It’s Apple Season… Avoid the orchards!

When I was a kid I used to love to go apple picking in the fall for the same reason most people do – apple cider doughnuts. So a few years ago when Kim suggested an excursion to an orchard outside of Manhattan, I jumped at the opportunity. Let’s just say I won’t be returning soon!

Many orchards advertise themselves as being 40 minutes from midtown Manhattan which in the dead of winter might be the case. However, as soon as the scent of seasonal apples starts to hit the city’s supermarkets, expect a mass exodus of screaming kids heading to pick their own apples. Imagine cars backed up for miles waiting to pass through quaint gates guarding the ripe apples. Imagine flocks of kids descending on the trees like crazed bees. Oh, and imagine crazed bees too.

Anyways, until Xavier begs and pleads to participate in this ritual, I’m getting my apples on the corner of 97th and Broadway. Last night I stopped in on my way home and decided to make what Heidi Swanson calls an “unfussy apple cake”. It’s no apple cider donut but it’s a delicious, hearty and somewhat healthy way to showcase fall’s prized fruit. I used a bit more than two cups of apples and added a pinch of nutmeg and ground ginger. I loved it. Xavier hated it. He’s probably holding out for an apple cider donut.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/unfussy-apple-cake-recipe.html

Camping Leftovers? Make a Frittata

Anybody that has done anything with Mark knows that he likes excess. That’s his charm. Moderation is overrated. When you go to dinner, you don’t split an appetizer. When you travel to Cartagena, you don’t stay in a youth hostel. And when you go camping, you buy 36 eggs.

Only I would bring leftovers home from a camping trip! I wasn’t going to let those eggs go to waste though so yesterday morning I woke up with over 20 eggs in my fridge. It seemed like the right time to make a frittata. I loosely followed the recipe for an Onion Frittata on Bon Appetit that Rebecca recommended.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/05/onion-frittata

I tweaked it to incorporate the vegetables I had on hand and added potatoes to bulk it up a bit. I started by sautéing onions and thinly sliced red potatoes until soft and then I added a huge bunch of spinach. One the spinach was wilted I added the egg and gruyere (instead of Parmesan) mixture. Before I put it in the oven, I tossed some grape tomatoes that I had roasted ahead of time with a pinch of brown sugar and olive oil. (I roasted them ahead of time not because I wanted to be gourmet but because they were looking a little lackluster. This is a fantastic way to revive them.)
http://rachelsdigestif.com/post/5337357914/roasted-cherry-tomatoes

The result was a very flavorful, hearty and attractive frittata that was packed with vegetables and protein. Not bad for camping leftovers. Thanks Mark!

Tomato Cobbler on Rainy Night

Regardless of whether or not I’m having eight people or one person over for dinner, I feel like I need to make something out of the ordinary. I think that feeling has grown stronger since I moved uptown and know most people have a longer commute to join me at my table.

Last Thursday I had plenty of food in my fridge, it was pouring rain, I was slammed at work and I was running late to relieve the sitter. I tried to convince myself to throw together a nice meal with the ingredients already in my fridge, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful heirloom mini-tomatoes I had seen at the market the day before. (Why didn’t I buy them the day before? My ability to be organized has gone down the tube.) So I pushed my way off the subway past a maze of umbrellas and made a beeline for the tomatoes.

Once dry and warm in my apartment, I got to work making a tomato cobbler that caught my eye on Lottie and Doof. It’s a fairly time consuming but easy recipe that lent itself well to slow preparation, a glass of wine and a chat with my friend Laura. I followed the recipe below fairly closely – carmelizing the onion and garlic mixture, making dough with cold butter, cream and Gruyere and baking it all for an hour. I added basil (I had to use something

from my fridge) and cut back a bit on the cheese and oil.

Obviously the recipe’s success lies in the quality of the seasonal tomatoes so my rainy dash paid off. It’s very rich…deliciously rich but rich nonetheless. Next time I will try to substitute milk for the cream and cut back even more on the oil. And I’ll buy the damn tomatoes the day before. http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2011/08/tomato-cobbler/

Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches with Blueberry Swirl

Homemade ice cream sandwiches sounds so “Suzie Homemaker” that I hesitate to even admit that I tried these. When a recipe says 4 ½ hours from start to finish, I usually chuckle and wonder who on earth has that kind of time. But it was my mom’s birthday and I was home with the family. I had some time since my evenings weren’t booked up with Broadway plays, literary lectures and interpretative dance shows like they are when I’m in NYC. Right. Anyways…

This recipe is a little absurd but I think it’s a good base to play around with. I like the idea of making brownie type bars and then stuffing them with ice cream and other deliciousness. I don’t think there necessarily has to be this many steps but maybe Gourmet felt they needed to overcompensate since they were cooking such a childish dessert? Long story short, it’s very much worth the effort for a special occasion and seems like it’s one of those recipes that would be a lot easier the second time around. Although when I’ll have 5 hours to myself again is beyond me….

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/08/lemon-ice-cream-sandwiches-with-blueberry-swirl

Shaved Asparagus vs. Onion, Bacon and Cream Pizza

Even though I like to cook, I’m still a big fan of all-in-one meals like stews, pasta dishes full of vegetables and protein and big hearty salads. Last weekend I made pizza for the first time and it now falls solidly into my all-in-one meal category.

“Made” is an exaggeration since I really just decorated pizza. The dough at Whole Fields is delicious – both the whole wheat and white variety. I used a cookie sheet and it worked perfectly. The dough was crispy and chewy at the same time and there was not a soggy slice in sight.

Obviously the ‘decoration‘ possibilities are endless, especially in the summer. My two favorites were the shaved asparagus pizza and the onion, bacon and cream pizza from Smitten Kitchen. Try them both – ideally together – since it’s a great contrast of flavors.

Onion, Bacon and Onion:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/01/pizza-with-bacon-onions-and-cream/

Shaved Asparagus:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/05/shaved-asparagus-pizza/

Next week I want to try a roasted fig and goat cheese pizza. I predict a slight obsession coming on……

Use those Summer Tomatoes!

I’m infamous in my house for eating food that might be past its prime. Just this morning I heated up some shady looking milk for my coffee knowing that if it’s really bad, it will curdle when warm. It didn’t curdle and I enjoyed my somewhat sour cup of coffee with no obvious consequences.

I draw the line at bad tomatoes though. We have all had a mealy, nasty tomato on a deli sandwich before. Gross.

However, it’s summer so tomatoes are great even at your sketchiest deli. You don’t have to eat them raw to take advantage of their rich summer flavor. Last night I made roasted tomato soup based on a Sprouted Kitchen recipe. Soup, crusty bread and cold beer make a great summer meal.

1) Cut 2.5 lbs of tomatoes and one onion into wedges and put on rimmed baking sheet. Poke out some of the gooey seeds and stick 6-8 garlic gloves into the holes that are left in the tomatoes. Drizzle generously with olive oil, salt and pepper.
2) Roast at 350 degrees for close to an hour or until the tomatoes look like they have broken down enough to be easily pureed.
3) Add to 3 cups of broth and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool a bit and then puree. Add a bit of cream at the end to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.
4) Serve with basil and Parmesan cheese.


http://sproutedkitchen.com/?p=3186

Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones

As I have firmly established in many previous posts, I’m addicted to breakfast. No matter where I wake up – a tent, a Central American hotel for work or my very own bed – I start to think about breakfast as soon as my belly recognizes that it’s morning. Lately I have fantasized about being the type who makes batches of wholesome breakfast treats early in the week and then heats them up every morning so the whole apartment smell like warm bread and melted butter. Unfortunately, I’m never that organized. And in reality, I wouldn’t really want to be.

For a few mornings last month however, I was able to pop a few homemade scones into the oven for 12 minutes and feel smugly proud of myself. I made eight Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones one evening to break in my new luxuriously spacious countertops. (Something about recklessly throwing around flour made me feel like I was finally in a real kitchen!) They are very simple to make with straightforward ingredients including flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, raspberries, ricotta and heavy cream. The only catch is that you don’t really end up with a traditional scone. The ricotta keeps the dough so moist that it’s more like very lightly sweetened muffin shaped like a scone. You can serve them plain or with a scoop of leftover ricotta or butter.

Next week we’ll be back to store bought English muffins.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/07/whole-wheat-raspberry-ricotta-scones/