As the end of summer approaches, the juicy, ripe nectarines and peaches are fast disappearing from the farmer’s market. The heat wave, however, is still here; so this week I decided to celebrate the passing of the summer produce season with a cold chicken salad and caramelized nectarines. To be fair, I must credit the idea of caramelizing nectarines with onion to the folks at Christine’s. The nectarines at said restaurant were plated with a fish entrée, and at the time I thought to myself, “This would be great with a salad.” So here’s the breakdown of my procedure:

Breaded Chicken
chicken breasts, 3 lbs
leftover panko breading from the freezer (see my article on the ono)
egg
vegetable oil
cayenne pepper

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Gale Grand has a decadent recipe for Peanut Butter Pie. I made 1.5x the original recipe for both the filling and the crust, but added my own twist with a thin layer of ganache—and not just any ganache either, but a dark chocolate espresso ganache. The flavor was spectacular! The nutty crust and intense chocolate-espresso were the perfect complements to the creamy peanut-butter filling.

For an interesting variation, try Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake or Chocolate Espresso Peanut Butter Bars, the latter with a cream-free peanut butter spread similar to Alton Brown’s peanut butter pie filling.

The Crust

The crust tastes similar to nutter butter, but with a crunchier crumbly texture and better flavor. Perfect. Chocolate lovers: resist the urge to replace the graham crackers with a chocolate crumb. The chocolate will come later and in style.

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Il Grano’s very intriguing white peach gazpacho caught my eye in this article from the Squid Ink. Thusly inspired I set out to make my own creation.

The Base:
1 medium-small white peach
1.25 medium-small heirloom tomatoes*
1 shallot
2.5 tsps of sherry vinegar
salt
a bare hint of cinnamon

The Emulsion:
tarragon, the leaves of several stalks
2 small chile peppers, mystery variety**
olive oil

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Normally I prefer the pure ungarnished taste of a good artisan bread, but today I was in the mood for something with a bit more verve. So I whipped up this spread from my pantry:

¹/₄-¹/₈ red onion, finely diced
¹/₂ fresh heirloom tomato, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh basil, leaves only, chopped fine
1 clove of peeled garlic, through the garlic press
1-2 oz fresh mozzarella, chopped
capers
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt
pepper

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Emeril Lagasse’s Best Ever Coconut Cream Pie made with Alton Brown’s homemade coconut milk and a Whole Foods Whole Wheat Crust. Absolutely scrumptious. A few remarks about the procedure:

1. The shredded meat of two coconuts was sufficient for my purposes (see No. 3).
2. Eight ounces of fresh coconut meat, one cup of whole milk, and one cup of coconut "juice"—the water inside the coconut—made just slightly less than 1.5 cups of coconut milk. (Yes, I know, it's not exactly Alton Brown's recipe—but hey, Alton Brown's recipe isn't exactly traditional either.) Next time use 9 oz of shredded coconut and 2.25 cups milk-water.
3. Cheesecloth works great when it's time to squeeze out the milk. Also, I didn't toss the leftover coconut from the milk process, but included it in the pie (one cup). I'm not sure if using fresh coconut would make much difference, but if I get a third coconut next time, I should toss the used coconut and use fresh flakes.
4. A video on YouTube suggests exposing the coconut to an open flame keeps the brown skin attached to the shell.

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