Spicy Curb A-peel

Amy writes:

I am so blessed to have made, during my adulthood, several close friendships with some amazing women. One of my groups of friends is connected through teaching at the same high school. We call ourselves "WTL," or "Work to Live," as a reminder that there is life beyond the school day. Because really, we do need reminding of that fact sometimes.

In the last year, one of our WTLs, Erica, made The Great Escape. She left teaching for a new career in real estate, and within months, she and a new realtor friend, Reba, had their own show on West Hartford's community cable station, WHCTV. The show, called Real Estate Resource, is part The Kitchen, part Watch What Happens Live, but with a focus on real estate. That is to say, it's a talk show with flair.

Never one to hoard her own successes, Erica gave the rest of us WTLs a way to be a part of the show. I am the show's mixologist. I create cocktails based on the theme of each episode and demonstrate how to make them during my segment. Joanne is the flower expert who shows viewers how to decorate their homes with wreaths and floral arrangements. Laura does our hair and makeup and there are plans for her to show off her other artistic skills in future episodes. So far, we've only taped one.

At this point, you're probably wondering why I'm writing about all of this on a food blog. Well, here it is. The theme of our first episode is "Spicing Up Your Curb Appeal in Winter." And so I came up with a drink I call the "Spicy Curb A-peel." With hints of honey, apple, ginger and cinnamon, it's the perfect cocktail for entertaining guests and making them feel warm and cozy in your home during the winter months. As an added bonus, it is made from local and/or artisanal products, including Onyx Moonshine from East Hartford, CT and Yellow Ginger Simple Syrup from Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont.

And while I'll give you the recipe (below), I sure hope you'll check out Real Estate Resource, which is airing on WHCTV every Thursday in January at 8:00. If you don't live in West Hartford, you can stream it when it airs online at this website, or you can watch it ON DEMAND HERE.

Stay warm, and cheers!

Spicy Curb A-peel

makes two drinks

Ingredients:

2 ounces Onyx Honey Apple Infusion Moonshine

1/2 ounce Sumptuous Syrups Yellow Ginger (or other ginger-infused simple syrup)

4 ounces hard apple cider (I used Angry Orchard's Apple Ginger for added ginger flavor)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

curled apple peel, cinnamon stick, or apple slice for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add moonshine, syrup and hard cider. Stir (don't shake because the hard cider is carbonated). Pour a little of the leftover cider into a small bowl or dish, and the sugar and cinnamon (stirred to combine) into another. Dip the rim of a martini glass first in the cider, then in the cinnamon sugar to coat the rim and allow the cinnamon sugar to stick. Repeat with second glass. Strain cocktail into glasses and garnish as desired.

Apple Crisp (Secret Recipe Club)

It's that time of year. Time to enjoy the fruits of Johnny Appleseed's labors. We went apple-picking, a friend of our went apple-picking and gave us some of hers, and we have lots and lots of apples to enjoy. We already made one delicious dessert with some of our apples, and thanks to Cara at The Boys Made Me Do It, we have made another!

Yes, it's Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day, and our assigned blog for this month was The Boys Made Me Do It. This blog has lots and lots of easy, fun, family-friendly recipes all blogged by Cara, mother to three boys. God bless her!

Because we were so flush with apples, we chose Cara's Apple Crisp, which she adapted from someone else in Secret Recipe Club. It was an amazingly easy recipe, all made with ingredients from our pantry. It only took about 15 minutes to prepare, plus an hour to bake. The house smelled sooo good while it was baking - apples, cinnamon, and autumn-ness. Love that smell!

The finished product was heavenly - cinnamon-y baked apples topped with a buttery crisp topping. Soft and crunchy, sweet and tart, everything a person could want in a dessert. Chris said he could have eaten the whole pan in one sitting. This one is a keeper!

Apple Crisp

Adapted slightly from Weekend Dessert by The Boys Made Me Do It

For the filling:

6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

dash kosher salt

For the topping:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1/2 stick unsalted butter, chilled

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place all of the sliced apples into a large mixing bowl and toss with lemon juice. Stir in the flour, sugar, apple pie spice and salt until all fruit is coated. Place the filling in a 9×9 pan or baking dish. In another bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, and apple pie spice. Cut in the butter and stir in until the mixture is full of small lumps. Sprinkle the topping over the apples. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until the apples are tender and the topping is browned.



CT Wine Trail: The Southeast Corner

A crisp and sunny fall Saturday just begged for a drive around Connecticut's wineries. So we grabbed our passports and headed to the southeast corner of the state to enjoy the scenery, sample a glass or two, and discover a place to grab a bite somewhere on the way home.

Our first stop was Holmberg Orchards and Winery. We made it the first stop so we could do some apple picking as well. The tasting room at Holmberg is quite small and it was crowded since everyone seemed to be copying our idea!!! They produce a few fruity wines, as well as some hard ciders, and for $5 (with a souvenir glass!) we got to taste three of each. Our favorite from the wines was the sweet-tart Apple Cranberry which had a beautfully dry cranberry finish. We also loved the zippy sparkling Cortland hard cider and took home a bottle of it to enjoy on our porch swing while we watch the leaves fall.

Next up was a stop at Dalice Elizabeth Winery, a small winery that imports grapes but do all the pressing, fermenting and aging here in CT. A tasting here costs $10 for 4 - the three wines they had available then a second tasting of your favorite. A glass is usually included, but unfortunately for us they had run out. Still, it was here that we enjoyed what may perhaps be the most unusual (in a good way!) wine we've ever had - a chardonnay with quite noticeable and long-lasting hints of almond flavor. Truly unique and delicious. They have cheese platters and other goodies for purchase, with cute little tables under a trellis and a pretty pond to view.

The third stop we made was to Stonington Vineyards. We had gotten a late start, so it was almost 4:30 when we arrived. They were having some live entertainment starting at 5 and had stopped their tastings, but offered us a glass of our choice of their wines and an invitation to stay for some music for $8 each. Amy went for the cabernet franc while Chris had the rose. Both were good enough but nothing we liked quite enough to buy more.

We had time for one more stop, only because one of the vineyards wisely stays open until 6, and that was our favorite of the day, Maugle Sierra Vineyards. The tasting room was warm and spacious, the server was gracious and welcoming, and the wines ($10 for a tasting of 6 wines - 3 whites, 3 reds - with souvenir glass) were fantastic. Several are made with the St. Croix grape, and the reds (particularly the Ledyard Sunset Red) went wonderfully with chocolate (yes, truffles are available for purchase).

Hungry now, we asked if there was an interesting restaurant nearby, and the fine folks at Maugle Sierra handed us a cork and pointed us in the direction of Valentino's, a casual Italian place that offered us a discount in exchange for the winery's cork - a nice little bonus, we thought! They seemed to specialize in pizza and grinders, but we went all out with a couple of pasta dishes. Satisfied and growing tired, we headed back home, having enjoyed a perfect fall outing.

 

FFwD: Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart

Last weekend, which was a long weekend, we spent Saturday taking a drive around the southeast corner of Connecticut, picking apples and visiting wineries. In other words, we had a perfect fall day. We'll tell you more about the wineries later, but as far as the apples go, we picked some big beautiful sweet-tart Winesaps and some deep dark maroon Macouns (considered by some to be the finest eating apple there is). Then we saw that this week's French Fridays with Dorie (in which we haven't been able to participate in some time) was "Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart," and we were totally psyched. How fortuitous!

The "French Fridays" Bible

A baking recipe, with a guardian angel for the baking-challenged.

Mise en place is fancy for "uncork the (French!) wine and let's get this recipe started"

Yes, it's fall, ya'll. And what says fall in New England better than apples? We have posted plenty of apple recipes over the years: recipes for doughnuts, pies (not one but two!), risotto, and other savory dishes (here and here), have featured apples and/or apple cider. But this fall, we were looking for something new, and Around My French Table (the book members of French Fridays with Dorie cooks from) had just what we needed.

Whisking together almond flour, sugar, egg, vanilla and heavy cream... 

...makes a heavenly almond cream topping for the tart.

Ooh la la - buttered and sugared sheets of phyllo dough!

After the cream is chilled...

it is carefully spread over the delicate phyllo.

While we can't give you the recipe (club rules!), we can tell you that it wasn't particularly difficult, even for the baking-challenged, and even with working with phyllo dough (which seems scary, doesn't it?). Dorie's direction are clear and straight-forward. We followed them strictly (except for using a different type of apple), and the finished product was incredible - both crispy and crackly, with a delightful balance of tart, juicy apple and sweet, nutty almond. The neighbors loved it, we loved it, and it made us that much more comfortable with baking and with using sheets of phyllo - that ever-versatile yet oh-so-elegant ingredient.  

Chris is a slicing wizard

Laying them perfectly over the almond cream.

It almost looks easy!

Some local apple maple jam makes a nice post-baking glaze.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: buy the book and start making the recipes. From what we can tell, there isn't a bad one in the bunch.