Gourd-geous

I'm back from my long weekend. I finished the Baltimore Half Marathon and ate a ton of great food I didn't have to cook. I picked up a peck of tart apples on our drive back through farm country, but unfortunately I also picked up a wicked bad cold. So I am eating canned soup and oatmeal. Thrilling.


No food, but here's a picture of a pretty fall basket I put together with some gourds I got from the bed and breakfast where we stayed in Gettysburg. I was going to go outside and get some colorful leaves to add, but then I realised that here in Northern VA the leaves are still green, and it is 80 degrees outside today. Those 100 miles or so really make a big difference.

Pumpkin Cake w/ Apple Streusel

My friend MK loves pumpkin. So I knew that I had to incorporate it into her birthday cake somehow. Luckily, I found this recipe in a cookbook I borrowed from the library recently, The New Whole Grains Cookbook. This has to be brief because I am about to run out the door on my way to Baltimore. I only made a few changes, namely I used three apples instead of four, I used gala apples instead of granny smith, I added pecans to the streusel topping, and instead of 2 tbs. of pumpkin spice I made my own spice mixture. So if you want the original recipe you can make those changes back.

The result was a pumpkiny, spicey, pretty heavy cake. You only need a very small slice. But it taste very much like fall, with the two main in-season baking ingredients both part of this cake.

Pumpkin Cake w/ Apple Streusel
Adapted from The New Whole Grains Cookbook

Ingredients:
3 tbs. + 1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 gala apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
5 tbs. granulated white sugar
1 tsp. + 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. all spice
1/8 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1/4 cup chopped pecans.

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 9" spring form pan (should be at least 3" deep).
-Dice 1/2 cup butter and let it come to room temperature.
-Melt 3 tbs. butter in saute pan, and saute the apples over medium high heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add 3 tbs. of white sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon to the apples. Toss and cook until the liquid is thick and bubbly.
-Combine flour, brown sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the diced butter and mix until the butter is broken up into little pieces. Measure 2/3 cup of the mixture into a small bowl for streusel.
-Add 2 tbs. white sugar, 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, all spice, cloves, and pecans to streusel topping.
-To the stand mixer bowl, add baking soda, pumpkin, sour cream, and eggs. Beat until smooth and pour into pan.
-Top the batter in the pan with the apples, then with the streusel. (I didn't end up using all of the streusel. I just added until the apples were covered.)
-Bake for 40-5o minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. (Apple and streusel on the skewer doesn't count.)
-Cool and serve.

Ready to Race w/ My "Power" Muffins

I am gearing up to run the Baltimore half marathon this Saturday. I'm not packed, and I haven't checked the weather yet, but I did bake these awesome "power" muffins to munch on. (For good luck, I baked them after a run while I was still in my running clothes. I don't necessarily recommend that if you plan on sharing these with others.)

And if you don't run, these muffins are a pretty healthy alternative to the store bought variety anyway. No butter, no shortening, minimal sugar, and whole wheat flour. Plus fruits and vegetables.

Edit: My friend pointed out that I didn't mention if they actually taste good. Well of course they taste good! I wouldn't post something if it tasted horrible. But for more detail: they aren't really sweet because of the minimal sugar, but they are yummy, especially with the added texture and sweetness of the fruit. They taste healthy, but not in a bad way, in a way that makes you feel like you just cheated the system because you ate something that tastes good and is good for you. They aren't as cakey crumbly as store bought muffins, but they are moist. And they leave you feeling full for a pretty long time.

I will begrudingly consume gu packets and sports drinks, and maybe even a straight salt packet, while I'm actually running Saturday, because muffins are a little too hard to eat on the run, but for some pre-race carbo-loading I'll be going with my muffins. I found the basic recipe on my favorite non-food related Web site, Runnersworld.com, in an article called Stud Muffins, and used it to create two different muffins: blueberry and carrot-craisin. I bought flax seeds with the intention of using them when I made these to make them even more healthy, but I totally forgot about them. Next time.



Power Muffins
Adapted from Runnersworld.com

Ingredients:
2 cups whole-grain flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup applesauce
For Blueberries Muffins, add:
1 cup frozen blueberries
2 tsp. vanilla

For Carrot-Craisin Muffins, add:
1 cup shredded carrot
3/4 cup chopped craisins

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a muffin pan with cooking spray or fill with paper muffin cups.
-Mix the first five dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the eggs and mix in the milk and applesauce in a separate bowl.
-Add wet ingredients to the dry mix. Stir until combined, then fold in fruit.
-Spoon into muffin tin. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until muffin tops are golden brown.


Aziza.

Top 5: All Time Favorite Comfort Foods

A little while back, Nic and I were talking about food, a fairly regular topic of conversation for the two of us, and we started making "Top 5 favorite foods in the whole world" lists. I think the conversation started when Nic was extolling the virtues of rice pudding. This soon branched out to "Top 5 favorite food combinations," "Top 5 places to eat in the world," Top 5 places to eat in D.C.," etc. I don't remember if I ever decided on my all-out favorites. That seems like a big commitment, but my favorite comfort foods was an easier list to put together. Just typing the list makes my very, very long day at the office seem not quite so bad.

(In no particular order.)
1. Poppop's meatball sandwiches on REAL rolls from the bakery
2. Chocolate-raspberry cake (see Final 12 Hours in D.C.)
3. Mashed potatoes w/ brown gravy
4. Perogies w/ sauteed onions and butter
5. Fried tomatoes w/ Italian bread

(I realized while typing this, I have made exactly zero of these since I started my blog. We'll have to remedy that. Maybe I can even get Poppop to do a guest post for the meatballs!)

Let me know your Top 5 in the comments--or if you can't think of the full list at the moment, one or two will do.

Tried and True: Beef Stew

I almost missed Tuesday's Tried and True! I got distracted baking a cake for my friend's birthday tomorrow and some "power" muffins for carbo-loading for my half marathon this weekend. (Guess what the next few posts will be?)

But here is one I've been holding on to for awhile. This is not a fast recipe, since it has to simmer for a long time, but it is really easy. My mom used to make something similar, but she used veal (eek!). I can't bring myself to use the veal, although it is a lot more tender.


Beef Stew
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. beef
3 tbs. olive oil
5 cloves minced garlic
2 tbs. flour
2 3/4 cups stout (2 bottles Guinness)
1 cup beef broth
6 small potatoes (3 large russet potatoes), cut into 1" cubes
3 shallots
2 carrots
1 6oz. tomato paste
1 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tbs. parsley
salt/pepper
2 cups green beans

Directions:
-Heat oil in large saucepan on medium-high heat. Brown beef on all sides. Add garlic and simmer for a few minutes. Add flour and mix in.
-Add stout and beef broth. Bring mixture to a simmer. Add potatoes, shallots, carrots, paste and seasoning. Reduce to low and simmer for 3 hours or until beef is very tender. Add green beans for the last 30 minutes.

Serve with crusty Italian bread or mashed potatoes.

Apple Cider Bread

In case you missed it, I started baking two weeks ago. Unfortunatly after one successful baked good, I got way too ambitious, and last week I tried to make gluten-free oatmeal chocolate banana mini muffins (sooo many ingredients!) for one of my co-workers who can't eat gluten. They weren't horrible, but they definitely need some "perfecting." They were not good enough to be posted because if anyone made them they would never make one of my recipes again. But the gluten-free baked goods you get in the store must be really horrible, because my co-worker thought these were great in comparison.

I decided I needed to back up and just make something from someone else's recipe. Then I saw this Chai-Spiced Bread on the Sweet Savory Southern blog, and it sounded too good not to try. It went really well with the dinner I made for friends Saturday. One small problem with the recipe. It says to wait two hours for the bread to cool before slicing. That bread was LONG gone before two hours went by.

Well if you can make bread that tastes like a chai latte you should be able to tweak the recipe and make bread that tastes like apple cider right? RIGHT. And it is moist, yummy, not too sweet, and absolutely addicting to eat. I think making the bread with whole wheat flour gives it more substance, and I like the taste better, but you can substitute all purpose flour if you prefer.



Apple Cider Bread
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup apple cider
1/3 cup skim milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. all spice
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
crushed pecans for topping

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9X5" loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray.
-Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs, cider, milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, all spice, cloves, nutmeg and salt until well combined. Spread in pan and sprinkle top with crushed pecans.
-Cook 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
-Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Then remove from pan.

Apples, apples, everywhere

For some reason I thought it was a good idea to buy a "tote bag" of apples last week. I eat one apple a day, max. And Nic is pretty uninterested in apples. Days later I still had a big bowl of apples, a festive center piece, but not going anywhere fast. It was already way too late to make apple pie. (I say that like I would have made a pie if it was earlier. I wouldn't.) But apple sauce, now that I can handle. It must be the easiest thing to make ever. And with apple season in full swing, at least here on the East coast, this is the perfect way to use up extra apples when you're tired of making your pies.


First you peel, core and dice the apples. For this batch I used 6 apples, but that doesn't make very much. Maybe 3-4 servings. So you should double or triple the recipe if you want a lot. (P.S. Taking pictures of hands is not easy! That or I have really un-photogenic hands.)

Then you put the apples in a sauce pan with 1/4 cup apple cider, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Simmer for 20 minutes covered. Mash the apples for a chunky sauce or throw them in the food processor for something smoother.

And you're done!

A Fall Feast

I had some friends over for dinner tonight, and I wanted to put together something simple but seasonal. Fall is my absolute favorite season, the weather is beautiful and the air just smells cleaner.

I made one of my favorite looks-more-impressive-than-it-is meals: Roasted chicken and vegetables. Then I threw in a side of smashed butternut squash and a mixed green salad with toasted pecans and craisins. The table was a riot of fall colors. And the best part is while the meal cooked, I had plenty of time to clean up before my friends got here.


I am also proud to say I made my first bread, garlic knots! I kneaded the dough and everything (Thursday night, well in advance). I was inspired by the yummy recipe Katie posted on her food blog last week. I pretty much followed her instructions, but I substituted half of the all purpose flour with whole wheat, trying to be healthy. They were pretty good, but I think the wheat flour sacrificed some of the fluffiness. But my conscience felt better.



And for dessert: hot apple cider=fall.

And a special thanks to Taylor, who took pictures for me while I scrambled to get everything on the table.

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables
The chicken was amazingly moist because I let it brine in the refrigerator for over 24 hours. Osmosis works wonders! And the fresh herbs and citrus were great, simple, fall flavors.

Ingredients:
For the chicken and pan sauce
3-5 lb. whole chicken
brine (4 tbs. salt+water, enough to cover chicken)
butter
salt/pepper
handful fresh thyme
handful fresh rosemary
1 orange, cut in quarters
1 cup red wine
1 cup chicken stock

For vegetables
12 small "confetti" (colorful) potatoes
3 carrots
4 scallions
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tbs. fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
1 tbs. fresh thyme
olive oil
salt/pepper

Directions:
-Brine chicken in a covered bowl or pot in the refrigerator for 4-24 hours.
-Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
-Rinse chicken, pat dry. Place in roasting pan. Brush skin with melted butter, put some under the skin as well. Season inside and outside of the bird with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavity with thyme and rosemary then with the orange pieces.
-Place on the middle rack of the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 375 and cook for another 45-60 minutes. The chicken is done when the internal temperature of the bird is 170 degrees.
-Remove from oven. Let the chicken rest for 10-15 minutes on a platter under foil before serving. That keeps all the juices in.
-Put the roasting pan on the stove top and skim off most of the fat. Add cup of wine. (This is a rough measurement, it depends on how much juice from the chicken is already in the pan. The sauce should look somewhat purple.) Simmer until the sauce is reduced by half. Add cup of stock. Simmer until reduced by half again.
-Once the chicken is in the oven, cut potatoes and carrots into big chunks. Keep them all relatively similar in size so they cook evenly. Remove the root end and the skin from the shallots. Toss potatoes, carrots and shallots in a bowl with enough olive oil to lightly coat them. Add salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and toss. (Use a generous amount of salt.)
-Put the vegetables in a baking dish in the oven about 45 minutes before you think the chicken will be done.

Coconut Salmon w/ Sweet & Sour Sauce

Here was my train of thought this morning when I was peering into my freezer trying to decide what to defrost for dinner: Thursday night. What am I doing? Run. Movie? No, VP debate is on. Palin. Alaska. Salmon. Double Musky Coconut Salmon! MMMMM.



I have only eaten at the Double Musky Inn in Girdwood, Alaska twice but it might be one of my top 5 favorite restaurants. But we'll have to wait and see when I sit down to write that list. The restaurant is billed as "Alaska's Mountain Cajun Cuisine." Some lady on the Food Network even said they have the best steak in America. I'm not much of a steak connoisseur, but I do know that their coconut salmon served with sweet and sour sauce is worth the trip to Alaska for a chance to eat.

Lucky for us in the lower 48, the owners of the Double Musky, Bob and Deanna Persons, published a cookbook, which I happened to pick up and you can get on their Web site. I don't own a lot of cookbooks--just counted, I have five and that's if you count a spice companion--but this one is great. I am not an expert on their menu, but it looks like they have recipes for pretty much everything they serve. (Funny side note, Sen. Ted Stevens wrote the foreword. He also seems to be a fan of the coconut salmon.)

I am pleased to report that the homemade coconut salmon is just as good as I remember the restaurant version being. Success! It was so good in fact that I didn't get any pretty pictures of it before we gobbled it all down. The recipe SPECIFICALLY says "it is best eaten right out of the fryer." We took that quite literally. Technically it is supposed to be an appetizer, so if you feel guilty eating fried fish with coconut all over it as your main course go ahead and serve it that way. I felt no such remorse. Although some green onion mashed potatoes did complement it nicely.

(Where did this salmon come from, you might be asking. I know, I told you in the Worst Kitchen Moments post that all my halibut and salmon went bad. But luckily Nic's dad had kept his own 100 lbs. of the fish in Texas, and he was kind enough to bring us some on his last trip to D.C.)



I halved both the beer batter and the sweet and sour sauce recipe. It was just the right amount of sauce, but it was still more than enough batter for the amount of salmon we made (1/2 fillet), which could serve 4-6 as an appetizer or 2-3 for dinner.

Coconut Salmon w/ Sweet & Sour Sauce
From The Double Musky Inn Cookbook
Ingredients:
For beer batter
1 cup beer
2 tbs. vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 tsp. salt
pinch pepper
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup water
2 3/4 cups flour

For sweet and sour sauce
1 1/2 cups grape jelly
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 tbs. horseradish

For coconut salmon
salmon
flour
beer batter
shredded sweetened coconut
oil for deep frying

Directions:
-Mix together beer, vegetable oil, egg, salt, pepper, water, and garlic powder. Add the flour little by little until it is the desired consistency. You can make this batter ahead of time and refrigerate it until you are ready to make the salmon.
-In a saucepan on low heat, warm up the jelly until it is smooth and all the clumps are gone. Then add mustard and horseradish. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Again, this can be made early and refrigerated.
-Remove the skin from the salmon. Cut the salmon into chunks about 1/2 inch thick. The other dimensions don't matter as much, but they are supposed to be finger dipping food.
-Coat the salmon pieces with flour, then beer batter, then coconut. Make sure you get plenty of coconut on there and pat it down so that it sticks.
-Heat 3 inches of oil in a deep pan to 375 degrees. (I throw in a little piece of bread and see if it sizzles in place of a nifty oil thermometer.) Fry the salmon until the coconut turns golden brown. This cooks pretty fast so keep an eye on it!
-Drain on paper towels. Eat immediately.

I'm not sure if they don't taste as good once they cool. I didn't wait to find out.

Top 5: Worst Kitchen Moments

Anyone who has read High Fidelity, or seen the movie, might get the reference in this post's title. In the story, these three guys who work at a record shop are constantly making Top 5 lists. There Top 5's are more like, "top 5 musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s," but you get the idea.

They liked to talk about music, I like to talk about food.

My Top 5 Worst Kitchen Moments
(In no particular order.)
1. Watching a roommate boil ground beef.
2. Spilling an entire pan of banana bread into the oven.
3. Loosing my eyelashes and a significant chunk of the front of my hair when a ball of flaming gas exploded from my oven in Egypt.
4. Getting stuck in an elevator with a turkey brining in a (clean) trash can.
5. Catching 100 lbs. of Alaskan halibut and salmon, then having it rot when the chest freezer broke three weeks after we bought it.

Feel free to share yours in the comment section. I would like to be outdone.