super belated thanksgiving: perfect apple pie, bacon brussel sprouts with mustard vinaigrette, spinach and onion quiche, and DEEP FRIED TURKEY

Where do I even start? That is a photo of one of the three and a half Thanksgiving dinners that I enjoyed last year. The first two Thanksgivings were hosted by friends of mine, and both dinner parties went all out: turkey, stuffing, gravy... the works! I contributed some delicious butternut squash to both meals, which were, coincidentally, both hosted in Astoria.

french apple cake/super fast sauteed apples and ice cream

So remember when my friends and I went apple picking?




Cute right? Yeah I know. Not so cute? The utterly homely but totally delicious and gooey apple cake. It's kind of brown and ugly, and I could barely get it out of the pan, but damn if it wasn't really, really good.

butter-fried potato and apple slices with porcini mushrooms, shallots, parsley and sage

Man, I can't believe how January is already flying by! And here I am, still blogging about something I made back in October. Luckily, this meal was mainly root vegetables and apples, which store pretty well throughout the winter, so this is still fairly seasonal. As you'll see in the photo above, there were three components of this meal: maple carrot turnips, garlicky turnip tops and, for the main event, potato and apple slices fried in butter with shallots, porcini mushrooms, sage and parsley.

pork chops and apples in mustard cream sauce

That is a big pan of pork chops and sliced apples in a creamy dijon mustard sauce. Incredibly rich and delicious, this is just the thing for a cold winter's night. If you've ever had pork chops and apple sauce, you have a good idea what a great combination they are. Classic comfort food, taken to the next level.

potato latkes with apple confit and crispy sage

Can you still eat latkes at Passover, or are they just a Hanukkah thing? Because I made this kick ass latke recipe back in December, but I still think it would be awesomely delicious now.



These latkes are made with shredded potatoes and shallots, and are topped with a sweet apple "confit," and crispy sage leaves. Very delicious. Of course, if I am being honest, this dish is definitely a prime example of fancy language elevating a rather humble concept. OK, yes, crispy sage is an upscale addition to the recipe, but apple confit? Really? Come on, you made latkes with applesauce.

Applesauce or apple confit, the condiment was very easy to make. I didn't peel the apples like the recipe called for, just chopped them up and threw them in the pan with some melted butter, lemon juice and sugar. Five minutes later, you've got lovely soft apples perfect for serving with pork chops, or in this case, potato latkes.

The latkes were a little more involved. Shred the potatoes, and then let them sit in a bowl of cold water for a half hour. After the squeezing the potatoes dry with a paper towel, mix them with diced shallots, flour, eggs and salt and pepper. At this point, the recipe does something smart. What I was most worried about was the latkes falling apart in the pan, or being really soggy, but that wasn't an issue at all after you let them drain in a mesh strainer over a bowl for a half hour. This really helped to get rid of a lot of the excess moisture, ensuring nice crispy potato cakes. Brilliant. Then you fry them in oil over medium high heat for a couple of minutes on each side. Actually, I guess they aren't that involved either.



To serve, top them off with your apple confit. Then, to gild the lily, simply lightly fry sage leaves in some butter and sprinkle them atop your latkes. It's a great touch, really. Light and crispy, and a nice mix of sweet and savory, these latkes were absolutely delicious.

butternut squash and apple soup/carmelized onion and blue cheese bruschetta

It's funny. I've been blogging so infrequently these past few months that everything is cycling back around. I've still never written up my Hanukkah latkes or my Christmas prime rib, and Easter and Passover are just around the corner. Similarly, this dinner was something I whipped up when my good friend Faye was in town back in December, and she'll back in New York late next week!

Faye was my roommate in college for two years, but after graduation she pulled a bit of a disappearing act when she joined the peace corp and ran off to Morocco for two and a half years. When she came for a visit in December, it was the first time I'd seen her since May of 2008!

In honor of Faye's return, I hosted a small dinner at my apartment with a couple of our friends. It was a light meal, just a nice butternut squash and apple soup with some crostini with caramelized onions and crumbled blue cheese. We also had some beets tossed in argan oil, which was a special gift Faye brought me from Morocco. I will try and tell you more about argan oil in a later post.

I used this Ina Garten recipe as a jumping off point for my soup, but I ended up adapting it quite a bit. I left out the curry powder and apple juice, subbing in my homemade chicken stock. I also roasted the butternut squash before adding it to the soup, in the hope that made the dish more flavorful.




To start, I cooked the onions in butter until nice and soft, and then added diced squash and apples, chicken stock and water. I let it all cook together for a half an hour or so, and then blended it to make it nice and creamy. This soup was a bit unusual just because it was so sweet, but it was definitely nice tasting.

As that was cooking, I slowly caramelized some onions in butter for my crostini. I toasted up a nice crusty loaf of whole wheat bread and while it was still warm I layered each slice with a large spoonful of onions and some crumbled blue cheese. This was easy and delicious, and went really well with the soup.

All in all, this was an easy and light dinner, but no one went home hungry and everyone was certainly happy to see Faye. However, I do think I'd like to try a more ambitious menu when she's back in town later this month!

green pepper relish/apple crisp

spicy green pepper relish

Happy Friday everyone! I am currently drinking wine at my friend Lauren's apartment after Hill Country Fried Chicken and their awesome biscuits. I don't really want to be writing a blog post right now, but I am supposed to be doing this every day for the month. So yeah, here it goes. Needless to say, I am going to keep this short.


lots of apple crisp

Last month Lauren had a group of us over once again, and this is what I brought: green pepper relish, and apple crisp.

I made the green pepper relish because I had poblano peppers from the food co-op. I didn't know they were nearly as spicy as they are. In fact, I thought they were like, green bell peppers. Whoops. So instead of one tiny jalapeno and one much larger bell pepper, I had a one to one ratio of poblano to bell pepper. Whoops. My friend Mike loved the relish, but Lauren and I both found it oppressively spicy. I would have liked it if it maybe had about a quarter of the poblanos in it, which it probably should have if I just followed the recipe as written. Thanks food co-op, for not labeling your peppers.


a delicious fall treat with ice cream

Luckily, the apple crisp Laura and I threw together was way more successful. If I'm being honest, she actually made this on her own, but after she constructed it, I baked it, and I ate it, and I am perfectly qualified to tell you just how good it was: fucking delicious.

The oats, butter, flour and brown sugar topping was perfectly crisp and toasty, coating the spiced apples with tasty deliciousness. With vanilla ice cream, it's a perfect fall dessert. So thanks to Lauren for letting me use her laptop for this post, and for letting me bring this food to her house!

celeriac soup

celeriac apple potato soup

This is a 100% food co-op inspired dish. Before joining my CSA, (short for community sponsored agriculture), I had never even heard of, let alone eaten or tried to cook with celeriac. Also known as celery root, this knobby root vegetable has a tough, woody looking peel that hides a plain looking white interior. Back in the fall, it was included in one of our weekly veggie deliveries. When I made my way past the lettuce and carrots, what I found was a box of dirt. Skeptically, I dug my hands in a pulled out two scrawny and filthy roots. Like much of what we get at the CSA, that day's celeriac was much smaller, misshapen and dirtier than anything that you'll find at the grocery store, or even at a farmer's market. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised when I successfully transformed such an utterly unpromising vegetable into a delicious soup. It was so good that I was inspired to make it again from the giant celery roots on sale at the Union Square green market, and that I am about to tell all of you about it!

First of all, I only discovered this soup via the magic of teh internets. Every time I would come home from the co-op with a strange and intimidating vegetable, (fennel, kohlrabi, rainbow chard, cardoon, garlic scapes, lambs quarter...), the internet would have the answer I was looking for. In the case of celeriac, there were multiple answers, but the one I settled on was a celeriac, apple and potato soup. Although it sounded tasty, I was a little worried about how the sweet apples would stand alongside the savory stock and starchy potatoes. However, the celeriac really brought it all together. If you're still scared, know that Hell's Kitchen's Gordon Ramsay does his own variation with stilton cheese.

The two recipes are very similar: saute onions in melted butter with salt and pepper until soft. Add chopped potatoes and celeriac and cook for about ten minutes. Pour in stock (I used about three cups), dry or fresh thyme, the juice of half a lemon, and one large chopped red apple, (not red delicious, the good kind). Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer for a half hour or so. At this point, I went to town with the immersion blender, but you can also use a blender or a hand masher and sieve if need be, because everything should be nice and soft. Once it was nice and creamy, I added some crumbled blue cheese in lieu of the stilton, and if I had parsley, I definitely would have chopped it and tossed it in for color, as this soup is not the prettiest. The first recipe suggested adding cream, which probably accounts for her soup being lighter than the yucky gray color that mine is, but I didn't have any. I topped it with crumbled bacon and sliced scallions (because I didn't have chives) the first night, and tossed in some extra blue cheese upon subsequent reheatings.

What I can tell you about this soup is that having exact quantities isn't all that important. The first time I made it, I had the tiniest tiniest of celery roots, and a big old bag of baby purple potatoes. The second time I made it, I had a big ass celeriac, and three or four itsy bitsy red potatoes. I would say to try to use more celeriac than potatoes, because the flavor of the celery root is really what makes this soup unusual, but if you're a bit short it will still be good. I'd also say that you shouldn't waste your time peeling your potatoes or apples, as it all gets blended together in the end.

Serve this soup with some crusty bread and a nice salad, and you've got a first rate dinner!