Apple Pie Beauty

I've said it before and I'll say it again - my sweetie is the real baker in this house. He made this beautiful apple pie recently, using the Fannie Famer Cookbook recipe. Isn't it gorgeous? Most importantly, it tasted as good as it looked!

Mother's Day Dessert

My beautiful mom was over for brunch yesterday and I wanted to make her something special. In the dessert category, she likes raspberries or oranges with chocolate, raspberries with flan, and lemon curd, among other things. Therefore, I decided to combine some of these for what I am naming the Lemon Nell, after my mom.

It is sort of a parfait, sort of a trifle. In wine glasses, I layered lemon curd, raspberries, angel food cake and topped it off with fresh whipped cream and fresh mint from the garden. I made all the ingredients earlier in the morning, then assembled it just before serving. It was simple, summery and very sweet.

First I made the lemon curd, since it takes some time in the fridge. Whisk 4 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar and the juice of 2 lemons in a small saucepan. Add 1 softened stick of unsalted butter and lemon zest from the squeezed lemons. Stir over medium heat 10-12 minutes until thick. Pour curd into small bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface. Refrigerate for at least one hour. This was the first time I've made curd, so I think it will turn out a little smoother next time. It was delicious, but I saw some lumps in it. Think occasional lumpy pudding.

Next, make a simple syrup on the stove of sugar, water, lemon, and a splash of Chambord liquor. Finally, whip cream with a pinch of sugar and about a teaspoon of lemon zest.

You could use Angle Food Cake, sponge cake, etc. Just before serving, tear cake into bite-sized pieces. Put in the simple syrup bowl and press down so all pieces are soaked. In each glass, place a heaping tablespoon of the curd, followed by 3-4 pieces of the soaked cake, and finally a handful of fresh raspberries. Do the next layer in the same order, but start with about twice as much lemon curd. Top raspberries with whipped cream and a mint sprig.

Sweets from my Sweet

I can't take any credit for this, but I still had to show it to you since we are still talking about how amazing it was. Drew made this cake from Gourmet for Easter. I am not a huge sweets fan, but even I couldn't resist a few pieces - small pieces dragged out over a while because it's just so rich. Superb!

To Hell with Teeth - the Brittle Edition

The holiday gift-making has begun! Today I made brittle for the first time, based on a recipe in this month's Gourmet. It's a little different than the normal peanut brittle. It has a mixture of nuts - pistachio, almond and cashew. It calls for sliced almonds, though I used slivered and just chopped them up, and, when I ran out of those, I used chopped pecans. What makes this brittle special, however, is the cardamom, that heavenly scented seed. Cardamom would make a lovely perfume!

I found the recipe pretty easy to do, and didn't need to put it into the oven at any point. Next I'll wrap them up and include in my gift baskets.

Prost!

This past weekend we had our annual Oktoberfest party and, if the empty beer bottles are any indication, the party was a great success. Our guests brought their own beer and their own sausages, which we cooked for them in a big pot of sauerkraut and beer. We also served potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce, Drew’s gorgeous red cabbage, a cheesy baked spaetzle, liptauer with German rye and wilted cucumbers. We offered a few different mustards for those who like to screw up sausage with it, and had two desserts: gingerbread and a pear kuchen (see picture above). The kuchen recipe came from Gourmet.

There just aren't enough meats on sticks

So I finally got to meet my friend Elizabeth's fiance Garrett when they came over for dinner the other night. For the special occasion, I made the kefta and zucchini kebabs from the Epicurious website. I also added a couple of cherry tomato kebabs, which were marinated in the zucchini marinade (lemon, salt, pepper, olive oil, sugar). The lamb was really outstanding - ground lamb mixed with cayenne, cinnamon, minced parsley & cilantro, allspice, minced onion, salt and pepper. And a tasty yogurt dip, for which I doubled the amount of garlic. Really tasty meatballs. The zucchini and tomato were good to have on the side, but I didn't think the marinade added a lot of flavor. Also had a good loaf of crusty bread and a bowl of calamata olives. For dessert, since we are swimming in peaches right now, we had the Peach Tatin from the Food and Wine website. Now, I love this recipe, which I've made several times before, but it didn't turn out as well as it has before - primarily because of the time delusion I was suffering from. I didn't cook it for close to the time needed, so the puff pastry just didn't get a chance to really do its thing. Oh well. Also, the corn syrup got a little too dark, though I don't think that really affected its taste. Still, it was a wonderful night. And it took me a while to recover and write about it in part because of the three bottles of hearty red wine we had with the meal. Yum. (that may have played a role in the time delusion.) And we liked Garrett too!