issue of Cooking Light, and is a grilled pizza. Because I followed the recipe pretty much exactly as published, I'll simply direct you here for the recipe from Cooking Light. Instead of using store bought dough, I made my own (recipe here) using my wonderful stand mixer. When making dough, I have to say that the stand mixer makes a huge difference - it is willing to knead it a lot longer than I am, and as such, I get the gluten to set up much better than when I knead by hand.


With the leftover dough, I made a chicken marsala pizza, inspired by a similar one my friend Mike made. The pizza-making was similar to this one, except that the topping/sauce was different. I thinly sliced one chicken breast and tossed it with flour and spices (oregano, salt, pepper) and then browned it in olive oil. I added in half an onion and several mushrooms (both sliced) and 1 clove of minced garlic and sauted for a while, before adding in 1/2 cup (plus) of marsala wine along with more spices (oregano, basil, pepper). I simmered until it reduced a bit, and added 1 tbsp of butter. I added a little beef broth if it boiled down too much, as I was waiting for Z to get home before I put the pizza together.