Betty Crocker That's Who

Before the oven. Too busy eating after.

It turns out that when it comes to apple pie, Betty Crocker is a legit source. Of all the various recipes I've tried over the years, I keep coming back to her French Apple Pie recipe every time. It's simple and always comes out just right. I made it with honey crisp apples this time because it was what I picked up at the orchard.

Usually I use a much tarter apple for baking, but this actually came out with just enough bite and sweetness. I also use a lot of apples. It calls for eight cups, I use eight whole apples which usually makes for a tall, but delicious pie.

I also made it in my very fancy new metal pie plate from the Culinary Diplomacy kick off. Perhaps it was the diplomatic mojo in the pie plate that made it turn out so well.

Food Makes the World Go Round

I could pretend that we plan our week around high minded ideas of volunteer service, meditation, reflection, and exercise. That would be a complete line of B.S. In reality we plan our week around food and when we can eat in relation to work. Yes, how lame is that?

The calculation of how much or how well we will eat during the week is a complete function of how well I can plan and pull off cooking for and during the week. This is in turn impacted by how strung out I/we feel about work; whether we're both in the same country; and whether I actually make it to the store and shop for the magical menu I say we're going to consume.

I've also noticed I fail at inserting good food into my schedule when it is compressed. For example, if I am slated to meet my trainer at 7am, I try to figure out what I could possibly shovel in my mouth at say 6:15am with zero effort and then what I will shovel in my mouth between 8:45-9am when I am running out the door to the office having just sprinted through getting ready after the gym. I never think of weekday breakfast as a leisurely activity. Rather, it's a riddle that most days I completely fail to solve.

Bananas. Yep, that's the answer I reach most often. And, really? How many bananas can one girl eat?

I've also realized that if I fail to plan something super tempting, we'll often default to eating out. Total idiot move on my part. Why not revise menu planning to include something more exciting than steamed bok choy and salmon... and not entirely crockpot based.

So this week, I am attempting to just start with the act of actually cooking. Not eating out because we're too lazy to plan and to eliminate throwing food out. More on this in another post, I'm completely mortified and intrigued by how much food we're wasting in the U.S.

Since we've started our subscription to Arganica, it's like Christmas morning on Sundays to find out "what's in the local box." This week we were delighted to not only find the potatoes, turnips, sweet potato and onion we expected to see (based on the time of year)- but also beautiful mushrooms (two varieties); those gorgeous heirloom cherry tomatoes we've had before; fresh rosemary; and two types of fresh lettuce.

Making sure we don't waste our delicious (yuppie) front door delivered produce is certainly an added incentive to cooking regularly as well.

So far this week (and yes I started cooking on the weekend) we've got Split Pea Soup made and ready to go in the freezer; Barefoot Contessa Turkey Meatloaf (we ate one half and I froze the other half to make another day); Hashbrown Quiche (just trust me); Barefoot Contessa Spinach Pie; Weight Watchers Mac & Cheese; fresh greens.

Still to make this week chicken quesadillas, quick beef bourguignon (thank you N!), and a new squash soup recipe. I'm hoping at least the soups will bridge into multiple weeks with some freezing.

Hashbrown "Quiche"

• 3 cups frozen hashbrowns
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup ham steak diced
• 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno pepper diced
• 1/2 cup onion diced
• 4 oz. shredded cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt/pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Press frozen hasbrowns into a 9 inch pie crust, pour melted butter on crust to set hashbrowns. Bake hashbrown crust for 25 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees. Layer in ham, pepper, jalapeno, onion, cheese. Whisk together eggs, milk, s/p and pour over layered items in dish. Bake again for 25-30 minutes until knife comes out clean and eggs are set.  Reheats really well.

Fresh on the Doorstep

Our first haul from Arganica.

Being more conscious of where our food comes from can be a taxing effort and I'm not even close to pinning down the source on every item I ingest or purchase. However, in an effort to eat more local and support our local/regional farmers we've joined Arganica. A bit of a spin on a CSA, this group gives us what we loved about the easy organic delivery from Washington Green Grocer with a commitment to buying local. 

Oh, and did I mention an awesome list of additional items we can add to our order every week? We did a four week trial run and we're definitely hooked. Yes, we're paying more for vegetables than if we just went to the store. I've read and referred to this myself as a "yuppie tax."

Here is my justification. If we can't increase the demand for locally sourced foods, the supply isn't going to increase and we can't achieve any economies of scale to impact the supply chain in our markets. In addition, it forces me to plan our weekly menus around fresh, seasonal vegetables. This has required me to be open to researching and cooking some veggies I would not readily purchase. No it's not all kale.

In fact there's a delicata squash waiting for me to figure out how to cook next week. Luckily it has a long shelf life so I can tackle the familiar butternut squash this week.

Also, having a magic delivery person leave a box on your front door step on a Sunday morning is a great way to kick off the week. The double smoked bacon, Belgian chocolate milk and local butter we added to our order last week didn't hurt either. It may just be the best bacon we've ever had. Full stop.

Crisp and Delicious

Apple crisp tastes like fall. The brisk, fresh crunch of the apple paired with the sweet, crunchy topping heralds the beginning of the season for me. On a quick trip up to Thurmont, MD for apples straight from the orchard I grabbed a peck of staymen apples.

Sidenote: When do you actually get to use "peck" as a means of measurement? Never, that's when.

I settled on this new unknown variety of apple by finding the eldest member of the family that owned the orchard and asked what she would use. It was described as tart, but firm making it a strong candidate for baking.

Rather than falling back on the very butter heavy crumble topping of childhood, I explored new recipes to come up with just the right option. My new love of Cook's Illustrated led me online to see what they were proposing. Even though I subscribe to the hard copy, I couldn't figure out how to get online access. But luckily, they offer a one-day pass for free and I dove into their various options (the 14 day will come up, try to close the window and a free one-day pass will pop up).

Merging two possible recipes I made a test batch in a 8 x8 pan.



Here's my slightly tweaked version of what they called their "master crumble" topping (which they did recommend making in volume, freezing and breaking it out as needed).

Topping Mixture

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup oats

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon table salt
4 tablespoons butter (chilled) chopped into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening chopped into small pieces


In a bowl mix together all dry ingredients, then add butter and shortening and mix together into a crumble consistency until you can't see any bits of butter/shortening. Set into the fridge to chill for at least 15 minutes. While chilling, prep the fruit as outlined below, tossing into a large bowl with all of the ingredients.

Fruit
2-2.5 lb. apples (go tart, really) peeled, cored, sliced thinly or cubed 1/4 inch or so
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/5  tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (heavy handed)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In an 8x8 container layer in all of the apples. It will seem like a huge amount. It will all fit and will cook down a bit. Pull the crumble out of the fridge and sprinkle on top. This will cover, but not drown the apples. If you want to drown the fruit in crumble, considering doubling the above topping and using a slightly larger dish so it won't bake over the edge of the pan.

Cook for 15 minutes at 425, lower oven temp to 350 degrees and cook for another 30-40 minutes until apples are fork tender and crumble is golden brown. Serve with ice cream or milk. Yum.

Cook's Illustrated proposes if you double the fruit and topping into a 9 x 13 pan, cook it 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees. After the test batch, I made two 9 x13 pans for an event and they were delicious.



Before Baking.





After baking 40 minutes.