Category Archives: I Cook, Too

Some of my favorite recipes.

Get 20 Pounds of Apples for Christmas?

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Make pie!

20 Pounds of Apples

Got apples?

The box arrived yesterday via UPS. The labeling all over the box said, “Washington State Apples,” but I couldn’t believe it. Surely this big box couldn’t be full of apples! But when I checked the return address to see the sender, I knew it was: they’d been sent by one of my cherry drying clients from this past summer. Like most cherry growers, he probably has apple trees, too.

Fuji apples, to be exact.

The last time I had this many apples in my home was years and years ago, when I still lived in New Jersey. In those days, we’d go apple picking in New York State, just over the border. We’d make a day of it and pick too many apples to eat. I remember making apple pie, apple sauce, and apple butter. I remember being sick of apples. The year that we let a bag of apples go bad in the basement was the last year we went apple picking.

My husband’s comment when he realized that we’d just received 20 pounds of apples: “What are we going to do with them all?”

Make pie, of course.

Making apple pie isn’t difficult — if you cheat. Cheating means buying prepared pie crusts. Making pie dough, rolling it out, and lining the pie pan is 75% of the work in making fresh apple pie. If you get someone else to do it for you — like Mr. Pillsbury or Marie Callender — all you have to do is peel and cut up the apples, mix them with sugar and spice, pour them into the pie pans, and cover them up with another piece of prepared pie crust.

And if you’re like me, you probably can’t make a decent tasting pie crust anyway. It’s better to let the experts do it.

Here’s my recipe for the filling:

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons flour
  • 5-6 large, firm apples (they’re supposed to be “tart” but I always use whatever I have handy, especially when I have 20 pounds to use up)
  • 2 tablespoons butter

Pie under constructionInstructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
  2. Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry dough.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
  4. Peel, core, and slice the apples.
  5. Toss the apples in the sugar mixture until well coated.
  6. Pile the apples in the pie pan.
  7. Dot with butter.
  8. Cover the pieCover the pie with another sheet of pastry dough. Crimp the edges and cut vents in the top. (I usually cut in a pattern or design; I did cherries this time in honor of the apple sender.)
  9. Bake 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake about 30-40 minutes longer or until the apples are tender when pierced with a skewer and the crust is browned.

If you’re using a “deep dish” pie crust/pan, you’ll probably need more apples.

Apple Pie

It smells way better than it looks.

Here’s what the finished product looks like. I’m not sure about this Pillsbury pie crust — it almost looks as if it melted over the apples. I’ll try Marie Callender next. And maybe some phyllo dough after that for a more strudel-like result.

After all, there are a lot of apples in my fridge and garage. I figured I’d just make apple pie every time we ran out it, until we ran out of apples.

Helicopter Sugar Cookies

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Bake your own fleet. They’re good to eat.

Helicopter CookiesToday, I made sugar cookies in the shape of helicopters for my cherry drying clients. It was a lot of work, but worth it. The cookies came out great and I think my clients will get a chuckle when they see them.

The recipe is my grandfather’s recipe for sugar cookies. He owned a bakery in New Jersey when I was growing up. My mother got the recipe from him and passed it on to me years ago. You can make the cookies in any shape you like.

Here’s the recipe. It may be doubled.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter or margarine
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • white of 1 egg, beaten (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Cream butter and sugar in mixer.
  3. Add egg, vanilla, and milk. Beat well.
  4. Sift together dry ingredients and add gradually to butter mixture.
  5. Knead in extra flour if necessary to produce a firm batter.
  6. Roll out the DoughRoll batter out to 1/4 inch thickness on floured board.
  7. Cut with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet.
  8. If desired, brush tops with egg white.
  9. Bake until golden brown (not more than 10 minutes).
  10. Cool on wire rack.

Yields 2 dozen cookies or fewer (depending on shape and size of cutter).

I added sprinkles before baking. My helicopter is red and I wanted to make the connection.

Don’t Tell Me What to Eat

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Why should I listen to you, anyway?

Since being interviewed for an NPR piece about diet books (read/listen to “Diet Books: Fat On Profits, Skinny On Results?“), I’ve received numerous e-mails and other contacts from folks offering me advice on my diet. Here’s one from today’s e-mail:

I caught the interview you gave on NPR about dieting books.

If you want to learn about health and nutrition read “The China Study”, by T. Colin Campbell, PhD.

All diet books are wrong, because they are about eating less of the same, unhealthy food. If we base our diet on whole, plant-foods, we will drastically reduce our risk of chronic diseases and as a side effect, lose weight. This book shows the huge amount of science available, and it’s really, really interesting!!

Ironically, he recommends a diet book and then says that “all diet books are wrong.” I guess he means all of them except the one he’s recommending. How many other people are saying the same thing with another book? All of them.

I can’t tell you how annoyed I am by this. I began to write the guy a response, but I figured it might be better to just post it here, so everyone can read it:

My friend Tom gave me a copy of The China Study. I gave it away. I am not interested in diet books at all. Period.

And frankly, I’m pretty sick of strangers telling me what I should and shouldn’t eat. You don’t know a damn thing about me. Why do you assume that I eat “unhealthy food”?

I eat fresh vegetables, both raw and cooked simply. I eat fresh fruit, plain yogurt, whole grains. I eat grilled meats and fish. I don’t fry, I don’t eat much processed food, I don’t eat ANY fast food. I don’t drink soda or energy drinks and I don’t use artificial sweeteners. I minimize salt usage and season with fresh herbs whenever I can.

I eat healthier than 90% of the people I know. The other 10% are either vegetarians or misguided fools who follow the advice of books like The China Study and give up the foods they love, hoping to extend their lives by a few years through that sacrifice. All you have to do is eat a nicely marbled grilled steak in front of them to see how they’re suffering.

Life is short. Why shouldn’t I eat what I want to eat — especially when there’s nothing really wrong with it? I don’t want to live forever and I want to enjoy my life. Eating is one of my simple pleasures.

My weight problem — which isn’t even serious, according to my doctor — is due to inactivity and midlife metabolism change. Simply said, I need to eat less and exercise more. But don’t most Americans?

Sorry if I seem angry, but I’m really bothered by strangers trying to advise me when they know absolutely nothing about me.

This is what I wrote, but I didn’t send it. In fact, I didn’t answer the e-mail at all. Maybe he’ll see the response here. Maybe he won’t. I don’t really care.

I guess my point is, you’re wasting your time if you try to advise me on issues relating to diet, weight loss, or eating habits. Enough said.

And Tom, if you’re reading this, do treat yourself to a good steak once in a while. It really won’t hurt you. I’m sure the person I gave the book to will get a lot more out of it than I would.

Cauliflower Mashed “Potatoes”

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A lower calorie, lower carb, healthy alternative.

Here’s a recipe for folks trying to cut calories or just eat healthier. It’s basically a mashed potato substitute — made with cauliflower.

Ingredients:

  • Cauliflower1 head of cauliflower. Make sure it’s not green. (Image from Wikipedia.)
  • 1/4 cup milk or cream. Obviously skim milk will make it lower fat and calories, but cream will make it more like real mashed potatoes. Use either or anything in between.
  • 3 tablespoons butter or butter substitute. Butter is better, but go with the substitute if you’re trying to keep calories or fat content down.
  • salt to taste

Instructions:

  1. Trim off cauliflower stem and greens and cut into flowerettes. (My spelling checker says I spelled that wrong, but how else would you spell it?)
  2. Place in a microwaveable bowl with a lid, add about 1/2 cup water, and cover.
  3. Microwave on high for about 10-12 minutes. (Times may vary.) You want it completely cooked through. (If you have a fear of microwaves, you can steam it on a stovetop.)
  4. Drain.
  5. Combine milk or cream and butter or substitute in a microwave safe cup or bowl.
  6. Microwave milk/cream/butter/substitute mixture on high for 30 seconds or until hot and butter is melting. (Fear of microwaves? Use a pan on the stove.)
  7. Using a potato masher or electric handheld pureeing tool (my tool of choice for this job), puree the cauliflower. (You might also be able to use a blender or food processor, but I think that’s taking things too far.)
  8. Add the milk/cream/butter/substitute mixture and stir well.
  9. Add salt to taste.
  10. Serve.

This should make 4 normal sized servings.

I made this the other night with some heavy cream left over from the holidays that has still (by some miracle) not gone bad. It tasted unbelievably good with the steak Mike grilled up for us.

Skeptical? Don’t knock it until you try it.

And yes, I do use my microwave extensively for cooking vegetables.

Chicken Curry

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Easy dinner.

Here’s what I had for dinner tonight:

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 2-3 lbs. of chicken. I used chicken breast fillets tonight, but I usually use thighs. I trimmed off all the excess fat before cooking and cut into large cubes.
  • 1-1/2 large onions, cut up. I slice them, but you might prefer them chopped.
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup dairy sour cream
  • 2 tsp. curry powder
  • 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/8 tsp. ground cumin

Instructions:

  1. Lightly brown chicken in oil. If necessary, drain off fat. (If you use lean chicken or trim it like I do, you shouldn’t have any fat to drain off. Just nice chicken juice.)
  2. Add onions and salt.
  3. Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through. This should take 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how small you cut up the chicken.
  4. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl.
  5. If there’s a lot of liquid, drain off all but about 1/2 cup.
  6. Stir in sour cream mixture.
  7. Heat through.
  8. Serve with rice and mango chutney.

This should serve 4 or 2 with leftovers.