A Healthier Year… Hopefully

So I decided that I really want to get back on my diet. I have gained back almost all of the weight that I lost three years ago. I cannot keep going down this path. Hopefully I will get my depression in line again and I know that will help a lot. It’s incredible what stress and depression can do to the human body. So I am willing to write about my journey on here and even share some very humiliating photos, but I want to do this because I know I’m not the only person in this situation. And please don’t think this is because I am one of those people who make a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. I’m doing this to get healthy since I don’t believe in making resolutions because they cause you to fail.

Tonight I decided to try something new. My boss brought in leftovers of some stuffed bell peppers that she made and it looked and smelled incredible. Knowing that I had to go to the grocery store, I decided to make my own thing using most of the ingredients my boss said that she used. This was so easy to make and used all fresh ingredients. Here’s what I did:

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 orange bell pepper, diced

1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 package Extra Lean Jennie-O Ground Turkey

2 ripe tomatoes, diced

about 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

about 1-1/2 tbsp Herbs de Province

1 cup brown rice, cooked

1 cup baby spinach leaves

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Once heated sauté garlic, bell peppers, onion and celery. Add salt and pepper. Let them sweat for a few minutes until the onions are transparent. Add ground turkey and cook through. Add Herbs and rice. Cook for a few minutes to let all of the flavors absorb. Add the tomatoes just before removing from the heat. Add more salt, pepper or Herbs if needed. Serve hot over spinach. I added a little ketchup to mine just for a little sweetness and my grandma put some in a couple of tacos.

I can’t tell you what the nutritional values are. I don’t measure when I cook so sometimes it’s hard to get an exact recipe out of me. My great-grandmother and grandpa taught me how to cook and I swear it’s the Italian in me. I ate a smaller portion than what I would normally eat and it filled me up.

This year I want to eat healthier and buy more fresh produce than I used to. It might cost a little more but it will be healthier.

Walmart Supercenter

Yesterday I drove to Lancaster, CA for the day to do some shopping. I decided to go to a Walmart Supercenter and see what their prices were on food. If you have never been to a big Walmart like this, go. Their prices are amazing and the variety of food was almost overwhelming especially when you come from a small town and the Vons doesn’t have as big of a selection of fresh produce. In size, they were about even, but the prices were half or lower than what we spend here. I’ve been trying to eat more fresh fruits and veggies to help me lose weight, but when one bell pepper costs almost $3 you don’t want to because you can’t afford it.

As I was wandering up and down the isles looking for stuff for everyone in my family, I noticed a few items that were gluten-free. Then I looked up. They had a whole gluten-free section down one isle. I wasn’t hidden either. There it was in the front, closest to one of the main isles. I expect to pay a lot more for gluten-free foods. You have to. Gluten-free is considered “specialty” items and there-for cost more. I got Gluten-Free Bisquick for $4.29 a box, here at home it’s on sale for $6.29 a box. I got pasta and bread mix by a Schar (out of Italy) that I have a hard time finding.

I called my dad and grandma and all I could tell them was that I was amazed at how cheap everything was and that they had a gluten-free section. More and more stores are providing us Celiacs with gluten-free options but to have a whole section of an isle is amazing to me. I live so far away from a Whole Foods Market and even they can be little pricey, but now I know that I have an option that is closer.

Tinkyada Spinach Spaghetti

So I realized that I’ve been neglecting this blog. It truly is hard to manage four (yes you read that correct) blogs especially when you’re working full-time and one blog has a post-a-day challenge right now. So I decided that I will kick off this year for this blog by doing a product review.

People are constantly asking me how to feel like you get the proper nutrients in a gluten-free diet and still feel like you are eating normal foods. You just have to look around your grocery store or health food store. The internet is even good with finding companies that will ship products to your house.

I am part italian decent and one of the things I absolutely love is spaghetti or just pasta in general. When I was diagnosed I felt like I had lost the options of enjoying that part of my heritage. Then I found gluten-free pasta by Tinkyada in my health food store. One day I went in to get some pasta and saw that they had spinach flavored spaghetti noodles that I could eat. I didn’t hesitate and rushed home to make spaghetti. I don’t even really buy spaghetti sauce at the grocery store because it is very easy to make and I like sauce that has chunks of tomatoes in it.

This pasta is easy to cook up and it only takes about 15 minutes. Here is my easy spaghetti sauce that doesn’t really take much and most of the time people have all of the ingredients in their pantry (or at least I do).

1 lb buffalo, venison, ground beef, ground chicken or ground turkey

1 can diced tomatoes (you can used plain, fire roasted, garlic, italian seasoned or any that you find), do not drain

1 can corn (you can leave it out but I love corn), drained

1 small package sliced fresh mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste

dried oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram and garlic, use the amount that tastes good to you.

Sautee meat in a skillet until brown over medium heat and drain off fat. Add tomatoes with the juice and the rest of the ingredients and bring to a slight boil. Reduce heat and simmer until heated through. Pour over pasta of choice add cheese if desired and serve.

Easy right? It doesn’t cost very much and makes quite a bit. This would be a good way of sneaking some veggies in for kids. You can add whatever you like or have on hand. Use the spices that you like. This is a recipe that can easily be changes to fit your tastes.

Recipe Fail

First and foremost: Happy New Year everyone!

For this Christmas season, I fell on the rotation of being the one who was sick for the holiday. A few days before I started getting a scratchy throat and felt like someone was slightly choking me. My chest tightened and I found myself using my inhaler a lot more than what I usually do. Stupid asthma. I did everything I could think of to keep myself from getting sick. Nothing worked. I’ve been sick for almost three weeks now but it’s just been reduced to a cough that isn’t as bad as it was.

My candy thermometer

Anyway to get to my point, I don’t buy very many gifts for people for Christmas. One, I can’t afford it and two, I never know what to get people. So instead I bake. Everyone always says that they like my cookies and what-not and it’s fairly cheep. Being sick though, people got a rain check on baked goods this year.

A few days after Christmas I decided to try penuche. It was a recipe I found while trying to find a dairy-free fudge recipe. Penuche is a brown sugar fudge that doesn’t have any chocolate into. I had all the ingredients in my kitchen so I figured what the heck, why not?

I forgot two of the basic things about candy-making because that is what fudge is. Once the sugar, corn syrup and water mixture completely dissolves into simple syrup you cannot stir it too much and you must LEAVE THE TEMPERATURE ALONE. I kept stirring it and adjusting the temperature on my stove. What? My head was in a cold medicine induced coma of sorts.

Simple Syrup

Needless to say, it crystallized and did not turn out very good. I didn’t like the texture of it or the taste. There were a few other things that could have added to the failure. I will try this recipe again once my cold is completely gone with fresh ingredients. I think my brown sugar wasn’t too good.

All I can say is recipe fail… until next time.

A Food Network Gift

I remember searching (without much luck) for gluten-free recipes on the Food Network’s website so that I could create something special for the holidays back in 2003. One link caught my eye – 12 Days of Cookies. Never heard of it? It’s one of their newsletters and my absolute favorite. The 12 Days of Cookies has become one of the main things I look forward to this time of year since it started in 2003. Seven years later and I have every recipe, in order, in my recipe box.

My Gluten-Free Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

The one downfall to getting this newsletter is that the cookies are not gluten-free. However, some of the recipes have been really easy to convert. Take the first one for this year as example - Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies by Paula Deen. This cookie is very simple to make and a good recipe to get kids into the kitchen. Here is my gluten-free, dairy-free take on Paula’s recipe.

1 (8-ounce) package of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature

1 stick Nucoa butter, at room temperature

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 box Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake mix

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. I had to mix this part by hand because the dough ended up being too think for my grandma’s mixer.

Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner’s sugar.

I didn’t refridgerate mine before rolling. I used two spoons to form into (somewhat) balls, dropped them into the confectioner’s sugar which gives them enough dusting to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands as you roll them into balls.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (I covered mine with parchment paper), 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and “gooey.” Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Christmas Alternative: I made these during a Christmas party my cousins were throwing at our grandma’s house. To make them a little more festive, I crushed up some candy canes and added to the dough just before rolling into the balls. The melted candy canes kind of stuck to the parchment paper but just let them sit for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

The Results Are (Finally) In…

I’m sitting here typing this up with a brace on my wrist after realizing that I haven’t blogged in a while. Sorry about that. I’ve been fairly busy over the last month and a half with decorating cakes, a knee injury, and two plays. What is with the brace you might ask? Well it’s one of the pains of being a cake decorator. With my love of baking came the love to decorate cakes. Kind of follows the whole wanting to open a bakery doesn’t it?

Anyway…

Ma's kitchen during my take-over.

So the Tri-County Fair is now over. The last you heard from me I was contemplating what to enter and shared my recipe for the Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing. While I entered twelve items total (that includes my picture, which did not place, and the Favorite Cookie Contest), I only got six done and still managed to make somewhat of a profit with my winnings. I placed on four of my six items. As the deadline approached fast, I invaded my grandma house and took over her kitchen because quite frankly, she has a much larger kitchen than my apartment. So I spread my flours, sugar, eggs, butter and what-not on her counter and got to work. As the hours ticked away, I realized that there was no way I would be able to get all of this done. Why do I procrastinate? So while a batch of oatmeal cookies baked away in the oven, I picked through my recipes and chose the ones I felt the most confident with. My favorites if you will.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I dropped my entries off and left for work leaving what I can only describe as my best effort at the last minute for the judges to critique. I waited anxiously for Thursday to come and hurried to the Fairgrounds after. While I was greeted with the flashing lights and various sounds that marks the beginning of the Fair, I was focused on getting my entry for the Favorite Cookie Contest over to the Party Barn and off to the Home Economic Building after the cookies were waiting for the judges. My eyes searched every inch of the many glass cases looking with confidence for my name. Around one case… nothing. Around a second… nothing. What? Around a third… nothing… wait my Pumpkin Cupcakes! It was the only one I wasn’t entirely sure on. It was only the third time making them. The recipe is still in a test stage. My eyes didn’t stay long on the cupcakes themselves but traveled down to the name tag. I know I need to see the eye doctor but I couldn’t be seeing a blue ribbon right? It has to be another color but no I was seeing correctly. First place. Down a little further and there was my Herb Cornbread and Oatmeal Cookies, both with the familiar red that I know to be second place. But wait… where’s my Chocolate Cake? I search the cases… nothing. What? Sure enough it was in a different case than what I am used to. I knew it had to be there. I mean come on for one thing my mom and I got creating and made a stencil so we could put the image of a palm tree (the theme was Gilligan’s Island) with powdered sugar. There it was. The judges were careful to cut around the tree to preserve the image for the people to see. Everyone loves my chocolate cake, so they say, but the judges found it to be a little dry and gave it a third place. Maybe I slightly over-baked it in my hastiness to finish.

Oatmeal Cookies

The best compliment I heard about my Pumpkin Cupcakes was that when the judges took their first bites, they asked Susie (my cousin) if they were in the right category. Apparently they didn’t believe Susie that they were in fact gluten-free. There were a few people who entered the gluten-free division, much to my surprise, and Susie said they had a few that were unfortunately absolutely disgusting. I really hope they keep this division.

Herb Cornbread

So I walked away from the 2010 Tri-County Fair with a first, two seconds and a third place. I’m happy. Like I said before, I don’t do this for the ribbons or money. Those are the perks after getting your stuff out there and letting the people you live with everyday see what you can do and that you love it. I enter things in the Fair because I love doing it despite the stress and frustration that goes along with it.

I do this for me and no one else. And will always do it for me.

Chocolate Cake

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

I just realized that in one week, two things will happen: one – this blog will be celebrating it’s first birthday (I must think of something special to post) and two – I will begin my mad dash like I do every year to get my stuff done to enter in my hometown’s Fair. I have been entering various things in the Tri-County Fair for at least half my life. I’ve won countless (I say countless because seriously I’ve lost count) ribbons and awards for my items.

It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with my Celiac Disease that I began entering my baked goods. I was too scared to do so before. Why? I couldn’t tell you. Entering food items, like anything else, is nerve-racking, especially the first time when you don’t know what the judges look for. I try to enter different things every year, but usually enter the same old things because they are fast and easy. It’s hard to enter as many things as you want when you work 40 hours a week.

After last year’s Fair, I was asked by my (distant) cousin Susie to give the Fair an idea of what classes they could do for a Gluten-Free Division. At the time that I submitted my suggestions to Susie, nobody knew if the Fair would even go for it. I’ve had to enter my desserts with non-gluten-free items. One year I did win first place on my peanut butter cookies. Who knew the judges would like the gluten-free ones better than the normal, regular ones. This year, my mom opened the book and scanned the various divisions of the baked goods category and told me that it wasn’t there. A little while later, she was looking through it again knowing she had to have missed it and there it was, in between “For Men Only!” and “Baking with Honey”. For the first time in four years, I get to compete with either myself or with others who have possibly “mastered” gluten-free baking. For the first time I don’t feel quite so alone in this small town of mine.

So now comes the big question, as the entry forms are due no later than Saturday. What do I enter? I’ve done chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate biscotti, chocolate sprinkled cookies, peanut butter cookies, corn bread, banana bread, pumpkin cookies, peanut butter & jelly thumbprint cookies, and my 21 & Over cookies (my own original recipe; I’ll post it, no worries) between the regular divisions and the Cookie Contest. Last night I experimented and made Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing. My coworkers and I agree that these are a must enter. I’ll figure it out. I always do. In the mean time, look a recipe…

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups white rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca starch

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp guar gum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in pan(s).

Sift together white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice and set aside. In a small bowl, mix milk and pumpkin together until smooth and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy, about 30 seconds. Slowly add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk/pumpkin mixture alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour in three parts. Add vanilla and guar gum and continue to beat until just mixed.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Level batter by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of more level cupcakes. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely and cover tops with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing or the icing of your choice.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, at room temperature

1 8-oz package cream cheese (I use Toffuti® Better than Cream Cheese for a non-dairy substitute)

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

about 2 tbsp cinnamon

In a mixer, cream butter for about 30 seconds. Add cream cheese and cream until well blended. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and cinnamon. Increase or decrease the amount of cinnamon depending on taste. Icing should be a little on the thicker side. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar until desired consistency.

Lemon Deliciousness….

A great basic cake recipe is a lot like a good sugar cookie recipe. These are the recipes that always find themselves at the front of your recipe box and you can barely read them because you’ve used them one too many times – if there is such a thing – and everyone seems to love them. You take these simple, basic recipes, the ones that some people over look because they might not appear to be good or complicated, and you know that all you have to do is add a few extra ingredients, cocoa powder, coconut, or in this case, a little lemon zest, juice of a lemon and lemon extract if that isn’t already enough lemon for you.

I found this recipe in The Lady & Sons: Just Desserts by Paula Deen. I know I’ve mentioned I’m a HUGE fan of hers. Her laugh is infectious and I love her (it doesn’t hurt that I have a huge crush on her son Bobby too). The very first recipe in this book is her 1-2-3-4 Cake. It’s called this because it has 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and 4 eggs. Basic right? It does have a few other ingredients but these are the main ones. Here’s my Lemon Cake following her instructions but making it my own. You don’t even need frosting, although whipped topping and fresh berries make is a very refreshing dessert on those hot summer days.

Lemon Cake with Whipped Topping and Berries

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine or butter

2 cups sugar

Zest of one medium lemon

4 eggs

3 cups sifted Gluten-Free Flour Mix

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp guar gum

3/4 cup milk (I use soy)

1/4 cup lemon juice (use more milk if you are a little short to equal 1 cup liquid)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray your pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray.

 Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. A 13x9x2 pan usually takes about 35 – 40 minutes. Cool in pan(s) 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. From this point you can frost the cake(s) if you want with the icing of your choice or serve with whipped topping and fresh berries. 

Apple Tart with Almond Cream

Since Christmas this year we’ve been having weekly barbeques at my grandparents’ house for just about every weekend. What’s the reason for this you may ask? One, we all love to cook. Two, my grandfather’s health isn’t the best. He is 78-years-old and has Speech Aphasia, a language disorder that can be linked with Alzheimer’s. We are trying to spend as much time with his as possible. It’s been well over a year since he’s been able to call any of us by name. It’s one of the hardest things in life to watch someone you love and have looked up to your whole life, fade from you as quickly as he is. This is our second go-around with Alzheimer’s. My great-grandmother had it and she passed away five years ago.

A slice of my Apple Tart with Almond Cream

Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to attempt something other than a cake. I was flipping through one of my favorite cookbooks, Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools by Margaret M. Johnson, and found myself staring at a full-page photo of a Pear Tart with Almond Cream. I’m not a huge fan of pears, I do like them I just wasn’t in the mood. But there was a variation listed for an Apple Tart. I had everything but the apples. Here is my gluten-free version (that still needs a little work but was still very good) of Margaret Johnson’s Apple Tart with Almond Cream made in a small pie tin because I don’t have a tart pan with a removable bottom.

Crust:

1 3/4 cups Gluten Free Flour Mix

1/2 tsp guar gum

1/2 cup margarine or butter, cut into small pieces (you want this to be cold so I keep a few sticks in the freezer)

1 tbsp sugar

Pinch of salt

3 to 5 tbsp ice water

 Filling:

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine or butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup finely ground almonds (I used sliced and it gave it a nice crunch)

2 tsp Gluten Free Flour Mix

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

1/3 cup apricot preserves

1 tsp water 

Crust: Combine the flour, guar gum, butter, sugar, and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse 8 to 10 times, or until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 3 tbsp of the water and pulse just until the dough comes together. Add remaining water if necessary. Dust a work surface with flour. turn out the dough, form it into a ball, then wrap it in plastic wrap (I use a Zip Lock bag and squeeze as much air out as possible) and refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove the dough from the fridge 10 minutes before rolling. This allows the butter in the dough to soften and not crack too much while rolling.

Filling: Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the almonds, flour, vanilla, and almond extract.

My whole tart fresh out of the oven.

Preheat the over to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom with non-stick spray. Roll out the dough to a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer to the prepared pan, fold excess dough in and press with your fingers to form thick sides. My dough still fell apart a little but I just pieced it together until all the side we about even.

Pour the filling into the crust. Starting in the center, arrange the apple slices in concentric circles over the filling. I filled in the empty spaces as much as possible. Bake the tart for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the filling is lightly browned and the apples are tender. Remove from the oven (I burnt my thumb pulling them out of the oven and now have a lovely scar to remind me of this recipe) and transfer to a wire rack.

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, combine the apricot preserves and water. Heat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until bubbling. Brush, or spoon, over the top of the apples while the tart is still hot. Cool the tart in the pan before releasing the side.

Quick & Easy Peach Spice Surprise

In this busy and hectic world we live in, it seems that more and more people choose the quick and easy recipes over the ones you slave away in the kitchen for hours. But even though I would prefer to spend time on a dish, there are times when I either don’t feel like it or just simply don’t have the time because of the various things I do in life. As is the case with a lot of people.

I have always loved peaches. There is something about biting into a sweet peach freshly picked off the tree on a warm, sunny day and having the juice run down you chin and neck. My great-great-aunt (my great-grandmother’s sister) had a few peach trees and when the peaches were ripe you could bet your life that the phone would be ringing a few minutes later. There was Aunt Margarete on the other line, “Come get these peaches!” Now one thing that you have to know is that Aunt Margarete was probably the epitome of an Italian woman. No matter how far away you lived from her, you better be at her doorstep in fifteen minutes or that phone would be ringing again and you would never hear the end of it when you finally made it. I loved that feisty woman with all my heart and I know she’s to blame for my love of the fruit. I miss you Aunt Margarete.

A few years before being diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I had a day where I was craving peach cobbler but didn’t have the necessary ingredients to make it. I looked around the cabinets to see what we had available to try to make something that resembled what my body wanted so badly. I found myself staring at canned peaches and a boxed spice cake mix. I wonder…

This is one of the easiest recipe I think you could ever make. It takes very few ingredients and so little time.

Peach Spice Surprise

You will need:

1 box cake mix (you could use spice cake, but I used Betty Crocker’s Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix)

The ingredients listed on the back of the box

If you are using a basic cake mix, feel free to add cinnamon, cloves and/or nutmeg to the dry mix. Add as much or as little as you prefer.

1 can sliced or diced peaches (I prefer in juice or light syrup), drained. I use harvest spice peaches if they are available to add a little more spice to the cake.

Directions:

Follow the instructions on the back of the cake mix box. Lightly grease the bottom of 13x9x2-inch pan. Spread out the peaches in an even layer on the bottom of the pan and cover with the cake mix. Bake according to the instructions on the back of the box, usually 30 – 35 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until a toothpick enter near the center comes out clean.

The moisture from the peaches will keep the cake part moist. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream and/or fresh peaches. I usually just leave it plain and it tastes just fine. Enjoy.