Apple Turnovers for Sandy

I have cleaned everything. I've cleaned all the little knobs on the stove with q-tips. I unscrewed the shower drain to clean underneath it. I've donated three bags to goodwill so-far. Pretty soon the whole house will be clean and I'll have to start over or I'll have to find another outlet for my nerves (to clarify - general nerves, I'm not that concerned about the hurricane). The truth is I just haven't been motivated to cook anything in the last couple weeks. I have eaten all the lean cuisine in the fridge though, so it is about time I get to doing something.

I'm not a "neat" person anyway, Ethan will tell you. I am the queen of losing important envelopes or receipts I've written notes on the back of, to large, towering stacks of mail, books, and newspapers (mostly circulars). We had to move some of the stacks under the couch to make more room. At any given time I have as many as 5 projects ongoing - most of which are taking place inside my head - with pieces of each scattered around the house.

But today I managed to use what seems like every dish in the house making apple turnovers from scratch. I've wanted to try these since I've been able to browse the glorious apple selection now available and the season is pretty much coming to a close. What could be a better time than on the brink of an impeding disaster? Everyone needs a little dessert with their torrential rain, high winds and possible snow.

Apple Turnovers

Pies are cool but there is something about eating a turnover that is so much more satisfying for me. Pie is good the first night, but you can eat turnovers for breakfast. I will be eating turnovers for breakfast tomorrow, because they are delicious. You can't eat pie for breakfast. 

What will you need? 

For the crust:

14 TBS butter (almost 2 sticks)

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour + more for rolling

1/3 c. water

2 TBS apple-cider vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:

2 TBS butter 

4 Apples of your choice, I used 3 Granny Smith + 1 pear because pears were on sale

1/2 c. brown sugar (whichever type you have, or prefer)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 TBS cornstarch

1 TBS water

This is pretty much an all day project so don't go procrastinating if you really want to get this job done. Making the crust is fairly straight-forward when you read about it but the whole thing can go wrong pretty quick - too much kneading, not enough kneading, too much water, not enough water. WARNING: This is my first crust ever! My mom makes a really great pie crust but then she tells me "oh just go buy it at the store". Not as fun Mom! Not as fun. Gotta figure it out. 

 So freeze your butter. It's a great trick, especially if you don't have a stand mixer which it seems like everyone does except me. Lucky ducks! Using a cheese grater, grate your 14 TBS of cold butter into 2 1/4 c. sifted flour. Mix around to coat the butter. Put in the freezer/fridge. Dissolve 1/2 tsp salt in 1/3 c. water then add 2 TBS apple-cider vinegar. Put this in the freezer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes take out your bowl and water-vinegar mixture. Add a little liquid at a time to the flour until it starts to become sticky. At this point you may need to add a little more ice water until the dough forms a ball. STOP MIXING/KNEADING WHEN THE DOUGH IS IN A BALL. Split into two balls, flatten somewhat and wrap in wax paper. Put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

 When you're ready, melt 2 TBS of butter in a large skillet. Cut up your fruit into small cubes and place in the skillet. Add 1/2 c. brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Stir. Let simmer 5-10 minutes stirring regularly. Increase heat to medium, add 1 TBS Cornstarch mixed with 1 TBS water, to thicken. Stir 2 minutes until thick. Let cool.

 When you're ready, roll out your dough, 1 ball at a time, into a large square or circle. Cut into 4 pieces and drop ~1/4 c. of apple filling in the center of the dough. Fold in half and crimp edges around with a fork to seal. Plug up any holes in your dough! Or your oven will just be a mess.

Make several slits in the top of your turnover to vent before putting in the oven for 25 minutes at 400˚F.

ps. THE CRUST WAS DELICIOUS!

Recipe for the Wedding Bell Blues

This pumpkin recipe is good medication for whatever blues you've got since it is delicious, terrible for you, and kind of good for you too! Plus your kitchen will never smell better.

Weddings are funny. At the same time that they are a super-fun, incredibly happy event celebrating a couple's love for each other, they also feed on whatever doubtful, self-destructive, anxiety-ridden cocktail you have brewing inside you. I am not saying that I wish it was me in the beautiful empire-waisted gown walking down the aisle but part of me wishes I could fast forward to a nice August day in the future when I am walking down the aisle in a similar wondrous gown awaiting 'til death do us part'.

People in my newsfeed are getting married, engaged and having babies like everyday. Everyday! I'm not jealous - well not all that jealous - I just want to find a way to creatively filter these events so I don't have to feel the pressure. Everyone's doing it! It's like ninth grade all over again.

So you go to the wedding and it is beautiful and fabulous and all the things a good wedding should be. (Plus the food was awesome!!) But it leads you on this mental safari through your own plans for your "ideal" wedding, then some guilt for even thinking about it, then more thinking about it - especially about how you would like to make your own cake, god knows that would take at least a year of planning - then more guilt, topped with another layer of guilt, all in a pressure cooker that we're going to let rest for a couple years. The title of this should actually be "Recipe for Wedding Bell Anxiety".

Then you go home, cry, cook a pumpkin and doing some yoga breaths.

Also try really really hard to convince your boyfriend that even though you're crying, and stuffing your face with leftover cake, you're not actually trying to put any pressure on him to get married or whatever.

Not-From-A-Can Pumpkin Bread

Do me a favor and just try this, just once, if you've never cooked a sugar pumpkin before. You won't be disappointed. 

 What will you need?
1 sugar pumpkin (you'll have extra, so get a freezer bag ready)
1 1/2 c. (unbleached) all-purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar (use more sugar if you want or if you don't have maple syrup)
1/4 c. maple syrup (or honey or whatever other sweeteners you like)
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. vegetable oil (or some other oil you have or like)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon (adjust if you don't like cinnamon as much as me. I would put cinnamon in everything if I could. Alternatively you could also add allspice, or just use pumpkin pie spice in lieu of the others).
1/2 c. walnuts (optional - i love walnuts but I hardly ever actually put them in anything i bake because they can be such a deal breaker for some).

First things first - roast your pumpkin. This is a lengthy endeavor so you can do it the day before - or a week before! and freeze it. Totally worth it though. Just beware - the beautiful Fall orange color that is a side effect of working with canned pumpkin is lost when working with pumpkin puree. I promise its made up for in taste though. Preheat your oven to 350˚F, cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and place it face down in a baking sheet.  Cook for ~45 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft when stuck with a fork (much like cooking a potato). You'll also notice the skin starting to bubble and come away from the meat inside - this is good. It will be easier to scoop.

 Now to finish your puree you can scoop the insides into a food processor or a blender depending on what you have (or if you don't feel like washing either of those things, just use a potato masher). I suggest straining it through a sieve if you have one so it becomes smooth and less pulpy. Remove 1 c. of puree for your bread and freeze the rest in something freezer-safe. Otherwise freeze everything and wait 'til your up for the task.

 Sift your flour, sugar, baking soda and spices together in a small bowl. Mix the rest of your ingredients (not the walnuts, if you've decided to use them) in a larger bowl then add your dry ingredients. Combine ingredients (plus walnuts if you like) well but don't be overly zealous. Pour into a well-greased 9x5x3 and bake 45 minutes. Check on it no later than 40 minutes! This is how I found out my oven isn't level, I had burnt on side and undercooked the other. Cook until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

The Best Applesauce

The dollars. You gotta have 'em. Cause this girl's got the LOANS (and a pretty serious grocery store addiction).  And while I contemplate whether I can afford to drink 5 large pumpkin coffees a week, I know I am the only one operating on this frequency. But I've never been one to be lavish, at all, ever. The last time I bought something that wasn't on sale was ... never. And I promise the meak consumerism isn't a side-effect of the amateur environmentalist in me, it is that I, lilly, cannot take any more than I need for myself (unless it is shirts from a 5$ and under rack). Can't do it. Don't want to.

So I've been working a lot. All the time. And then there is all the life stuff...laundry, dishes, bills. On top of that being present in your relationship, your work, your life. And I'm talking really being present. Not just when you want to and no matter how many coffees you have to suck it up and pay for. Because if I expect that of other people, I have to be there too. It's all well and good, but it makes you tired, too.

The Best Applesauce

Since I have the best job ever I got to spend the day picking these beauties at Windy Hill Farm. Picking is not really the word for it since the farm unfortunately lost all of there apple crop in the Spring. Instead we picked different kinds of apples from bins throughout the orchard. Colin wasn't all that into it, but I had a good time.

What will you need?
6 Large Apples, cored and quartered (you can use as many apples as you want, but 6 is a reasonable batch for a large pot)
1 c. water
1 small finger of ginger, sliced thick (optional)
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Cinnamon (optional)
Maple syrup (optional)

Core and quarter your large apples. I'm told if you want chunky applesauce, you can peel your apples and let them cook until they are soft enough to mash with a potato masher. But if you are looking for beautiful pink applesauce, leave those skins on! The process is lengthier but it does come out so nice.

Place your apples and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat (add ginger if you are using it - definitely use it!) and simmer for 20 minutes or until the apples are soft when you stick a fork in them. If you are lucky enough to have a food processor than by all means, break that out. But if your like me, you can put it in your hand-me-down blender, in small batches if necessary.

Strain the old fashioned way, or don't strain at all. Beware of stray ginger bits if you don't.

Return to the pot and add lemon, cinnamon and/or maple syrup. Honey is also a good sweetener, but it is pretty sweet on its own. Make a ton and put it in the freezer! Freeze flat in freezer bags for easy storage.

How to Approach a Turnip

At the BigY Turnips are $0.78/lb. I am hard pressed to find any produce cheaper than that. It could be because turnips are ugly, a non-staple, and a royal pain in the ass. So of course I bought one.

I don't not like turnips. I am just not sure why you would buy them in lieu of all the other wonderful fall harvest items that are available. Even at less than a dollar per pound you still have the dilemma of how to get your boyfriend to eat them. Something I pondered for 2 1/2 wks before feeling up to the task. Here's the answer: hide them.

During the 2 + weeks of consideration on the turnips, I had the pleasure of traversing the entire state of New York on me and Ethan's first vacation in two years! It was wonderful. Niagara falls is really as amazing as everyone says it is and really something you have to see for yourself.  The tourism thing is fun for a day or so but a continuation of it can be kind of a drag. Yes, I know you would like to take 3 bazillion pictures of yourself in front of the falls, on the Maid of the Mist, at Cave of the Winds, in front of the Niagara sign, in front of the Hard Rock Cafe sign and really any sign you can find but at some point isn't it enough? Do you seriously have a 16 GB SD card in your iPhone?

Nevertheless, it was a great time. It's nice to have time to enjoy all the things you like about your relationship instead of reminiscing about them between work shifts, meals and sleep.

Turnip Potato Hash Brown Patties

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of these beauties while they were frying. By far the most delicious looking of all the recipes I found while googling "turnip". Believe it or not, the pickins' are slim. 

So the trick is to hide the turnip inside a fried potato which you then cover with runny, delicious over-easy eggs. Anyone will eat turnips like this. I promise.  

What will you need?

1 Large Potato cubed (1/2 in)

about the same amount of turnip cubed (1/4 in)

1 Egg

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 TBS lemon juice

2 chopped scallions (about 3 TBS)

salt and pepper (whatever you prefer)

1/4 c oil (or 1/8 c oil and 2 TBS butter)

Boil a pot of water then add the cubed potatoes and turnips. Make sure that the potatoes are bigger then the turnip cubes! They need to cook about the same time. Boil 15-18 minutes depending on the amount you have. Be careful when cutting the turnip too, it's like a rock! Drain, add the rest of the ingredients (not the oil) and mash until combined - not too much. Heat a large skillet to medium-high-ish heat with oil until it's very hot - i'm not kidding!  Drop 3-4 TBS into skillet and flatten with the back of a spoon or spatula. Cook 4 minutes, then flip. Cook 3 minutes or until browned. Serve with runny eggs! Yay! They will be delicious fried little morsels with a hint of turnip - not overly turnip-y.