Apple Crisp- Always a Winner

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I went to boarding school in Connecticut, and let me tell you, for those of you who don’t know- Connecticut winters are long.  Really long. Especially when you are used to South Carolina weather- that cold will take your breath away.  While I do love the snow, and skiing, and lots of things about winter, I have to say that I am enjoying the mild weather down south so much more.  But back to the cold dark winters of Connecticut.  We had vespers and formal dinner four nights a week- this meant boys in coats and ties and girls in skirts or dresses.  We would run in our nice dress shoes and stockings from our dorms across the very short driveway and yard to the main building where Vespers and dinner were held.  I never thought my legs or hands or face would get as cold as they did on the 20 yard sprint to main building, so of course I never wore a coat or gloves or anything smart.  Anything for fashion right! Well despite all of that torture (but not really because I did love it all), the dining hall would occasional serve apple crisp for dessert.  It was by far and away everyone’s favorite dessert.  My mouth waters just thinking about it.  Apple crisp and a few other things they did well- the rest of the food was typical dining hall food.  But seriously, their apple crisp was worth all the cold and darkness.  Here is my favorite apple crisp recipe- so delicious!!

Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Whipped cream or Ice cream, if desired

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

Arrange apples in the bottom of the pan. In a bowl, rub together brown sugar, flour, oats, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg until well combined. Sprinkle mixture over apples.

Bake crisp for 30 minutes or until apples are tender. Remove from oven and top with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream to serve.

The Pioneer Woman’s French Toast

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It was about this time last year that we were getting ready to head out to see Corby’s friend’s Ladd and Ree- otherwise known as Marlboro Man and The Pioneer Woman.  We stayed on their ranch for a few days and helped wrangle some cattle- it was pretty awesome.  Since that time, I have to say that I have done no wrangling, ranching or cattling.  However, I have of course been reading Ree’s blog and keeping up with her cooking.  I really enjoy reading her recipes because they are so tasty, but I also just have to laugh at her extensive use of butter, sugar and all things good.  I was looking at her recipe for Baked French Toast, and while I couldn’t (well actually I could because it is so delicious, but I would be very unhealthy and fat which I am not a huge fan of) eat this for breakfast every morning, on the occasional Saturday or Sunday, it is a huge treat!  Sugar, butter, heavy cream, more sugar, more butter, and bread- awesome.  While we are probably not going to make it out to the ranch this year, that will not stop me for enjoying her decadent Baked French Toast and all of her other wonderful recipes!

The Pioneer Woman’s Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

1 loaf Crusty Sourdough Or French Bread
8 whole Eggs
2 cups Whole Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
Topping:
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Freshly Grated Nutmeg, Optional
1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces

Directions:

For the French toast: Grease the baking pan with butter. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and store in the fridge until needed (overnight preferably). Or you can make it and bake it right away—delicious no matter what!

For the topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and some nutmeg in a separate bowl. Stir together using a fork. Add the butter and with a pastry cutter, and mix it all together until the mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge.

When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the casserole from the fridge and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture or for 1 hour-plus or more for a firmer, crisper texture.

Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with warm pancake syrup.

National Biscuit Month= Awesome

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September is National Biscuit Month which clearly makes it my new favorite month.  It is also National Honey Month, National Rice Month, National Mushroom, All American Breakfast, Better Breakfast, Chicken, Self-Improvement, Courtesy, Hug a Texas Chef, Cholesterol Awareness, and Organic Harvest Month just to name a few.  Clearly, the need to have a month dedicated to ridiculous things is pretty popular.  October has 38 things that it celebrates including National Toilet Tank Repair Month.  I think having a month dedicated to something is a really great idea, but maybe we could limit it to 12 special things- just one for each month- not 38.  And I am going to go ahead and throw out there that September should really lose all of those other things and just be solely National Biscuit Month.  Who doesn’t want to celebrate biscuits?  I am reposting my favorite biscuit recipe to date- Cracked Pepper and Cheddar Biscuits, but I am making it my goal if possible (and it very well might not be possible) to find a new favorite biscuit recipe.  What is your favorite biscuit- buttermilk with jelly, ham and cheese?  I love them all.

Cracked Pepper and Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup of cold butter

3/4 cup of buttermilk

1 tablespoon of cracked pepper

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

First, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix together. Next, cut in the butter- it is important to use cold butter. Cover the butter lumps with flour and squeeze them between your fingers to break them down into smaller bits and rub the butter into them. What is left in the bowl looks like break crumbs.

Stir in the buttermilk and mix up the dough until the liquid is all absorbed by the flour. At this point, you add the cheese and pepper or whatever combination you choose. With your hands, knead and shape the dough until all the flour is worked in and the dough is of a single consistency. It should be still be slightly sticky to the touch, but not so sticky that it clings to your hands and the side of the bowl.

With a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a board until it is between a half and inch and an inch thick. Cut the dough with a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass or cup. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and crispy. So delicious!!!

Maggie’s Krooked Cafe

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When I moved back to Charleston after two years in the Catskills, I was hanging out with a group of people one night, and a friend of a friend asked from where had I just moved back.  Assuming that most people in South Carolina are not familiar with the tiny towns in the Catskill mountains, I said that I had been about two hours north of Manhattan up in the mountains.  She is a photographer and said that she had shot a wedding up in the Catskills the past summer.  She then went onto say that while she was up there, she had eaten breakfast at this little place and had the best pancakes.  It was obvious, she had been at Maggie’s Krooked Cafe.  I was right.  It was a very small world coincidence- the wedding she shot had been an acquaintance who grew up summering in a neighboring park to Twilight called Onteora.  These two parks are only about 10 miles away from each other on either side of a town called Tannersville, and all of this is one town over from Hunter Ski Mountain.  I remember the first time I went to Maggie’s and thinking how quirky the whole place was.  There is a reason the place is called Krooked Cafe- there is not a right angle in the whole restaurant.  Then the food came out.  We had ordered corned beef hash with a fried egg on top for the table, two people got the Ploughman’s breakfast, one person an omelet, and I got the blueberry pancakes.   First of all, corned beef hash is not something that I would think I would enjoy, and fried eggs are not my favorite (I have a thing against yolk- I don’t like it).  This stuff was amazing.  It had a lot of curry spice to it, and it was unbelievably flavorful.  Then I got to my pancakes.  When I tell you that these pancakes were unlike any pancake I have every eaten- its true, and you will only believe me if you actually taste them for yourself.  It might be the pound of butter of the entire sack of sugar that goes into each one, but there is something in those pancakes that is very special.  Since that day, whenever we have friends up on the mountain with us, going to Maggie’s for breakfast is a requirement.  So, if you happen to find yourself in Tannersville, NY- Maggie’s Krooked Cafe should be on your list of must do’s.  You can check out her website and all the accolades she has received here www.krookedcafe.com.

 

Maple Bacon and a 4th of July Parade

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We had some friends up to visit us in the Catskills last weekend with their three boys.  It was so great to see them, and I think they enjoyed escaping the heat that was attacking the rest of the country.  Our friends had never spent much time in the Catskills, and I think we made converts out of them.  We spent time between swimming at the pool, hiking and eating of course.  We introduced them to the best ice cream in the entire world- Perry’s Piece of Cake.  It, unfortunately for me, is a regional upstate New York ice cream company, and they have not expanded to South Carolina yet.  Hopefully, after I start a letter campaign, they will.

Anyway, this ice cream literally tastes like yellow cake batter and chocolate icing- which if you are like me, the batter and icing is the best part of a cake.  If you can find some- try it- it is something special.  The funniest part of the weekend was Sunday morning.  Corby was making his awesome cracked pepper and cheddar biscuits (https://thesouthwillrise.com/cracked-pepper-and-cheddar-cheese-biscuits/), and I was making scrambled eggs and maple bacon.  Maple bacon is again something I can not find readily in South Carolina, and it is so good.  It smells so good.  Denny, our friend’s 7-year-old son, ran down the stairs excitedly, wondering where the pancakes were.  The maple bacon filled the house with the smell of maple syrup, and Denny could not figure out why, when the smell of syrup was coming from the kitchen, we were not having pancakes.  It was so funny.  Fortunately, he loves scrambled eggs just as much as pancakes, so he was not too disappointed.  It was a great weekend!

We followed up the weekend with a super fun 4th of July.  The Twilight camp put on a great parade- the campers had spent the first part of the week making costumes.  We had eagles, bunnies, bears, and skunks- the costumes were awesome.  Walker was an eagle, and he made his mask with a fish coming out of his eagle’s mouth.  Then there was a park-wide BBQ down at the pool with a dive and jump competition (one picture is AJ winning the belly flop competition, and the other is Walker in the big jump competition), and the day was finished off with a carnival up at the playground with games and face painting.  The counselors and CITs outdid themselves, and the kids had so much fun- here are some pictures!  I hope everyone had a great and safe 4th- send in your favorite grilling recipe from the holiday if you have a chance!  We are looking for new ideas while we are up in the mountains- thanks!!

 

 

More from the Mountains: Bear Claws

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This is my 11-year-old Springer Spaniel, Nemo (named before the fish).  As you can see, he is a ferocious beast.   Despite the fact that he still looks like a puppy, he is getting old.  His hips are going, and he sleeps most of the time.  However, this morning, he recaptured some of his youth when, at 5:45 am, he demanded to be let out.  I dragged myself down the stairs and opened the door- my eyes still basically closed, thinking he would just quickly do his business and come right back in.  Well, instead, Nemo, the ferocious beast, found and scared a bear cub off our front porch.  The barking and scrambling that ensued, I thought that there was a raccoon or something, except that when I ran onto the porch, I saw this. I did not get a picture of the cub because, well, this is a huge bear, and I did not want to hang out for too long.  But I woke everybody up in the house, and we all watched them safely through the upstairs window as they went up the hill.  I have to say,  when I am out on the boat in Charleston, I still get super excited to see dolphins- it never gets old.  Bears on the front porch, this could lose its appeal pretty quickly!  In honor of Nemo continuing to keep us safe and our hopefully never-to-return visitor, the bear and her cub, here is a fun recipe I got from www.tasteofhome.com for bear claws!!

Bear Claws:

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups half-and-half cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 egg white
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup almond paste, cubed
1 tablespoon water
Coarse or granulated sugar
Sliced almonds

Directions

In a bowl, toss butter with 3 cups flour until well coated; refrigerate. In a large bowl, combine yeast and remaining flour.

In a saucepan, heat cream, sugar and salt to 120°-130°. Add to yeast mixture with 1 egg. Beat until smooth. Stir in butter mixture just until moistened.

Place dough onto a well floured surface; roll into a 21-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Starting at a short side, fold dough in thirds, forming a 12-in. x 7-in. rectangle. Give dough a quarter turn; roll into a 21-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Fold into thirds, starting with a short side. Repeat, flouring surface as needed. (Do not chill dough between each rolling and folding.) Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours or until firm.

For filling, in a small bowl, beat egg white until foamy. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and almond paste; beat until smooth. Cut dough in half widthwise. Roll each portion into a 12-in. square; cut each square into three 12-in. x 4-in. strips. Spread about 2 tablespoons filling down center of each strip. Fold long edges together; seal edges and ends. Cut into three pieces.

Place on greased baking sheets with folded edge facing away from you. With scissors, cut strips four times to within 1/2 in. of folded edge; separate slightly. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Lightly beat water and remaining egg; brush over dough. Sprinkle with sugar and almonds. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Skiing, Swimming, Sledding, and a Pinata

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We took 14 people up to North Carolina with us this past weekend, so including us, there were 12 adults and 5 children (and 2 dogs). It was a packed house, but we all had so much fun!  Corby, Walker and I drove up on Thursday night which also happened to be Corby’s birthday- we stopped in Blowing Rock at Bistro Roca (www.bistroroca.com) for dinner which was fabulous.  I had a pulled pork crepe that was out of this world.  Walker had mussels that he said were delicious, and Corby had meatloaf that was really good.  The only drawback was that we saved one slice of meatloaf to put in our eggs on Friday morning, and when we stopped to get gas after dinner, Nemo- my pesky 10-year-old Springer Spaniel- ate the meatloaf- it was disappointing.  Oh well.  Friday, we skied all day at Sugar Mountain which was so much fun- bluebird day and 50 degrees- what more could you ask for! The rest of the gang arrived on Friday night.  Saturday, we woke up to another beautiful warm day and an amazing egg, cheese, and vegetable casserole made by Marguerite.  So, the way we set up the weekend was every family was in charge of one meal- we didn’t count lunch, and I was in charge of appetizers and desserts.  After our marvelous and healthy breakfast (the casserole consisted of the only vegetables we had all weekend) we set off on a hike to Lost Cove, while the kids went snow tubing.  It is a beautiful hike down to these amazing swimming holes generally used in the summer unless you are crazy like the men on our hike who decided to swim- in February- in 45 degree water- what?  Anyway, appetizers after we got home included “cheesy goodness” which is Edam cheese wrapped in Pillsbury Crescent Rolls baked at 350 for about 35-40 minutes, and a cheese plate- yay cheese.  Dinner was the Haynie’s famous hot dog bar- every topping you could ever want on a hot dog, and then for dessert, I made the Cheesecake Strawberries which were amazingly good and easy and Blondie Bars- also easy and delicious!  In one batch I cut up Twix Bars- that was something special.  Sunday morning was a breakfast for the history books.  Kendall and Robert made Bailey’s french toast with some sort of homemade heaven (aka syrup), venison sausage, and they added a bowl of fruit for good measure.  While we were eating, it started snowing which of course made the kids go crazy!  We ended up getting about 5 inches of snow throughout Sunday- the sledding, the games, the snowmen, and the snowball fights exhausted everyone!  To revive the group, I made Bacon appetizers which I found on the Pioneer Woman website (www.thepioneerwoman.com).  It was the most simple and fantastic thing ever!  Take a package of bacon- cut it in half.  Lay out the half strips of bacon on a baking sheet.  Place a club cracker in the center of the strip of bacon, place a spoonful of Parmesan cheese on top to the club cracker and wrap the bacon snugly around the cracker and cheese.  Bake at 250 for 2 hours. Really really good, and they did not last long!  After another amazing dinner cooked by Robert and Olivia- beef stew with baked potatoes, we brought out the pinata for the kids which was so fun!  The whole weekend was amazing, and not surprisingly, Walker slept for 3 and a half hours on the car ride home!  Such good food and good friends- can’t wait to do it again!

My Bakery Wish List

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Since I started writing this blog, I have been making a wish list of bakeries I want to visit.  Red Truck Bakery (www.redtruckbakery.com) in Old Town Warrenton, VA is definitely at the top of the list.  First off, I really love that they turned an old Esso Station into a bakery.  Second, I really love the truck- an old 1954 red  Ford farm truck- while I would not have the first clue how to drive it and would surely kill the transmission, clutch and any thing else in the engine, is really my dream truck.  Third, and most importantly, I am obsessed with their menu- I look at it every day and wish that I could be there right when the bakery opens and smells so amazing.  Today’s soup for example is potato with apple wood smoked bacon- heaven.  If you live in the neighborhood or have the chance to be near the area, please check it out for me as it doesn’t seem that I will make it there any time in the near future.  Fortunately- they ship nationwide (http://www.redtruckbakery.com/store)!! Here is some of the press from my favorite magazine- Garden & Gun:

“Leave it to a baker in moonshine country to create a dessert that rivals the Kentucky bourbon ball. The Double Chocolate Moonshine Cake from Red Truck Bakery in Virginia is made with legal hooch and enough rich chocolate to give you a food buzz. ”
  ~ Garden & Gun Magazine

The Local Palate- Charleston is a town where bacon is considered a vegetable!!

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We have a new food magazine in Charleston called The Local Palate.  The first issues arrived in my mailbox last week, and it is fabulous!!  Here is their “about us” from their web page www.thelocalpalate.com and find them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thelocalpalate :

We are a culinary magazine  that focuses on the food culture of Charleston.

Charleston is a town where bacon  is considered a vegetable, Sunday  suppers are an honored tradition,  farmers are revered community  leaders and white chefs’ coats  proliferate the cobblestone streets.

It is a town where African, Spanish,  French, Jewish, and English  influences meld seamlessly onto  the plate; a town where major  American food staples, such as  rice and tea originated; a town  where food knows no stranger and  hospitality is a way of life.

Welcome to Charleston.
We’ll save you a seat.

 

What’s better than that- bacon IS a vegetable!!  Will definitely be sharing recipes from this magazine- so excited to have it around!!

 

Glazed Gourmet Opened Today!!

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We now have a gourmet doughnut shop in Charleston- I am beyond excited! Glazed Gourmet (www.glazedgourmet.com) opened on Upper King Street, and I hear they have a pumpkin doughnut that is extremely tasty.  Can’t wait to check it out for myself! Will post with a picture and an update when I make it there.