Recipes for a Labor Day Meal

We tried a variety of new recipes for Labor Day this year. This is a result of doing an online homeschooling planning session during August. Part of the task was to look at the rhythm of the year - which includes holidays and special celebrations.

I went through my recipes as well as looked on Pinterest for ideas for some ideas for a Labor Day meal. Below are the recipes and pictures of what we made.

For our main meal, we ate later in the day...about 2:00 p.m. We had brats, hot dogs, baked beans, honey sweet corn, and an orange-lemonade drink. For dessert, we had peach melba mountain. The last three items were all new recipes.

Peach Melba Mountain I made for Labor Day.

For dinner, we weren't very hungry so we just had some crackers and cheese. We also had caramel apple grapes and homemade peach ice cream for dessert. The recipes for these items are below.

Honey Sweet Corn

Honey Sweet Corn.

This recipe is from Taste of Home magazine. (I found a pin for it on Pinterest as well.) It's very easy to make and everyone enjoyed it. The honey does not add a lot of flavor. In fact, we weren't able to taste it. Perhaps it did add a hint of sweetness, though, to the corn.

6 medium ears sweet corn
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon honey
Ground pepper and salt

Place corn in a Dutch oven or stockpot; cover with water. Bring to a boil; cover and cook for 5-10 minutes or until tender. Drain. In a small bowl, combine butter and honey; brush over corn. Sprinkled with salt and pepper, if desired.

Orange-Lemonade 

Orange-Lemonade.

Holidays Central has a variety of recipes for Labor Day. (This is the pin on Pinterest.) One that I wanted to try was the beverage. My grandma used to make orange-lemonade from fresh oranges and lemons. I still prefer my grandma's version, but this recipe was so easy to make.

The only modification that I made to the recipe was that I didn't include the grated lemon peel or orange peel. If the girls saw the peels floating in their beverage, they wouldn't have drank it.

1 1/4 cup water + 3 cups water, divided
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon grated orange peel

Bring 1 1/4 cup water and sugar to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool and then pour into a pitcher.

Stir in lemon juice, orange juice, grated lemon peel, and grated orange peel. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Stir in 3 cups of water and serve over ice.

Peach Melba Mountain

Peach Melba Mountain.

Made from angel food cake, whipped topping, 

peaches, and strawberries.

I've wanted to try this recipe for seven years now...it's from the May/June 2006 issue of Country Woman. (I also have a pin of it on Pinterest.) The three-layer angel food cake has lots of fresh fruit and whipped topping between each layer, so the final cake ends up being very tall.

Instead of raspberries, I used strawberries, and I didn't include any almonds in the recipe - either in the topping or as decoration.

The recipe calls for letting it chill for 30 minutes before serving. Since we were going to be eating only a small part of the cake, I chose to remove a section, do the layering with the whipped topping and fruit, and immediately serve it. By chilling it for 30 minutes, it could give the cake a bit more stability and ease for cutting. Otherwise, it is a wobbly cake (because of the height) and difficult to cut into thin slices.

1 package (16 ounces) angel food cake mix
1 package (3 ounces) peach or orange gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 carton (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted, divided
3 cups sliced peeled fresh peaches
3 cups fresh raspberries

Prepare and bake cake according to package directions, using an ungreased 10-in. tube pan (also known as an angel food cake pan). Immediately invert pan; cool completely, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water; cool. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and extract until fluffy. Gradually beat in gelatin. Fold in whipped topping and 3/4 cup almonds. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Run a knife around side and center tube of pan. Remove cake.

Cut cake into three horizontal layers. Place bottom layer on a serving plate; spread with a third of the cream mixture. Top with 1 cup of peaches and 1 cup of raspberries. Repeat layers.

Adding the fruit layer.

Sprinkle with remaining almonds. Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12-14 servings.

Nutritional Facts: 1 serving (1 slice) equals 336 calories, 13 g fat (8 g saturated fat), 18 mg cholesterol, 301 mg sodium, 47 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 7 g protein.

Caramel Apple Grapes

Caramel Apple Grapes.

I saw a pin for caramel apple grapes on Pinterest. The pin led to a recipe on On The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife. I was intrigued by this one because it said that the grapes end up tasting just like caramel apples. None of us thought they tasted like caramel apples, but they were delicious nonetheless.

They are easy to make. One thing we learned was that it was best to allow some of the caramel to drip off of the grape before putting it in the peanuts. We also didn't have enough toothpicks on hand, so we just used a few toothpicks to dip the grapes and them removed them when we were done.

1 cup caramel bits
2 tablespoons heavy cream
handful of seedless green grapes
1 cup salted peanuts, crushed
toothpicks

Poke toothpicks into the tops of each grape; set aside. In a small pot over medium-low heat, combine the caramel bits and cream. Stir until melted. Reduce heat to lowest setting just to keep warm.

Place the peanuts in a shallow dish and dip the grapes into the caramel sauce and then roll in the crushed nuts. Place on a plate to set. Repeat until all the grapes are used.

Peach Cheesecake Ice Cream

Peach Cheesecake Ice Cream.

I've been holding onto this recipe for years (since 2007), and I'm so glad that we finally tried it! (I also pinned it on Pinterest.) This is an incredibly rich and flavorful ice cream. You do not need to eat a lot to enjoy it.

We followed the recipe closely with the exception of the last part that talks about dividing the peaches and adding them to each batch. The ice cream maker we have was large enough to hold the entire recipe, so we could add the peaches all at once.

We also were unable to find peach nectar. So, we substituted mango nectar and guava nectar - 1/4 cup each to equal the 1/2 cup that was noted in the recipe.

1 cup milk
1-1/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup peach nectar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
4 medium peaches, peeled and chopped or 1-1/2 cups frozen sliced peaches, chopped

In a small saucepan, heat milk to 175°; stir in 1-1/4 cups sugar until dissolved. Whisk a small amount into the egg yolks. Return all to the pan, whisking constantly. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture reaches at least 160° and coats the back of a metal spoon.

Remove from the heat. Cool quickly by placing pan in a bowl of ice water; stir for 2 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

In a blender, combine the cream, vanilla and cream cheese; cover and process until smooth. Add to cooled milk mixture. Stir in peach nectar and lemon juice. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. (Note: we refrigerated the mixture for three hours.)

Fill cylinder of ice cream freezer two-thirds full; freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Place peaches in a bowl; sprinkle with remaining sugar. Set aside, stirring several times. Drain and discard juice from peaches. Add some of the peaches to each batch of ice cream during the last 5 minutes of freezing.

Refrigerate remaining mixture and peaches until ready to freeze. Transfer ice cream to a freezer container; freeze for 2-4 hours before serving. May be frozen for up to 2 months.

Yield: 2 quarts.

The ice cream is loaded with fresh peaches.

I enjoyed making a variety of new recipes. Sophia helped me with the ice cream and caramel apple grapes which made being in the kitchen on a holiday even that much better!