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Spiced Upside-Down Apple Cake

November 22, 2009 By kellypea

Spiced Upside-Down Apple Cake

The very last issue of Gourmet sits in a stack along with the most recent issues of Saveur, Bon Appetit, and Food & Wine — all barely touched.  Holiday catalogs I’d rather not receive lay scattered in the mix as well reminding me that I should probably pay attention.  How can it be the end of November?  The month has flown by and with it my favorite season of the year, leaving only a few days to think about recipes I’d like to try this year for Thanksgiving.  Outside of making a simple list of traditional dishes and leaving it to sit on the kitchen counter, I’m still not prepared.

I’ve accepted that this just won’t be the year to try yet another way to mash and flavor potatoes with the likes of parsnips or roasted garlic, white truffle oil or black truffle shavings.  I won’t have to wonder why a stuffing recipe calls for freshly made cornbread that has to sit on the counter for a day before it can be cubed and tossed with other ingredients to make an herby stuffing.  And I’ve decided that deep-frying a ton of microscopically thin onion rings to flavor a new spin on the classic green bean casserole won’t be happening, either, even though it was quite a fabulous recipe.  No, we’re going to be relatively conservative this year which is why I was able to spend some time in the kitchen today trying a new recipe with some of my favorite flavors:  apples, pecans, and cinnamon with a hint of orange.

David Guas’ Spiced Upside-Down Apple Bundt Cake was perfect from the moment I saw it in Food & Wine’s “Last Bite.”  Even though I’ve never owned a bundt pan, it was the least of my worries because the recipe calls for buttermilk.  Whenever I buy buttermilk,  it gets pushed to the back of the fridge and is forgotten until long after the date stamped on it, then ends up down the drain.  Not this time!   I found it with a day to spare — not that I could tell given its characteristic pungent smell.

How does one tell whether buttermilk is sour when it always smells badly?  It’s a very good thing that it works so nicely as a cooking ingredient, don’t you think?

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Filed Under: Baked, Cake, Cookbooks and Magazines, Dessert, Fall, Food and Wine, For Brunch, Fruit, Holiday Food, Method, Nuts, Seasonal, Special Occasion, Tea Time Tagged With: , , , , ,

Waldorf Salad sans Mayo

November 10, 2009 By kellypea

Not your basic waldorf. We’ve been eating quite a bit of soup and salad lately.  With the business of our lives, it often seems to be the only way to make sure we don’t fall into the take-out habit, or worse, microwaved frozen food.  Call me a food snob — or better yet, consider that it’s not challenging to make a healthy meal that doesn’t take a lot of time and goes easy on the wallet.

Picture this:  my husband and I pass through the house each morning getting ready for work and I begin to think about any excuse not to have to stop at the market on the way home.  I mull over the contents of the veggie bin while I’m brushing my teeth, and search my fuzzy memory for ingredients  that may be languishing in the pantry.

“There are carrots I could make some soup with,” I begin staring into my mirror.

“That would be good,” he mutters, peering into his mirror,  busy with his own routine.

“And there are those apples you forget to eat on a regular basis.  I saw a recipe for a salad I want to try — but I’m not quite sure what condition the celery is in.  Do we have lemons?”  I call from the closet as I’m trying to figure out what to squeeze myself into for the day.

“Anything you make will be good,” he says from his side of the closet, “and I have been eating an apple a day.”

I head down the stairs, give a quick look in the fridge, and grab my coffee before running out the door and calling my goodbyes feigning success in the accomplishment of a dinner plan.

Jump ahead 11 hours.  It’s about 6PM and we’re both home.  Our son has come downstairs to graciously share himself with us, then flops on the couch to figure out what we’ll watch that evening.  My husband and I start peeling and chopping, sauteeing and blending.  On most days within an hour of arriving home — give or take a half hour for diversions — we’re all in the family room  talking about the day, slurping soup, eating salad and enjoying a DVRd show one of us has lobbied for.

On one such night, we tried a new spin on an old classic:  Waldorf Salad.  When I think of why I’ve never liked it, the mayonnaise would be the reason.  As much as I enjoy most salads, slathering a fatty dressing on one has never appealed to me.  If you’re like me or at least interested in something seasonal, but more healthy, try this.  It will be a part of our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

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Filed Under: Cookbooks and Magazines, Fall, Food and Wine, Gluten-Free, Holiday Food, Lemon, Make Ahead, Method, Nuts, Salads, Seasonal, Soup, Salad and Sandwiches, Special Occasion Tagged With: , ,

Apple Walnut Pancakes

October 31, 2009 By kellypea

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A friend of mine gave me a bag of small, crisp red apples the last time she came for dinner and somehow, I’d lost track of them.  I should have known they’d been sitting in the fridge, waiting for me to get around to making something with Fall written all over it.  Would it be apple nut muffins, a new take on a Waldorf salad, or perhaps an apple butternut squash soup?  I couldn’t decide until last weekend when I knew I’d be in the kitchen making macarons and decided to treat the menfolk to breakfast.  I’m not the one who normally makes breakfast on Sunday, so my offer was met with surprise and instant nods of, “Yes, please!”  Neither my husband or son would turn down pancakes even if they had a healthier twist than those my husband usually makes.  Besides, I knew I’d get to experiment a bit and it’s always fun to find out just how a particular recipe will end up.

If you have a jar of dulce de leche sitting around, it’s amazing what a little bit of it can do to a nice stack of hot ones on a cool Fall morning.  Initially, it was to have ended up filling the macarons, but it didn’t make it past the pancakes.

Who knew?

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Filed Under: Breakfast, Fall, Fruit, Nuts, Seasonal Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Apple Pomegranate Crisp with Pistachios

November 30, 2008 By kellypea

I love baked apples;  in pies, cobblers, cakes, — you name it, and I love them. But I think apple crisp is my favorite.  I'll blame it on my brother since he was crazy over it when we were growing up.  And if he knew I was playing around with an old favorite, he'd roll his eyes and tell me I was ridiculous.

But I already know that.  It makes life much more interesting — especially if one's a foodie.  Understanding how flavors and textures work with one another opens up so many possibilities, and waiting for that first bite after the experimentation is done is so worthwhile.

The perfect baked apple dessert is a bite of still slightly crunchy, and tart — nothing too sweet or soft.

So when I thought about the ingredients in this apple crisp, it only made sense that if pomegranates were included, then pistachios should be included as well.  Both are native to Iran, but now grown in California.  Pistachios are one of nature's amazing foods — packed with antioxidants just like pomegranates.  If you're a nut lover, then it will help to know that while you're munching your way through a hand full, you're helping your HDL levels as well.

I'd say that with all that good info, this dessert not only fits the comfort food bill, it's healthy, too.

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Filed Under: Baked, Dessert, Fall, Fruit, Holiday Food, Make Ahead, Method, Nuts, Pomegranate, Seasonal Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Pomegranate Vanilla Pot-de-Creme

November 30, 2008 By kellypea

Arils from 5 pomegranates
I can't resist pomegranates.  Although I've never owned a tree, I can remember knowing where at least one was growing when I was young — no matter where I lived — and kept an eye on it to see if it mattered to whomever owned it.  If the fruit was left on the ground after it fell, then that meant I was free to pick one from the tree and dig in, no matter how long it took — even if I had to climb over a fence.

The only places I see pomegranate trees now are around older homes, or on the perimeter of lots where homes have been removed to create something new, like a strip mall.  And since fence climbing doesn't exactly mix with middle age, I've succumbed to purchasing pomegranates when I see them at the market these days.  Pushing a shopping cart can be brutal during the rush hour, but I rarely wake up sore the next morning.

I do understand that the semi arid and temperate climate of San Diego makes it a perfect place to grow them however, and that they adapt well to containers, so I just may be in the market for my very own tree.

Why all this talk of memories and pomegranates?  POM, the nation's largest producer of the antioxidant rich pomegranate, is having a contest, so I thought I'd do some thinking about how I might use the fruit in something other than a salad.  I settled on two homey desserts — one for my husband and one for myself.  He loves creme brulee, and I enjoy baked fruit crisps, so that's what I created:  "Vanilla Pomegranate Pot-de-Creme" and "Apple Pomegranate Pistachio Crisp."

And yes, they taste great together if you want lots and lots of pomegranate!  IMG_7331

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Filed Under: Baked, Dessert, Fall, Fruit, Holiday Food, Make Ahead, Method, Pomegranate, Seasonal Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Warm Spinach Salad with Bacon and Pomegranate

November 24, 2008 By kellypea

Does anyone remember eating warm spinach and bacon salad?  I think the first time I tried it was at my aunt's house when I was in junior high.  There was something fascinating about the sweet and tangy taste of it…and the bacon?  Right.

I'd love to take credit for this recipe which is a lovely, more elegant version, but I can't.  It's one of Susan Branch's recipes from her Christmas from the Heart of the Home book.  If you aren't familiar with her, you're really missing something wonderful.  I love browsing through her site and leafing through her books which are so much more than just cookbooks.  They're like a trip to a special place where life is slow and pleasant, and creativity abounds.  Such an amazing woman! 

I like to make this salad at this time of year, because of the pomegranates, of course.  And recently, I learned a new way to peel them, which makes me very happy considering I won't have to tolerate a red stain on my cutting board for a week or more.

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Filed Under: Fall, Fruit, Holiday Food, Make Ahead, Mushrooms, Nuts, Pomegranate, Salads, Seasonal, Soup, Salad and Sandwiches Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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