Autumn Almond Apples-Gluten Free and Vegetarian

This past weekend was most likely the last, gorgeous, warm one we'll have this fall until next spring.  With so many apples and a wonderfully, simple dish idea originating from Manger (one of my favorite visual food/fantasy life blogs www.mimithorisson.com), a beautiful breakfast/dessert from the Medoc region of France was born.  If there was ever a place and lifestyle we could aspire to live, Bordeaux would be it, bien sur.

This is super easy and fast and a great-tasting use for almond flour*--Gluten-Free, vegetarian and organic, if you choose to make it so.  Better than apple dumplings and definitely not going to kill any diet you might be on or thinking about.  Aren't we always?

Autumn Almond Apples

Preheat over to 350

1 TBSP honey
1/3 c almond flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk
1.5 TBSP butter
2 apples--choose flavorful types such as Jonagold, Fuji, Pink Lady
small handful of chopped pecans

Rinse and dry apples.  Cut the top 'hat' off of the apples and set aside.  Core apples which in my case require a corer, knife and spoon and managing to not cut off a finger.  Put apples in baking dish.  If they fall over, level the bottom of the apples with that sharp knife.

In a small bowl, mix almond flour with cinnamon, egg yolk, honey and 1 TBSP butter.  Fill cored apples with flour mixture, top with chopped pecans and apple hat.  Dot with remaining butter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until apples are tender.  Serve hot.

I should have made twice as many so be warned.  They are that good.

Bon pomme!

*A special note about where I buy
Almond Flour:  www.pureformulas.com is a wonderful website, free shipping and great prices on everything they sell, including coconut oil, vitamins and almond flour.

Cider Smoked Sausage

Grilled, smoked sausages simmered with pears in a rich sauce on a chilly fall night will put some much needed heat in your belly especially if you add some chipotle or jalapeno peppers--completely optional.   

Lately, doesn't there always seem to be something missing, wrong, disgusting or plain silly in some of the ideas today's so-called chefs/cooks come up with?  Everybody that gets their face on TV or in a magazine tries their best to complicate things.  Sometimes you don't have to add anchovies or macadamia nuts to come up with a great-tasting dish.  And to add to my media misery, if you live in the country, on a farm or just discovered organic vegetables, you're an expert with a 30-minute show on the Food Network.  Do we really need another cooking show?  On the ridiculous end of the gamut, you can watch 'chefs' running around in a grocery store like out-of-control kids racing grocery carts and then cooking in a makeshift kitchen next to a checkout lane.  Seriously?  That's almost worse than the ladies at the 'club' stores giving out free samples where I'm too embarrassed for all y'all standing in lines to taste a thimble-sized sample of Cheeze Whiz or chicken nuggets to get in line behind you.  Now if this bassakwards state ever passes laws to give out wine samples, I might push you out of the way, however.

Cook this, serve it up with a baked or mashed potato and whatever else you want and you'll have an easy, delicious hearty meal.  We splurge on the weekends and indulge ourselves with carby potatoes and hot bread. We're crazy like that.

Cider Smoked Sausage

optional--1 chopped chipotle or jalapeno pepper

2 pears of your choice, cored, sliced and chunked
3/4 c apple cider
1 TBSP stone ground mustard
12-16 oz smoked pork sausages or brats
2 TBSP butter

In a skillet, saute pears in 1 TBSP butter for 2-3 minutes, stir the mustard into the cider and pour over pears.  Add peppers if you desire the fire.  Cook about 10-15 minutes over high heat until sauce has reduced and thickened.

While pears are cooking, heat grill and cook sausages.  When sausages are done, add them to pears in skillet, cover and cook another 5 minutes.  Just before serving, stir in remaining butter.

You could also use pork chops in place of sausage.

Now, butter those potatoes, throw on a chunk of bread and stay warm.

Bon Petits Cochons!

Apple Cider Crumble

 

 

How y'all been doin'?  You're probably thinking I fell off the face of the earth.  No, I didn't (obviously), or stopped cooking or ran off to Paris never to be heard from again, mais non!  (we can wish).  I've just been busy as a cat in a birdcage these past few months.  With vacations, baby showers and Halloween, there's hardly been time to do anything even though I thought about a lot of stuff I should have been doing...just didn't do it.  

A trip to Florida with The Best Husband in the World just made us want to stay there and that alone is not conducive to doing anything except sitting by the pool with a tiny, little beverage to while away the days soaking up sun and listening to the water.
 
With the upcoming granddaughter's arrival in January, we threw one heckuva Halloween-themed baby shower and that alone took weeks of preparation.  We don't do 'small' around here so our efforts were much impressed by those in attendance.  I made a fondant baby mummy cake (and unless you make your own fondant, it is hideous and gross-tasting but so pleased with my first effort even though we threw it away later!)  Decided before hubby tossed those faded pink flamingos, I should find the artist in me and make Skelingos and if I do say so, the Salvador Dali transformation was worth the effort.

We have just put away numerous crates of scary decor just in time to start pulling out yet even more numerous crates of holiday decor--a truly big ordeal in this gorgeous, old house.  So, bear with me while I get back in the saddle and start messing in the kitchen and doing those domestic holiday things we do around here.

When the last days of fall are quickly disappearing, it's time to put away the charcoal grill, swimsuit cover-ups and pool floats so we can focus on apples.  Forget about pumpkins--they're just too much trouble for me to bother with so we'll just skip the pumpkin pie recipes and move right on to apples.  The ones that crowd the shelves every day of the year just don't have the flavor like a good, crisp, fall apple that's been shipped from the north and somehow not turned to mush by the time it arrives in buffalo country.   I'm sure there are folks out here who have their own apple trees, but we aren't one of them.  Who am I kidding?  We couldn't get a darned cucumber or cantaloupe to grow this summer so fruit trees are out of the question.   I'm still picking tomatoes, however midgetious and scrawny.  Well, there I go again...drifting onto a whole 'nother topic of angst and disappointment. 

Now, if you don't normally put apples on the top of your fruit list as a favorite, well, me either. However, this easy, mostly kinda sorta low(er) calorie breakfast or dessert dish must be tried--and when I say lower calorie, you decide if a small portion will sit on your rear end or if you can get by with a bowlful of indulgence.   When I started making this, I was just going to make applesauce with the four apples sitting on the counter.  But, it seemed only natural to cook them in apple cider with some spices and just a teeny smidgeon of sugar and Stevia (because I always feel less guilty about adding sugar if I cut it with a natural sweetener).  When these started to cook down, I simply could not smoosh them into applesauce and decided some oats, brown sugar and butter with chopped pecans would be so much better.  I was right, of course.  The cider gave a whole new flavor to the apples.  It's done in half an hour and I'm betting you have everything you need right in your cabinets.  Ok, so we don't usually have apple cider sitting around either but it's easy to get your hands on this time of year.

I do wish we had some hard cider...the kind the Europeans and English have with a little kick and the 'Surprise!...you fell off your stool' kind of cider.  However, this recipe is stone, sober so feel free to serve it to your kids, grandmothers and any other non-imbibing acquaintances.

APPLE CIDER CRUMBLE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

4-5 apples for 3-4 small servings--any type apple except Delicious--they are sooo boring
cut apples in quarters, remove seeds and cut into chunks
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp Stevia or whatever measurement your natural sweetener calls for (honey would also work)
1.5-2 c Apple Cider
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp apple pie spice mix (or more cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger if you have some)

Mix all in medium saucepan, cook over medium heat covered for about 10 minutes, then remove cover and continue cooking until cider has reduced about half and apples are fork tender.  Set aside.

Mix 1/2 c steel cut or old-fashioned oats with
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c melted butter
Add 3/4 c chopped pecans

Put apples in 9" square (or approximate) glass or metal pan with a small amount of juice.  Save the remaining cider for a hot, toddy cup of yum.
Top apples with oat mixture, place in oven and cook for 20-30 minutes until top browns.

I'm bettin' Johnny Appleseed never had apples like these--delish.

Bon appletit'

Bonita Beach, Naples FL

Better Than a NYC Bakery - Profiteroles (Cream Puffs)

Summer is a time for doing nothin' except what you have to.  Meals on the grill, swimming off the sweat and sipping nice, cool ones on the deck keep you hoping summer lasts forever. If life isn't just about perfect when you can eat sweet, buttery corn-on-the-cob, smell fresh-mowed grass and  hear the rumble of afternoon thunderstorms coming in, then I don't know what is.  Heading to the lake is nice but real paradise to me is lying on the beach, listening to the waves and dreaming of days gone by when all of us wore bikinis and cut-offs showing our midriffs with abandon.
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Now cooking steaks, grilling corn and making homemade ice cream are how the weekends go around here.  But occasionally, I just have to do something completely not summery and get back to the kitchen and cook. I do have compulsions incentives for some of the crazy things I do. 

Paris Patisserie

But first I have a confession.  I am an addict.  Not the Lindsey Lohan kind that needs to go to rehab or a 10-step program but I am an addict just the same.  I am addicted to all things sweet. There, I said it.  I love anything with chocolate, sugar and/or carb-packing, floury doughs. This is a bit of a problem because when you are a carb addict, you cannot eat even the tiniest bit or you will want the whole thing including platefuls of whatever puffy, gooey, nauseatingly sweet thing is in front of you or in the pantry or hidden deep within the frozen confines of the freezer so you will at least have to dig for it and wait for it to thaw. This also lends to heavy thighs, midwestern derrières, muffin tops and cover-ups at the pool.

If you are not a dessert lover, I truly dislike you. You are thin and probably extremly healthy. I hope you hide in your closet eating bags of Cheetos and drinking beer to make up for your healthy-whats-wrong-with-you lifestyle.  I predict someday, you will no longer be athletic and disciplined and you will have large thighs.  I will hope so.

Recently, the Best Husband in the World's brother and his wife (my family now, too), returned from an anniversary trip to Paris, France. I would have happily gone as their guide extraordinaire but had to take a raincheck.  You know, too busy picking up dog poo, running errands and such.  Upon their return and several photo postings eating macarons (not coconut macaroons we Americans think are French), airy, buttery cream puffs and much reget that not enough of them were eaten while in Paris (oh, we do feel so sorry for you), coupled with the fact that undoubtedly, not a single bakery in NYC or NJ would come close to how c'est magnifique the Paris macarons were, I just had to take on The Challenge for cream puffs.  Macarons will have to wait until the dead of winter when a blizzard is raging and I need a half day project to keep from pulling my hair out when stuck in 'les cabin avec fevre'.  I shall make Profiteroles--Cream Puffs--Pâte à Choux desserts during our upcoming reunion in Florida! Merci.

Now the only reason I know about Profiteroles (proh/feet/rohl) besides eating them in Paris, goes back to when my daughter was taking French classes in high school, and given an assignment to make cream-filled pâte à choux(s)(es)(ies)? Anyway, at that time in my life, the last thing I could imagine making assisting her with was some French dessert that looked impossibly difficult and time consuming and cramming Julia Child in between football practice, cheerleading and school projects was out of the question. Did I say this was a school project? Did I make them instead of daughter? Pretty sure she stirred the dough once or twice while making fun of my attempts at French. The amazing part was how great they turned out and how easy they were to make. So do not think for one minute you cannot make these. You can and should. I did not make them again until the recent Paris-trip-I-did-not-go-on Challenge.

I pulled out my trusty Mastering the Art of French Cooking and promptly simplified some techniques. First, if you have mastered the use of a pastry bag, feel free to use it. I don't like you anymore if you're that capable and you should be writing your own cooking blog. I find that every time I try to use one, I end up with more of the dough or icing on me and the kitchen than on the dessert. This makes for very happy dogs.  Fortunately, these can be made with two teaspoons and honestly, the results are so comparable, I doubt anyone will know you did not use a pastry bag and you'll thank me for it in the long run. Secondly, if you want to make a cream custard from Julia's extensive repertoire, see bottom of page, but again, only you have to know you used the shortcut filling. It is divine and easy. Tell anyone that asks it's a secret and none of their beeswax. Your guests will think you graduated from a cooking school when you serve these.  Would a sugar junky lie?

Profiteroles/Cream Puffs

 

Butter a cookie sheet, Preheat oven to 425


Pâte à Choux/dough:
1/2 c flour (or 4 oz) all purpose or better for bread
4 eggs for dough
1 egg beaten in small dish for glazing

Filling:
1- 3.4 oz Jello Instant French Vanilla Pudding mix
1/2 vanilla bean scraped or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c heavy whipping cream, 3/4 c milk

In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil:
3/4 c (or 1 pint water)
1 tsp sugar
3/4 stick (or 3 oz) butter cut in pieces
When butter has melted, remove from heat and dump flour into mixture stirring rapidly until blended with wooden spoon. Place back on heat for 1-2 minutes until mixture pulls away from sides of pan.

Again, remove from heat, make a well in center of dough and add one egg, beating until thoroughly mixed in. Continue with each egg--one at a time--until all eggs have been beaten into a smooth, glossy dough.





With two teaspoons, scoop dough and scrape into small mounds onto buttered cookie sheet about 2" apart.  Lightly dip pastry brush in beaten egg and gently press down onto top of dough but do not drip egg onto baking sheet or down sides of dough.

Place in preheated oven and bake approximately 20 minutes or until puffed and golden. Remove from oven and puncture sides with sharp knife to allow steam to escape and keep middles from getting soggy. Turn off oven and place back into oven with door open for about 10 minutes. Remove and place on cooling rack.


While cooling, make filling by dumping jello mix, cream, milk and vanilla in bowl.  (Or do the whole Julia thing and make her Creme Patisserie--see below*).  Whip until smooth and starting to thicken--about 2 minutes and place in freezer for another 10 minutes to speed thickening.  Remove filling from freezer, stir gently.  With sharp knife, slice half way through edge of puffs, gently lift top and fill with about 1 tsp filling.  Dust with powdered sugar and/or melt and drizzle gourmet chocolate on tops.  Serve immediately.

Bon appétit,  grosses  filles




Buy bigger pants and enjoy the last weeks of summer--wherever you are.







***********************************************************
Creme Patisserie (recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking) 1 cup granulated sugar, 5 egg yolks, 1/2 cup flour, 2 cups boiling milk, 1 tbsp. butter,
1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Gradually beat the sugar into the egg yolks and continue beating for 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture is pale yellow and forms "the ribbon". Beat in the flour. Beating the yolk mixture, gradually pour on the boiling milk in a thin stream of droplets.

Pour into saucepan and set over moderately high heat. Stir with a wire whip, reaching all over bottom of the pan. As sauce comes to a boil it will get lumpy, but will smooth out as you beat it. When boil is reached, beat over moderately low heat for 2 to 3 minutes to cook the flour. Be careful custard does not scorch in bottom of pan.
Remove from heat and beat in the butter, then vanilla extract. If the custard is not used immediately, clean it off the sides of the pan, and dot top of custard with softened butter to prevent a skin from forming over the surface. Creme Patisserie will keep for a week under refrigeration, or may be frozen.

Goodbye, Stella

Stella was a beauty with raven black hair and piercing golden green eyes.  She loved to joke and would often hide, wait and jump out of nowhere to startle you.  Her smiles were almost imperceptible but we knew when she was happy and we definitely knew when she was not.

We cannot know when life turns a corner and everything that was good and right turns ugly.  We are never ready to hear the words that tell you the worse is coming because you have to make decisions you never want to make.  Your baby is dying.  There is nothing left to do.  Your heart is pulled straight out of your chest, thrown on the ground and smashed to pieces.  Surely, it's a mistake.  Another test?  A misread x-ray?  Why can't you do something?!!  But nothing can be done.  You know you are saying goodbye to the one who gave you such joy and laughter.  You cannot imagine life without her.

The tears come hard as you stop hearing what the doctor tells you.  The world stops as you hold her in your arms one last time.  Her breath comes hard and then stops and a part of you leaves and it will never be the same again.

Tomorrow or the next days or weeks or months, your heart hurts a little less and you realize you aren't seeing her or hearing her when she isn't there.  Tomorrow or a hundred days from now, you will remember her and smile and the tears will stop.

 May you find peace in fields of flowers kissed with sunshine, Stella.

Carolina Tomato Pie (why the South lost the Civil War)

   

Lahzee!  There were so many battles in the Civil War (some even came all the way out to Oklahoma) that I can't even begin to name them.  But one thing I know for sure, y'all is the South didn't wave a white flag and kiss any Yankee butts boots. No siree! They were way too busy eating Tomato Pie and drinking Sweet Tea, swigging Kentucky bourbon or sipping on Mint Juleps and just completely forgot about what they were supposed to be doing. The North swooped in and kicked our hineys while we were sitting at the supper table.  Plain and simple. Ask any history teacher and they'll tell you a bunch of made-up stuff about being outnumbered or outsmarted by the wiley ways of the Northern Army but it really just came down to good, old Southern Comfort FOOD.  Why, if NYC had Tomato Pie and Sweet Tea instead of hot dogs and beer, things would have turned out a whole lot different, no doubt. The Mets might have been the Rangers, the Capital might have ended up in Atlanta, Georgia and everybody would talk real sweet and never say 'You's' when 'Y'all' is so much nicer sounding.

On my recent visit with The Best Husband in the World to see My Best Friend in the World (and travel buddy extraordinnaire) in North Carolina, certain things were made very clear to us from the gitgo. You eat a lot of good food often and you come home undoing your belt a couple of notches. You pretty much stay as full as a tick.  If you head out on a road trip, you start the day with Bojangles Iced Blueberry Biscuits, then a little later, you stop for a little snack and something to wash it down with--most likely a 'Coke' and that could be anything from an Orange Crush to a Dr. Pepper, or maybe coffee with cream and 'sugah', hon. After a light lunch of Carolina BBQ (slaw-topped), sweet potato fries generously cooked with sugar and cinnamon and a quick stop at the Reynolda Village chocolate store, Cassanova's Confections, for a pound or two of gourmet chocolates, you continue on your day trip to shop for antiques, go to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville or visit Costco (we don't have them here) or World Market or Trader Joes (we don't have them either). For dinner, you might have crab cakes or pulled pork or meatloaf and loaded mashed potatoes with homemade bread, butter and jam and a slice of cherry or peach pie for dessert and don't you dare forget to top it with some old-fashioned vanilla ice cream or you might as well not eat it.  Don't go lookin' for any Sushi cause that stuff's bait for the fishin' hole in these parts.


On our first day in nearby Winston-Salem, we went to a wonderful store in a little house chock full of garden doodads, antiques, jewelry and an old-fashioned-looking glass case holding the treats-of-the-day: Strawberry Cake and Tomato Pie (with wine and/or beer on the side). You can shop and sip and then step outside into the nursery that undoubtedly could fill the White House gardens with so many plants to choose from. After wandering around touching this and smelling that, we headed back into the Briar Patch house and decided we Must Have the Tomato Pie and with much restraint, we did Not buy the strawberry layered cake. We headed home and studied that Tomato Pie. The creator of said pie was kind enough to list most of the ingredients on her label and I snatched it right away and promptly forgot about it.  I can only say we wasted no time heating and eating the Tomato Pie and it was good...REAL GOOD.  The kind of good that makes you close your eyes and purr like a kitten in a sunny window.  We were so pleased you'd think we had good sense.  I knew as soon as I survived getting home through the tornadoes, I would need to make a Tomato Pie and share it with all y'all--each and every one of you.

As y'all know by now, I can never, ever leave anything alone much less not tell you about it.  I figure that way it might encourage you to be adventurous in your cooking and your family will forever be grateful for not having to eat the same old thing.  Although my Tomato Pie was not as pretty as the original because I was very short on heirloom tomatoes and a homemade crust, it turned out as good or better in my opinion than the original. Naturally, this recipe was an experiment as I had no idea what Tomato Pie was made of except tomatoes, cheese and a crust. I like to think by adding some eggs, garlic and a variety of cheese to the mystery dish, it made it even more yummy than the one I had in NC. Another great thing about it  is you can really change this up.  You could add ham or sausage, you could leave off the crust and have a low-carb frittata. You could add other veggies and change the types of cheese(s).  You could ask someone else to make it for you and I'd bet my dog, there'd be someone sweet enough to do it...if you live in the South.   

North Carolina Tomato Pie

1 prepared pastry crust (or make your own--see previous recipes for Peach Cobbler or Lemon Lust Tart)
5 medium tomatoes, sliced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 TBSP fresh chopped basil
1/4 c mayonnaise
1/4 c half-and-half
5 eggs
1/2 c shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 c shredded Provolone cheese
1/4 c shredded Pecorino Romano cheese
2 tsp salt

Pam your pie plate or dish, press dough in place and make edge with fork or fingers, prick all over with fork and place in 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown.  Remove from oven, turn heat down to 350 degrees and cool pastry shell.

While shell is cooling, place sliced tomatoes in colander, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 10-15 minutes to pull moisture from tomatoes.  Before placing tomatoes in pre-cooked pastry shell, rinse and pat dry with paper towels.   Place first layer in bottom of dish. Sprinkle with combined cheeses (except Pecorino Romano) and continue with another layer of tomatoes and cheese. Continue layering and when top layer of tomatoes is reached, spread mayonnaise on top.

Blend half-and-half with eggs, add basil and garlic and pour over tomato-cheese and top with Pecorino Romano and any leftover remaining cheddar cheese.  Place in oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean.

Be prepared to hear complements in Southern accents like, 'I do declare! I think that is the best-tastin' dish I've ever eaten in my life, hon!'   Your husband might be too busy eating to say much but he will love it, nonetheless.

So, raise the Rebel flag and here's to Southern Belles, slow evenings on the porch, swimming in the creek and the sweet smell of Lilacs.

Bon appétit

Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC