Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie...

The Superbowl is this weekend. You do know what that means, right?

Of COURSE you do. It means that pitchers and catchers report in about two weeks! Woooohoooooo!

Since we're talking about baseball, and I made two apple pies yesterday, I offer you this:



(I, of course, particularly like the bit at the end about broken curses.)

Anyhow, I just wanted to pop in and offer up my brand-spanking new recipe for apple pie.

One of my students requested apple pie for his birthday, instead of cake, which is why I made two pies yesterday. This was not an unusual request for me, as my brother is an apple pie fiend, and that's putting it mildly. I derived this one by myself, guided by a couple of sources (my mom's recipe and a cookbook, see below). It's certainly still open to tweaking, but I think it's pretty good, if I do say so myself. The student in question declared it "delicious," through a mouthful of pie. (He then said to me, "You must be an awesome mom." Being that he's not a particularly demonstrative kid, I almost cried.)

The companion to my cooking Bible (a.k.a. The New Best Recipe), Baking Illustrated, suggests a mix of Granny Smith and Macintosh apples. I went with my mom's long-standing tradition, however, of using all Granny Smiths. I love the tart note they provide, as a counterpoint to the overall sweetness of the pie. Macs get mushy when you cook them (well, the apples do; I've yet to try cooking my laptop), so I've always avoided them in pies.

I will admit right here and now that I used refrigerated crusts. Homemade, from-scratch pie crust is my next mountain to tackle. Say what you will, the Pillsbury refrigerated crusts are not half bad, especially when glazed with an egg wash and sprinkled with a little sugar.

For ease of cleanup, I recommend lining the baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Here it is, the debut of Martha's Apple Pie.

Martha's Apple Pie

Pie crust for double-crust, 9" pie

7 medium Granny Smith apples

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/8 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly-grated, if possible)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg white, lightly beaten

Adjust oven rack to lowest position. Place rimmed baking sheet on it, and heat the oven to 500F.

Prepare bottom crust. If making dough from scratch, roll into a 12" circle, and transfer to pie plate. Ease the dough into the creases by gently lifting the edge of the dough with one hand and pressing it into the pan with the other. Leave any dough that overhangs the lip of the pie plate in place; refrigerate dough-lined pan.

Peel, core, and quarter apples. Cut into 1/4" slices.

In medium bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, flour, spices, and salt. Toss the dry ingredients with the apples until well coated. Turn the fruit mixture, including any juices, into the chilled pie shell; mound fruit slightly in the center.

Prepare second piece of dough; roll into 12" circle, and place over filling. Seal top and bottom crusts together with a little bit of water. Trim the edges of the top and bottom layers to 1/2" beyond pan lip. Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself so that the folded edge is flush with the pan lip. Flute the edge or crimp with fork tines to seal.

Cut four vent slits in the top layer of dough. Brush the egg white on the top crust, and sprinkle evenly with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.

Place the pie on the baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425F. Bake the pie until the top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate the pan from front to back and reduce the oven temperature to 375F. Continue baking until the juices bubble and the crust is a deep golden brown, 25-30 minutes longer.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack; cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours.

Searchin'

It seems that, every so often, the MSN website search.live.com goes wacky and sends hundreds of visitors here over a period of a few days.  I'm not sure why, but it does.  Yesterday, over 500 people visited Throwing Spoons, and as of 8:22 a.m. Eastern Time today, there have already been 40+ hits.  (An average day is somewhere in the thirties.)

If it's search.live.com  that brought you here - welcome, and I hope you find something here that brings you back again!

Family stuff

As you know, if you're a regular follower of my blog, I love to share family stories here on the ol' blog.  I have a couple of family stories to share today, but they don't have anything to do with particular recipes.

Firstly: I got to watch my father-in-law on a local television station tonight, talking about "Bawston" accents.  It was pretty cool.  Coincidentally, they chose to make an example of my name - and he had nothing to do with it!  Here's the link: The "Bawston" accent

Secondly:

In addition to loving to cook and bake, I love to knit.  I'm working on some rather intricate Christmas stockings, but I decided to start another, easier project: a baby blanket.  The Throwing Spoons household is planning to welcome a new family member, via adoption.  We don't know just when, but the nursery is painted and a crib is waiting.

I've made a number of baby blankets for friends over the years, and I decided it was high time to make one to welcome our baby.  Choosing the yarn proved a challenge, though.  We don't know whether we'll have a boy or a girl.  I didn't like the bland, multi-colored yarns.  As our nursery is a pale, pale blue, I decided to look for a blue yarn that I liked; blue can be for girls, too!

I browsed around the store.  Nothing really grabbed my eye 'til I saw this beautiful, soft yarn:

Lion Brand Homespun, Delft

It's beautifully shaded; it's a little more purpley-blue than the photo suggests.  I picked up a skein of it, to read the label, and it gave me quite a start when I saw that the color name was "Delft."  

My Gramma Bonnie collected Delft china; I have some of her pieces in my own china cabinet.  I quietly said, "Thanks, Gramma," and put two skeins of it into my basket.  There's no doubt in my mind that she wants this blanket to be her gift to her great-grandchild.

'Scuse me.  I've got something in my eye that I need to attend to.

Monkeying around

So, despite my goal to lose weight in the new year, I absolutely have to post this recipe.

I'm the second oldest of eight grandchildren on my mum's side of the family (and Wendy's only got 2 1/2 months on me). Matthew, the youngest, was my "sweet little cousin." He's not quite eleven years younger than I. He's still a sweetie, but we haven't been able to call Matt our little cousin for quite some time; he has the height genes that none of the rest of us got, and he towers over us!

It would seem that Matt, like myself and like our cousins Wendy and Jessie, inherited a love of baking. He brought a monkey bread to the Christmas party last weekend. For some reason, no one cut into it, so I have had the whole thing to myself for breakfasts all week. Now, I've had plenty of monkey bread in my time, but this one is simply sensational. Matt included layers of diced apples and chopped pecans in it, which took it to a whole new level in the realm of monkey bread. He made some other suggestions, which I will include below.

He sent me the recipe, and it's incredibly easy. (If you have an aversion to refrigerated biscuits, I'm guessing you could make your own biscuit dough; you'll need to make enough for 32 biscuits.)

Monkey Bread

4 packs refrigerated biscuits, separated and quartered
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
*Your own ingredients: Matt says, "I used chopped pecans and diced apples; you can also use raisins. I have actually omitted the cinnamon from the recipe, used chocolate chips and put a dusting of powdered sugar in it in the past. Plain is cool too." (I'm betting Craisins would also be a great choice.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease tube or Bundt pan. Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon, and roll biscuit pieces in mixture to coat. Alternate layers of prepared biscuits and your own ingredients in the tube pan.
Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil for 1 minute, then pour over the top. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Cool slightly, then turn out of pan to cool completely on a wire rack set over a plate or a cookie sheet, to collect any glaze that may drip off. (Do not cool in pan, or you may find it to be stuck tightly to the sides of said pan...not a fun removal task.)

This can be sliced, when cool, or it can be pulled apart into bite-sized bits and eaten that way.

Game on - and I need your help!

My younger brother and I were, on Christmas day, bemoaning the fact that we need to lose some weight and get healthier.  I got to thinking about it, and at our big family Christmas party a few days later, I challenged him to a Biggest Loser competition.  He took me up on it, and it is ON.

We're weighing in on Fridays, and we're giving ourselves a deadline of the first day of spring: March 20.  (Not that we can't keep losing after that, but that's the end of our competition.)

Here's where you come in.  I'm looking for any and all great-tasting, healthy recipes you've got.  I'll try them out and, with your permission, will post them here at Throwing Spoons.  (Of course, before I start posting the good-for-you stuff, I'm going to have to share my cousin Matt's recipe for monkey bread.  He brought some to the family party and it is seriously the best monkey bread I have ever had.)  Watch for it in the next few days.  I'll also post the long-overdue pizza crust and sauce recipes (I promise, Laura!).

Currying favor

I've been on a bit of a curry kick recently. I turned plain ol' tuna casserole into curried tuna casserole (just added some curry powder into the roux for the white sauce); I don't know if I'll ever go back to the original, it was so good. 

Last night, after my husband came in from cleaning seven or eight inches of snow off of our driveway, in 12F temps (below zero, with the wind chill), I decided that some soup was in order, in addition to the steak and salad I already had planned.

I'd recently seen a recipe in an old Everyday Food magazine, the first issue, in fact, and I'd bought the one ingredient I didn't already have on hand. I pulled out the head of cauliflower, and started making some curried cauliflower soup.

By the way, today's post is a twofer. To make this soup, you need to roast the cauliflower florets. Now, I was not a big fan of cauliflower as a kid. When it's boiled or simmered, it - like many other veggies in its family group, such as cabbage and broccoli - is quite odiferous. I later discovered that I preferred it raw. Last night was a revelation: roasting brings out cauliflower's sweetness, and tames its bite. If I hadn't already promised my husband the soup, I think we would've just kept on snacking on the roasted cauliflower. It's that good.

You can quite easily make a vegetarian or vegan version of this soup. I'm including the substitutions to do so in italics.

Curried Cauliflower Soup
Adapted from Everyday Food, Jan/Feb 2003

Note: Cauliflower florets should be fairly small. Leave smaller ones whole, and quarter or halve the larger ones.

1 head cauliflower (about 2 1/4 pounds), cut into florets, about six cups
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
salt
1 tablespoon butter (or one tablespoon vegetable oil)
2 large onions, cut into 1/2" to 3/4" slices
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
4 cups water
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
Freshly ground black pepper

optional garnish: 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Preheat oven to 450F. On a baking sheet, toss cauliflower with the vegetable oil and 1 teaspoon salt. Spread out over baking sheet and roast until the florets start to brown, about 25 minutes.

2. In a medium saucepan (about 3 quarts), melt the butter over medium-high heat (or warm the vegetable oil). Add the sliced onions, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry powder, roasted cauliflower, water, and broth. Cover, and bring to a boil. Uncover; lower the heat, and simmer five minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer 3 cups of cauliflower to a bowl, and set aside. With a slotted spoon, transfer the remaining florets into a blender or food processor, add 1 teaspoon salt, and process until smooth. Stir the puree into the broth in the pan, and reheat if necessary. Ladle the soup into bowls, and top with the reserved florets. If desired, season with a bit of freshly ground black pepper, and garnish with parsley.