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Side Kick: what I did with leftover apples

20 Oct

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Remember these? Yeah, I made an apple tart with half of them last week for our dinner at Akash and Marissa’s house.  Well, I had half left, and they were begging to be used.

So, I did. Chopped ‘em all up with my handy dandy apple slicer, tossed ‘em in a cassarole dish.

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Melted some organic pure cane sugar (straight from Costa Rica-thanks Mark) with some water, poured it over to help the apples cook down in the oven.

Set the oven to 375F, mixed up some gluten free flour (like maybe a tablespoon) with a handful of whole oats, a handful of brown sugar and maybe 3Tbsp of cold cubed butter.  Spread that over the top of the apples and shoved it in the oven for 55 minutes in the top third of the oven.

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This is what I got (with the help of Paul and Mike who grabbed some vanilla ice cream with caramel swirl at the store). (again, sorry for the lame picture. I was more concerned with the ice cream melting – in my mouth while I gobbled this up)

So. So. Good.

No recipe, just straight up wingin’ it. You can too.

If you want a more direct recipe, let me know!

Side kick: bring the apples

15 Oct

So if you read the previous post today on our Dinner Date last night, you know we went to some friends’ house for dinner last night.  Even though Marissa said not to bring anything, I couldn’t show up empty handed!

So after getting off work at 6pm last night, I rushed home and threw together a quick, simple apple tart. (Prep 10 minutes, cooking 45 minutes)

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Here’s the story: I had picked these great fugi and gala apples with my sister, Kate, the other weekend from her neighbor’s yard (so clearly they’re organic and pesticide free, yay!).  I had not done anything with them yet, and since they were sitting there, I cut a few up (with my handy apple cutter – taking all the time out of prep).

I slapped together the worlds easiest tart crust (thank you Adam, The Amature Gourmet) and tossed it in the oven while I got dressed and tidied up a bit.

I’ll paste in my ingredients for the crust below. This takes less than 5 minutes.

I have literally used this recipe of his, (adapted to my own taste) at least ten times over the past year, since he published it. It’s so easy, fool proof, and requires NO ROLLING PIN OR SKILL! yay!

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First, preheat oven to 425F. Make top rack one rung from top.

Tart crust:

In a bowl, mix:
1 1/2 cups flour (gluten free will work just fine as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Over the top of that:
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil (of course I don’t use this, I use nonfat plain yogurt)
2 Tbs milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I use more, because I’m freakishly obsessed with Almonds)

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Mix gently with a fork, and when it comes together dump into your pie tin or tart tin, push it out to the sides so it comes to a height of about 3/4 inch (or, if using a tart pan, til it comes up the sides of the tart.)

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Then you fill it up with your yummy fruit. I’ve used berries, peaches, nectarines, apples, etc. They’re all good, and work just as great as the next. I’ve used canned when I had nothing else on hand, and that’s great too. No need to fuss at the store for fresh if you can just whip this up without going out.

Here’s Adam’s basic numers for the fruit topping, although I skimp, letting the fruit speak mostly for itself.

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mix together:
3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons flour (gluten free is great too)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter (I cube it with my knife first, so it’s not a mess for my hands and time)

Squish it all together with your fingers until it becomes crumbly–like a bowl of tiny pebbles.  Sprinkle those pebbles over the fruit.

And here’s what it looked like after dinner, with the yummy fresh raspberries and choclate something or other coconut (dairy and gluten free) ice cream Marissa had for us:

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And a not so glam picture of it on my plate.

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Thanks again friends! We had a great time!

Side kick: Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini

13 Oct

Perfect for Fall, and perfect if you hate recipes and standing in the kitchen, Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini is your new best friend.  My version is adapted from those amazing cooks over at SmittenKitchen.

“Siiri, please stop using words we don’t know, like Cipollini.” Right. No problem. Just because it’s a word, doesn’t mean everyone knows what it means. I get that.  Cipollini are a type of small-medium flat-ish onions. They’re great for roasting whole.

Here’s what I did (if you want an actual recipe, go to the link above):

raw ingredients from produce stand.

-get a pound of small onions, if you can’t find Cipollini, who cares.

-get a pound of roma tomatoes.

-peel the onions.

-put it all in a baking dish with sides (aka casserole dish or roasting pan).

-drizzle it with some olive oil, liberal amounts of salt and pepper.

-put in top third of your oven.

-bake it at 400F for 45 minutes to an hour, checking every 15 minutes and shaking the pan to rotate.

While that’s in the oven, you can set the table, because Lord knows, you invited people over on a weeknight (Why, WHY did you do that?)

Set the table!

When it’s all done, chop a fresh herb like basil or parsley or even thyme or sage (but use the last two sparingly), and spread over the top. Your eyes will roll back in your head with joy, I promise.

Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini

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