Seasonal Saturday and Fresh Food Friday!

Time just flies by when you're having fun!  From reading your blogs, it sure sounds like you had a great time and enjoyed some wonderful food and company over the holiday weekend!  Everyone is cooking up so many wonderful recipes these days and so now's the time and here's the place to link up, share, and show others what's been going in your kitchen or out on the grill.

I can't thank each of you enough for returning or if you're new to this link-up. Both oldies and newbies are selected for the weekly Featured Posts.  This is a great forum for foodies to find new bloggers just starting out or to invite them to discover the well-established blogs.
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Now let's take a look at these lovely Featured Posts from last week!

Aren't these Mixed Berry-Kiwi Sorbets with Lemon and Basil just beautiful?  They were kindly shared by Amy at "U Try It"  This recipe is on my "must-make" list!

This Big Carrot Cake is just irresistible!  Just look at the amount of icing alone on this huge slice of sweet goodness that was shared by Lisa from "Sweet As Sugar Cookies".

A big welcome to Sam of "My Carolina Kitchen", who creates such interesting recipes such as this Crunchy Chicken Salad.  I love all of the colors in this dish!

Oh my gosh, chocolate is a weakness for so many of us!  This Deeply Chocolate Gelato is rich, creamy and heavenly that was shared by Jo at "Bees and Fleur de Lis".

What an outstanding and beautiful Berry Cheesecake shared by Sheryl at "Lady Behind the Curtain".  This is cake is just so over-the-top!  Welcome Sheryl!

This Drunken Asparagus with Prosciutto and Feta Cheese won 3rd place in a cooking contest due to the added flavor from a beer marinade.  Sometimes the most unexpected combinations turn out to be delicious!  Kudos to "The Local Cook".

Chipotle and Lime Buttered Corn on the Cob is one of the top trendy summer grilling items this season.  These flavors are so delicious together and brought to us by Jackie at "Lovin' My Domestic Life".

So all of you featured bloggers, please go ahead and grab the "I've Been Featured" button and place it anywhere on your post or blog if you like.  The "Code" is on the bottom of my sidebar to the right.

Time to share your new posts for this week!
Please use the URL address of your post only and not your blog in general.
Recipe or gardening posts only, please.
You can share up to 2 posts from any date.
**To be considered for one of next week's featured blog posts, the button to this get-together and/or link to "Fresh Food Friday" or "Seasonal Saturday" needs to be included in your post(s).  The "Codes" are on the bottom of my side bar on the right**

Thank you for your kindness; I appreciate each of you, whether this is your first visit here or if you regularly stop by and share a post each week!  I truly enjoy each of your posts!  May God bless you over the weekend and always!

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Chocolate Amaretti Peaches ~ ~ Dining "Al Fresco"!

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What a sweet treat!  Fresh summer peaches loaded with sweet, crushed amaretto cookies and brown sugar, blended together with warm butter!   Warm chocolate drizzled all over the top of them after being broiled to a golden brown color.  We were amazed at such an unexpected flavor combination.  We were "Wowed"!  After devouring them, we were thinking of other ways to us the cookie/brown sugar/butter topping:  as a crumble topping covering cherries, or apples, or whatever fruit you enjoy.  The cookie crumb topping is what made this simple dessert shine!

This month the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club's theme is "Sounds Like Summer ~ ~ Al Fresco", a time to prepare recipes to enjoy eating outside.  This theme is so welcome to me now that the first session of teaching summer school is over and behind me.  In June, I was indoors all day, every weekday.  And now I'm FREE to be outside . . . my favorite place!  So thanks to Mary Ann of "Meet Me In The Kitchen" for selecting this month's theme so perfectly!   Val, from "More Than Burnt Toast" is always such a wonderful party host and gets all of us organized and on the same page each month.  You can head on over to her blog here {link} to read what the rest of the group prepared for our outdoor dining event for July.

Amaretto cookies always come individually wrapped in colorful, delicate tissue paper.

Inside each wrapper are two little cookies with sugar.  The almond aroma is incredible!

Chocolate Amaretti Peaches

1/2 cup crushed amaretti cookies (about 8 cookies)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 large ripe peaches, halved and pitted
Cooking spray
4 teaspoons butter (I increased this to 4 Tbsp. - one for each peach half)
dark chocolate, melted or shaved (I chose to melt the chocolate to drizzle it)

Heat up oven broiler.
Combine cookie crumbs and sugar in a small bowl.
Hollow center of peach halves.
Fill each peach half with 1 rounded tablespoon cookie crumb mixture.
Arrange peaches in an 11 x 7-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Place 1 teaspoon butter on top of each filled half.
Broil 2 minutes or until butter melts.
Drizzle melted chocolate or sprinkle shaved chocolate evenly on top of the peaches.
Cool 5 minutes before serving.

The peaches are stuffed with crushed amaretti and brown sugar.

A tablespoon of butter added on top of each stuffed peach.

• Jerry of Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants:  Grilled Pizza w/ Prosciutto, Arugula & Lemon.
• Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen:  Summer Lemon-Vegetable Risotto. 
• Jamie from Mom's Cooking Club:  Summer Peach and Tomato Salad.
• Val of More Than Burnt Toast:  Poached Salmon with Creamy Herb Sauce. 
• Sandi from The Whistlestop Cafe:  Peach Ice Cream.

Peaches swimming in a pool of melted brown sugared butter, drizzled with chocolate!

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The Big Mama, Big Bang, Big Kahuna Burger!

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Your mouth will stretch twice it's normal size in order to bite into this bad boy!  The burger lives up to it's name:  The Big Mama (because it was for me, while Bill had his own concoction), The Big Bang (for the fireworks of the 4th of July), and The Big Kahuna (in attempts to duplicate a burger that I enjoyed in Hawaii in May).  It's big, bad (in a good way), and incredibly delicious!

Yes, that is a chopstick inserted half way down to hold the monster burger together; toothpicks weren't long enough!  I ended up eating it with a fork and knife, being unable to manage it by my hands alone without looking like a freak.

The Big Mama, Big Bang, Big Kahuna Burger

7 oz. (each) corn-fed ground beef patties

2 slices thick-cut, hickory smoked bacon, fully cooked until browned

pepper jack cheese slices

large hamburger buns, TOASTED (if not, the buns turn to mush!)

Thousand Island dressing

dill pickles (hamburger slices)

1/2 avocado, sliced

tomato, sliced

onion, sliced

lettuce

ketchup and mustard

Grill the burgers, seasoned the way that you prefer.

Place cheese slices on top of each burger during the last 30 seconds on the grill and no more than that or the cheese will drip right off into your grill.

Toast the buns.

Spread Thousand Island dressing on both insides of the buns.

Layer lettuce and onions on first.

Lay the burger/cheese on top next.

Lay the bacon on next.

Layer on the tomatoes, pickles, and avocado slices.

Close up the burger, wrap with wax paper, foil, or insert a chopstick in the middle to hold it together.  

And now how about the coleslaw?  Well, it's a copycat type of recipe from a famous chicken restaurant.  The recipe is all over the web and so we decided to try it.  The flavor is just about identical and the reviews/comments on the web-sites declare that it IS identical to the real deal cole slaw.  Here's how to make it:

Cole Slaw

1 head of cabbage, finely chopped (this makes a ton of cole slaw, so you might want to divide this recipe in half).

1/2 cup finely shredded carrots (I doubled this)

2 Tbsp. minced onion

Dressing:  (I doubled this)

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 whole milk

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 Tbsp. white vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Mix everything together and let set for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

This is the very simple way in which we dine and eat on the 4th of July.  Just a simple grilling of burgers and/or hot dogs with a fresh veggie side dish and a cold glass of iced tea.  Nothing fancy, complicated, or gourmet; just classic grilled burgers and/or hot dogs . . . and we love it that way.  

Afterwards we sit back, watch fireworks, and feel gratitude for this great country!

Happy 4th of July!

The Big Mama, Big Bang, Big Kahuna Burger

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