Fruit Kabobs with Cream Cheese Dip

Both my oldest girls are in school now and Labor Day is just around the corner. Summer's almost over folks. Take advantage of the fresh fruits of summer before their gone.Cream Cheese Dip
1 c cashews, soaked 6-8 hours
1/4 c water
Juice of one lemon
3 T agave nectar
1 t vanilla extract

In a blender, combine ingredients until smooth.

Introducing Taste Tester A (Sous Chef D is in school)
My husband brought fruit kabobs home so I whipped up a nice dip to go with it. Although, our fruit kabobs were store bought, here are some tips to make your own.

• Choose a variety of colorful fruit.
• Use fruit that's fresh but firm, never over-ripe.
• Wash, peel, and cut the fruit into similar size chunks and drizzle with lemon juice to prevent browning.
• Place 6-7 pieces on each skewer, alternating colors, shapes, and textures.
• Host a build-your-own kabob party. Provide the wooden skewers and fruit and have at it.

Ingredients for Fruit Kabobs

Pineapple

large seedless grapes

strawberries

melon chunks

cherries

mango

papaya

peaches

bananas

kiwi

apples

Asian Pears

Star Fruit

Peach Jam with almond bars

A friend of mine suggested that I post the recipes gone "wrong" along with the ones that hit the mark. Here is one of those that went so wrong but didn't turn out half bad.

My first idea was to create a Peach Pie to celebrate National Peach Month, but that would be too easy. So I thought to create an almond biscotti with peach jam. Sounds tasty. And what you see is actually very tasty but an almond biscotti it ain't and the peach jam is more of a compote.

I used the recipe for a basic almond crust to make the biscotti and I rolled out the crust as thin as possible (but still keep some thickness for a biscotti) in hopes of it drying crispy in the dehydrator. Well 24 hours later at 110 degrees, I still have a chewy almond crust. I decided not to go past the 24 hour mark in the dehydrator, I figured if it wasn't happening in a day then for this recipe it wasn't happening.

So that is the tale how a crisp almond biscotti remained a chewy almond bar.

As far as the Peach Jam goes. It started out thick like a jam but the longer the fruit sits in a bit of sea salt and lemon juice the more peach juice it creates. It still tasted very good and I had no problem enjoying this recipe gone awry.

Almond Bars

2 c almonds, soaked for 6-8 hours
1 c dates, pitted and soaked for an hour, reserve soaking water
4 T reserved date water
1 T organic vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt

In a food processor, process almonds, dates, date water, vanilla extract and sea salt until well combined. Remove and with a rolling pin spread mixture onto a teflex sheet. Dehydrate at 100 degrees overnight or 6-8 hours. Flip over and score into bars about 4 hours into the dehydrating time.

Peach Compote

5 c diced fresh peaches

Juice of one half lemon

1/4 c agave nectar

1/2 t cinnamon

1 pinch sea salt

In a bowl, toss ingredients together.