eat make read

Oh boy! So many good reads this month! I went a little nutty at the magazine shop and now I’ve got a day’s worth of reading (and probably drooling too). My surprise favorite is Food & Wine… I mean, David Chang’s take on Thanksgiving leftovers? Awesome! Five-Spice Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Walnut Toffee, man that sounds so good!! But really, I’m loving it all.

I thought it would be appropriate to make spiked apple cider on this last Friday of October (!!). It’s the perfect fall cocktail, full of warmth from both the warm cider and the bourbon and of course a little cinnamon sugar pizazz around the rim.

Cheers to you! Have a fantastic weekend!

spiked apple cider
makes 2 cocktails

1 cup apple cider
2 cinnamon sticks
4 oz bourbon
1 Tablespoon cinnamon sugar

1
Warm the cider on the stovetop with the cinnamon sticks until it’s reduced to about half a cup. This should take about 15 minutes over low heat.
2
Pour the cinnamon sugar on a plate. Just barely dip the rim of your glasses in the cider, then dip it in the sugar.
3
Add the 2 oz bourbon to each glass and top with the cider.
4
Garnish each glass with a cinnamon stick and enjoy!

When it comes to sides for the Thanksgiving dinner table, there can never be too many. Of course I always want the staples like sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, the list could go on, but I also like to add in a few surprises to the mix. That’s where these lovely thyme-roasted apples and onions would come in to play. They’re full of flavor and are the perfect dish for a big old mash up. You know, a little turkey, a little potato, a little onion and apple all in one forkful.

This recipe immediately caught my eye because it uses an apple cider reduction (be still my heart!). The reduction coats the apples and onions and it, along with the thyme, infuse into them both. It actually took a bit longer than I anticipated due to the cider reduction and fairly long roasting time.

When I couldn’t take it any longer I pulled the apples and onions out of the oven and took a nice big whiff. The aroma is intense and awesome. The onions begin to get all nice and caramelized while the thyme brings a lovely savory note to the whole shebang. The thing is this side dish just screams for a partner, so instead of the turkey and potatoes, I spooned it over some couscous and put a little merguez sausage over top. Pretty awesome, if I do say myself and it’s just as good the next day. And that’s the true sign of a good Thanksgiving dish, whether it gets better with time. I’m happy to say this passed the test.

thyme-roasted apples + onions
from November 2009 Bon Appetit
I divided this in half and it worked well. I also only roasted it for about half the suggested time, and it still turned out tasty.

4 cups apple cider
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt plus additional for sprinkling
6 7-to 8-ounce onions, halved through root end, each half cut into 6 wedges
6 teaspoons coarsely chopped fresh thyme, divided
6 Braeburn (or Fuji) apples (about 2 3/4 pounds total), peeled, halved, cored, each half cut into 4 wedges

1
Boil cider in large saucepan until reduced to 2/3 cup, about 28 minutes.
2
Whisk in butter. Season glaze with 1 teaspoon coarse salt.
DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover; chill. Rewarm; whisk before using.
3
Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F.
4
Butter 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Toss onions in large bowl with 2 teaspoons thyme and 3 tablespoons glaze. Arrange in single layer on 1 sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast onions on upper oven rack 10 minutes.
5
In the meantime, toss apples in same bowl with 2 teaspoons thyme and 3 tablespoons glaze. Arrange in single layer on second sheet. Sprinkle apples with coarse salt and pepper. Place the apples on the bottom rack and roast both the apples and onions for 20 minutes.
6
Remove both sheets from oven. Drizzle remaining glaze evenly over onions and apples. Reverse position of sheets. Roast 20 minutes longer.
7
Increase oven temperature to 475°F. Roast onions and apples until tender and slightly caramelized, watching closely to prevent burning, about 10 minutes longer.
8
Transfer onions and apples to large bowl. Season with coarse salt and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons thyme.

Sometimes a good old crisp just hits the spot. They’re so simple and versatile and just plain tasty. I decided to make this one after I picked up some lovely little seckel pears at the market this weekend and needed something to do with them. I looked for inspiration in one of my favorite cookbooks, Simply Organic and quickly found this one for fall fruit with the addition of cranberries for tartness and color. Mmmmm, sounds good to me.

After peeling and slicing the fruit, I simply placed it in the baking dish and tossed it with some sugar. The topping is made from a mixture of flour, oatmeal and butter with a bit of cinnamon and cloves… the perfect fall combination. I added a little butter over the fruit, then the oatmeal mixture over top. To be honest, I think there was a little too much of the oatmeal mixture, it was really piled on. I popped it in the hot oven and let it be.

When I pulled it out of the oven my suspicions of too much crumble were right… there was just a bit too much dry flour, so I added a bit more butter over top to just give it a little crispness.

I served up two slices and we dug right in. I have to admit, I wasn’t quite sure how the cranberries would work but man are they the perfect fruit to combine with the apple and pear. They bring a lovely tartness and bright red color that contrasts the warm, fall flavor of the apples and pears. The oatmeal mixture over top actually isn’t as overwhelming as I thought it might be because there’s enough for every bite. I still think I’d reduce it though. The oatmeal is an easy fix for a dessert that is sure to be a fall favorite.

pear, apple + cranberry crisp
adapted from simply organic
I’ve adjusted the oatmeal mixture so that it will be a better ratio.

topping
……………………………………………
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened and cut into pieces

fruit mixture
……………………………………………
2-3 fuji apples, peeled and cut into thin wedges
6 seckel pears or 4 larger pears, peeled and cut into thin wedges
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 9×9 inch baking dish.

1
To make the topping, combine the flour, oats, cinnamon and cloves in a medium bowl.
2
Using a pastry blender or your hands, work the butter into the mixture until the pieces are pea-sized. Set aside.
3
To make the fruit mixture, I just combined the apples, pears, cranberries and sugar right in the baking dish, because I’m a little lazy and I don’t like to do dishes.
4
Cut the butter into small pieces and sprinkle evenly over the fruit mixture.
5
Crumble the oat topping over the fruit.
6
Bake for 40 minutes or until the fruit is soft and the topping lightly browned.

Polenta been tempting me for a while now. I’ll order it in a restaurant and say, “wow, i’ve really got to make this at home”. Then I’ll come home and attempt to make it and disaster will follow. There’s something about that beautiful yellow powder that just does not agree with me. But finally, after several attempts I was finally successful in my quest to make polenta. Not only did it not fall apart and look like a sad lump, but it was pretty dang tasty too.

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Yesterday we made homemade butter and buttermilk, the perfect ingredients to make tasty buttermilk biscuits. They are light, plump and crumbly on the inside, golden and crispy on the outside and full of flavor. Basically, you’re guests are going to love you.

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Last year I totally flaked on Thanksgiving recipes for eatmakeread, so this year I thought I’d get a major head start and begin the sharing in October. After all, sharing with your favorite people is what Thanksgiving is all about, right?

I’m starting the whole shebang out with homemade butter and buttermilk, a tradition that my cousin Katie always made sure we had at Grandma CB’s table. Katie went the old-fashioned route and shook the butter by hand in a jar, but I’m going to cheat a bit by using the food processor. The food processor makes the whole process ridiculously easy and with only one ingredient to make two Thanksgiving essentials, you’re going to wonder why you haven’t tried this sooner.

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I’ve started to notice something about myself since I began this blog. I get hooked on something and just run with it, particularly a single ingredient. Often it’s something that I never would have thought I’d be super into. Apples are this years seasonal addiction. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I’ve never quite enjoyed their splendor like I have this year, especially apple cider. Oh how I love apple cider. As I was sipping away at yet another mugful, I had a bright idea to make apple cider cookies because I love apple cider and I love cookies, so it’s got to be good, right?

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I’ve always felt like there are some things that, while they could be made at home, should just be purchased at the store. Pasta is one of those things. I came to this conclusion a few years ago after a few pasta making experiences that took loads of time, caused a few gray hairs and left me hanging pasta from any surface I could find. For some reason, I started to get an itch to try my hand at again. I figured I’d just make a small batch of lasagna noodles (the easiest to make) and since I had a pasta machine it would be easier that I remember. Turns out my pasta machine did not make the move to New York with us (5 years ago), but the good news is even without it my pasta was a success.

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I’ve got big news to share about my little labor of love, Remedy Quarterly, a magazine filled with stories about food and recipes for feeling good. Yesterday we took a major step into making it a reality and posted Remedy on kickstarter. If you’re unfamiliar with kickstarter, it’s a site where you can post a project that needs funding and people can donate any amount of money to help you out, but if you don’t reach your goal in the specified time, you don’t get any of the money. If you’d like to help kickstart Remedy, we’ve got all sorts of goodies that you’ll get when you donate, like a discounted copy of the magazine, a super cute tote bag, hand-printed recipe cards and a whole lot more **sidenote, i totally feel like an npr dj right now**.

In addition to the whole kickstarter shebang, we also launched the accompanying website, www.rememdyquarterly.com, where you can submit your own remedies, browse our blog, and check in on the magazine’s progress.

So, cheers! To making an idea a reality, good food and a good weekend ahead of us!