The Presence of a President

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Biltmore has had the privilege to welcome many notable people through this grand Entrance Hall, but the presence of a president has always been a rare honor.  In recognition of Presidents’ Day, we are remembering those special guests.

President George Washington could not have visited Biltmore in person, but we were honored to serve as a temporary home for his well-known portrait.  The painting was stored here by the National Gallery of Art during World War II.  The unfinished Music Room on the first floor of Biltmore House was refitted with a steel door, bars on the windows, and other protective measures outlined by the gallery staff. On January 8, 1942, 62 paintings (including the portrait of George Washington) and 17 sculptures arrived in Asheville under heavy guard.

The iconic portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart, an 18th century America’s master portrait artist. In his five-decade career, he produced well over 1100 pictures. Of these portraits, nearly one-tenth are images of George Washington, to whom he was introduced by their mutual friend Chief Justice John Jay. It is interesting to note that each of Stuart’s portraits of Washington, about 100 in all, is based on one of three life portraits of the president.  Happy Birthday Mr. President.

President William McKinley, Jr. visited Biltmore Estate on June 14, 1897.  George Vanderbilt was in Europe at the time and Estate Superintendent Charles McNamee was in London, so Butler Walter Harvey gave President McKinley and his entourage a tour of Biltmore House.

President Theodore Roosevelt visited Biltmore Estate on September 9, 1902.  President Roosevelt met Dr. Carl Schenck, the German forester Mr. Vanderbilt had hired to oversee the Biltmore forestry operation.  He also took a drive across the estate, toured the gardens, and toured the Main Dairy Barn where our Winery is now located.

President Jimmy Carter attended a fundraising dinner on September 22, 1978 at the Deerpark pavilion on Biltmore Estate and spoke to a crowd of approximately 300 guests.

Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan visited Biltmore in early May 1980 as part of a multi-city visit to North Carolina.  Rick King, former vice president of Biltmore House, gave Reagan and his wife Nancy a tour of the home.  Reagan went on to win the presidential election in November 1980.

President and Mrs. Barack Obama visited on April 24, 2010 while on a trip to Asheville and were greeted by the Cecil family for a tour of Biltmore House.

Vanderbilt Christmas traditions

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To learn more about Vanderbilt Christmas traditions, we searched Biltmore’s archives for letters and documents detailing the lives of George and Edith Vanderbilt, their daughter, Cornelia, and the many friends and family members who visited them during the holidays.

Read on for some of the Vanderbilts’ yuletide traditions, from family gatherings to the special foods they enjoyed during the festive season.

How did Vanderbilt Christmas traditions begin?

Archival photo of the Vanderbilt Christmas celebration in 1901. The woman is believed to be Elizabeth “Bessie” Beers-Curtis de Talleyrand-Périgord, Marquise de Talleyrand, sitting with an unidentified man in the Tapestry Gallery of Biltmore House.
The only photo in the Biltmore collection from the Vanderbilts’ 1901 Christmas celebration. The woman is believed to be Elizabeth “Bessie” Beers-Curtis de Talleyrand-Périgord, Marquise de Talleyrand, an American heiress who married into the French aristocracy. The man is unidentified.

Although George Vanderbilt moved into Biltmore House in October 1895, the house did not officially open to guests until Christmas Eve of that year. Great efforts were made to ensure all (or most!) would be ready by this special day. Since Mr. Vanderbilt was still a bachelor during the first Biltmore Christmas, his mother Maria Louisa presided as hostess. 

Correspondence between Mr. Vanderbilt and his staff indicates that planning was intensive and no detail was left unattended. Managers debated which nearby county had the best holly and the most desirable mistletoe, while staff scouted for the perfect candidate for the Banquet Hall Christmas tree.

The Banquet Hall Tree: A Christmas at Biltmore Tradition
The Banquet Hall Christmas Tree is a favorite holiday tradition

Mr. Chauncey Beadle, estate horticulturalist, wrote estate manager, Mr. Charles McNamee:

“I quite agree with you that we should have a very large tree for this occasion; in fact, I think a twenty foot tree in that large Banquet Hall would be rather dwarfed.”

When Mr. Vanderbilt’s mother, several of his brothers and sisters and their spouses, and assorted nieces and nephews arrived, they were greeted in the Banquet Hall by a splendidly tall tree laden with gifts for estate workers.  At the foot of the tree was a table piled high with family gifts. Because of this, the Banquet Hall has always been the focal point for Christmas celebrations in Biltmore House.  

A Vanderbilt family gathering

The family and guests gathered around the 40-foot Banquet Hall table for elaborate dinners served both evenings. Mr. Vanderbilt’s niece Gertrude kept a series of Dinner Books in which she recorded the seating arrangements of all of the parties and dinners she attended as a young woman, and she was one of the guests at the first Vanderbilt Christmas dinner in Biltmore House.

Vanderbilt Christmas seating chart drawn by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1895
A detailed seating chart of the first Christmas dinner at Biltmore House from the 1895 Dinner Book kept by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Photo courtesy of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Whitney Museum of American Art, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers. Gift of Flora Miller Irving.

Gertrude kept two Dinner Books in 1895, and the Christmas meal at Biltmore House was the 193rd formal dinner that she attended that year. In her diagram of the dinner, she listed 27 Vanderbilt family members. It was said to be the largest gathering of the family since the death of George’s father, William Henry Vanderbilt, in 1885.

In addition to the grand meals and festive décor, stockings hung on mantles, plum puddings and mince pies were served, and George’s mother read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to the children. It must have been a grand time—one article even stated that the Vanderbilt family exchanged gilded and jeweled Christmas cards!

Christmas meals in Biltmore House, 1904

Costumed mannequin in the Main Kitchen of Biltmore House
Imagine Biltmore House’s main kitchen abuzz with action in preparation for hosting the first Christmas celebration.

The 1904 Menu Book, kept by cook Esther Anderson, contains luncheon and dinner menus for Christmas Day and New Years Day. Surprisingly, they are not the most elaborate meals included in the book. The 1904 Christmas Day luncheon featured a fairly light menu that began with clear broth, followed by broiled oysters.

The Christmas Day luncheon entrée consisted of venison steak (very likely from the estate deer herd), served with string beans, potatoes and cauliflower. The salad course consisted of roast partridge and salad. Luncheon dessert consisted of apple tart, which is not surprising, since the estate orchards produced more than 20 varieties of apples. Coffee followed dessert and served as a separate course.

Christmas dinner began with Consommé Royale, a clear chicken broth thickened with tapioca and served with a savory garnish made from bullion, egg and herbs, poached in buttered molds, floating in the broth. A fish course of broiled Spanish mackerel accompanied by cucumber salad came next. 

The main course featured roast turkey and cranberries, and was served with potatoes, peas, and celery. The Vanderbilts ate turkey in one form or another on average every three days. Mrs. Doris Johnson, whose daughter-in-law, Ellen, was a Biltmore House cook at the turn of the century, recalled that turkey and dressing were Mr. Vanderbilt’s favorite of all the things Ellen cooked, and it is very likely that turkey was indeed one of Mr. Vanderbilt’s favorite foods. A salad of Virginia ham and spinach followed. Christmas dessert consisted of plum pudding, ice cream, and cake.

New Year’s Eve meals

The New Year’s Eve luncheon began with fish cutlets, followed by braised rabbits and lamb chops served with potatoes, beets, and stuffed tomatoes. Chicken salad followed, and dessert consisted of apple tapioca pudding, then coffee. New Year’s Eve dinner began with either purée of chickens or consommé, followed by the fish course consisting of mousse of bass. The mousse was followed by an entrée of mushroom patties, and a relevé consisting of filets of beef with potatoes, spinach, and baked macaroni. Roast partridge accompanied the salad. 

New Year’s Eve dessert was Fanchonette, an “old-fashioned French cake, somewhat like a pie made with rough puff pastry and a pastry cream filling baked in a slow oven. After cooling, it is piped with meringue, sprinkled with sugar and baked until brown.” Coffee followed dessert, and midnight toasts no doubt welcomed the New Year!

Behind the Scenes: Big Reveal Set For Fall

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Two rooms inside the 250-room Biltmore House – the Second Floor Living Hall and the Salon – will re-open this fall after the estate’s Museum Services team restores them to their appearances as they were when George Vanderbilt opened the home in 1895.

In recent years, the Second Floor Living Hall has been used as an exhibition space; prior to that, it was interpreted as a sitting area. An early 1950s photo offered a glimpse of the original furnishings of this space—gilded sconces, paintings and a suite of oversized Baroque furniture placed around the perimeter of the room. Additional research led curators to determine that the room’s primary function was intended as a picture gallery and formal hallway.

“We’re constantly striving to interpret the house authentically as it appeared during the Vanderbilts’ time,” said Darren Poupore, Chief Curator.

Bringing the room back to its original state includes conserving all the furnishings, recreating elaborate window treatments and making structural changes.

“We discovered that the original upholstery was a gauffraged fabric—a rich wool velvet with a pattern pressed into it—in a striking gold color,” said Poupore. “We had it reproduced in France by Prelle, the same company that made many of our historic fabrics for the Louis XV Suite project.”

Green velvet draperies will adorn windows featuring exact reproductions of four pelmets (or valances). For two years, local textile artist Heather Allen Swarttouw painstakingly embroidered and appliquéd each pelmet to match the originals.

As appropriate for such a prominent space, several notable paintings are being returned to their original locations. John Singer Sargent’s portraits of Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted and Anders Zorn’s painting “The Waltz,” which have been hanging temporarily in the Salon, will once again hang where George Vanderbilt intended. The restored room will be completed and re-opened September 1st, 2013.

Relocating the paintings from the Salon has led to its reinterpretation, centered on the fact that the Salon was one of the few first floor rooms not completed during Vanderbilt’s lifetime.

“Draperies were placed in the archways to prevent the Vanderbilts’ guests from seeing inside the room,” Poupore said. “It had bare brick walls, a rough subfloor and a structural tiled ceiling without its finished treatment. In the 1920s, Edith Vanderbilt turned it into a Turkish sitting room, but in 1930 everything except the 1920s ceiling treatment was removed and it became a space to display special objects.”

Curators decided to tell the story of how the room has changed through the years. Removal of a wall revealed an original firebox and brick walls. A section of the fabric ceiling treatment is being removed to show the terra cotta tiled ceiling above. Information panels will explain the new interpretation of the room when it re-opens October 1st, 2013.

Learn more about the Biltmore house.

Finding Summer Beauty in the Italian Garden

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If you’re visiting Biltmore soon, make a beeline for the Italian Garden. Located adjacent to Biltmore House, this formal garden is in its prime late summer.

View of the Italian Garden and Biltmore House
Filled with numerous varieties of exotic water lilies, tropical bananas, papyrus, and koi fish, the Italian Garden is a sight to behold.

Magical Lilies

Biltmore gardeners Chuck Cissell and Steven Ayers have been hard at work all year ensuring all the elements are in place for spectacular summer blooms. The Italian Garden gets better every year. This year, it is over the top again and this is probably the best year yet for seeing our water lilies.

All three pools feature different water lilies including hardy and tropical varieties. We’re especially fond of our tropical water lilies that open up in the evening and bloom until mid-morning. If you’re an early morning guest or an overnight guest, sneak down to the Italian Garden to enjoy this unique display.

Water lilies in the pools of Biltmore's Italian Garden
Many guests don’t realize that lily blooms only last for three days. Many refer to the bloom process as being “sort of magical.”

The blooms from the tropical lilies sit above the water and feature bright white, pink, red and even blue blossoms. It’s a marvelous sight to see and just another amazing example of nature’s beauty.

If you miss the tropical night blooms, don’t worry. We have planted different varieties, so guests visiting during the day can still enjoy flowers from day blooming tropical and hardy lilies as well. Look for the blooms through the first cold snap, which can be as early as September or as late as October.

Full view of flowers blooming at the Italian Garden Pools at Biltmore
The Italian Garden closely resembles the original blueprint by Olmsted, with the only main difference being the center bed display.

Blooming Blueprint

While the lilies are the one the highlights of the Italian Garden, the pools include an array of other plants. Lotus, Victoria water platters, canna lilies, papyrus, water snowflakes, and purple leaf rice are all in bloom right now.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of visiting the Italian Garden is the fact that the design intent has remained unchanged since Vanderbilt’s time. Two of the pools have been refurbished, and the Hemlock hedges have recently been replaced with American Holly hedges to stay true to Olmsted’s vision for the garden. The plants used pay homage to gardening notes and plant orders found in estate archives. We don’t do anything different in the Italian Garden than what they did back in George Vanderbilt’s day.

Bring Home the Beauty of the Italian Garden

Water Gardening is easier than you think. Below are some quick tips for creating a backyard water garden:

  • Select a sturdy, large ceramic container that can hold water.
  • Find a location that receives at least eight hours of sunlight, and use pavers or bricks to form a level base for the container.
  • Start with a fool-proof water plant such as tropical water lilies.
  • Plant the water lily in a small plastic container filled with topsoil and plunge the pot into the larger container filled with water. Cover the soil with pebbles or sand to prevent muddy water.
  • The top of the lily’s pot should be eight inches below the surface of the water. If necessary, add bricks or blocks to form a base within the water container. Finish off the water garden by adding water lettuce or other floating plants.
  • Maintain your water garden by cutting spent blooms on the lily and pushing a fertilizer tablet into the lily’s soil every few weeks.

Learn more about our gardens and grounds.

Pizzetas with Grilled Summer Vegetables and Goat Cheese

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Pizzetas are small, individual-style grilled pizzas that make an amazing appetizer or light lunch any time of year. For summer, our estate chefs suggest this version topped with grilled seasonal vegetables, goat cheese, and drizzled with an herby vinaigrette. For the perfect finish, serve with a glass of our award-winning Biltmore Estate® Sauvignon Blanc featuring crisp, refreshing notes of fresh lemon, Granny Smith apple, and a hint of grass.

Serves 4-5
 

Pizzeta Dough Ingredients

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2–3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon quick-rising dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water

Pizzeta Topping Ingredients

  • 2 heirloom tomatoes
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 small zucchini
  • 1 small yellow squash
  • 2 portabella mushrooms
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Herb vinaigrette salad dressing
  • 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
  • 12 basil leaves, thinly sliced

Instructions

Dough: Combine flour, sugar, garlic, basil, rosemary, tarragon, olive, oil, vegetable oil, and salt in a mixing bowl; mix with a dough hook. Add the yeast and mix at low speed. Add ½ cup of the water gradually, mixing constantly. Add the remaining water gradually, mixing constantly until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Mix at low-to-medium speed for 3–4 more minutes. Remove to an oiled bowl, turning to coat the surface.

Let dough rise, covered with a clean towel, until doubled in bulk. Punch down dough and let rise again until doubled in bulk. Punch down to remove air bubbles and divide into 4–5 equal portions. 

Preheat a grill for 10–15 minutes until hot. Place each portion of pizzeta dough on an inverted cake pan or baking pan and press gently into a circle. Invert the pans on the grill so that the dough circles rest on the grill. Grill for 1–2 minutes or until the dough is set. Remove the pans and turn the crusts over. Grill until the other side is marked. Remove from the grill.

Pizzetas: Cut the tomatoes, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and mushrooms into chunks. Combine with the salt, pepper and dressing in a bowl. Toss to coat evenly. Drizzle vegetables with salad dressing and toss to coat evenly. Grill the vegetables until tender-crisp. Chop into bite-sized pieces and sprinkle over the pizzetta crusts. Sprinkle the goat cheese over the vegetables. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake pizzetas until the cheese melts and the crusts are crisp. Sprinkle with chopped basil. Cut into wedges to serve.

Tip: Try pizzetas with any combination of toppings and sauces that you enjoy!

Smoked Salmon with Citrus Vinaigrette Salad

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Perfect for a light summer lunch, enjoy this delicious recipe that pairs savory Biltmore Smoked Salmon with fresh greens in a tangy citrus dressing. Try pairing it with a favorite white wine like our Biltmore Estate Sauvignon Blanc to make any meal a bit more special.

Smoked Salmon with Citrus Vinaigrette Salad

Serves 4

Citrus Vinaigrette

  • 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon grated orange and lime zests
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Salad

  • 6 ounces Biltmore Smoked Salmon
  • Arugula/spring lettuce mix or other lettuces of choice
  • Cucumber
  • Avocado
  • Bean sprouts
  • Grape tomatoes, halved
  • Carrot shavings

Instructions

For the vinaigrette: In a small saucepan, reduce (over high heat) the fresh orange juice, lime juice, and citrus zest to 1/4 cup. The mixture should be thick and syrupy. Pour mixture in medium bowl, add mustard, honey, and rice wine vinegar. Whisk to blend. Stir vigorously and slowly drizzle olive oil into the bowl as you whisk. Set vinaigrette aside as you prepare the salad.

Salad: Arrange 2 ounces of salmon on each of 4 chilled salad plates. In a large bowl combine lettuce, cucumber slices, avocado slices, bean sprouts, tomatoes, and carrots. Toss with vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper. Make sure all is well blended. Place salad over salmon. Serve immediately.

A Topping Fit for Our Crème Brûlée Cheesecake

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Our Crème Brûlée Cheesecake brings the delicious tastes of two classic desserts together in one elegant offering. Winery Manager Rick Deblasio suggests pairing it with our Pas de Deux Sparkling, because the refreshingly sweet bubbles will offer a pleasant match for the richness of both the cheesecake and the crème brulee.

Savor this cheesecake just as it is, or create the perfect finishing touch with our simple recipe for a strawberry preserve-style topping.

Strawberry Preserves Cheesecake Topping

Ingredients

  • 1 quart fresh strawberries, washed, capped, and sliced in half
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
  • 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch

Preparation Instructions

Place halved berries, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and sugar in a medium sauce pot. Stirring very carefully with a spatula or wooden spoon so berries aren’t mashed too much, heat berries over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the berries are slightly soft. Heating the berries with sugar will draw out extra juice. Mix cornstarch and remaining lemon juice together in a small bowl. Stir this mixture into the berries and continue to heat, stirring carefully for about 2 minutes until the juices have all thickened and have become shiny and gel-like. Pour into a plastic container and let cool. When ready to serve, spoon a generous serving of Strawberry Preserves. Topping over each slice of Crème Brûlée Cheesecake.

Serving Tip

To cut cheesecake easily, chill well. Run a sharp knife under hot water, wipe dry, and cut a slice. Repeat for more slices.

Learn more about Biltmore cheesecakes and find a retailer near you.

Juggling is Part of Chef Hadenfeld’s Normal Workday

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Imagine preparing and serving breakfast, a breakfast buffet, banquets, lunch and afternoon tea to hundreds of guests each day and managing ten employees.  It’s sort of like juggling with many balls in the air, but Ryan Hadenfeld, Demi Chef at the Inn, says bring it on—he loves the challenge and the creativity.

“Creativity in the kitchen involves everyone and I try to foster that environment,” he says. “We like to create things our cooks want to cook, and they like the freedom. It never gets boring.”

Some of the recent creations offered by his cooking staff include a strawberry salad, flat bread made with naan and a red pepper coulee, and an asparagus and crab salad with truffle aioli. Yum!

Ryan is a fairly new Biltmore chef; he’s been here about six months. He started at the Bistro and recently transferred to the Inn. This is his first supervisory role.

“As a cook you work hard, make sure everything is prepped and keep your cool. Once you get into management, you do all that plus you must know human resources and organizational skills, and you have to look ahead. I love my job.”

Ryan occasionally works the omelet station in the mornings. He says everything is prepped and chopped each morning, and then guests pick their ingredients. About a third of the guests want a little bit of everything in their omelet, another substantial percentage only want ham and cheese. But he sees it all—one guest asked for smoked salmon, another for jalapenos, several request egg white omelets.

“It’s very cool to work the omelet station. We get immediate feedback and that’s great. Several guests have told me their omelets were the best they ever had,” he said.

Many of the eggs used for breakfast at the Inn come from heirloom chickens raised on the estate. Ryan says these chickens are raised in a natural setting and the eggs have deeper yokes, are richer and quite delicious.

A typical day for Ryan means he checks in with all his staff, making sure they have what they need. He creates special dishes and new menus depending on what’s fresh. He and his staff make their own sauces and pickles, cheese puffs, pate and butcher salmon and beef.

“My job is the sum of all the little parts—I make sure everyone does their job and I get whatever falls between the cracks,” says Ryan. “One day we were slammed at lunch and someone said they needed help checking on the tables, so I walked out and did that. It’s not what I normally do but we’re all a team here.”

The never-ending world of turf maintenance

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Turf maintenance is a large part of Biltmore’s landscape that is often overlooked. You could almost say it gets “walked over” on a regular basis!

When it comes to turf, there’s a lot of it when you consider the lawns around Biltmore House & Gardens, along estate roadsides, and everywhere else.

Well maintained turf surrounding The Inn on Biltmore Estate
The grounds surrounding The Inn on Biltmore Estate include acres of well maintained turf.

Keeping all that grass mowed and trimmed is the responsibility of Biltmore’s Turf Management team.

“We now 135–140 acres each week, and some areas are mowed twice a week,” team member Dwayne Schmidt said. “We mow every month but January, using riding and push mowers, and we do hand edging in the Rose Garden.”

Historic Rose Garden at Biltmore

He compares his team to a NASCAR pit crew since they must work well together at a fast pace. Their day can start as early as 6:30 a.m. so they can mow and get out fast before guests arrive.

Turf management at Biltmore is a science similar to what world-class golf courses use. The team fertilizes, aerates in spring and fall, maintains irrigation systems, overseeds, blows leaves, trims, and removes snow quickly to keep everything immaculate.

A member of Biltmore's turf maintenance team mows grass in the Italian Garden
A member of Biltmore’s turf maintenance team mows grass in the Italian Garden

Dwayne has worked three years with Biltmore, but his team has close to 100 years of experience. He is a certified turf grass professional and was recently appointed as one of 12 members to the Turf Grass Council of North Carolina. Several other crew members are in the process of earning the Turf Grass certification that includes classroom work and a challenging test. The team regularly participates in continuing education, and recently earned a Biltmore Environmental Excellence Award for rerouting their mowing operations to save gas and energy.

The Front Lawn is Dwayne’s favorite place; he knows that more than a million people see it each year and it is the frame for Biltmore House, carefully tended and mowed twice weekly.

Couple drinking wine on the turf in front of Biltmore House
The Front Lawn is mowed twice weekly, making it a perfect spot for a Luminere picnic!

“Biltmore is an awesome place, and I am proud of the work we do here,” said Dwayne. “When you have people from all over the world admiring your work, how can you not be proud?”

This Cheesecake Topping Is Just Peachy

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Our Vanilla Bean Cheesecake is a rich, delicious dessert that makes any occasion more special. Winery Manager Rick Deblasio suggests pairing it with Biltmore Estate Riesling from our own vineyards. This refreshing white wine will provide some sweetness to complement the peach preserves and toasted pecans without overpowering the dish.

Enjoy the classic taste of our Vanilla Bean Cheesecake just as it is, or whip up this special summertime topping featuring peaches and pecans.

Peach Preserves with Toasted Pecans Topping

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of peaches, sliced (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 vanilla bean, halved and seeded
  • 1 cup toasted pecans, halves or pieces*

Preparation Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients except vanilla bean and pecans in a medium sauce pan. Using a small paring knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise, then scrape the contents of the pod into the pan with the rest of the ingredients.  Simmer for about 20 minutes over medium heat, stirring often. Peaches will become very soft and should start to shred apart slightly. Topping can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for several days. Spoon a generous serving over each slice of cheesecake to be served, then sprinkle with some of the toasted pecans.

Tips

To cut cheesecake easily, chill well. Run a sharp knife under hot water, wipe dry, and cut a slice. Repeat for more slices.

*If pre-toasted pecans aren’t available, it’s easy to do it yourself. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread pecans in a single layer on a non-stick baking sheet and toast lightly for about 5 minutes, being careful not to scorch them.