Readers who poke forks into this column regularly know to expect no tomatoes in January (unless canned) and no blueberries til July (unless frozen). To stay in synch with the seasons, I write most columns a year in advance, often more.
This week’s intended column was written during the glory of 2006’s peach season when Missouri- and Illinois-grown picked-just-yesterday peaches piled high in supermarkets and super farmers markets. Imagine a fresh peach pie topped with clouds of whipped cream spiked with almond flavor. Imagine peach preserves spiked with jalapeno. Imagine …
Too bad, for 2007’s spring freeze decimated the local peach crop. What’s a seasonal cook to do? Scramble, that’s what, just like our farmers, replanting when they can, getting by when they can’t.
So today’s column features another local favorite, Pevely’s 1% cottage cheese that luckily’s available year-round. Pevely Dairy dates back 120 years and was the 1904 World’s Fair milk concessionaire. It’s now part of Prairie Farms, one of the country’s largest dairy coops with headquarters 50 miles from here, but Pevely’s downtown plant remains a vital force.
Pevely’s 1% cottage cheese is so creamy good there’s no telling it’s low-fat. I recycle so many cottage cheese containers that it’s possible to open my frig and wonder if I eat nothing else.
As for an abundance of local peaches and my recipes for fresh peaches? Let’s hope for 2008.
COTTAGE CHEESE PIE
Time to table: 2½ hours
Serves 8 for dessert
-
CRUST
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (from 9 or 10 full-size crackers)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon table salt
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 cups Pevely 1% cottage cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Freshly ground nutmeg
- Fresh blueberries
FILLING
Preheat oven to 350F.
Melt butter in a small bowl in the microwave in 10-second increments. In a bowl, stir together remaining crust ingredients, then butter. Press into a shallow pie pan with back of a tablespoon, sides first, then center. (If there’s too much, don’t use it all.) Freeze crust for 10 minutes.
In the same bowl, whisk eggs and sugar till smooth. Gently whisk in cottage cheese and vanilla, then pour into frozen crust. Grate nutmeg directly over top of filling as evenly as possible. Bake for 60 minutes or until filling is slightly puffed and golden and lightly set. Cool for an hour.
Cut into slices and serve with fresh blueberries.
More Summer Dessert Recipes
(for a recipe, click a photo)
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© Copyright 2007 Kitchen Parade
Your Comments:
Your Cottage Cheese Pie with the Fresh Blueberries looks delicious! And so summery!
I find it so funny that Pevely Dairy (this is the one on Grand, right?) is situated right in the middle of hospitals and academic buildings in such a busy area of town. I'm guessing it got there first :)
Lydia ~ Ah yes, good synthesis of what I was trying to communicate. Losing our peaches (and our apples and virtually all my garden flowers) in 2007 has really caused me think about risk diversification in our food supply and "eating in the moment" when we can.
Kelly ~ Good idea!
Alice ~ Oh that sounds so good! And I do thank you for taking the time to write.
Cynthia ~ The blueberry contrast is really perfect, agreed!
Nupur ~ Thanks for noticing, lots of green, yes, and flower color in the pots on the patio. And yes, that's the plant. I've been a Pevely fan since moving to St. Louis.