Flashback Friday – Clazy

In a single word, this will be one clazy week.  I’ve got several major deadlines at work that require varying degrees of my time.  I’m hosting dinner for 8 on Friday.  And this weekend, the mistah and I will embark on the South Beach program (I hate the word diet).

The reason for SB is that I think we could definitely be making some better food choice at our house.  And if our wardrobes happen to fit better as a result, so much the better.

All weekend, we were teasing each other to enjoy the bread, orange juice, rice, etc. as it will be verboten come Sunday.  Good thing that my planned menu for the dinner party will send us off with a sugar and carb laden bang.  The idea is an indoor picnic: fried chicken, pulled pork bbq, cornbread, creamy mac and cheese, and either cherry pie or pseudo blueberry cheesecake (or both).  Just typing all that is enough to put me into a food coma.  Oh, and did I mention the four cheese pizza that’s in our freezer right now?  Our Frigidaire is full of poor food choices.

That was most clearly illustrated when I started working on the shopping list and meal plans for our first week of SB.  It is chock full of fresh vegetables, poultry, lean meats, and fish.  That’s a good thing but I warned the mistah that there will be sticker shock.  I think even that may not adequately prepare me for this weekend’s trip to the store.  The list for seven days takes up most of a full sized sheet of paper.  And I write kinda small.

In order for the new food to come in, the old food has to go.  And in a move that would make Paula Deen proud, I improvised a dessert to use up the last of those lovely Eastern Shore peaches we had.  I’m calling it Clazy Peaches.  Sadly, since this was a spontaneous bit of cooking, whose outcome was less than a sure thing, there are no photographs.  Which is just as well ’cause I think looking at a picture of peach halves bathed in caramel sauce will be unbearable for me come next Monday.

Clazy Peaches

• 3 ripe (or almost ripe) peaches, halved, pits removed
• 1/4 stick butter
• brown sugar
• half and half

Melt the butter in a frying pan.  Add peaches, cut side down until nicely browned.  Turn peach halves over in frying pan until slightly browned.  Remove the peaches from the pan.

Add the brown sugar, one teaspoon at a time, and whisk until the sugar dissolves into the butter and thickens up.  (I think I may have used three to five teaspoons of sugar).  Carefully add the half and half a splash at a time and whisk into the scorching hot butter/sugar mixture.  You want a smooth sauce that isn’t too thin.

Spoon the sauce over your peaches and dive right in.

{printable recipe}