French Apple Tart

I have wanted to make a French Apple Tart for years.  In fact, I bought this pan to make a French Apple Tart ... when I was a teenager.  I now have teenagers of my own, one of which is eighteen.  To be honest, I have no idea why I have not made one before.  I've wanted to, but just have not gotten around to it.  It is not like I've not made tarts over the years in this pan, just not a French Apple Tart.  I've decided to start writing these things down, so that a great idea doesn't just go unrealized for years, especially not over twenty years.

So last week when we went apple picking, I decided this was the time, so I went in search of recipes and found Sara Moulton's French Apple Tart at Saveur and decided to give it a try.  Let me tell you, this recipe is a must try.  Not only is the crust wonderful, but it is one of the easiest I have worked with.  And, while the filling may seem overly simple with few ingredients, trust me, it is decadent.  It was definitely worth the twenty year wait, but I don't plan to wait that long before making it again.

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Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Apple Baked Oatmeal

I have really been struggling with dieting and cooking/baking.  Most of what I want, I just can't reasonably eat and try to loose weight.  So, when I tried this and it was absolutely wonderful, I was very happy.  You can find the recipe here at Emily Bites.  (By the way, if you are dieting, and especially if you are on Weight Watchers, I highly recommend Emily Bites.  She has a huge number of low calorie recipes and even includes points for those on Weight Watchers).  I did not change the ingredients, but I did change the procedure a bit.  I am NOT a morning person, so cooking breakfast is generally not on the day's agenda, so I mixed all the ingredients the night before - except the apples and pecans because I didn't want the apples to turn brown or the pecans to become soft.  I left it in the refrigerator over night in a covered glass bowl.  You could probably also go ahead and put it in the baking dish, but I didn't because I knew I wouldn't want to have to wait to bring the temperature up on the glass dish I was using in the morning before baking.  The next morning, I chopped and added the apple, poured it into the baking dish, topped it with the pecans, and baked it.  It took about 30 minutes to bake instead of 20 minutes due to starting out cold.  Not only did I love it, so did my husband and son who are not dieting.

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Pumpkin Muffins

Ok, I have been dying to try these.  Yes, I have seen them in numerous places on the web, and yes they are as good as they look, so you should try them too!

Here is the best part.  They have a cream cheese filling, which makes them wonderful!  It also makes them not a quick fix as you have to freeze the cream cheese sugar mixture in a log two hours before baking.  BUT, I did that the night before and made them for breakfast pretty quickly.  Kids and husband alike loved them - even the college child who didn't get to try one until they were several days old.  They also make a lot - 24 is a huge number of muffins for three people, which is why there were some left for the college girl when she came home.

I made mine by adapting this recipe from Annie's Eats.  I only had one can of pumpkin on hand, which left me about a quarter of a cup short, so I added two extra tablespoons of oil to compensate for the lack of moisture, and they turned out great.  Not a good substitution health wise, but it worked for taste.  Also, you won't need all of the topping.  I didn't use it all, and mine were still whitish on top unlike Annie's.  If I had used a little less, I think it would have melted a bit more and been even better.  There are some procedure pics after the break.

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Stuffed Pumpkin

I suspect this blog really will have mostly baking on it even though it doesn't seem this way right now.  Well technically, the pumpkins are baked, but they are definitely not cake and cookies, if you know what I mean.  My farmers' market selling is done until May, and I guess I am in the mood to cook other things.

I won't post the recipe here because I got it here:   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130704456 , and I sure you can follow the link. It is a Dorie Greenspan recipe from NPR.

I bought these two little pie pumpkins at the farmers' market, and had stuffed some last year and wanted to do it again.  I couldn't find the recipe I used last year, so I found this one.  I pretty much followed the recipe leaving out the chives, but throwing in a handful of kale.  Really they were delicious.  We all ate way too much.  You should try it.

Roasted Black Radishes

Yes, I know, they don't look black, but they were before I peeled them.  Well, and the sweet potatoes and apples never were.  This past Saturday at the market where I sell my baked goods, one of my of my favorite vendors had Spanish black radishes.  Since I had never tried black radishes and because I am one of those people who always has to try the most unusual food available, I had to have some.  I came home and started looking up recipes. Nothing seemed quite like what I wanted to try, but several websites compared them to turnips when cooked, so I decided on a variation of my usual roasted vegetable recipe.  Now, before you go out and hunt down black radishes, let me point out that they are a strong bitter vegetable similar to turnips or rutabagas.  I happen to enjoy that taste, but you may not.  The sweet potatoes and apples are a nice sweet-tart foil for the bitter, and the brown butter sage sauce is decadent.  In fact, you could use the sauce on many different roasted vegetables.  I particularly like it on butternut squash, which would be a nice addition to this recipe, but I didn't have any on hand, so I didn't include it.

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