Halloween Fun | Shrunken Apple Heads in Cider

As I was doing an internet search for adult Halloween libations, I came across this cute idea! I had to send it to my sister, she who has a Halloween party every year; and I thought this would be cute for her to make for her students. She agreed. She came over for our regular Tuesday night get together and we made these fun apple heads for her Halloween movie "night" for her class.

 These were really easy to make. The carving went much faster than we thought it would. 

After your apples have been peeled, sliced in half, and cored, they are ready for carving. After carving, the apples are placed in a lemon juice and salt mixture for one minute, then drained on paper towels before baking.

 The brown spots are bruises - the consequence from buying bagged apples. 

 

The instructions say to bake the apples for about ninety minutes, or until the apples are dry and begin to brown. Our apples took twice as long! Three hours! 

 

The pupils are made by inserting whole cloves into the eyes.

Serve the cider in wide mouth cups so that everyone can have a creepy head in their cup. If you wish, you can add some spiced rum for an adult party.

You can find the recipe and complete instructions here.

TWD: Apple Danish Braid and a Pinwheel

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Beatrice Ojakangas 





The dough for this recipe is a laminated dough, much like what we used when we made croissants, but way easier and less time consuming. Those of you unfamiliar with the term laminated dough - this is where a slab of butter is enrobed with dough, then rolled, folded (like a business letter), rolled, folded - several times. The more you roll and fold the dough, the flakier your pastry will be.

For this recipe, the butter was sliced in large pieces and pulsed for a very short time (you want the butter to be no smaller than 1/2-inch in diameter) in a food processor with the flour, before being mixed ever so lightly with the rest of the ingredients, then chilled overnight before proceeding with the rolling and folding of the dough.

The danish braid recipe calls for only half the recipe of the pastry dough. I went ahead and made the full amount and placed the rest in the freezer for a later time, thinking this is going to be good, and just may want to make another!

With the fall weather upon us, I decided to go with an apple filling instead of the recommended  apricot, prune or berry jam, topped with a confectioner's cream or almond filling. I also forwent the coffee glaze (made from coffee and powdered sugar), one - it did not sound good to me, two - it doesn't need it - before baking, the pastry is topped with almonds and sugar.

This was good. I thought it tasted even better the following day; and the boys at the shop devoured the rest - one, whom is watching what he eats, said it was so good, he had two pieces. :)

I'm happy I have more dough on-the-ready in the freezer. I'm looking forward to making pinwheels filled with maybe a pear-cranberry filling, spiced with cardamom. Sound good?

The beginnings of the apple filling.

 

I had enough dough from the scraps to make a pinwheel (OK, enough for two, but I ate that dough).

 How cute are pinwheels?!! I wish I had made all pinwheels. Next batch!

Please visit my fellow bakers to see what version they have baked up. You can find their links on the LYL: Danish Braid link over on the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

Dinner for One (or more!)

This is a real quick and short post!

I want to share with you two tasty dishes I made for myself this past weekend while flying solo.

Both of these serve more than one, but I scaled the recipes down and still had enough for lunches as well.

Success meter (1-3): 3

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

I found the delicious squash recipe via Let's Eat!, where Ashley (our daughter) credits the recipe to Emily of The Daily Garnish. I am so proud of our daughter who is becoming quite the cook. She is the one who inspired me to start this blog and where I learned my photography skills from (I still have a long was to go). Thanks Ash! Love you!

The recipe calls for orange champagne vinegar which I do not have, so I added a bit of orange zest to regular champagne vinegar. I had a fair amount of stuffing leftover (I cooked only one squash - but the full amount of filling) and had it for lunch two days later. Still it had wonderful flavor.

The Brussels sprouts salad I found on Liz's blog at That Skinny Chick Can Bake and boy can she! If this recipe does not appeal to you, I'm sure you will find something that will.

The salad is garnished with grated hard-boiled egg (Liz omitted) and Parmesan cheese. The next time I make this I will add about 1/4 cup of cheese and a couple of grated eggs to toss in the salad itself for I thought it added a lot of character to this dish. 

As Julia Child would say - Bon Appetit!

Book Forty-Two: Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen

by Kathleen Daelemans


            Apple, Cucumber, and Tomato Salad

I am sensing a theme here... several of my recipes of late have jalapeño and lime, and I must say they are two of my favorite ingredients.

I ended up short on time, otherwise I would have used a mandoline to slice my apples and cucumbers to have them uniform in size. If I were to make this again (which I won't because the hubby did not care for it - well the mint mostly) I would cube everything. I found it awkward to eat with large pieces of apple and tomato.

The recipe instructs you to peel and core the tomato. I have never come across a recipe asking for a tomato to be cored - not sure if she meant to seed it as well, which I did, for I thought it would make a nicer presentation; however I did not peel the tomato for I did not see a need for it, not did I want the hassle of peeling it.

(Edit: This was much better the next day!)

Success meter (1-3): 3

amazon

I soaked my apples in lemon water

until serving time. 

Book Twenty-One: The "21" Cookbook by Michael Lomonaco

Recipe: Wild Turkey with Ginger Chestnut Stuffing (substituted Apple Sage Stuffing)



(What a kawinkydink! Did you notice the title of this post? This was not planned!)

I purchased this book not because it is from the famed New York restaurant (actually I never heard of it) but because I loved the jockeys lining the balcony and stairs on the front cover; a short story about that follows.

There are a handful of recipes in this book I would like to try (in which I should have) however I have been thinking of cooking a turkey for a few days now (why do people think turkey is only for Thanksgiving?) and thought why not? Well, I'll tell you why not! This turkey did not turn out as expected. My turkey was larger than what the recipe called for (don't you think a "farm-raised wild turkey" is an oxymoron?) by just a couple of pounds, though it apparently was done before the allotted time for the smaller size. It turned out a bit on the dry side and quite pitiful looking. My Thanksgiving turkeys, when I have a million other things going on at the same time, turn out better than this one. I shouldn't complain; better now than on Thanksgiving when you have to serve it to guests!

I chose to make the Apple Sage Stuffing instead of the Ginger Chestnut Stuffing and glad that I did. I love sage and always seem to go for recipes that call for it. I like it so much that I added a tad extra to the stuffing. I advise to resist that temptation; it was a bit too much, but still very good. I have never made a stuffing which called for using eggs to the chicken stock and letting the bread soak up all the goodness before putting it into the oven. It was almost like it came from inside the turkey itself, so moist. I also made our trusted roasted asparagus with Parmesan (substituted Gruyere for I was out of Parm).

Success meter (1-3): 2

 This is why it is a good idea to always  

have a pan under your turkey.

Back side before turning over.

Thinking...beautiful. This is going to be good. 

Think it's done?!!

Bone slipped right out! Can you say "dry"?!

Pitiful.

Looks like a dried up old....

Andy salvaging the rest for

sandwiches, enchiladas, soup, etc.

Now for the stuffing!

The best tool ever

for coring apples, pears, etc.

This was good.

As was this, as always...

As I mentioned above here is the story about those jockeys (duplicated from "21"):

The Jockeys

The story behind this often-photographed statuary has been subject of much rumor and misinterpretation, including tales that they represent real riders, and that they are mysteriously linked to the Jockey Club, a private organization started in 1894 by a group of horseman on New York's East Side. Some have speculated that '21's jockeys are mere decoration. The truth, however, is far more interesting than all of the theories combined... '21' was home to the affluent 'horsy' set as far back as the early 1930s. To impart their personal stamp on the speakeasy-turned-restaurant, many breeders began donating jockeys as symbols of their private horse farms. Today, many of the brightly painted figures represent the country's most prominent stables. It all began with Delaware native Jay Van Urk, such a loyal patron that he had, in fact, his own private table and the distinction of having a '21' dessert named in his honor. Sometime during the '30s, Van Urk donated the first jockey to his regular haunt as a token of his appreciation. Thus, a '21' tradition was born. Over the years, some of America's most famous breeders and owners have followed in Van Urk's footsteps, including many high-profile '21' "regulars" from the Vanderbilt, Mellon and Ogden Mills Phipps families, as well as the Galbreath clan, owners of Darby Dan Farms. In addition, there is a jockey dedicated in honor of Secretariat, the greatest racehorse of all time. Two jockeys are also posted inside of '21's front door -- a welcoming tribute to equestrians and racing enthusiasts everywhere.