Apple Cider Doughnuts

I'd been dying to make apple cider doughnuts for at least the past month. I'd seen dozens of different recipes fly by on foodgawker and last weekend I finally felt like I had the time to try it out. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to eat some delicious, fresh, apple cider doughnuts.

Let me tell you - I think I am giving up on my frying attempts. For starters, I hate frying things because pouring an entire bottle of vegetable oil into a pan makes me feel kind of gross and also sad, and secondly hot oil scares me. A lot. But the real reason I think I am giving up on frying things is I just don't think the results are worth the effort (and calories).

Now I'm not faulting the recipe I used - I think my biggest problem is I don't have a great thermometer and the oil may not have been quite hot enough. I also read that most doughnut shops fry in hydrogenated oil (not that I really want to do that either though) - but supposedly it actually keeps less of the oil from seeping into your food. I wonder what using coconut oil would be like - I did a little bit of reading and it sounds like you can use it for frying, but I suppose that would also be expensive!

Anyway, I think I am going to buy myself a doughnut pan so that next time I feel like trying to make doughnuts I can just make the baked kind! The good news was, the dough by itself was pretty delicious! If you're interested here is the recipe I used: Apple Cider Doughnuts.

The only changes I made were to use 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour instead of the graham flour and I used flax seed eggs instead of the real eggs (1 Tbs. ground flax seeds mixed with 3 Tbs. warm water = 1 egg). Perhaps you will have better luck than I did!  (Side note: I think if I had made only doughnut holes they might have turned out ok, the grease seemed to seep into those less).

-C

Baking Season is Back!

This may or may not be a good thing. I do love baking but I actually think I may have a problem... sometimes I end up baking just to bake! My recent obsession with foodgawker has led to finding several new recipes, so this weekend I picked two to try out: White Spice Walnut Orange Cupcakes and Brie and Pear Tarts.

It's not often that I follow a recipe exactly, especially when it includes a seasoning that I don't think I like (such as cardamom) but I decided to give it a shot with these cupcakes. I don't often bake with eggs either, but I thought I'd really try to hold true to the recipe. To be honest? They were ok, but not fantastic. Sometimes I feel like I must be missing out on something great by not eating eggs in baked goods (i.e. typically eating vegan baked goods) but whenever I step outside of those restrictions I usually feel let down. Truthfully - I think eggless baking is just as good, and it creeps me out so much less!

The absolute best part of this recipe is the frosting though - it is absolutely delicious! Although I do recommend cutting the frosting recipe in half - I have no idea who would need so much frosting! I think I was pretty generous and I still had a bunch left with only half of the recipe! Next time I think I will just make vanilla cupcakes and use this frosting.

This Brie and Pear Tart was one of the first recipes I added to my favorites on foodgawker and I have been itching to make it ever since then. I don't have a real tart pan, so I decided to make two individual tarts with these ceramic dishes I have instead. I pretty much followed this recipe exactly too (other than changing the dimensions of the tart)! I used a basic butter pie dough (minus the sugar) for the crust, Willamette Valley Brie, and two different kinds of pears. I couldn't get mine to look as pretty as the picture in the recipe, but I think it turned out pretty well in the end! Next time I'd use a little less sugar (I skimped a little already with this recipe) and definitely more brie - the piece we bought was really kind of small for this recipe.

Hope I'm not alone in my baking inspiration now that the weather is colder! If you're in need of new recipe ideas I highly recommend foodgawker - such a fantastic way to browse!

-C

Officially Autumn

The changing of the seasons is my favorite time - it all seems so new and exciting again! I've had a bit of a cold for the past few days, but that hasn't stopped me from jumping into Autumn food mode (and hey - colds are kind of part of the season too, aren't they?).

Here's a few photos from the weekend. Stuffed delicata squash on Saturday - this time the filling consisted of a vegan Italian sausage, onions, wheat berries, kale, and hazelnuts.

 More stuffed squash! <3

Sunday breakfast was round two of the tri-colored quinoa - this time combined with wild pears, dried cherries, and pecans.

Speaking of wild pears - Jonathan has gotten really into searching out edibles around where we live. This weekend he make himself a fruit picker (basically a pole with a hook and basket on the end) and came back with this bowl full of pears, apples, and plums! The pears are amazing.

Sunday Night Dinner: One of my favorite soups - Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Apple Soup (recipe below), with homemade French bread, spinach salad, and apple cider.

 

 By the way - the apple cider was totally homemade too! Jonathan's coworker has an apple press and a bunch of apple trees and was kind enough to let us try it out. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the process because Jonathan though that 9:30pm was a really good time to try this out, so we gathered apples and pressed all of the cider by the light of a headlamp. :)  The cider is amazing though - we only got about 2/3 of a gallon but I really hope we can go back (preferably in the daylight) and try it again!

Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Apple Soup

(Adapted from here)

2 Tbs Butter

2 Tbs Olive Oil

3 medium Sweet Potatoes, peeled and diced

3 large Carrots, peeled and diced

1 large Onion, diced

1 (or 2!) Apples, peeled, cored, and diced

1/2 cup Red Lentils

4 cups Vegetable Broth

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp: ginger, cinnamon, chili powder, black pepper, cumin

1/4tsp cayenne 

1. In a large pot, combine butter and olive oil - saute sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and apples until onions are translucent.

2. Add lentils, spices, and vegetable broth. Simmer until potatoes are tender - about 30 minutes.

3. At this point you can either leave the soup chunky, blend a little of it using an immersion blender, or blend the whole thing in batches for a smooth soup.

Tastes like Autumn! Enjoy!

-C

End of Summer Food Photos

I'm excited that we've officially move on to Autumn now - I can't wait for cider doughnuts, stuffed squash, corn mazes, carving pumpkins, HALLOWEEN! But before we get to all of that I still have some photos from the summer that I was meaning to share!

Roasted Tomato Pesto Pasta (recipe) 

 Corn Salad w/ Avocado plus my standby - Kale salad

 Peach Cake - one of my favorite childhood desserts (recipe to come someday perhaps)

 Tomato, Corn, and Cheddar Biscuits

 Roma Tomato Bruschetta

 Pixel got a fancy new feeder (which didn't work right away - hence all of his food is in this giant bowl), I think he was in heaven for those few minutes.

 Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta

 Butternut Squash Chili (recipe adapted) - I skipped the jalapenos, used more chipotle peppers, subbed black beans for red kidney beans, and used 3 ears of corn (recipe mentions corn but doesn't list it as an ingredient). I also threw in a little molasses at the end.  :)

 Technically this is an Autumn photo because it was from breakfast this morning - Tri-Colored Quinoa Breakfast Porridge (recipe adapted). We used apples, dried apricots, pistachios, and pecans.

 Breakfast in Portland - Vegan Fried Chicken (tofu) and Waffles.

 Labor Day BBQ at our friends Patrick & Carrie's house - grilled corn and lots of salads!

 

Ok - not a food picture, but Pix looked pretty cute. 

 

 One of our weekend projects involved organizing all of our bulk foods that had been thrown into the pantry in the bags we bought them in. We put these mason jars to good use and printed out some cute labels to keep them organized!

 Here's the pantry now that we've organized a bit - it's still not perfect, but I think it's about the best we can do with the space we have!

Hope everyone is enjoying the first week of Autumn! I have lots of squash recipes waiting for me this weekend!

-C

Food Obsessions

The last couple of years have really opened my eyes to the world of food. I mean, I cooked in college - but it was kind of the same couple of recipes over and over... not that exciting. I was also a super picky child so there were tons of different foods I had never even tried until the last few years. Many of my new favorite foods are things I never would have dreamed I would love!

1. Kale - Who would have thought? Kale is definitely something I never even would have dreamed of eating when I was younger, now I absolutely love it. Kale salads were probably my favorite thing to eat this summer, and it's just as delicious in the fall and winter sauteed with caramelized onions and mixed with pasta, or creamed into mashed potatoes!

2. Sweet Potatoes - My only childhood experience with sweet potatoes was at Thanksgiving dinners when they were served with brown sugar and covered in marshmallows. That's not even entirely true because nothing in the world could have tricked me into eating  something that looked that disgusting, so I'd never actually had sweet potatoes but the association was bad. Now I wish I could eat them all the time - sweet potato enchiladas, sweet potato salads, sweet potato fries! Yum!

3. Squash - Again, the only way I was ever presented with squash as a child was when it was covered in brown sugar. I think I have an issue with people trying to trick you into vegetables by making them seem like some sort of candy. Gross. Also, I hated the texture of plain squash - it was so stringy! I still don't think I would like to eating plain spoonfuls of roasted acorn squash, but I have learned so many new ways to use squash! Butternut squash lasagna, roasted delicata squash, squash stuffed with wild rice and vegan sausage!?

4. Tomatoes - I know, that seems like a weird thing to hate, but I did. I mean I liked pasta sauce and salsa and what not, but I always hated fresh tomatoes. It's the one thing I really remember my mom growing and I loved going out to pick them - I would even try eating one every now and again to see if I liked them, but I never did. I don't know what changed, but now I think tomatoes are great!

5. Mushrooms - I had an unfair hatred towards mushrooms when I was younger. I never actually tried one - they just seemed kind of gross and creepy. To be honest, I still kind of think mushrooms are creepy, but I also think they are delicious. There are still many kinds I've never tried but it's fine to experiment with the different varieties you can get at the farmer's market and a plain old grilled portobella or stuffed crimini is always delicious!

There are still some foods that I just can't stand even now though - beets for one. Who wants to eat something that tastes like dirt? Maybe one day I'll learn to love even those though, we'll see!

-C

Blackberry Love

I'm a little late on this, but I figured I'd share nonetheless. One of my favorite things about the end of Summer is blackberries. A ripe blackberry may just be the best thing in the world. On the other hand - an unripe blackberry? Terrible! I was actually really disappointed with the blackberries that we received in our CSA box this year - they looked really nice, but truthfully they tasted awful.

I couldn't take the lack of delicious blackberries anymore, so Jonathan and I headed out to pick some of our own. Sometimes I really appreciate giant weeds taking over everything - at least when those weeds are blackberry bushes! We spent an hour or so picking out at a local wildlife reserve a few miles from here and ended up with a giant bowl.

Now I'm not the world's best pie maker - pies actually intimidate me a bit and it doesn't help that both my mom and grandma make some of the best pie crust ever. That's a lot to live up to. But I would do just about anything for a blackberry pie, so I gave it a shot anyway and it actually turned out pretty close to perfect if I do say so myself! I went with an all-butter crust (although I'd like to try a coconut oil crust sometime, I've heard good things) so that might have had something to do with the delicious factor. The only thing I would do differently next time is use more blackberries for the filling, but I can't really complain since it left me with plenty to make jam!

The pie wasn't actually runny either, even though this photo may make it look otherwise - I think that's just because I took the first piece out when it was still warm. The filling actually held its shape really well which made cutting pieces nice and easy!

Here is the recipe I used if you'd like to try a blackberry pie of your own!

Blackberry Pie
Crust:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
~1/4 cup cold water
Filling:
~6 cups rinsed blackberries (I think you could go for closer to 7, maybe 8)
1/2 cup sugar
Squeeze of fresh lemon
3 Tbs flour

To make the crust:
1. Pulse 2 cups of flour, the sugar, and salt in a food processor with the cold butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.
2. Add the remaining half cup of flour and pulse another couple of times.
3. Dump the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl and sprinkle with the cold water - use a spoon or clean hands to combine this into a dough that holds its shape.
4. Divide the dough into two equal halves.
5. Place one half on a sheet of parchment paper with a very small amount of flour - roll out carefully into a circle a few inches larger than your pan (this is where I usually get frustrated and decide I never want to make pie again - but stick with it, plus it doesn't have to look perfect anyway!).
6. Using the parchment paper to transport the crust, place it in the pan and carefully press the dough into the corners of the pan leaving the edges hanging over.
7. Repeat the rolling process with the second half of the dough.
8. Make the pie filling by combining all of the filling ingredients together - pour the filling into the prepared crust mounding it up in the center if it's a little too full (it will cook down).
9. Place the second crust over the top , trim off the edges, and then pinch the two crusts together making a decorative edge. Brush the top of the pie with butter and sprinkle with sugar - cut a decorative design in the top or just make a few slits to vent the steam.
10. Preheat oven to 425 - bake the pie for ~30 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 375, cover the pie with foil and continue to bake for another ~30 minutes.

Note: Make sure to keep a pan with a rim on the rack underneath the pie to catch drips - because it will drip and you don't want to set your oven on fire! Not that I've ever done that.... no really, I always catch it at the smoke detector alarm!  :)

**Crust recipe adapted from here, filling recipe adapted from here.**

Enjoy!!