It’s that time of year where we get a whiff of fall. This leads to one of my favorite activites – apple picking. We go to Homestead Farm in Poolesville, MD off River Road and get a haul of Golden Delicious (appropriately named), Jonathan, and Granny Smith apples. All good for cobblers, applesauce and, of course, fried pies.
For anyone who harbors the illusion that I am a sophistimacated foodie, I have this recipe to offer – fried apple pie. My first taste of a true fried pie was in Dollywood where they were the size of dinner plates. My arteries are still recovering. It was the perfect cross between pie and doughnut. Since DC is hardly the fried pie capitol of the world, I needed to figure out how to make my own or go without until our next Dollywood trip.
Thank god for Paula Deen, grand empress of tacky Southern food. Literally a week after the infamous Dollywood trip, there was a recipe for fried pie on Paula’s Home Cooking. It lived up to all of my fried pie memories.
I’d have to say that this is truly in the top ten of trashy food I have made. It uses a canned biscuit dough for heaven’s sake.
Fried Pies
1 canned flaky biscuit dough (should have 8 biscuits)
5 firm apples (Granny Smith, Courtland) peeled and chopped in to 1 inch chunks
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
Vegetable oil
Mix the apples, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a bowl. Toss thoroughly and add the cornstarch. Simmer under low heat until apples are soft and have given up some of their juices. Pour of out some of the juices.
Roll out the biscuit dough until 1/2 inch thick. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the apple mixture onto the circle of dough. Brush the edge with water and fold over in half. Press the edge with a fork to seal.
Deep fry in hot oil unto golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat. Resolve to eat salad and sushi for the next week.

A couple weekends ago, I was puppy sitting my parents new dog, Winston. Stuck in the far reaches of Upper Northwest, and isolated from my usual weekend activities (OK, fine, that mostly means cleaning my apartment, but still), I decided, at the last minute as usual, to bring the fun to me and have people over to cook brunch.
WRC and EJG arrived with fixings to make plum pancakes with blueberry sauce, JK with salad and roasting peppers, SNH with corn for grilling, PL with assorted pastries, NM and MA with requisite beverages. I had not planned so much as bought things that looked like a good idea: Ricotta Saltada and Niçoise olives in Herbes de Provence from Whole Foods, eggs and cream (from the Giant). As the others cooked, PL and I schemed the fate of said orphan ingredients.
Omlettes were going to be much too much of a hassle, and not very interesting, so I thought that perhaps we could fake a Spanish-style torta – like the ones I’d loved so much in Sevilla last year, only minus the potatoes. What we did:

9 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk
Chopped Niçoise olives in herbes de Provence
Ricotta Saltada, shaved.
3 large cherry tomatoes, chopped.
Tarragon
Savory
Black Pepper
Nutmeg (ONLY A PINCH!)
Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes.
The result was yummy, but probably too sweet. This could be corrected by using light instead of heavy cream, or by omitting the tomatoes. I feel like the latter might be a good idea, but it needs a non-salty flavor, and I’m not sure what would be better. Onions? Spinach? Hmmm……
This is why I love experimental cuisine.

I’m feeling rather smug today. You see, I woke up unconscionably early yesterday (Sunday) morning – 9AM, having gone to bed at 3! – and decided that the thing to do was go to the Dupont farmers market for fresh plant-based goodness. As I approached the first stand, I could hear their bright green goodness calling my name, beckoning to my then-less-than-now cholesterol-coated heart strings.
I knew I was trapped, so I just went along for the ride. I called my mom and told her that (a) I was coming for dinner, and (b) we were having fried green tomatoes. My parents house, you see, is where all my serious cooking happens these days: they have an awesome kitchen, while I have a toaster oven.
After a ridiculously long wait, the 90 bus finally came to take me up North. Scouring my parents’ cookbook collection, I found but one recipe for this vaunted staple of American cuisine, and this was quickly rejected, as it involved mayonnaise. So I thought about what I wanted from the dish, and how I felt it should taste. A quick trip to the store for supplies, and the experiment began:
Green tomatoes
Salt
1 cup corn meal
1 tablespoon flour
Freshly ground pepper, to taste (I used quite a bit)
Buttermilk
Brown sugar
Oil.
– Slice the tomatoes into rounds, just under 1/2 inch thick, lay out on a plate.
– Salt them, not too heavily but a good bit on each tomato.
– Let sit 30 minutes (this draws out the juices)
– Make batter by mixing Corn meal, flour, and pepper in a wide bowl
– Pour buttermilk into another bowl
– In a large cast iron skillet, heat oil as hot as it gets
– Dip each tomato slice in buttermilk and then dredge in the batter
– Fry. About 2 minutes on a side, then 2 minutes on the other, then again on the first, etc. about 10 minutes. You want them to be still gooey in the middle.
– Remove from pan, place on a paper towel and immediately sprinkle with a TINY BIT of brown sugar.
– Do the next batch.
Be sure to do these in batches. Unless you keep your pan very well seasoned, the first batch won’t work.
I ended up eating them with hot sauce (I would have added Cayenne to the batter, but my grandmother does not eat Cayenne), and I’m feeling a bit smug about this dish. It was really good.

This post is by South Australian guest blogger Brooke, Age 13. Thanks Brooke!
There is a great new application out for Mac called Connoisseur, a cooking program which can do almost anything apart from cook. It is remarkably similar to iTunes, for those who are familiar to iTunes.
It can automatically alter the amounts of ingredients for a recipe to suit the serving size and amount. There is also a feature that when you select a recipe and click ‘shopping list’ will automatically display a window with the shopping items that you need for the recipe.
There is an inbuilt online browsing feature and this lets you select and download from hundreds of recipes online all for free. You can also import your own recipies but I found this a bit slow and it took me around 10 minutes to input one recipe. You can also select a recipe to be read out to you by your computer and it will read out the instructions for the recipe to you.
I rate this software 4 and a half star, a must for Mac users.
This Software is available to download for free HERE.

So J and I were at the Eden Center stocking up on all of the Asian ingredients we can’t access from Whole Foods or Safeway and we start talking about our need for a good curry paste. We’re looking for a curry paste with a deeper flavor than Thai Kitchen and less heat. And this little old Laotian lady comes up to us and tells us to get the Thai Mae Ploy Mussaman curry paste. It appears that she thinks the picture of the Thai lady on the jar is trustworthy. She tells us that she uses this at home. As I am used to following the orders of little ladies from Southeast Asia (Thank’s Mom!), I do what I’m told.
And of course the little old Lao lady is right. It’s a great curry paste, with a strong flavor of both chili pepper and lemongrass. I use it for everything now. One of my fav dishes using this key ingredient is Satay chicken. This has a been a reliable party item as it can be served room temperature and can be made ahead of time.
Satay Chicken
1/4 cup nuoc mam
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup Thai Mae Ploy Massaman Curry paste
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 pounds of those chicken tenderloins (that you use for making chicken strips), cut in half
Throw all of the ingredients into a large ziploc bag and marinate at least an hour and preferably overnight. You can even freeze the bag and thaw for later use. In a nonstick skillet, pour a thin layer of oil and let it get hot. Sear the chicken on both sides. Place chicken on a foil covered cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Cover with a top layer of foil until cool. Place chicken pieces on skewers. Serve with peanut sauce.
Peanut Sauce
1 can of coconut milk
3 tablespoons Thai Curry paste
1 tablespoon nuoc mam
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
Throw everything into a saucepan. Simmer until thickens and combined. This is just a guideline. Adjust flavors as needed.

My friend Margeau, much to our amusement, is always saying that lobster is the new chicken. My friend Margeau also, fortunately, has a wealthy boyfriend that keeps her lobster cravings satiated.
For those of us on a budget, we can’t upscale our diets quite so easily. But my weekend experiences with a particular plant have led me to believe that maybe, just maybe…eggplant is the new chicken?
First it was the stir fry. The little wedges of the purple plant that I sliced up and threw into my mixture of pork and endamame were a delightful, hearty accompaniment. I had some eggplant leftover by Sunday, so I decided to make quick-eggplant Parm with the rest. Since I’m on a pseudo-diet, I had to lighten the recipe a little, but it still was satisfying. And still is today, as I scarf down the leftovers for lunch.
Quick Eggplant Stir-fry
1/2 red onion
a couple cloves garlic
a handful chopped pork tenderloin or 1 boneless pork chop, sliced into small pieces
handful of basil leaves, chopped
soy sauce
1 cup chicken broth
corn starch
some mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup endamame, frozen (avaiable at Trader Joe’s)
red pepper flakes
some broccoli florettes
ginger, peeled and diced (or powdered works)
salt and pepper
sesame oil
Heat oil in skillet or wok. Sautee onion and garlic until onion is transluscent. Season pork and mushrooms with salt, pepper, red pepper and ginger. Add to stir fry along with eggplant and sautee until cooked through.
Add some soy sauce into the mix, to taste – cook for two more minutes.
Add one cup chicken broth, as well as the broccoli and endamame. Bring to boil; cover with lid for five minutes.
Make a paste with cornstarch and a little water. Add to sauce to thicken. Serve over chow mein noodles.
Quicker Eggplant Parmesan
1 eggplant, peeled and cut into round disks
1-2 egg whites
bread crumbs
some homemade tomato sauce from the freezer (or from a jar, for the less ambitious)
some part-skim mozzarella cheese, slimmed
Pam
Italian seasoning, or your own mix of basil, oregano, and the usual suspects
milk
salt and pepper
(As I said, this dish has been “healthified” to suit my resolution. Those not watching their calories should feel free to not skimp on the cheese, use olive oil and egg yolks, and do all those other calorie-adding steps that make it taste even better.)
Preheat oven to 400. Beat egg whites with a bit of milk, briefly, to make a wash. Coat skillet with cooking spray. Dip eggplant circles first in egg wash, then coat each side lightly with bread crumbs. Season with salt and seasonings and add to skillet. Brown on each side.
Start layering eggplant in baking dish. Put down a layer of eggplant, then two spoonfulls of sauce on each piece, then a sprinkling of mozzarella. Repeat.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until eggplant is golden and tender.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a control freak. I do need to do things MY way. This ends up being true with recipes. I change them to fit my quirks and idiosyncrasies all the time.
So one night, some of J’s co-workers are coming over for dinner. They are bringing a fabulous salad and we’ll be tossing some homemade pesto (that I made and froze) with some pasta. Salad and entrée done. I simply cannot have a dinner party (such that it is) without dessert.
I look for a cobbler recipe since they are fairly easy to assemble. Being the control freak I am, I don’t want just any old cobbler, I want the cakey kind. There are two kinds of cobbler, the biscuit kind that has what is essentially a scone dough floating on top of the fruit, and the cakey kind where the cakelike batter oozes down into the fruit and marries it into a fruit cakey mess of goodness. I find the following recipe on Epicurious.
For filling
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
1 cup sugar
For topping
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1/2 cup of milk
Accompaniment: Fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
To prepare the filling:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Place the butter in an 8 x 8-inch square glass baking dish (no substitutes), and melt the butter in the microwave. In a mixing bowl, combine lemon juice and blueberries. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the blueberry mixture to the baking dish with the melted butter. Do not stir.
Make topping:
Combine all of the topping ingredients in a small bowl. Pour this mixture over the blueberries and bake 45 minutes, or until brown. This recipe is also good for apples, blackberries, and peaches.
A STICK of butter? A CUP of sugar in the fruit? The poor fruit will be doing the backstroke in a pool of sugary butter? I promptly cut the amount of butter and sugar in the fruit by half and cut the sugar in the topping by a third. Along with the lemon juice in the filling, I add a dash of REAL vanilla. I also add a half a teaspoon of cinnamon in the topping batter for added flavor.
I crossed my fingers about this because I changed the recipe fairly radically. It turned out wonderfully. Tasting a piece of the topping without the fruit, I actually thought I could have cut the amount of sugar in half, not just by a third. While it’s not always advisable to play with recipes when it comes to baking, my control freak mind can’t help but tinker with a recipe.

Most of us have a signature recipe. You know, that one thing we know we’re good at making, which we can bring to a party and rest assured will be gobbled up in seconds. I’m thinking of my Aunt Barb’s southwestern dip, my friend Eve’s roast beef & yorkshire pudding, my mom’s “Death By Chocolate” concoction.
I have more of a signature ingredient: bacon. My friends tease me for incorporating the heart-clogging ingredient into nearly everything I make. I’ve stated here before that I firmly believe bacon makes everything better, and I’ve yet to be proven wrong (though a friend once led me to an article mentioning the bacon martini, which could be the lone exception to the rule). One day, my all-bacon cookbook will fly off the shelves at Barnes & Noble.
The easiest (and probably most popular) bacon dish I can always throw together at the last minute is rumaki, one of the few dishes my mother passed down to me that I haven’t tinkered with aggressively. It’s ridiculously simple, and despite water chestnuts not being an ingredient the general populace is usually clamoring for, I bet 10-to-1 you’ll have party guests complaining you didn’t make enough of these one-bite treats.

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