Apple Crisp

In the tradition of "Life is short; eat dessert first." here is last night's dessert recipe. The main dish was Sole Meunier, which will come along later!

Several years ago, I realized that I had a habit of continually trying new versions of dishes for which I already had a great recipe. Now, I mark those favorite recipes as The Best, so that I'll know to stop trying to find another one! This is one of those, my very favorite recipe for Apple Crisp. It appears in a little booklet I got, and I believe the author is Jeanne Amero. The booklet is aptly titled, "Apple Recipes"! I dearly love cooking and baking with apples.

Apple Crisp

5 apples, peeled and sliced
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup apple juice or water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put half the apples in a greased 9" x 9" pan. Blend together remaining ingredients, except juice, and crumble half the flour mixture over the apples. Cover with remaining apples and flour mixture. Pour juice (or water) over the top. Bake 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature of your oven. The top should be golden brown and crisp.

DONNA'S NOTES: I assemble the flour mixture in my food processor, so it doesn't matter if the butter is softened or not. You can reduce the sugar by as much as one-half without affecting the flavor. I've used any number of types of apples in this, so use whatever you have on hand.

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Tonight, I'm taking dessert to our Bible study group. This is the recipe for what I'm taking. It comes from Cooking Light magazine, and I've had it for years. I almost always have apples on hand at home, so many of the desserts I make use them.

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces block-style cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups chopped, peeled Rome apple (about 2 large)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes.) Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

Yield: 12 servings.

Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.


DONNA'S NOTES: By now, you will know that I use half all-purpose flour and half whole-wheat pastry flour. I also reduce the sugar in almost every recipe I make, so I used only one cup of sugar in the batter. I don't use anything low-fat, so I used regular cream cheese.

Chicken al Giardino

Tonight, dinner is one of my all-time favorite, go-to recipes. I cut this out of the Seattle Times years ago, when John Hinterberger was still the food writer. It falls into my category of "superb."

Chicken al Giardino

2 large skinless and boneless chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, cut into thin strips

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, cut into thin strips

1/4 cup thinly sliced onion

1 tablespoon rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced

6 pieces quartered artichoke hearts (packed in water)

1/4 cup dry sherry

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into pieces

Place the chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and pound gently with the smooth side of a meat tenderizer until 1/4 inch thick. Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the chicken and sauté for 3 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan. Add the bell peppers, onions, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Sauté over medium heat 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Pour in the sherry and reduce by one-third. Add lemon juice and adjust seasonings if necessary. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the butter, stirring until the sauce has thickened. Put the chicken back into the pan and heat through and serve.

Donna's notes on this recipe: It is important to have all ingredients ready before beginning to prepare this. I usually use cooking sherry, but you can buy airline-size bottles of liquor at the liquor store to use for cooking purposes. I don't usually use chicken breasts, because my husband prefers thighs, but either will work just fine. I don't pound them to make them thinner, but that means that I sometimes need to sauté them for longer than 3 minutes. My stove gets quite hot, so I usually sauté on low. I also don't usually sauté the veggies for 10 minutes, because we like them slightly crisp. This is a very forgiving recipe, so you can add other veggies, or leave some of these out, as you need to.

Honey Scones and Variation

This wonderful recipe was given to me by one of the best cooks I know: Dawn Aldridge. She tells me it was originally from a Woman's Day book called Best of Baking. My "adopted daughter," Angelika Mein, suggested the variation I mention. I love making these for breakfast!

HONEY SCONES

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

¼ cup milk

¼ cup honey

1 egg

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until fine crumbs form. With fork, blend milk, honey and the egg; stir all at once into flour. Turn out on floured board and knead a few strokes until dough holds together. Pat dough to make 9” circle and cut into 8 or 16 wedges. (These scones rise a lot, so you may want to end up with smaller ones.) Bake on greased baking sheet in preheated 400° oven for 10 minutes, or until tops are browned. Brush tops with additional honey, if desired.

Variation: Add 1 tablespoon culinary lavender to the final mixture.

DONNA'S NOTES: I used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat pastry flour. I also reduced the sugar to 1/8 cup. I mixed the dry ingredients with the butter in my food processor until it looked like cornmeal, combined the wet ingredients in a bowl, then added them to the food processor. I processed this mixture until it clumped away from the sides of the bowl. I used a scoop to put the dough onto the baking sheet, then baked them as instructed. This method produced 13 scones.

French Lemon Bars

Here is my recipe for Lemon Bars. I think they go by many different names, and I have no idea why this one is "French." This recipe was given to me by my first mother-in-law, Leah Wheeler, and I've been making it for over 40 years. My older daughter, Laney Reeves, absolutely loves it! I'm posting it, even though I haven't made it recently, for my wonderful daughter-in-law, Peggy Lee.

FRENCH LEMON BARS

Crust:  ¾ cup butter

            1/3 cup powdered sugar

            1 ½ cup flour

Blend together and pat into 9” x 13” baking dish. Bake at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Top:    3 eggs, well-beaten

            1 ½ cups sugar

            2 tablespoons fresh or bottled lemon juice

Mix and pour over crust, and bake 20 minutes more at 350°. When done, dust with powdered sugar.

Biscuits!

This post gives me a chance to mention one of the convenience foods I do use. I made Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner this last Sunday night, and I used purchased chicken stock to do it. I don't always have my own stock available, and I make a lot of soup! Kirkland brand Organic Chicken Stock is my favorite for the times when my own isn't in the freezer. 

Along with the soup, we had Biscuits with Sour Cream. This is my name for a recipe from The Accidental Gourmet, a cookbook by Sally Sondheim and Suzannah Sloan. If you happen to have that cookbook, they call this recipe "Hoosits," and you'll find it on page 36/37. If I put that name in my recipe finder file, I'd never know what it's for! Anyway, I have a bunch of extra sour cream right now and am looking for ways to use it up!

Again, I cut the recipe in half and show my portions in red.

Biscuits with Sour Cream

2 cups flour (1 cup, half all-purpose flour, half whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar (2 teaspoons)
4 teaspoons baking powder (2 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (1/4 teaspoon)
1 1/2 cups sour cream (3/4 cup)

Grease a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix well. Fold in the sour cream and blend to form a soft ball.

Dust a breadboard with flour. Knead the dough 3 or 4 times to blend, and then pat it out to a 3/4-inch thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter and arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet.

Bake until the biscuits are lightly browned - 10 to 12 minutes.


DONNA'S NOTES: I'm sure this could be made with plain yogurt, if you want to reduce the fat content. 

Morning Glorious Muffins

This is one of my favorite muffin recipes. I make muffins often, because they're such an easy way to have a homemade bread for a meal. This one takes shredded apple and shredded carrot, and I don't often have those on hand. I made them this morning, and I'm reminded of why I love them! This is a recipe I make half of; the full recipe makes 24 muffins, and I rarely want that many. So, I'm including the proportions I use.

MORNING GLORIOUS MUFFINS

Full recipe yields 24 muffins; half recipe yields 8-12 muffins.


2 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup, and I use half all-purpose and half whole-wheat pastry flour.)
1 1/4 cups sugar (1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons baking soda (1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon)
1 1/2 cups shredded carrot (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups peeled and shredded apple (3/4 cup, and I don't peel them)
3/4 cup coconut (3/8 cup)
1/2 cup snipped pitted dates (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (1/4 cup, and I consider these optional)
3 beaten eggs (2)
1 cup oil (1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (1/4 teaspoon)

In a mixing bowl, combine flour(s), sugar, soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, combine carrot, apple, coconut, dates and pecans. Stir in beaten eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients, stirring till moistened. Grease or line muffin pans with paper baking cups. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake in 375-degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks. Can be served with butter or whipped cream cheese.

Lamb Chops

I mentioned this recipe on Facebook the other day, so I thought I'd post it now. This recipe is from Martha Stewart Living, back when they had suggestions for an evening's dinner in each issue. It also gives me a chance to tell you how I modify recipes based on our preferences and needs.

Because I am cooking, most of the time, for only two people, I have to reduce the quantities on many recipes. So, you'll notice that I've put, in parentheses, the quantities of ingredients I use when I make this dish. I'll do that for you each time I have the calculations. That will sometimes mean that I show 1/8 cup of an ingredient. A standard coffee measure is 1/8 cup, which is also 2 tablespoons.

I've found that it is easy to overcook this dish, and we're not into burned food! I handle this recipe gently. I'm also sensitive to the way my electric range heats, and I almost never use a medium-high setting for anything. As a general rule, I broil the lamb chops after making the chutney, which gives me more control over how well they're done; we like medium-rare.

Lamb Chops with Prune Chutney

1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter (1 teaspoon)

2 teaspoons sugar (1/2 teaspoon)

8 shallots, peeled and cut in half lengthwise (2)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (3/4 teaspoon)

½ cup low-salt chicken stock, homemade or canned (1/8 cup)

2 tablespoons dried cranberries (1 ½ teaspoon)

18 bite-sized prunes or 6 large pitted prunes, quartered (2 small)

1 ½ tablespoons fresh rosemary, plus sprigs for garnish (1/4 teaspoon dried)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

8 rib lamb chops, ¾-inch thick (2)

1 tablespoon olive oil (1 teaspoon)

1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add sugar and shallots and cook until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Add vinegar and cook until evaporated. Add stock, fruit, 1 teaspoon of the chopped rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until shallots are tender and liquid is reduced by three quarters, about 5 minutes. Keep warm.

2. Season lamb chops with salt, pepper, and the remaining chopped rosemary. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chops and sauté until brown on the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn and cook until a meat thermometer reads 110° (for medium rare) and chops are evenly browned, 3 to 4 minutes more. Garnish lamb with rosemary sprigs and serve with the chutney.

Welcome!

Welcome! 

The sole purpose of this blog is to share my favored recipes with my friends. I'm not selling anything; I just love to cook!

I can think of many things I'd like to say as an introduction, but I've decided on this: I don't consider myself a good cook. To me, a good cook is someone who doesn't need a recipe. I've known many good cooks: Laurie Hartman, Karen Snyder, Angelika Mein, Diane Tompkins, and others. They don't need a recipe to make a wonderful dish; they can make something out of nothing! Me, I need recipes.

I do consider myself a real cook. I cook. I don't open a box, mix some ingredients with its contents, and call it good. In fact, I use very few prepared foods in my cooking; I do almost everything from scratch. On very rare occasions, I will use a recipe with a prepared ingredient, such as a cake mix, because the end product is absolutely wonderful. I am, however, much more likely to make that cake from scratch. By the same token, I don't grow and harvest my own ingredients! If you looked into my pantry, you'd see cans of diced tomatoes and evaporated milk, boxes of chicken stock, and dried pasta in glass canisters. (I do own a pasta maker; I just haven't spent the time to learn to use it well.) If I don't have fresh lemons on hand, I'll use bottled lemon juice. If you're looking for recipes with Hamburger Helper, however, you won't find them here.

In addition, about 90% of my cooking is with organic ingredients. I don't use soy, except for the unavoidable soy lecithin that appears in many ingredients. I don't use a microwave at all. I'm not a low-fat cook, and I don't use artificial sweeteners. I try very hard to make everything fresh.

When I post a recipe, I will tell you, if I can, where I got it. However, I don't have records of all the sources I've used over the years and will apologize now if I neglect to give appropriate credit. I will also share with you any notes I've made to myself about a recipe - changes I've made, what I've done differently - but I'll give you the original recipe in each case.

Well, this is a bit more of an introduction than I had in mind. Here is a recipe for Mulligatawny Soup. This one takes about an hour of prep time, simply because of all of the fresh vegetables in it, but it is very good and makes a large amount for freezing.

Mulligatawny Soup

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium onions, chopped

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 green pepper, cut into 1/2-inch lengthwise slivers *

1 red pepper, cut into 1/2-inch lengthwise slivers *

2 cups chopped Granny Smith apples (about 1 1/2)

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 1/2 cups chopped Roma tomatoes (about 3)

4 tablespoons flour or 1 tablespoon arrowroot

4 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 cups chicken stock

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)

8 whole black peppercorns

Heat butter in large stockpot. Add onions, garlic, peppers, apples, and celery and sauté over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and sauté briefly.

Stir in flour, curry powder, cardamom, and ground pepper. Cook over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in stock and mix well. Bring liquid to a low boil and simmer, partially covered, for 30-40 minutes.

In the meantime, poach the chicken breasts. Put chicken in a large skillet. Add the peppercorns and water to cover. Lay a sheet of waxed paper over the chicken. Bring water to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook chicken for 5-7 minutes, turning over about halfway through, until they are just cooked. The breasts will finish cooking as they cool in the water.

Shred the chicken and add to the soup. Season to taste and cook for a few minutes more to blend flavors.

If desired, serve with a dollop of yogurt and chutney. Sprinkle some coriander on top.

* Cut lengthwise into slivers, then cut slivers to 1/2-inch lengths.

Donna's Notes: 

If you use arrowroot as the thickener in place of the flour, you will have just produced a gluten-free soup!

I usually use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe, as that's what my husband prefers. You can easily use leftover chicken, too.