Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting!

This recipe may not be paleo but it is delicious. and addicting. and basically pure sugar...but delicious. I've made these cookies a few times before from this recipe and they've always been a big hit. Some friends of mine had a fall themed party this past Saturday and made a special request for these treats; I was happy to oblige. The ingredients for the cookies and frosting include: 

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening (I used coconut oil instead)

2 eggs

2 cups applesauce

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves (I ground whole cloves in our coffee grinder)

6 tbsp butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

I told you it was sugar baked on sugar mixed with sugar!

From here it's basically a muffin recipe that you drop onto a cookie sheet. These "cookies" are really apple muffin tops. Mix the dry ingredients together...

Mix the wet ingredients together (yes, it looks like baby food)...

Mix the dry into the wet...

And drop onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE parchment paper? It's genius. It results in cookies that are brown but not burnt on the bottom and baking sheets that don't need to be cleaned after baking. Amazeballs. 

The recipe calls for "small" spoonfuls to be put in the sheet, but who likes tiny cookies? I make muffin-top-monster-cookies. Bake at 375 for nine minutes.

One thing to note - this recipe makes a lot of cookies. And by a lot, I mean 45+. Yes, 45+ giant monster cookies. If you do not want 45+ giant monster cookies, I'd halve the recipe if I were you.

The caramel frosting is pretty much what makes these cookies. Unfortunately, it involves a lot of fast work with super hot sugar so I only got a picture of the beginning of the process: melting the 6 tbsp butter (3/4 of a stick), 1 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup heavy cream. Melt, stirring occasionally, until it's well incorporated. Drop in some vanilla and stir in the powdered sugar. I have a lot of trouble figuring out the powdered sugar deal - the recipe says to wait for the brown sugar mixture to cool first, but when it cools it becomes too think to stir in the powdered sugar. So, I tried adding the powdered sugar when it was hot and the powdered sugar just lumped together. No one seemed to care much since sugar melted into sugar can't be wrong.

No finished product picture but they are pretty much what the original recipe link shows them to look like.

Sunday Cookathon

I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen recently. A lot. I've been enjoying coming home everyday and making something delicious from fresh organic produce and grassfed meats, but sometimes I just want to spend sometime relaxing on the couch or reading a book and that means cooking big batches of food well ahead of time. Enter the crockpot. 

I love my crockpot. Today I woke up and put together a fantastic beef stew found here. Basically it involved cutting up the following: 

1 rutabaga

1 sweet potato

5 stalks celery

3 cloves garlic

2 carrots

1 onion

~2 lbs stewing beef

And throwing them in a crock pot with: 

2 cups homemade chicken bone broth

2 cups boiling water

1 can tomato paste

a bunch of oregano, thyme and pepper

Then...stew. Stew like you've never stewed before. I'll be honest, these ingredients barely fit in our fairly large crock pot. The above picture was taken about 4 hours into stewing, after the veggies had cooked down and released most of their fluid and it's still pretty full. We let this cook for about 8 hours and the end result produced this:

 

It is delicious. The beef was tender, the veggies soft but not mushy, and the broth - oh man, the broth is stunning. The mixture of homemade chicken bone broth with many hours of stewing beef produced a delicious dark brown broth that we made sure to put in a tupperware and save for later purposes. 

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS! 

While this was stewing away I made some sweet potato hash. I tried this recipe out for the first time while Simon was in California and it tasted pretty damn good. I then made some for him when he came home and he loves it. I have a feeling this will be a staple in our fridge this winter.  In the three times I've made this I've altered the recipe in a number of ways. The final product now looks vaguely like the one in the recipe. 

First chop up a bunch of onion and get them caramelizing. I've tried caramelizing onions before and I always burn them instead of caramelize them. Both burnt and caramelized onions are black, but one turns out sweet while the other tastes bitter - the goal is sweet. For some reason this recipe's description of caramelizing onions really clicked with me. Throw some butter in a medium heat pan, wait for it to start to bubble/foam, and then throw in the onions. Turn the heat down REALLY low and just let them do their thing stirring occasionally.

After 5 or so minutes the onions will begin to sweat and start to brown:

It's tempting to stop the sauteeing as soon as they start to brown, but the onions will only get more and more sweet the darker you let them become. I let mine get about twice as dark as you see above, and then let the rest of the caramelization happen in the oven, which, by the way, should be preheated to 450 degrees. 

While the onions are cooking, chop up some sweet potatoes and toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread the sweet potatoes on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (ah, parchment paper, you make cleaning up SO easy). Add the onions on top and place it all in the oven for 35ish minutes.

Halfway through cooking I take the sheet out and throw in some chopped bacon. 

As you can see, the sweet potatoes get soft, the bacon crisps up, and the onions get super black and super delicious.

 

 To end this really long post I need to say that I used the oven SO much this weekend that our carbon monoxide alarm went off and we had to evacuate our housemates and call 911. Some very nice firefighters came the wrong way down our narrow street in a giant firetruck and told us everything was fine but that we should always open a window if we're going to cook a lot.


good to know.

Cinnamon Crusted Pork Chops with Apples and Sage

I've missed the entire month of August. A lot happened in the last few weeks - we moved to the new place, I started a new diet, continued to work out, had a busy few weeks at work, and watched a lovely big yellow pup over labor day weekend.

Before I get into the cooking post, I really need to post a picture of Kobi, our friend's yellow lab puppy who hung out with us over labor day:

He's a big goofball and I love him very much.

Back to the post: as I stated above, I've started following a new diet in hopes that it will help with my migraines. It's the "Paleo Diet". I'm not going to get into the details of it because, well, that's what the internet is for. So far it's been delicious, healthy, and I've been migraine free. In addition to starting paleo we also joined Boston Organics and are having local organic vegetables and fruits delivered to our house. What's awesome about this service is that we never know what we're going to get which forces us to make new, interesting dishes. This week we received a whole lot of sage, an ingredient I've never really cooked with before. In an effort to use up our sage, I found a recipe for Cinnamon Crusted Pork Chops with Apples and Sage. We've made a number of paleo meals in the past three weeks, but this meal...this meal was special. It was so. tasty. Simon can't stop talking about it and telling friends about it. Also, it was really simple and quick to make. Here we go -

 Cinnamon Crusted Pork Chops with Apples and Sage

Unfortunately I didn't ask Simon to start taking pictures until after I sauteed the apples, garlic (I used garlic instead of shallots), and sage in coconut oil. You'll just have to imagine how beautiful it looked.

Once that is all sauteed, moved the apples, sage, and onion into a bowl and rub some cinnamon and salt onto the pork chops.

Using the same pan and coconut oil, give the chops a good sear on both sides.

Turn the temp down to low, pour in some white wine (I always choose a Riesling because it's not too sweet and not too dry), throw the apple mixture on top, cover and let simmer for about 7 minutes. Ours were perfectly cooked.

We ate these along with a salad of kale, cherry tomatoes, avocados, dressed with avocado oil and lime juice. SO. GOOD. In addition to how delicious it was, it's important to note that I made pork chops. PORK CHOPS. Only a few years ago I was full blown vegetarian. Even once I started eating meat I didn't really eat MEAT meat. This was one big, juicy, hunk of pig and I really enjoyed it. Who'd of thunk it?

Catching Up

I've been the worst blogger recently. I swear it's just because I've been insanely busy.

I've been doing secret wedding crafts that won't be fully revealed until after the big day:

We've been packing for our move to the new apartment in August:

Also, I've joined a gym and have been really focusing on getting myself into shape.

As any healthy person knows, you have to eat healthy in addition to exercising to make any sort of difference. So, Simon and I made a delicious dinner the other night which involved a new cooking technique - baking tofu.

I am no stranger to tofu, I ate a lot of it when I was vegetarian and Simon and I still make it every once in a while. In the past we've always marinated it and then fried the tofu in some oil (sort of defeating the whole healthy eating aspect of eating tofu). But the other night I found this recipe. I have to say, baking tofu resulted in a very nice texture. The marinade was a little salty (as the reviews state), but overall I feel as though this was a success.

We marinated the tofu over night and then set it out in a single layer in a baking pan (can you see how uneven our countertops are by the marinade pooling to one side? - awesomesauce).  The tofu baked at 325 for a little under an hour, turning the tofu halfway through. I may bake it a little more next time.

With about 15 minutes left on the tofu Simon started a quick stir-fry consisting of snap peas, bell peppers, yellow squash, and onions. 

Put the two together and voila! A delicious, healthy, and surprisingly filling dinner.

I'll definitely keep baking tofu. The marinade was fine, but nothing too special, so I'll probably keep looking for other options.

BeetsBeetsBeets

DELICIOUS. 

We love beets. If they are on a menu at a restaurant you can bet that we'll be ordering them. We've tried making beets a few times in the past and have not been successful. I found what appeared to be a very easy beet-pickling recipe via pinterest and decided to give it a shot. 

I am so glad I did. These beets are incredibly easy to make and really flavorful. 

First cut the greens off of the beet and chop them into equally sized portioned - I cut mine into quarters.

Boil for 30 minutes. The cut beets made the water a brilliant orangey-red which was a lot of fun to watch. However, I did not want to leave the kitchen in case it boiled over and stained our white oven. Drain, rinse with cool water, rub off the peels with your fingers, and slice up. I made my slices pretty thin and was thankful for it. While the pickling marinade tastes delicious, some of the larger chunks can taste a little too vinegary.

While the beets are boiling you can mix up the marinade: apple cider vinegar, dry mustard, sugar, olive oil. Toss the beet slices in this marinade and let it hang out for a good 30 minutes.

DONE. So easy and sooo yummy. We're obsessed. I definitely recommend trying this recipe.

Brie and Apple Tarts!

I honestly thought I had finished baking with apples until next fall, but then I found this recipe while browsing Pinterest one evening. OMG, these are delicious.

Things began neat and orderly. I defrosted my puff pastry and started cutting my green apple.

Things quickly escalated into a gigantic mess. Thank god for my newly sewn apron!

 This was my first time working with puff pastry. I was pretty nervous at the onset because puff pastry has a reputation for being delicate and temperamental; but I really had no problems at all. As long as it fully thaws before you try to unwrap it, you should be all set. If it isn't fully thawed, it may crack and then you'll have a crack through all of your puff pastry layers with no way to repair them. Also: flour. Flour is important with puff pastry. When it eventually did thaw (about 40 minutes after taking it out of the fridge), the pastry got very, very tacky. 

Once I floured, rolled, and cut the puff pastry, I loaded it up with green apple slices, chunks of brie, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. 

Then, fold up the puff pastry around the filling and brush it with an egg wash. This. got. messy. Real messy. 

Once lined on the baking pan, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. They turned out amazing. The puff pastry was flaky and golden brown, the cheese was completely melted and gooey, and the brown sugar and cinnamon cut through the bite of the green apple.  They made a really great snack and looking back on it, they were pretty easy to make...I mean...I could fill these with anything. Blueberries and bananas? Chocolate chips and bananas? All sorts of cheeses? delicious. delicious. delicious.

No More Apples!

We used up the last of our apples to make a fantastic apple crisp.

I've never made a crisp before and for some reason I expected the recipe to be way more difficult then it turned out to be. As in many of the other dishes, we started by peeling, coring, and slicing the apples.  We then threw them in a non-stick pan and coated them with sugar, flour, cinnamon, and water. The water seemed/still seems strange to me. It left a puddle all around the final dish - yes, the puddle was deliciously sugary and sweet; but it made the dish too sweet for me. Next time I may cut the water (and sugar) in half.

Then comes the crisp! The topping consists of brown sugar, quick-cooking oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and butter. It really was more of a "streusel" then a "crisp"...but maybe those things are one in the same and I just don't know it?

And that's it! Simple! Baked at 350 for about 45 minutes and nom away. This dish disappeared REALLY quickly.

What I've learned from cooking with apples:

1) the apartment smells wonderful when there are apples in the oven
2) apples keep for a really long time, making them a great ingredient for busy work weeks
3) prepping an apple is easier than I thought - coring takes 2 seconds and peeling requires very little effort
4) most of the apple dishes I found were sweet - I need to find some that are more savory
5) mushy apples are great for sensitive teeth

Baked Apples

OMG.

DELICIOUS.

I just used up all of the apples we picked a few weekends ago. The below recipe is #3 out of the four we ended up making.

And I'm telling you...this one will become a Simon and Laura family tradition.

The recipe is for Baked Apples from Skinnychef.com. I want to make it clear that I did not seek out skinnychef.com, nor did I seek out "skinny" recipes. I found the recipe on Pinterest and it just happened to be from this site.

The recipe is simple: mix together a crumble of brown sugar, walnuts, margarine and cinnamon; core some apples and stuff them with the crumble. *Next time, I will make much more crumble than suggested by the recipe - as the apples bake, the crumble shrinks down, leaving the apple only half full of deliciousness.

Place the apples in a crockpot and pour in half a cup of apple cider or apple juice. This keeps the apples from burning and also provides a delectable juice to pour back over the apples when serving them. Cook for 3 hours on high heat and voila! Juicy, tasty, soft apples that fall apart when touched by your fork and are filled with sugary sweetness. 

Simon's friend was shocked that we weren't eating them with vanilla ice cream, and he's right, these definitely call for some. 

These apples made a wonderful warm and filling treat on a cold fall night. They are completely satisfying. Luckily enough, they kept pretty well, too. We stored the leftover juice apart from the apples, but even so, the apples continued to get mushier and mushier as the days went past, but not so much that it became a problem.

Apple Latkes!

I have to start this by admitting that these apple latkes were okay. They were certainly good, tasted fine, but the textured was really mushy and it completely lacked that "oh man I HAVE to eat more" factor. A few years ago I made sweet potato latkes that were phenomenal - I guess the memory of them left me with high expectations. I went off of this recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Begin with apples:

Core and peel:

Grate the apples, coat in lemon juice, strain, and mix with flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and eggs:

Melt a lot of butter and pan fry until brown on both sides (about 2 minutes each). Smitten Kitchen gave good advice by suggesting putting a new pat of butter between each set of latkes:

Cooking went well. They fried up nicely and smelled delicious. We ate them with plain yogurt which cut the sweetness of the latkes nicely. I think they would have been better if I strained more juice from the shredded apple, but the flavors still wouldn't have drawn me in to eating more.

I think they're worth a shot, and it was definitely interesting to experiment with. If nothing else, they really convinced me to make the sweet potato latkes again!

Apple Mania!

Simon and I went apple picking last Sunday and had wonderful success despite going somewhat late in the season.

 Here is our stash:

We bought a peck worth of apples; the farm gave us a choice of that or a bushel...which ignited my unrelenting signing of the classic Guys and Dolls song. 

 We also bought an apple corer, aka the most amazing fall kitchen gadget that ever existed. It's easy, fun, and virtually injury-proof.

It also works extremely well:

The first of many brand new recipes I attempted was apple chips. I'm used to buying these at the supermarket in a big plastic bucket or bag and they are always too chewy, too moist, and feel as though they've been soaking in sugar. I used this recipe (at the very bottom of the page). All you have to do is wash and core the apples, slice thinly (she recommends a mandoline slicer - but these are NOT injury proof tools and I've yet to invest in one - so I just used a knife), and arrange on a tray.  

Before baking at 200 degrees for 2 hours, I sprinkled the slices with cinnamon sugar as the recipe suggests. That's it. Literally. Core, slice, sprinkle, bake.  Sooooo easy!

This is what a successful apple chip looks like. They were delicious and made the apartment smell wonderful while baking. I made one mistake in that I didn't spray the pan with nonstick spray thinking the nonstick pan would be enough; unfortunately, the sugars in the apple sealed many of them directly to the tray and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get them off. I'm going to return to this recipe with however many apples I have left over because the chips we did eat were wonderful. The apples were crisp since we baked them at a low temperature for a long period of time; and they weren't overly sweet.

I definitely recommend trying this out.