Apple Crisp: Or, how I came to terms with autumn

This weekend my Aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Mark came to visit from Louisville! We had a full visit -- they met a few of my friends, we ate more food than anyone should, and we toured all of connecticut. All of it--from the outlet malls to the beach. One of our stops along the way was an apple orchard for apple picking! 

The weather was perfect, there were a ton of apples, and we had the orchard to ourselves. We frolicked among the apples, picking out our favorites, and it wasn't until we got to the car that we realized what we had done -- we had bought something like 3 dozen apples. What in the world were we going to do with 3 dozen apples??

Well. It just so happens that I got an email from family friend, Aunt Shelley (who you may remember from the rhubarb crumble recipe), in which she mentioned she had made an apple crisp! I asked for the recipe and she sent it, warning that she found the apples to be too mushy and that she needed to perfect the timing better. Her recipe was great, though -- it calls for one of everything -- 1 cup each of flour, brown sugar, and oatmeal, and 1 stick of butter. How easy is that to remember?

I just reworked it a little bit, cooking the apples first in the dutch oven on the stove to caramelize them a little before finishing them in the oven to brown the top, and adding some stuff I had on hand to the crisp (cinnamon, pecans, drizzling in caramel!).

We may have had the crisp for breakfast this morning, and it was totally fabulous! Although the crisp did help with my apple problem, I still have something approximating two dozen apples in my fridge, so if you have any apple ideas or requests, send them my way!

Ingredients:

7 medium apples (peeled and cored and cut into ½ inch thick wedges)
¼ c granulated sugar
1 c apple cider or juice
1 c flour
1 c brown sugar
1 c oatmeal
1 stick melted butter + 2 T butter (unmelted)
¾ t ground cinnamon (divided)
⅔ c chopped pecans
caramel topping (optional) 

Heat oven to 450. Combine flour, brown sugar, oatmeal, melted butter, ½ t ground cinnamon and pecans together. The easiest way to do this is with your hands -- get right in there and smooth. 

Toss the apples in the granulated sugar and remaining ¼ t cinnamon. 

Bring cider to a simmer in a dutch oven (or a skillet you can put in the oven if you don't have a dutch oven) over medium heat and cook until reduced to ½ c (about 5 minutes). 

Transfer the liquid to a bowl or measuring cup and set aside. 

Heat the remaining 2 T of butter in the dutch oven over medium heat. Once it's melted, add apples and cook, stirring frequently, until apples soften, about 12 minutes. 

Remove from the heat and stir in cider mixture until apples are coated. 

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples, breaking up any large chunks that may appear. I sprinkled this with some caramel topping, just to be extra sinful. 

Bake until the apples are tender and topping is golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. 

Cool at least 15 minutes (I know it's hard, but some desserts are worth the wait!) and serve. 

Enjoy!

Caramel Brownie Trifle: An apology for my personal time warp.

Sometimes it's the middle of August, life is great, you're buzzing along thinking about how nice summer is and then you look around and wonder why the leaves are suddenly all orange and you look at your calendar and realize-- HOLY CRAP IT'S LATE OCTOBER!

For what it's worth, this is the meager excuse I have for my lack of posts in the last couple months -- it's not my fault… it should still be August. To make up for my personal time warp, I've decided to write about something incredibly decadent yet ridiculously easy to make--brownie trifle!

Of course I made it in jars (it has to travel to a cookout because I'm not the only one to miss the memo about it not being summer anymore). If you'd rather make it in a trifle dish, however, more power to you.

I make this trifle when I have a craving for something sinfully chocolatey. Something gooey and delicious and full of comfort food goodness. Or, you know, whenever I can come up with an excuse.

Although it's delicious and addictive, the problem of brownie trifle is that it that it makes a TON. Once I made this for my friends in grad school and we ate it for DAYS. DAYS. So be prepared. Don't make this without giving it serious thought first and considering the full ramifications.

Also, this is another one of those short cut recipes -- nothing (but the whipped cream, and you can substitute cool whip if you're super lazy) is made from scratch. So easy!

Caramel Brownie Trifle

1 package family sized brownie mix (+ oil, egg(s) and water as called for on the package)
1 package instant pudding
2 c milk
1 ½ c heavy cream
1 t vanilla
2 T powdered sugar
Toffee bits
Caramel ice cream topping

Make the brownie batter as directed in the recipe. If you're making it in jars, divide the batter evenly among 2 dozen jars. If you're making it in a trifle dish, bake it in a 9X13 pan as directed in the package. It took me about 30 minutes to bake the brownies in the jars.

While the brownies are still hot, poke some holes in them with a fork and drizzle with caramel sauce. I put about a teaspoon in each jar. If you're making it in a trifle dish, skip this for the moment. You can come back to it later.

While the brownies are cooling make the pudding -- I made it by putting 2 cups of milk in a jar, adding in the pudding mix, putting on the lid and shaking like mad.

Also, make the heavy cream. Add the cream, vanilla and powdered sugar to a standing mixer and whip whip whip until stiff peaks form.

If you're making a trifle in the trifle dish cut the brownies into pieces and begin layering them in the trifle dish. Drizzle with caramel. Then put in one layer of chocolate pudding, one layer of whipped cream, and start again with brownies and repeat! Brownies, caramel, pudding, whipped cream. End with whipped cream and sprinkle with toffee bits. Yum.

If you're making the trifle in jars, put in one layer of pudding, one layer of whipped cream, and sprinkle with toffee bits.

Refrigerate at least 3 hours. The beauty of this recipe is that it just ets better with time. It's even better the next day, so I often make mine the night before.

Enjoy!

Thalia Learns to Cook: Guacamole!

Recipes and examples of dishes I can now make! Taken from a variety of sources and changed according to my abilities, needs, and dislike of doing dishes.

Guacamole. Food of the gods.

OK, that might be hyperbole, but it is super delicious, a great snack and a fun color. I love guacamole deeply, but it's only been recently that I've been making it regularly. Probably because I hate having to buy avocados, bring them home, and then wait for 3-5 days for them to be ripe enough to make guacamole. And yes, you do have to wait that long. Unripe avocado is a shame, has almost no flavor, and will ruin an otherwise perfectly delicious Mexican feast. However! Once you have ripe avocados (how can you tell they are ripe? When you squeeze them, they smush ever so slightly beneath your fingers. Not too much, not mushy, but a slight give), sorry, once you have ripe avocados, making the actual green dip is easy!

Ingredients:

2 Avocados (ripe! Buy them ahead of time! Put them in a paper bag on your counter! Bring them out three days later!)

1 clove Garlic

1/2 a small Red Onion

Tomato (if it's in season, otherwise don't bother)

Jalapeno (if you're feeling a bit crazy)

Large splash of lemon juice

Sprinkling of cayenne pepper

Sprinkling of chili pepper

Sprinkling of cumin (if you're feeling it)

Salt (I like seat salt)

Pepper

Method:

Cut up red onion, smash and cut up garlic, cut up tomato, cut up jalapeno (note: the seeds make it hot. If you keep the seeds in the jalapeno, it will get hot. If you take the seeds out, you will have a subtle pleasant tang but not feel like your mouth requires good-looking and many manly firemen to rescue it. But I digress).

You want everything to be in relatively small pieces, so that it's evenly distributed throughout the dip and you can get some in every bite.

Cut up avocado: If it's ripe enough, this should be very easy. Slice in half and do a little twisting motion to separate one half from the core. Then, stick your knife into the core like so: (this part is fun)

Pull the knife and core out of the avocado half. Then, it should be easy to scoop out the avocado from its peel with a fork or spoon. If you have problems with any of this, it means your avocados were not ripe enough. There's nothing to be done about it now, unfortunately, but good to know for the future.

Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl:

Start smashing everything together with a fork. Add lemon juice and all remaining spices, salt and pepper. When it's at a nice creamy consistency, taste.

This is when you can add more lemon juice, or more salt, or more spices. I usually have to add a bit more salt a lot more pepper and a small touch of lemon juice. Taste again.

Keep tasting until you get it right.

Delicious! Now try not to eat the whole thing before your husband gets out of the shower and looks at you with puppy dog eyes because you ate all the guacamole. (But again, I digress).