A Dutch/Canadian and a German-American attempt Apfel Dumplings

After our last class today, I wandered home with one of my friends for supper.  With the prospect of a free evening, she suggested we bake something, so I proceeded to page through one of her French cookbooks.  After passing a number of good looking recipes (but ones that would require a trip to the store), she said, "You know, I haven't made an American dessert in a really long time."  I remembered that I had a number of apples at home, and asked if she'd want to try apple dumplings.

"Dumplings? Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

Bake them we did, using this recipe for the pie crust and this for the dumplings.

And thus a (legitimately) Dutch citizen was able to make and enjoy a popular Pennsylvania Dutch* dessert.  All credit goes to her for the artistically decorated crusts inspired by the fine pommiers** currently in bloom.





*the Pennsylvania Dutch actually being German (a corruption of "Deutsch")
**"Canadian for apple tree," she says.  A little bird tells me that it's French...

A real update

A few recent successes: 

-My mom's Jewish Apple Cake (this recipe is pretty similar)
-Potato Latkes from Smitten Kitchen
-Brown Sugar Cookies from More Best Recipes
-Crock-Pot Pulled Pork with Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce (something I'd canned this summer)

Brown Sugar Cookies

Pizza

And here's a photo I found from the fall:

Kale chips!  Very easy, very addicting, and very healthy.

I'm alive!

Here's an entry I wrote a couple months ago--I couldn't find the cable to transfer photos from my camera and then forgot about the draft I'd written.  Alas, I still haven't found the cable, but I did figure out a way around the problem.

---

With final exams, the busyness of Advent and Christmas, and traveling, there weren't too many cooking experiments around here in the last month or so.  I did try this Squash Salad with Lentils and Goat Cheese somewhat successfully, and I can't stop thinking about the Pork Chops with Sauerkraut that my mom made for New Year's (hint: it has sour cream and paprika).  I've also made cabbage rolls twice--really easy to bake a large casserole of them and then freeze in small portions.


If ye be worried that this post might lack photographic culinary detail, do not despair.  I almost wrote that I had lots of potatoes, left, but that is no longer quite the case.  Having many potatoes on hand, as well as bacon in the freezer, and random cream in the refrigerator, I tried this Loaded Baked Potato Soup recipe from Slow-Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen.  Delicious.  Click on the recipe to view it.

I also made Smitten Kitchen's Sour Cherry Slab Pie yesterday, and it turned out fantastically.  I used the all butter crust that she linked (as opposed to my standard shortening crust), and--provided one keeps everything cold--it was very easy to make and work with.

Unfortunately, the pie slab finished off the last of my sour cherry stash in the freezer.  I think I know of a place that has more, though, if I really get desperate.  Just don't tell my roommate.  She's probably enjoying being able to see a little bit of the back wall of the freezer again.

A Kitchen Mystery

For a number of weeks, people have often asked inquired about the large bucket in the corner of our kitchen.  In July, it held held sour cherries that I bought in bulk from a place in Michigan, but no longer.  Any guesses?

Sauerkraut!  One week Mary and I received two huge heads of cabbage in our CSA share.  What to do when you have more vegetables than you can deal with in one week? Preserve it, of course!  The question was how.

I'd previously seen a reference somewhere to making sauerkraut at home, and after a little internet research, became convinced that it's actually very easy.  And so it was!  We chopped up all the cabbage, layered it with salt, packed it down, poured on some extra salt water to make sure the cabbage was totally immersed, covered with cheesecloth, weighted it down with two ziploc bags filled with water, and let it sit undisturbed!  Read all about what exactly happens in the process here (something called lacto-fermentation).

Four weeks later (At least? Maybe more? I can't recall when we started this), here's the result.

 We had its inaugural eating with some bratwursts before the football game last weekend.  Yum!

An Autumn Account

The other day, as I was returning from a lovely recital at the performing arts center, I decided to drive into my apartment complex from the other entrance. Now, reader, you must understand that I rarely drive over there unless I want to get to a very particular street for a very particular reason. This was not at all the case, yet on a whim, I turned right instead of left, adding a couple hundred feet to our return trip and thus approaching my apartment from the opposite direction from usual.

"Are those peaches?!" exclaimed my companion quite suddenly. Confused, I glanced out her side of the vehicle. "Maybe? I can't tell. I'll pull in."

We parked by the dumpster in the front corner of the complex and hopped out, discovering a rather large tree, loaded with--not peaches--but small apples. After reaching for a few and finding them to be tasty, a short conversation ensued.


"We wanted to do something outside--how about this?"
"Yes! I'm in!"
"But how are we going to get them all?"
"I have a step-stool, and maybe we could grab some sort of tongs?"
"We really need one of those things they have in stores that help you reach things on the top shelves..."
"Yeah. Hmm. How about an umbrella? Or a long stick? Or maybe ---- can help?"
We quickly acquired some empty bags, a step-stool, an umbrella, a pair of heels (every inch counts!), and kitchen tongs. An hour later, and after the brief assistance of a 6' tall friend, we were left with two dish pans full of apples with various levels of bug-infestation.

What does one do with apples too small to merit  peeling and coring? After sorting out the better apples for eating, we chopped up the rest and cooked them down on the stove with a little water. A gracious friend lent me a mixer and attachment that we could use to strain the cooked apples of their peel and seeds.




If you ever stop by, ask to try the über-local, all natural, pesticide-free, nothing-added-except-cinnamon applesauce residing in a few jars in the pantry!

Green Beans, Take 2

I was headed home today daydreaming about making szechuan green beans, but when I actually got back, in a sheer fit of laziness (not wanting to walk an extra 20 feet to grab my computer and look up my recipe), I decided to look for  recipes in the cookbooks by the kitchen.  Am I ever glad that I did.  The second book I pulled off the shelf was More Best Recipes by the folks of Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen.  In this book series (I'm told that their Best 30-Minute Recipe is one of the top cookbooks around), the editors take a fairly common food and, through dozens and dozens of test runs and experiments, come up with the perfect, foolproof recipe.

Well, after checking the index, I discovered that a full four pages were devoted to green beans, both sauteed and roasted.  The common problem they saw with the former was that by the time the beans were cooked, the outsides were usually black and burnt.  Their solution?  Saute the green beans for six minutes, add a small bit of water and cover the pan, thus steaming them for two minutes, then uncover and turn up the heat to evaporate any leftover water, and finish sauteeing along with the flavorings/spices for two more minutes.  The result? Perfection.  Just the right amount of browning and wrinkling, fully cooked, yet still with a crisp bite.

Luckily for you, this recipe (along with variations, but without the long explanation of the recipe's development) is online!  I made the first variation, with smoked paprika and almonds.

Cook's Illustrated Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic and Herbs

And the list goes on

Zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, purple potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes of various sorts, green peppers, habanero peppers (much hotter than I anticipated, even at a very unripe stage), butternut squash, eggplant, pattypan squash, beets, okra, multi-colored carrots...I think that pretty much covers what I've been getting from my CSA subscription and the community garden.  Needless to say, I haven't been buying much in groceries lately except for eggs, milk, and the occasional bag of sugar for canning.  Speaking of which, I bought a half bushel of peaches the other week which I--besides simply canning a large portion of them--made into preserves as well as this delicious peach barbecue sauce (a great recipe that you could simply make fresh).  There are still a few boxes of jars sitting around waiting for an apple-picking excursion followed by applesauce making.  Hopefully they're not bothering my roommate too much!

So what does one do with all the aforementioned produce? Especially when extra, unanticipated zucchini show up on your doorstep?  Well, I've made buttermilk zucchini soup, ordinary zucchini soup, chocolate zucchini bread, pineapple-raisin zucchini bread, cucumber salad, cucumber and basil slush (I was incredibly skeptical of this, but it actually tasted fairly good), ratatouille, roasted root vegetables, sauted squash, okra and tomatoes, and borscht. For the latter (a great soup that utilizes a lot of mid- to late-summer vegetables), Mary and I used a conglomaration of a few recipes, and it turned out well.  We actually only used one beet.  One beet, which yielded 4 cups when grated.  No joke.

The beet which became the borscht:

I hope you're enjoying the bounty of summer as much as I am!