Sweater Weather Musings

Every autumn, I fall in love with the Northeast all over again. 

The dwindling light of the afternoon casting shadows, and highlighting textures that normally go unnoticed. The crispness of the air, the way it smells of earth, and sleep, and smoke. The languid sounds of summer give way to the rush of people hustling, heads down to their destinations. No longer having the luxury of late days filled with sunshine, they are propelled by chill to accelerate. Autumn adds a solemnity to the world. Much like life, it is that added gravitas that allows the colors to pop in brighter contrast to the greying world around it. 

Would beauty be appreciated without ugliness? Would pain be tolerable without joy? Is it not the pervasive presence of opposites that make life so rich? Maybe it is the fleetingness of this season that makes us so crazed for it. 

I know autumn makes me quiet, it makes me reflect on what is, and what I want to be. Autumn makes me consider the fragility of our temporal surroundings; the constantness of change. Change, with its certainty, a dual tragedy and miracle, that nothing will ever be as it was before, nor will it ever again be as it is now. 

Dainty Steak and Eggs

My mother is the queen of leftovers. When we were younger,  it was close to impossible to get us to eat anything if it was deemed a "leftover."  Didn't matter if it was our favorite meal in the whole world, if we saw it come out of the refrigerator or go into a tupperware, there would be a mini-mutiny. 

So, my mother became an expert at hiding the leftovers in plain sight. As long as they were presented in a slightly modified way, there was little resistance in getting us to eat. For the purposes of this blog, I've designated them "Dinner Deux."  Anytime a recipe is tagged with that, you will know that it incorporates leftovers of some kind. 

Fast forward to yesterday... 

 I have these great tiny containers that allow me to store/freeze individually portioned amounts of proteins. I had a ridiculous craving for the skirt steak I made the other day.  I defrosted the steak, whipped up some fluffy yellow scramble, and topped it off with garlic chives from the Union Square Market. 

Voilà! 

You then have a quick healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner, that doesn't look like the same thing you had last week. 

The Pump-, the -kin, the legend... Batmouth

Batmouth. 

Over the weekend I went up to New England to visit my friend D, and she taught me how to make roasted pumpkin seeds! 

I've never made roasted pumpkin seeds before, in our household the primary concern when carving pumpkins was the swashbuckling tendencies of us hooligans. 

Without fail, every year peaceful pumpkin carving would turn into a pirate battle, or a battle reenactment, usually of the Ninja Turtle variety. Battle lines would be drawn, parents would intervene and the fight would result in a draw due to authority intervention... I still maintain we would have won.  

Regardless, the last thing our parents wanted to do was involve any heating element into that melee so I was super excited to try making them. 

D's pumpkin seed recipe:

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F- 

1. Remove seeds, rinse, and pat dry.

2. Arrange seeds on an oil coated  (1-2 tablespoons) or Pam sprayed baking pan

3. Season with salt 

4. Bake until seeds are golden brown, check/shake the seeds around every 10 minutes or so to prevent burning and assure that they cook evenly

The white pumpkin had a sweeter aroma than the orange pumpkin and smelled distinctly of honeydew melon.

Meet Batmouth's best buddy... isn't he precious?

D allowed me to fiddle with the seasonings. The only thing I would do differently is I would allow the seeds to cook almost all the way through (85%) before I added the seasoning next time. 

Spices: 

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp of chili powder

1/2 tsp paprika 

1/2 tsp of parsley 

1/4 tsp of thyme 

Pumpkin seeds pre-baking

So delicious! 

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

October means Thackery Binx

We're more than halfway through October and that means Halloween Movie Marathons. Or, if you are terrified of your own shadow like me, an annual viewing of Hocus Pocus. That's about as "scary" as I can handle.

Any proper movie night will need blankets, comfy seats, and most importantly snacks! While there is a veritable universe of snacks available these days my favorite above all others is popcorn.

Let me put it this way; if October means Thackery Binx, movie night means popcorn. 

I like to make my popcorn on the stove top. It gives me a greater degree of control over not only the flavor, but also helps to assure that I will be eating better quality, more natural, ingredients.

When I tried to capture the correct ratios I had a surprisingly hard time figuring out how to share them with you guys.  I just kept eyeballing the amounts and adjusting them.

 So, I found a great guide by Simply Recipes which you can access here. 

My favorite thing about pot-popping popcorn,  is the variety of ways you can flavor the popcorn. 

Some of my favorite combinations are : 

Traditional butter with Himalayan salt

Truffle

Rosemary Garlic

Rosemary Parmesan

Cinnamon Sugar

Spicy Maple 

 Cheesy Garlic

S'mores

Use your imagination, the sky is the limit... 

An easy way to get creative with your popcorn is to try different flavored salts like this one from my trip to Iceland 

I had a couple of questions about where I bought me pepper flake Weck tulip jar; I purchased it at the Charles Street Black Ink in Boston but I'm sure you can buy them online. 

Blueberry salt from my trip to Iceland gave a very subtle tang to the popcorn

Can we also just take a second to appreciate the amazing greatness that is Batmouth? 

I'll give him his proper attention in an upcoming post... 

If the movie starts to get a little too terrifically terrifying, follow these fool proof Halloween movie watching methods:

1. Hide under the covers.

2. Climb on top of the person next to you and bury your head in their shoulder.

3. Stick your fingers in your ears and shut your eyes.

4. Excuse yourself to go to the bathroom .

5. Turn off the movie and put on a Christmas movie. 

[It's a fair suggestion, some of the stores around here are already decorating!]

 If nothing else, remember, it's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus.

Boo,

Doggone Delicious

So, let me start this off by saying that this face right here... 

...was a terror.  

Now that she has gone to super boot camp (he's an actual miracle worker) she is no longer a terror but still the only thing in the world I have an impossible time saying no to. 

Our walks are usually when I have a chance, or really an excuse, to meander around the city and just explore. One of these walks had us stopping by the Roaming Acres stall at the Union Square market and discovered that it is essentially the canine equivalent of Dylan's. After making friends with the guys behind the counter, puppy dog eyeing them for free treats and pretty much bullying me into buying more bones than she knew what to do with I left there with three packs of their Ostrich Pet treats and bones for days... 

Since then, we can't pass Union Square without stopping at the booth and restocking. 

They are fine to keep outside the packaging although they do dry out a little. 

I just cut mine up into training squares after opening the pack and keep them in a glass jar on the counter. 

Make sure to tell people what they are though, during one of our "Sibling Dinner's" one of my brothers mistook them for regular jerky and helped himself to a handful. 

His verdict: dog tested and brother approved. 

If you're in the Union Square area try the treats, your dog (or perhaps even your brother) will love you more for it and if that is not a compelling enough reason... I triple dog dare you! 

It's getting chili out

It's been a while but I will be updating soon with new recipes, in the interim here's some snapshots from the chili I made last week... recipe to follow

Drunken Apple Pie - Photos Only

Drunken Apple Pie- isn't drunk as so much as it is buzzed. 

German Apple Cake

This is by far one of my favorite things about fall... German apple cake. 

This is also a great recipe if you need to bring a dessert to a holiday party. 

However, this is not diet friendly nor diabetic friendly. 

Ingredients: 

- 2 eggs 

- 1 cup of vegetable oil 

- 2 cups of white sugar 

- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

-1/2 teaspoon of salt 

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

- 2 cups of all purpose flour 

- 1 teaspoon baking soda 

- 4 cups of apples, peeled, sliced very thing

- Pinch of nutmeg 

- Pinch of powdered ginger

The key to this recipe is mixing. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Flour and grease a cake pan.

Mix the eggs and the vegetable oil thoroughly until they have a creamy consistency. Add the vanilla to the liquid mixture. 

Slowly add the sugar, mixing thoroughly. 

Combine the dry ingredients separately. Slowly add to the liquid batter until thoroughly incorporated, it's going to get a little difficult to stir the batter as you continue.

Fold in the apples to the mixture. 

Pour into the prepared pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. 

Once the cake is cooled, you can dust with confectioners sugar or homemade icing from confectioners sugar, water and holiday spices.  

French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup:

Onions

Thyme

Beef Stock

1 Hanger Steak

Red Wine

Gruyere Cheese [I don't like Gruyere by itself on my soup,

so I cut it 3 parts Gruyere 1 part Asiago]

Baguette

Butter

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Last summer my family was lucky enough to go to France. While we were in Paris we had a seemingly nondescript meal that made "the list." "The list" is made when any one of my brothers says that he has a new favorite dish. Being fairly snobby and picky eaters {cough, cough... totally spoiled by my mother's amazing cooking, cough, cough...} this doesn't happen often. During the entire trip, "the best" meal we had according to the boys, was a bowl of French Onion Soup, sitting in a little hole in the wall cafe during an unexpected rain shower. I don't know if we were all just happy to be out of the rain, or if the soup was really as good as we remember it. Nevertheless, when we had our first really chilly, rainy day, it was the first thing I wanted to eat.

I decided that since I was buying beef stock, I wanted to add some additional flavor in the soup. So I purchased one hanger steak, cut it in half and cooked it in the pan I was going to use to caramelize the onions. I decided that since I was going to be keeping the meat in the stew I wanted the flavor of all the other ingredients to be present so I left some thyme in the pan when I cooked the steak and used a little bit of butter and olive oil to keep it from sticking. When I say little I mean minuscule. Once I finished cooking the steak I took it out of the pan and set it aside to rest. Then I added the onions I had cut to the pan with a little bit of pepper.

REMEMBER!!!! Don't forget to lower the heat or the onions will cook to quickly and burn rather then caramelizing. As the onions began to look somewhat translucent I added a little bit of red wine to the pan.

When cooking with wine or any other alcohol it is imperative that you give it enough time to cook off the alcohol.

While the onions were cooking I took the time to shred the hanger steak and dropped it in my soup pot with the littlest bit of butter. I added the butter for flavor rather then frying or any other function.

Then I added the onions.

Then the beef broth.

I didn't add any additional thyme because I had left the sprigs of thyme in the pan throughout the entire cooking process.

Step back.

Don't meddle.

Give it time to simmer on low heat.

I had to Macgyver the toasts because I couldn't find the soup crocks. So I toasted the sliced baguette under the broiler for a few minutes and then toasted the cheese on top of it.

Doing this part in batches actually helped me with serving the soup. Especially because everyone is on different schedules, it allowed them to have some of the cheese toasties while they were still fresh, and didn't chain me to the oven.