weekly fix: apple of my eye edition

Thanks to the dastardly combination of being sans car and money, I’m sad to report that I missed apple picking this year. Bummer.

Nevertheless, I can still enjoy peak apple season by eating them like a champ. A cold, crisp apple is one of my favorite snacks — cut into thick slices with peanut butter (or nutella!) is the way to go. As such, this collection of tidbits takes its inspiration from the perfect autumn fruit.

• A few neat suggestions for ways to put your apple peels to good use. Similarly, you can also easily make your own pectin from apple leavings–I started collecting scraps (I have a designated container in my freezer) and am looking forward to giving this a shot.

• I hope to make these apple gouda oatmeal cookies soon. Don’t they look tasty? Best of all, you only need to use one bowl. Hell yeah.

• Lastly, wouldn’t seeing this street art each day make taking the red line much more appealing, fellow Chicagoans? (Heh, see what I did there?) Really though, the artist does some pretty cool stuff–fruits & veggies all over the city.

 

apple pastries (or, why “baking is my mixtape”)

One of my favorite things about baking is being able to share the finished product. There is something so fantastically satisfying about creating something with my own hands, putting care and effort into my work, and being able to pass it along for somebody special to enjoy.

Of course, this is what also makes baking nerve-wracking for me. What if something goes wrong and it turns out terrible? What if I forget to add an ingredient and the entire recipe is ruined? Or worse, WHAT IF I BURN IT?! (I’m still scarred from the infamous sticky bun incident of February 2009….)

I’m learning to approach my kitchen escapades with an open mind and a bit of fearlessness–and am reminding myself that even mistakes will make me a better baker.

Last month I used some of my apples to make two different kinds of pastries. It was the first time I’ve made pastry dough, and I was pretty curious about how it would turn out. And although coring, peeling, and slicing apples can be a time-consuming endeavor, it was totally worth it–these were pretty easy to make and the leftovers made for a number of tasty breakfasts that week. Best of all, it inspired me to keep working on nailing a solid pastry dough–think of all the delicious things that deserve to be baked inside a flaky crust!

apple pie pastries, before

apple pie pastries, after!

And as silly as it feels to actually write this, the truth is that a part of me really does go into anything I’ve baked, and absolutely into anything I’ve shared.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

developing an appreciation for zucchini…by way of shirtless men?

I kind of hate zucchini.

My cousin used to tease me about disliking vegetables. “You’re a vegetarian,” she’d point out. “You’re supposed to like them all!”

And in a way, I guess she’s right. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to teach myself to develop an appreciation for the foods I snubbed as a child–tomatoes, mushrooms, and beets, just to name a few. Best of all, my endeavors have been met with success (although the verdict is still out on cauliflower).

So when I saw a basket full of beautiful little zucchinis at the farmers market a few weekends ago, I figured it was about time I give these guys a shot. And, speaking of guys, here’s where the shirtless men come in.

A friend of mine, knowing that I was getting more and more into baking, gave me a fantastic Christmas present last year–a “Stud Muffins” cookbook. Full of muffin recipes, gratuitous photos, and Harlequin romance-esque stories to link up the muffins with the studs, this book is fabulously over the top. For example, the story that accompanies this recipe includes a rather suggestive produce picking scene and some unsettling dialogue about planting seeds in fertile soil. Ahem.

I tweaked the recipe a bit, adding a few apples (still have to get through those 16 pounds) and a healthy amount of freshly grated nutmeg. The recipe called for honey and chopped nuts, both of which I left out (the apples are pretty sweet and I just didn’t have any nuts–although they’d be a delicious addition). I also ended up using both white and brown sugar, simply because that’s what we had. Lastly, I decided to make this as a bread, which is most likely why it took so long to bake–if you go the muffin route, I image they’ll bake much quicker.

zucchini apple bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 cup of apples, cored, peeled & diced
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, making a well in the center. Separately, combine the grated zucchini, diced apples, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring until just moistened.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 325 for about 40, 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The bread is quite tasty (I’ve already put a good dent into it), and the best part is the crust, which is just a little crunchy and sweet. Truth be told, you don’t really taste the zucchini at all, which may just defeat the whole purpose. But hey, baby steps, right?