Posts Tagged ‘fall’

Hello Fall

Filed Under: Food, Recipeson August 31st, 2010

If you know me, you know my two bad qualities:

1. Tendency to bouts of bitchiness due to low blood sugar.

2. The inability to adapt to change.

Luckily those are my only two faults …

But bottom line, I’m not good with change.

Even the transition into fall leaves me dieting on tomatoes and ice cream alone, while I should be embracing pumpkins, apples, and squash. Instead, I’m craving my grill, glasses of sauvignon blanc, and finding myself teary eyed every time I leave the shore. I’m not kidding, I’m a drama queen, over-reactor, and and full on change-a-phobe.

So in these last weeks of summer, while I nurse my tan and continue to eat every ear of corn in sight, I’ve embraced one of my favorite summer time meals full-on: the grilled pizza.

If you’ve never had grilled pizza you’re missing out. A grilled pizza has an almost raw-dough taste contrasting from the crispness a oven brings. Sounds bad, but I assure you this revelation will change your life. Boys, save your steaks for another day and grab some dough, this is the summer meal.

Here’s my version of roasted red pepper, tomato, fresh ricotta, and basil grilled pizza (I also topped with one with arugula). Any substitutions can be made, but this is my favorite classic. I like to dice all the toppings in the same manner to provide a good mouth feel.

Grease the grill and place dough down. Flip over and top with olive oil and toppings. Close the lid and let the cheese melt. The pizza’s cheese will not fully melt, but that’s the point. Then sprinkle with fleur de sel and basil.

It’s not fall yet ladies and gents, but don’t worry (when I no longer have choice) I’ll be into fall full-swing.

Cheers to Fall … and Cider

Filed Under: Recipeson October 4th, 2009

The legend of Johnny Appleseed extends far past the historical/fairy-tale image most people conjure, into the realm of alcohol. At the beginning of our nation’s history, water in cities was either unsanitary and/or hard to transport in large quantities.

Everyone drank alcohol, everyday, with every meal. And Johnny Appleseed made this possible by carrying apple seeds across the country and up and down the Mississippi. Apples made cider – hard and regular.

Ok class dismissed.

Happy hour commences.

This cocktail uses regular cider (not hard, alcoholic) and mixes it with gin. Likewise no gin is necessary.

Cran-Cider Punch (don’t let the word “punch” deter you) Serves 4

Muddle 1/2 cup fresh cranberries with 2 tablespoons sugar in a pitcher. Add 1 1/2 cups apple cider and 2/3 cup ginger beer, juice of one lemon, and 4 ounces of gin.

Mix and enjoy!!

Amy Atlas Fall Table

Filed Under: Workon September 29th, 2009

One of my favorite cooking jobs includes working for the talented event planner, dessert table designer Amy Atlas. For the first day of Fall we (the two other interns and of course, Amy) decided to do a Fall-esque Dessert Table. The entire table can be seen at Amy’s Blog. The almond fondant cake placed on tree trunks (yes, they’re real!), tuiles with apple spiced custard and pistachio cinnamon meringues! Completed Table

Apple Picking with Tweetle-Dee and Tweetle-Dum(b)

Filed Under: Food, Lifeon September 28th, 2009

My favorite time of the year, without a doubt, is Fall. The leaves, colors, football games, pumpkins, warm weather food, the first time you where a sweater, Halloween, ahh, all of it!

So recently on a mini-trip back to my hometown of Basking Ridge, NJ, I went apple picking with my two childhood friends. For all intensive purposes let’s name these two little ones, Jessica

Apple Pecan Crumb Pie

Apple Pecan Crumb Pie

, for her affinity to all things Jessica Simpson (don’t ask) and Pippi Longstocking (because she named her dog Mr. Neilson after Pippi’s pet monkey, again don’t ask).

So there I was roaming the beautiful apple trees of New Jersey (don’t judge, I swear there are nice parts) at Whitman’s Farm. The Lodi, Zestar, Ginger Gold, Dandy Red, Cortland, Honeycrisp, all the apples you could imagine! While Jessica and Pippi decided that throwing rotten apples and walking Mr. Neilson (the dog) through the rows and rows of trees more important than sampling and gathering, I thought about the wonderful pie I’d be making come afternoon.

Trekking out in our Hunter boots the three of us had successfully collected quite a bunch and in turn created quite a pie. The secret is the crumb topping my mother taught me, but instead of the traditional crumb components, I added Pecans, which reminded me of my falls during college in North Carolina. Either way it’s pure Fall perfection. Recipe to follow!