Peach Dream Cheesecake (Gluten-Free)

Directions for a cake containing gluten included in the printed recipe.

A few weeks ago, my friend Jeanne’s niece, Julianne and her family, came to visit Colorado from Florida. Why didn’t we come for a cookout? wondered Jeanne. We have a long-standing tradition of eating my cheesecake sometime around husband Dave’s birthday and the 4th of July, so it only made sense to offer to bring it. Jeanne was thrilled, but allowed that as Julianne followed a gluten-free diet, would I make some GF cookies, too? Of course I would.

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Green Chile-Chicken Cheeseburgers

My good friend Sue has a little something simple but memorable she’s been saying for just about as long as I’ve known her, which is way over 40 years now. It’s this:

“Sometimes you just need a cheeseburger.

And it’s true, isn’t it? Even if you’re way past the age of running through drive-throughs late at night with your friends or have stopped putting burgers on your summer menus once a week because the kids are all gone now and fish is trending at your house. There are still days when nothing else will do except a cheeseburger. After you’re done reading and cooking here, I’m hoping it may be Alyce’s Green Chile-Chicken Cheeseburger you’re jonesing for if only because it’s chile time in the southwest –and hence nationwide, my friends. Whether you’re a local Pueblo, Colorado chile fan (these are actually Mosco Mirasol chiles) or a New Mexico Hatch chile aficionado (Hatch chiles are like spicy anaheims, though there are milder varieties), you’ll be happy you found a new use for your favorite late summer peppers roasted up to perfection.

17th Annual Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival: September 24-26, 2021/Union Avenue Historic District

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A typical summer blue cheeseburger at our house.
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Banana-Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips

Dave’s mom Lorna + brother Bill, newborn

When my husband Dave was a kid, he tells me there were nearly always bananas in the house. With three growing and active boys, there was likely to be a big bunch, I’m guessing. Boys do eat. But no matter who hankered for a banana or how badly, if there were 3 bananas left, no one touched them. Because from an early age, they all knew it took 3 bananas to make their mom’s banana bread. And they wanted banana bread. And who doesn’t? It’s a great family story and most likely a common one. (Do you have a banana bread story?)

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Creamy Zucchini-Wild Rice Chowder

We don’t always associate soup with summer, but in the same way fresh, sweet-scented peach pie demands to be baked in the dog days of August, we have to stir up zucchini soup at the exact moment the counter begins piling up once again with unending stacks of zucchini (tomatoes, cabbage…). Or when a very inexpensive, but large bag of zucchini somehow gets into our cart at Costco. And we get home only to wonder just what to do with all of that squash.

August 8: National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day

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