Homemade Apple Fritters

Every year since I can remember, I've gone to the Apple Festival. People don't go there for the rides or the crafts. They go for the apple fritters. I'm sure I've spent hours waiting for these things, which I honestly don't mind at all since they are after all, the best apple fritters. Ever. These people got it down to a science, and a really well organized assembly line.  The result is a perfectly round, warm, sugar coated, toasty-on-the-outside, soft and moist on the inside, melt-in-your-mouth, ball of diced apple and cinnamony sweet dough.



Yep. It's definitely worth waiting for.  One year, my husband and I got THE last batch of fritters, after waiting hours in line of course. We walked away clutching our white, greased stained paper bags in our arms like it was a million dollars, then devoured half of them in the way back to the car. You really should eat these right away. If not, they lose their nice crispy outside.

This year, I missed it. Sigh. But, I did go apple picking. And was having guests over for dinner. Though lucky for me, I didn't actually have to make dinner. My sister, who went to culinary school, came over on an extremely rare occasion and cooked us an amazing dinner that I cannot do justice by describing with words. She grills a mean steak. So I knew I'd have plenty of time to make fritters and guests to eat them.

Filet with Gorganzola Cream Sauce and Sauteed Portobello Mushrooms served with a Side of Fingerling Potatoes and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Apple Fritters                              

adapted from Seemingly Greek
Makes about a dozen

• 1 heaping cup of flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• oil for frying (I use canola)
• 3 apples, diced should come out to about a cup
• cinnamon and sugar mixture for coating
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine your dry ingredients, minus the extra cinnamon/sugar. Fold in your apples. This tends to help them stay in place.

Combine your milk, egg and vanilla. Carefully add to your flour/apple mixture.

In a medium sized pot over medium heat, pour enough oil so it come up about 3 inches. Heat up to 365 degrees.  If you don't have a thermometer to gauge this, just test it out with a tiny amount of batter. When it's hot enough, it will sizzle instantly.

When the oil is ready, use a mini cookie dough scoop to plop the batter into the oil. If you don't have one, a tablespoon should work good too.

Be careful not to over fill your oil so the fritters have enough room to cook.  They may need to be "flipped" while they fry using a slotted spoon.

Once they are nicely golden brown, transfer them to a paper towel lined plate to absorbs any excess grease.

Right away roll them in your cinnamon and sugar mixture. You can probably use a big ziploc bag for this too or a deep baking dish.

Serve warm or with a piece of chocolate cheesecake after an amazingly delicious meal your sister just cooked. I mean that's what I did....

 

No need to wait in line anymore.

You're Welcome.

Buttery Butternut Bisque...A Perfect Taste of Fall

It's taken me a while to get into this whole fall thing, even though ironically enough, it's my most favorite time of year. Butternut squash screams autumn to me. I bought one, not gonna lie, a few weeks ago. I was planning on making bisque with it but just wasn't quite ready. The temperature is now 54 degrees and the leaves are falling. It's time to cook this squash.

I love it roasted with some butter and brown sugar. But I love it even more if I can eat it with a spoon. With heavy cream. And nutmeg. On the couch, in front of the fire. Butternut squash bisque is super easy to make and will definitely put you in the mood...for fall.

Butternut Squash Bisque
Makes a huge pot full

• One large butternut squash
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 1/2 bag of carrots, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 large vidalia onion, diced
• 7-8 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• olive oil
• 2 tsp butter
• 3 tbs brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cut your squash in half. Place skin side down on a tray with a little drizzle of olive oil and roast in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until a knife goes in easy.  I usually roast this a day ahead of time.

Once it's done and completely cooled, peel the squash and chop it into chunks.

In a large pot, over medium heat drizzle some olive oil and about a 2 tsp of butter.

Throw in the onion, celery and carrots. Saute for about 10 minutes or until the onion is translucent.

Pour in the chicken stock. Dump in the butternut squash. Turn up the heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Let cook for about 10 minutes, then turn down heat to medium.

Using an immersion blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work too.

Once everything is smooth, add your heavy cream, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover and let simmer for another 15 minutes.

 

 The result is a velvety, smooth, perfectly balanced bisque. 

Serve with a little drizzle of cream and fresh ground cinnamon.

 

You're Welcome.

A Perfect Rainy Day Dinner

Summer has ended...sigh...but I still have tons of tomatoes from my garden and pureed in my freezer. I usually make sauce with them. But even Italians can get sick of homemade sauce so I needed to change it up a bit.

Of course, I ended up making a whole big pot of sauce. We usually make pizza or chicken parm when there's fresh sauce. Been there, done that way too many times lately.  I was in need of something new. I searched through my cabinets and found myself in the liquor cabinet staring at a huuuuge bottle of vodka. Like ginormous. Someone gave it to us a a gift last year...it was that big that it was still unfinished. Bloody Mary's are my favorite so I  always have vodka on hand.

There it was...vodka sauce. What goes better together than tomato and vodka?! It would not come from a jar or from a restaurant. Super easy to make with an already homemade batch of fabulous sauce.

I searched lots of recipes as I usually do the first time I make something. Most of them use crushed tomatoes instead of sauce. Finally found a few, one by my arch nemesis Giada DeLaurentis, which I will admit I was inspired by. She's just a bit too over the top for me, with her forced Italian accent and unnecessarily elaborate cooking methods. She's way too skinny to seriously eat her own food! Anyways, I created my own recipe...

Vodka Sauce

Makes 4 servings

• 3-4 cups of homemade sauce...or one jar of your favorite sauce would do 
• 3/4 cup of vodka
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream, room temp
• 5 slices cooked bacon
• 1/3 cup of grated cheese..I used Romano
• Red pepper flakes
• Garlic Powder
• One pound of pasta

In a saucepan over medium low heat, combine your sauce and vodka. Simmer for about 25 minutes in order to cook all the alcohol out. Stir frequently.

Meanwhile, cook your bacon. Chop into coarse pieces.

Taste the sauce after 25 minutes to make sure it doesn't taste too strongly of vodka...unless you wanna get a bit of a buzz from your dinner.

Slowly add your cream and whisk thoroughly.  Add the grated cheese, garlic powder and red pepper flakes.

Using an immersion blender, puree the sauce til smooth. Lower the heat and simmer for another 10 minutes.

The sauce should be somewhat thick and creamy. And pink!  Then add your bacon.

Serve over your favorite pasta! 

Perfect rainy day meal.

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Organize and Display Your Pride and Joy

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have tons of funky jewelry. From long beads, to second hand store finds, to sterling silver...I have a slight obsession with necklaces. And earrings. And rings. And bracelets.

I've come to amass so much it's been really hard keeping it organized. Kind of like a closet. If you cant see everything, you don't know what you have. I'd spend forever digging through my jewelry and get so excited to find something I bought a million years ago and haven't worn since because it got lost amongst all the beads and pendants.

There's tons of jewelry organizers. I feel like I've tried them all. I've got a super cool genuine Japanese musical jewelry box, but I save that for the good stuff. I bought one of those tree thingys but my necklaces are sooooo long and thick, I have to wrap them around a million times then they get tangled on the tree.  I ended up with a high tangled mess anyways...

                                                   Before                                                       After

After looking through hundreds of pins on pinterest, I decided to come up with my own idea. It's super easy, takes about ten minutes and cost about ten bucks!

Over the summer, I got into making painted signs using old pieces of wood I found. I had a bunch of skinny scraps that were nicely weathered. I went to a Habitat Restore place right around the corner and found some cool old knobs. I'm sure you can find some at flea markets.

I played around with the placement of them and drilled some holes, evenly spaced apart. I didn't measure. I'm a pro at eyeballing things.

I screwed in the knobs, used a piece of wire strung around the back of the screws and I was done!

 

 I also found little hooks that act just like push pins.

It hangs proudly in my bathroom and looks pretty cool!

 

I ended up making two of these, just because I needed more room!

In addition to my obsession with necklaces, I love earrings. I did finally find the cutest little birdcage earring holder for a dollar at a flea market but still struggled with my studs. I kept them in a small bowl.  Again not being able to find a match. Ever.

So I came up with another easy inexpensive idea to hold my lil studs....

Cork boards! I found a pack of 4 skinny ones at Jo Ann Fabrics for about $4. Since my studs were a bit longer than the cork was thick, I just doubled it up. It came with its own double sided sticky foam to! All I had to do was push my earring through, peel off the sticky foam and hang it! Now I don't have to spend forever trying to find a matching pair. And I can see them all at once.

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A Berry Delicious Pie

I forgot how much I love pie. The only time I eat and sometimes even make it is at which happens to be my all time favorite holiday. I also forgot how much I love making pies. Most people probably buy the pre made frozen pie crust but don't realize how much better a homemade one is. Yes, it can be a bit of a pain in the ass and is an extra step but how impressive is it to be able to present a perfectly crimped pie crust that tastes even better than it looks.
Thanksgiving...

I got my pie baking skills...sorry in advance mom...from cooking class in high school. My teacher was a bit of a Martha Stewart meets Hitler.  We had to do over our crusts til we got it right. Luckily it didn't take me too long and I became pretty good at it...until I met my husband. He's a bit of a perfectionist and he would definitely beat out my pie primping skills, after a few tedious hours of getting it just right. :)

So I had all these berries...some were fresh, some were frozen. I was supposed to make jelly but just never got around to it, plus my Noni keeps giving me hers so why make my own!  I've been thinking about pie since the summer. Everyday I would pass a Sixpence Pie Company and never got the chance to go in. Got some good berries from the grocery store on sale, so those mixed with the ones I froze a few weeks earlier will be my quadruple berry pie...strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. I just love berries, especially since I'm allergic to mostly every other fruit that has skin.

This is a super easy recipe so taking the extra step to make the pie crust is definitely doable. And it only takes 4 ingredients and a little bit of elbow grease.

Four Berry Pie

Makes one 9 inch lattice top pie

Pie crust:

• 2 1/3 cups all purpose unbleached flour

• 1 1/2 sticks of butter, salted

• 2 tsp sugar

• 8-10 teaspoons ice water 

Combine your flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut up your sticks of butter into smaller chunks. They should be almost right out of the fridge, not softened!


Using a pastry cutter, "cut" your butter into the flour until it is broken down into pea sized bits. The mixture should be crumbly. If you don't have a pastry cutter, you can also use a fork or even your food processor. I like to get my hands directly in the dough so I can feel how big the chunks of butter are...not too big, not too small. This is the most important part in making a light and flaky pie crust!

When you have your desired consistency, slowly add a few teaspoons of water at a time and incorporate into your flour. As soon as the dough begins to stick together, dump it out on a large wooden board and form your balls!

I separated mine into two, one larger for the crust and one smaller for the lattice top. Secure in saran wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes while you prep the filling.


Filling:

• 5 cups berries...I think I used about 2 cups of strawberries, 1 1/2 cups blueberries and maybe 3/4 cup each of raspberries and blackberries. I'm terrible with measuring but amazing when it comes to "eyeing it."
• 1/2 cup flour... I altered this from the original recipe in my trusty ole Betty Crocker cookbook since I used more strawberries. They have a bit more moisture so I increased the flour.
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Sprinkle of cinnamon
• Juice of half a lemon

Now throw all your ingredients in a bowl and combine. That's it!  Back to the pie dough...

Assembly:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

When you're ready to put your pie together, place your dough on a lightly floured wooden board. Flour up your rolling pin. Roll out your dough, constantly rotating it to get a nice size circle. Your dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Use your pie dish to help figure out if the circle is big enough.

 To transfer your dough to the pie dish, roll it up half way around your rolling pin. Carefully hover over your dish and unroll it. Although I love ceramic dishes since they're so pretty, I use a glass one because you can see through the bottom and check how done your pie is.

Gently push the edges into the bottom of the pie dish. Trim off excess leaving about 1/2 inch hanging over the edge of the dish. Save the scraps for later!

Fold and tuck it underneath to give it smooth edge. Then crimp away! One thumb should be on the inside part of the crust and your opposing thumb and pointer finger should be on the outside.  Gently push them towards each other making an indent in the dough, all the way around the pie. I tend to do it at a little bit of angle.

Use a fork to poke some holes in the bottom of your crust. This will allow any steam to escape and result in a cooked bottom instead of a soggy one.

Dump your filling in the crust and spread around evenly.

Roll out your second pie crust for the lattice top. I have a neat little cutter I use to make a nice edge but a pizza cutter works too! I cut mine about 1 inch thick.

Lay about 4 or 5 of them across the top of your pie. You want to weave the other ones in the opposite direction, alternating over/under.

Trim off the excess and fold and tuck the edges into the crust the best you can.

To get a nice golden top, you can brush it with milk or an egg wash. Sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon and sugar on top if you'd like and pop it in the oven with a pan underneath to catch drippings.

I leave the crust uncovered for the first twenty minutes, then wrap it in foil so it doesn't burn. I peak on it constantly and remove the foil towards the end of baking. I also bumped up the temp to 400 degrees after about 40 minutes. Baking times will vary but that's why it helps to have a glass bottom dish.  You want a light golden top.

Oh and those scraps from the pie crust! Sprinkle with some cinnamon and sugar and throw on a cookie sheet and bake too! Put them on ice cream or just eat as they are!

The only thing this pie is missing is whipped cream...

While it's baking, whip up some fresh whipped cream. I use my hand held immersion blender or my kitchen aid...about a cup of heavy cream and a cup or so of powdered sugar with a squirt of vanilla.

You're Welcome.

The Perfect Pizza

I can't tell you how many times I cooked pizza before I finally found the best way to make it...on the grill.  We don't make it any other way. The grill is the only way and it comes out amazing and done in less than ten minutes. I do have to warn you that it is not easy and might take a few tries to get it down perfectly. We've been grilling pizza for a few years now but still screw it up every once in a while...mostly due to my lack of patience for waiting for the dough to rise. 
 

I usually start with making my own dough. My husband scolded me one time we messed up the pizza blaming it one the store bought dough.  Homemade dough just tastes better and has a little bit more elasticity...that is if you let it rise completely.

Pizza Dough Recipe 

Makes 1 large pizza about 14" or two 8" pizzas

Combine about 2 1/2 cups of flour, a tablespoon of sugar, sprinkle of salt and a teaspoon of garlic powder in a bowl. I say approximate measurements especially with the flour because you'll be using more when you go to stretch it out.

**Super important next step... get one cup of water to a temperature of 120 degrees.  You definitely need a thermometer for this. If it's too hot the yeast will die and result in your dough not rising at all. If it's not hot enough, the yeast won't activate and make your dough nice and stretchy either.  Once you have the perfect temp, dump in your yeast and whisk until it's dissolved.

I drizzle a tablespoon or two of oil olive into the yeast water. Pour that into your flour mixture and dig in. Hands are the best tools for this. When everything is incorporated, dump your dough out and knead for at least 8 minutes...another super important step! I'm so used to baking where you combine ingredients until they are just mixed so for a while I wasn't kneading enough. My dough would come out flat, dense and chewy.

Not the waiting begins. Even if you buy dough at the store, you still have to wait.  I make my dough first thing in the morning and leave it out on the counter, oiled up, always tightly covered and under a towel all day. Or if it's a sunny day, I put it outside.  It should take a few hours. The perfect temperature for dough to rise is 82 degrees.  The dough should just about double in size by the time it's ready.

Here's a good link to describe and show how to properly stretch your dough...

Some tips for stretching dough:

• Don't play with it too much. If you overwork your dough, it'll pretty much get tired and not wanna work anymore
• If you're using a wooden board, place a moist towel underneath it so it doesn't slide all around.
• Use enough flour so it's not sticky but not too much so it dries it out.
• Try to make it even thickness, about 1/2 inch.
• Small holes can be fixed with a little pinching

Fire up the grill...

While you wait for your grill to get up to 450, get all your ingredients in order...mise en place.  This is another really important part because once you get the dough on the grill, you're not gonna have time to walk away and grab everything.

We made two pizzas. It's a little easier to flip a small one then one really big one...and we both like different toppings.   Mine had homemade sauce, which I usually keep on hand in the freezer, homemade pesto made with fresh basil from my garden, plum tomatoes and red onion, both from the garden too! My husband's pizza had chicken, cherry peppers and jalapeno peppers from the garden.

Once you've got everything in place, preferably next to your grill, and the grill is hot and ready, oil up your dough with some olive oil. This is when my husband takes over cooking. The dough has to be totally brushed with oil so there is no chance of it sticking. If you add an excessive amount of oil, it will taste like fried dough, but has the possibility of catching on fire... I'd chance it! We put our dough on a big pizza board with a handle so its really easy to flip and move around. Makes my husband feel like a pro. You can use a wooden cutting board though.  Before you flip your pizza dough onto the grill, make sure it's not stuck to the surface by sliding it around. One of the first times we made grilled pizza, it stuck and folded up on the grill. It was impossible to spread out again. We made the best of it and just ended up with bite size pieces we dipped in sauce and threw toppings on.

When you have successfully flipped it onto the grill, close it for about three minutes. To test if it's done, peek under the dough to look for nice grill marks. It should lift off pretty easily. If it's about done, start brushing it with oil again for the next side to cook.  *Some people choose not to flip their dough and most likely cook it on a lower temp. We've tried that but prefer both sides cooked so you're not left with any raw dough.

  

As soon as you flip your pizza, start adding your toppings.  We usually end with the cheese so it sandwiches the toppings inside. Close up the grill and let it cook another four or five minutes until the cheese is melted. If you find that your pizza is done but the cheese hasn't melted yet, you can throw it under the broiler in your oven for a few minutes.

Let the pizza sit for a few minutes...if you can wait that long...before you cut it. 

 

It's seriously the best pizza you will ever make and maybe even eat.

 

Perfect for summer.  And for your husband to make.

You're Welcome :)

Saved by the Crock Pot

Life has been a little crazy lately between job transitions and a huge project we have going on in our backyard! It's been too long since I've cooked a hearty meal.  Fortunately, it rained the other night, finally, and the market down the street had a huge meat sale so I bought some short ribs.

I've never cooked these before and am usually not a big fan of pork. But anything "rib" related calls out to me. They were on sale for $5.99 a pound an come in chunks with the bone. Sometimes I don't like buying meat like this because I really have no idea how much it will cost. 4 pieces which looked like about 2 servings ended up costing way more than I would have ever spent on meat....almost $15! For one meal, I would rather not spend that much but what the hell, we hadn't eaten something really good in way too long.

From going out to eat a lots of places, I know that short ribs are often "braised." This means combining high and low temperatures to cook a piece of meat. The meat is seared on all sides first then cooked at a lower temp in a liquid for tenderness and moistness. As I usually do when it comes to cooking something new, I look up lots of different recipes. Some called for using Dutch ovens, which I do not own, so I figured the best alternative would be the good ol' crock pot! And of course I didn't have all the ingredients some of the recipes "required" so I improvised and made do with what I had.


Braised Short Ribs
Serves 2

2 lbs short ribs (about 4 pieces)
1 cup red wine I used a Cabernet
1 cup chicken stock  beef would be ideal
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup mushroom, chopped
1/4 cup carrots, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, whole
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs flour
1 tsp fresh chives
2 tsp scallions, diced
1 tsp fresh parsley
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
olive oil

In a large skillet, over medium heat, drizzle about 2 tbs of olive oil. Season short ribs on each side with salt and pepper. Sear short ribs for about 5 minutes on each side then transfer to separate plate.

In the juices leftover, saute the celery, carrots and mushrooms.  Add the tomato paste and flour. Stir well. Add the red wine and bring to a simmer. Add your fresh herbs then the short ribs back to the pan. Simmer for about ten more minutes.

Meanwhile, pour your stock in your crock pot on high heat. Add the whole garlic cloves.

Add all the contents of your skillet to the crock pot. Cover and cook on high heat for one hour then reduce to low heat and cook for another 1 1/2 hours.


Serve over mashed potatoes... and with some bread for soaking up all the incredibly delicious broth left behind in the crock pot. Mmmmmmm, it's amazing!

If possible, use fresh herbs whenever possible. All the original recipes called for onions of which I was out of. But, I did have fresh parsley, chives and red onions growing in my garden. The scallions came from the tops of the onions that were not quite ready to be picked.


While dinner was in the crock pot, I shoveled dirt and put up some fencing....multi-tasking only a woman can do.



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