Fall Food Fiesta Episode 3

I think this will be the last in this fall food series…sigh. Although I haven’t completely resigned myself to starting to cook winter type foods just yet. It feels more like I’m simply refusing to give up apples than anything else lol. Oh well. YOLO. (ugh…I’m THAT girl…)

Basically I’m just obsessed with apples…

In this post I’m sharing two gems with you that I’ve recently discovered…a dinner AND a desert. Boom.

The first I’m going to share with you is somewhat similar to this recipe that I made last year, which I really didn’t care for. So I tried again. Its another attempt at Mac & Cheese with Caramelized Onions, Apple, and Bacon. So many things that I love…apples, cheese, caramelized onions, bacon…This time its all arranged in a way thats more delicious.

I won’t take too much time explaining how to make this recipe because I’ve done it a few times before. So I’ll just explain how to make it different from plain caramelized onion mac and cheese.

Cheesy bacony appley goodness.

To make this you basically just add the bacon and apples to the recipe I linked to above. It’s not difficult. It tasted good. My one note on it was that I used Maple Bacon…which in hind sight was a little off…I think that regular bacon would work best…or maybe smoked.

I also tried my first ever crockpot desert…Crockpot Apple Crisp. Because seriously…how can you not, right? It’s actually really easy to put together. Here’s the biz you’ll need:

• ~5 granny  apples, peeled and sliced
• 2 Tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 c old fashioned oats
• 3/4 c dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 c butter

Apples on apples…Put your peeled and sliced apples in your crockpot and coat with lemon juice.

In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, oatmeal). Then cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or some forks. Then top the apples with your crumb mixture.

Crock on high for 1.5 to 2 hours until apples are tender.

After it cools down a little serve that biz with ice cream and EAT UP.

This recipe will make your house smell AMAZING. A substitution I made was to use about half the oatmeal and use cereal for the other half (Special K Vanilla Almond to be specific, but anything corn flake-like will do). I mixed the crumbs into the apples rather than let it just sit on top so it did make the consistency a little different (not much of a crunchy top) but it still tasted good. You can also add pecans like the original recipe calls for.

When I make this recipe again I will consider using one of those crockpot liners because this was a little bit of a pain to clean up…worth it…but still work.

FUN ACTIVITY ALERT: My lady pals and I had a fun adventure a couple weekends ago so I figured I’d share it. We went to our first ever Blacklight 5K. It was SO FUN. It’s basically the Color Run except its a night and the colors glow under blacklight. It was most definitely NOT 5K…I’d guess it was maybe like 1.5 miles and in terms of logistics it was a bit of a shit show but it was still super fun to walk (running for fun is not my jam) and there was a big dance party at the end and they were throwing tons of color into the crowd.

The Before and After shot

I think I may have gotten some color on me….

 

What fall foods will you miss most?

 

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Fall Food Fiesta Episode 2

So there are just so many awesome things you can make in the fall that just taste so much better for the simple fact that it IS fall. I’ve been a major slacker at not putting these next few dishes up here earlier. Sorry. For those of you in the Northeast with me you are understanding that fall is pretty much over at this point. BUT you can totally fight this turn in the weather in the kitchen to squeeze in a few more weeks of fall.

I actually made this dish about a month ago with a pal of mine and was really happy with it. It’s a pork dish (sorry Jewish friends) which made me a little hesitant because I’m not great with pork, but it was awesome. I made an awesome fall pork dish last year too, check it out! This dish is creatively titled Pork Chops with Apples and Onions…clearly they broke out the big ones with that one.

Here’s what you’ll need:

-4 pork chops
-2-3 apples (cored and sliced)
-1 cup chicken broth, beer, white wine, or cider (I used chicken broth)
-1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
– 2 Tbs butter
-1 onion, sliced
-salt, pepper, and cinnamon/all spice

Pork Chops over Mashed Potatoes with Goat Cheese Stuffed Crescent Rolls

Trim your pork chops of the extra fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a cast iron skillet and add the olive oil. Place the chops in the hot pan and don’t touch them for 3-5 mins (so that you’ll get that great sear). Flip them and do the same with the other side. Remove from pan after around 10 mins and put on a plate (but you’re not done with them yet).

Turn the heat down to medium. Add your butter to the pan, then add the onions and apples. Add the cinnamon/all spice and saute until the apples are soft and the onions are a bit caramelized (~8 mins). Stir in the broth (or whatever broth you choose) and let it reduce a bit (so its gravy-esque). Put your chops back in the pan.

Cook the chops for another 15ish minutes, turning them over half way through and covering them up with you onion/apple biz. Serve over rice or mashed taters.

YUM. Mashed taters, pork, apples, onions…Best.

This is a great fall meal…it has the seasonal flavors I love and it hearty. The one thing that made a huge difference though was READING THE COMMENTS. I cannot stress how important it can be to read the comments for recipes you find online. In this case almost every single comment mentioned that it was lacking something (which is why I added the cinnamon) and that there were some logistical steps missing (like turning the heat down after searing the meat, and giving the apple mixture time to reduce after adding the broth).

Overall a solid meal.

In other news, I did other fall things too 🙂 I carved a bitchin’ pumpkin with the ladies and I stepped up my halloween costume effort this year (youtube tutorials for the win) lol. I got these sick vampire teeth that mold to you teeth so you can talk relatively normal and they look freakishly real. Check out the pics below:

Party Pre-Gaming like champs

Obvi we’re on the couch taking selfies….just a vamp and lumberjack. NBD

I guess its Jack the Pumpkin King?

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Feel free to share your Halloween costume in the comments 🙂

 

Fall Food Fiesta Episode 1

You know…I tried for like 5 minutes just now to come up with something clever to call the next few posts….I got nothin’. So I settled for some basic alliteration.

The thing is, I love fall. Its basically my fave season. The colors, the temperature (my ideal), the smells, and obvi the foods. Tis the season of PUMPKIN…and squash, and apples, and cinnamon. There really isn’t any other time of year where we go as nuts over these guys as RIGHT NOW. Anyone within a 2 mile radius of a Starbucks knows all about the pumpkin craze (cough…return of the pumpkin spice latte…cough cough).

So I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve cooked up this autumn.

First in this fall fiesta series comes Butternut Squash Ravioli with a Browned Butter Sage Sauce.

I have wanted to make ravioli for a while now, but I got a pretty severe case of the lazies.  And I’m not talking about getting like for serious-serious about this…I’m talking about using wonton wrappers as the pasta substitute. Pinterest paints a pretty detailed road map on just how to do it.

You can pick up wonton wrappers pretty cheap at just about any grocery store (HINT: they are in the produce section and cost under $5).

Cook the squash, add the spices and puree.

I didn’t follow a set recipe but here’s what I used:

-1 mediumish butternut squash
-Cinnamon and all spice
-~1/4 c. butter
-1/2 parmesan cheese
-1 package wonton wrappers

To start your cook your squash. Add spices, cheese, and butter and blend until smooth.

Add the dollop of squash

Then its time to assemble your raviolis. Put a dollop of your squash mixture in the center of on wonton wrapper. Then, using your finger or a pastry brush, wet the edges with water and seal with another wrapper. Pinch the edges all the way closed. Continue until all the squash and wontons are gone.

Add the top and seal it up

Then boil your pasta water and cook the raviolis. They stick together a bit so you will likely have to cook a few at a time. They are done when they float to the top.

Cook’em up

I messed the sauce up when I made it. I didn’t use fresh sage, or measure so I used too much. I did however brown the butter like a boss.

Butternut Squash Ravioli

This is something I will definitely attempt again now that I know more about it. I kept my cooked raviolis in my strainer which caused them to stick together and also left little circle indents on them (as you can see in the photos). But they’re just so easy to make! You can fill them with anything…I can’t wait to whip up some kind of goat cheese raviolis.

On an unrelated note. I recently took an awesome trip to Colorado with my lady friends. We had the best time at C’s house chilling with the fam, eating amazing food, and super fun activities (tour of the Celestial Seasonings Factory, hiking, gun shootin’). C’s mom made us amazing pancakes for breakfast and a tasty lasagna. And her awesome sis and bro-in-law set up a gun range in the backyard for us to try to shoot a few different guns. He even generously let us break in his new toy–the moving target…I totally hit like 5 of them and it was totally awesome. Here are some photos to commemorate the trip.

Celestial Seasonings Tour…sexy hair nets

Hiking around

Shootin’ guns like a boss…note the missing nubs from where I blew them away 🙂

The ladies posing with some assault weapons…NBD

Apple Butter Pork Chops

So last week I bought a big ole’ pack of pork chops. I was weirdly craving them…weirdly because for no real reason I hardly ever eat pork. I don’t know that many ways to cook pork chops because, like I said, I hardly ever eat them. Since I had taken them out the freezer I locked myself into making them…I just didn’t know what HOW I would make them yet. So I did what I always do when I don’t know the answer to something…I googled the crap out of it.

And good old Google didn’t let me down. I saw a bunch of recipes involving apple sauce (because naturally pork chops and applesauce go to together…just ask those fun-loving Brady kids). Then LIGHTBULB! I remembered that I have my homemade apple butter in the fridge still! So I refined my search a little to look specifically for apple butter pork chop recipes. I was not disappointed. I found a tasty easy recipe pretty quickly.

 

The great thing about this recipe is that it has like 3 ingredients: pork chops, apple butter, and garlic. BOOM. That’s my jam. The recipe on blog I found is for 4 pork chops…but I only defrosted 2 so I just fudged it. I minced about 2 Tbs of garlic (I like strong garlic) and mixed it with about 1/2 cup of my apple butter.

 

I dunked the chops into the sauce so it covered the bottom. Then I spooned more onto the tops so the chops were covered 360 in the apple butter garlic goodness.

You cook them for 30-45 mins on 350 and you get these guys! The blog I found the recipe on says 25-35 mins but mine were NOT cooked at the 30 min mark so just check on them and go off how done they are.

 

This was my dinner. Here’s the thing. I love potatoes. I really do. For some strange reason they frequently elude my brain though. Its crazy. I can NEVER remember how to properly cook baked potatoes or how long it will take. I was at trivia at the bar across from my house last night and they randomly played Mambo #5…a song I have not heard in at LEAST 8 years…and I remembered every single word. Yet my idiot brain REFUSES to remember how to bake a stupid potato. I seriously call my mom and ask her how long it takes every single time lol. I guess that’s what mom’s are for…

In case you were wondering about how the above mentioned trivia went–we nailed it! First place! BOOM.

Hearty Beef Stew to Warm Your Belly

Sandy oh Sandy. As I’m writing this the lightening is flashing and the thunder is booming outside my apartment. We were hit (more like open palmed slapped…half-heartedly) by Hurricane Sandy yesterday, and I figure this is some sort of aftershock-esque weather. I only had to work a half day at work because the T shut down at 2. But to be honest I was radiating with annoyance at having to go into work at all…there’s nothing I love better than a stormy day in my sweat pants. But whatever right? There are people with ACTUAL  problems resulting from Sandy so I’ll stop being a jerk.

this poor guy seems to be the only casualty on my street!

Anyways…I’ve been meaning to post this for like 2 weeks. So I’m sharing it with you now. A few weeks ago I busted out the ‘ole crockpot and whipped up some Beef Stew. As I’ve mentioned before in other posts I’m really not a soup person; it’s just not my jam generally. But I wanted to branch out and give it a go…partly because the weather turned arctic…remember that week? brrrrrr!

It’s actually really easy to put together and you don’t need any other pots or anything…it’s mostly just layering. Here’s how the magic happens: (recipe from Get Crocked)

Hearty Beef Stew

• 2 lbs. stew beef
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 4 lg. carrots, peeled & sliced in 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 lg. potatoes, peeled & chopped into chunks
• 1 c. condensed beef broth
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1/3 c. soy sauce
• 1 lg. onion, sliced
• 1 can tomato sauce (8 oz.)

1. Layer potatoes on the bottom of your crock pot.
2. Next, layer carrots on top of potatoes.
3. Place meat on top of carrots.
4. Sprinkle meat with soy sauce, salt, paprika, pepper & flour.
5. Layer chopped onions evenly on top of sauce/seasonings.
6. Combine beef broth & tomato sauce and pour over everything in the crock pot.
7. Cover and cook on low for 7 – 8 hrs. (or high 4 – 5 hrs. if pressed for time

   Now I changed it up a bit to suit my tastes…I added canned corn and a sweet potato as well.

This is an easy recipe for putting the freezer for later cooking, or just feeding yourself slash your family. I think it’s a good one to keep in your arsenal for this winter!

Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie…Yes Please!

True story: I love chicken pot pie. Let’s be serious here people, what’s NOT to love about it? Answer: nothing.

So obviously when I came across an opportunity to combine my love of chicken pot pie with my love of crockpots…BOOM…it was a big lovefest.

Its actually super easy to whip up…and is perfect for this chilly (sometimes freezing) fall weather.

 

Here’s how you make it:

• 1 – 1/2 lbs. Chicken Thighs, boneless
• 10 3/4 oz. cream of chicken, canned
• 10 3/4 oz. cream of celery, canned
• 10 3/4 oz. cream of broccoli, canned
• 8 oz. corn
• 8 oz. carrots
• 10 oz. green beans
• 8 oz. peas
• 1 large potato (I added this to the recipe because I love potatoes in my pot pies)
• Biscuits, package of 8-10

1. Fill the bottom of the crock pot with boneless chicken thighs and potatoes.

2. Pour a can of cream of chicken, cream of celery and cream of broccoli soup over the chicken and potatoes.

3. Cover. Cook for 6 hrs on low.

4. Add a can of corn, carrots, green beans and peas and cook for 45 min longer on low.

5. Make biscuits in the oven and scoop pot pie on top of biscuits.

So easy and delicious!

Apples to Apples: Part 3

Apples apples and more apples. That has been my life for like 2 weeks. But in my recent post I told you that I made Apple Butter in my crockpot.

I’ll be honest with you. I had NO idea what apple butter was, what it looked like, what it tasted like, or what the what you did with it. But friends and the internet said good things so I figured hey why not?

It is a bit of a process so it works best as a weekend thing.

Start by peeling, coring and chopping about a dozen apples. Then toss them in your crockpot.

Next add 1/4 c brown sugar and cinnamon (I used like 1.5 Tbs) and 1/2c water. Set your crockpot on low and cook for about 10 hours (overnight works best time wise).

In the morning you have this!

Then use a wooden spoon to prop the cover open and cook on high for around 4 more hours.

After around 4 hours the water cooks off so you have this tasty mess. You can leave it like this, or you can use a Magic Bullet or Immersion Blender to smooth it out. I happen to have both so I opted for smooth.

I divided my batch in half. I filled this adorable mason jar and put it in my fridge, and filled a tupperware container and stuck it in my freezer for later. Its really tasty stuff. It also makes for great holiday gifts come Christmas time.