This New Cookbook Is Just Peachy (in More Ways than One)

Don’t you just love a good cookbook? I sure do, and I’m loving Just Peachy by Belinda Smith-Sullivan (Gibbs Smith, May 2019). This lovely new cookbook is brimming with recipes I want to make, information I can use, personal stories that bring the food to life, and photographs that make my mouth water. Bring on the peaches!

* Complimentary book received for review. This post may contain affiliate links.

Belinda Smith-Sullivan, better known as Chef Belinda, has loved peaches since her childhood summers spent on the Mississippi Delta, canning peaches by her grandmother’s side. She celebrates her peach-loving heritage with this cookbook devoted to the peach. Before proceeding to the recipes, the reader is treated to Chef Belinda’s charming introduction in which she recounts her youthful experiences with peaches and how she still enjoys them today. The next few chapters constitute a peach primer, including history, varietals, peach festivals throughout the United States and Canada, and a canning and freezing guide.

Then it’s on to the recipes! Some are classics (Peach-Pecan Breakfast Muffins, Old-Fashioned Peach Pie) and some are unexpected (Spicy Peach-Jalapeño Salsa, Peach-Avocado Pasta Salad), but all utilize peaches. Soon we’ll be featuring a post with a Blackberry-Peach Buckle recipe from Just Peachy, so be sure to watch for that. In the meantime, here are some other enticing recipes:

• Buttermilk Peach Waffles
• Peach-Sweet Potato Casserole
• Chilled Peach-Mint Soup
• Thyme-Peach Chicken Breasts
• Peach Bread Pudding with Rum Peach Coulis
• Peach-Amaretto Ice Cream
• Chocolate-Peach Soufflé
• Homemade Peach-Orange Marmalade
• Perfectly Simple Peach Iced Tea

The first time I picked up Just Peachy, I spotted the recipe for Cast Iron Peach Cornbread and knew I had to make it. One word: Deeeeelicious. Aside from their wonderful sweetness and flavor, the peaches make the cornbread so moist it’s hardly crumbly at all. I used my 10” cast-iron skillet rather than the 9” one called for in the recipe, but my peach cornbread still baked up nice and high. Since it’s still too early for fresh local peaches, I used canned peaches, following Chef Belinda’s recommendations from an earlier chapter for substituting canned or frozen peaches for fresh.

Flipping through Just Peachy is a delight. Mark Boughton’s beautiful photographs evoke the feeling of a peach-scented summer day. My favorite photo is of Chef Belinda on her front porch, laughing at her dog as he’s licking his chops and sniffing at a slice of Oreo-Peach Cheesecake. Makes me wish I were right there with them.

Eating peaches with Chef Belinda on her porch may not be an option, but the next best thing is visiting her website (where she has her own line of specialty spice mixtures available for sale) and her blog  (where you can follow her adventures as a chef and a pilot), and on Facebook. Both sites feature more of her recipes, too. While you’re internet browsing, be sure to stop by the website of the publisher, Gibbs Smith, and explore their wide range of books.

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