Apple Pie Bars

Finally, finally, finally getting a break from the 90+ degree temps today.  It's a gloriously rainy Sunday and right behind this much needed rain is some much needed cooler weather.   About damn time!

I made these bars the other day to take to a tennis match.  Unfortunately our team lost but these were a big hit!  Can't win everything I guess.  These are the perfect combination of apple pie combined with apple crisp.  A light thin crust on bottom topped with caramelized apples with a crunchy layer of walnuts and oats on top of that.  Super yummy!

Hubs christened them "the best apple things I've ever made"!  I'll take that!  These were good served all by themselves or even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  This makes a ton, so unless you're serving several people, you may want to halve the recipe.

Apple Pie Bars

(I saved this recipe from a Food and Wine Magazine email)

Crust:

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 cups all-uprpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Filling:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

12 Granny Smith apples (about 6 pounds) peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup water, as necessary

Topping:

3/4 cup walnuts

3 cups quick-cooking oats

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and chilled

Directions

1.  Make the crust:  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a 15x17 inch rimmed baking sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper (I buttered the pan first, then buttered the parchment).  In a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter with the sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  At low speed, beat in the flour and salt until a soft dough forms.  Press the dough over the bottom of the prepared pan and 1/2 inch up the side in an even layer.  Bake in the center of the oven for about 20 minutes, until the crust is golden and set.  Let cool on a rack.

Meanwhile, make the filling:  In each of 2 large skillets, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter with 1/4 cup of the light brown sugar.  Add the apples to the skillets and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir half of the cinnamon and nutmeg into each skillet.   Cook until the apples are caramelized and very tender and the liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes longer; scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the skillets and add up to 1/2 cup of water to each pan as necessary to prevent scorching.  Let cool.

Make the topping:  Spread the walnuts in a pie plate and toast until golden and fragrant, about 8 minutes.  Let cool, then coarsely chop the walnuts.  In a large bowl, mix the oats with the flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt  Using a pastry blender or two knives (I think it's easiest to just get in there with your hands!) cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Stir in the walnuts and press the mixture into clumps.

Spread the apple filling over the cooled crust.  Scatter the crumbs on top, pressing them lightly into an even layer.  Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour, until the topping is golden; rotate the pan halfway through baking.  Let cool completely on a rack before cutting into bars.

The bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 days or frozen for up to a month.

TWD - Coffee Break Muffins

I love coffee.....can't start my day without it.  I had to give up my 3:00pm Starbucks addiction a couple of years ago because I could no longer get to sleep at 9:00pm!!  Coffee ice cream is my absolute favorite.  So why didn't I like these muffins??  I wanted to and I was really excited about making them, but I just thought they had a bitter taste.

I'm going to give them a second chance after I read all of the other baker's posts and see what creative things they did that would make them taste better.  

Thanks to Rhiani of Chocoholic Anonymous for hosting this week.  Check out her website for the recipe and check the blogroll to see what the other bakers did this week.

Jamie Oliver's Roast Chicken with Lemon and Bacon-Rosemary Potatoes

I saw this recipe the other day on one of my favorite food bloggers site and she gave it such a glowing review I knew I had to try it.  She called it "Best Ever.  Amen"!  I'm going to have to agree.

For some reason, I've been putting off trying new things in the wood-fired oven.  I've gotten comfortable with making pizzas so it was time to step out of my box and experiment a little and I thought this chicken recipe would be a great place to start.

Getting the oven ready to roast is a little different than getting it ready to make pizzas.  It begins the same way....start a fire in the center of the oven and keep it going for 2-4 hours to get the oven up to temperature.  When you're making pizza, you move the coals to the wall, but you want an active flame shooting up the walls to keep the oven temp up around 750-800 degrees.  In this case, after about three hours I moved the hot coals to the wall and didn't add any more wood.  The oven temp near the door was about 500 degrees at this point.

I put the chicken and potatoes in the roasting pan and put the pan in the front of the oven right inside the opening.  That wire you see is my meat thermometer.

Then you close the door.  It works just like any other oven now.

About halfway through, I put the two bacon slices on top of the chicken and because I didn't want the chicken getting too brown, I loosely covered it with foil.  With about 5 minutes left I removed the foil to let the bacon crisp.

Oh my gosh was this amazing.  The chicken was smokey, lemony, and incredibly moist.  And don't get me started on the potatoes.  Crack potatoes.  I couldn't stop.   The only thing I could imagine better than those potatoes would be Duke beating Alabama today.  

You obviously don't need a wood-fired oven to make this and I can't wait to try it in a conventional one to see the difference.  You're going to want to make this for dinner this week!  I'm sending you over to Ezra Pound Cake for the recipe.  Thanks Rebecca.  Fabulous recipe.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Cranberry Upside Downer

I guess it's officially Fall.  The new season of Oprah started this week.  I'm not really sure where I stand on Oprah after 25 years.  I don't think I watched the first five years because I was a working girl, but I was pretty much a regular Oprah fiend for several years after that.  Not so much the last couple of years.....first I got tired of her preaching to me about everything I should be doing in my life that I wasn't, THEN she had to go political on me.  That's when I officially deleted Oprah from my DVR.

But since this is her last season, against my better judgement, I recorded her first show on Monday.  That's when I really got pissed off.  First, let's go back about 6-7 years ago (when I was still a quasi-fan).  Hubs was doing some work with someone who's brother (brother-in-law maybe?) was head of security for Harpo Studios.  Hubs was being sweet and asked if he could get a couple of tickets.  Well it worked out and my mother and I went to Chicago for a few days of shopping and Oprah.  We were pretty excited.  Even though we didn't really know what the topic of the show was going to be.  I guess they don't make that public until a day or two in advance.  Of course we were hoping it was going to be something fabulous......George Clooney or Bono??  As long as it wasn't a show about child molesters we were cool.

We got there and I'll be damned if it wasn't WORSE or at least equally as bad.  My mother and I got to sit through three hours of taping that Holocaust show with Elie Wiesel.  Complete buzz kill.  Which is why I was so pissed watching Monday as that whole audience gets told they all get to go to Australia on Oprah's many dimes.  REALLY?  Us = worst human tragedy in history.  Them = Australia.  Ugh.  So I'm seriously considering removing Oprah from my DVR again.

Thanks to Sabrina of Superfluous for choosing this week's TWD....Cranberry Upside Downer.  This just tastes like Fall and will be perfect for all your parties clear through the holidays.  I said that to hubs and he said this is good for your parties anytime of the year!  A lot of the baker's substituted peaches for the cranberries, but the peaches are done down here and I had some frozen cranberries, so I went that direction.

Give this a try.  It's simple and very tasty.  Check Sabrina's site for the recipe.

Michael Chiarello's Italian Meatloaf (Subs)

I was looking for something on Food Network's website the other day and came across a random section titled "Top 5 Meatloaf Recipes".  This was #1.  By a landslide!

Meatloaf is man food.....hearty and filling.  But the best part about meatloaf?  Left over meatloaf.  It's one of those foods that get better as it sits in the fridge for a few days.  And it makes a killer sandwich.

I stuffed slices into some hoagie rolls, topped them with provolone and baked them.  Perfect football food.  

And speaking of football.....how 'bout dem Buckeyes!!  Turned those Hurricanes into a tropical depression!!  Hee hee.


Here's the recipe:  (I doubled this)

Italian Meatloaf

Michael Chiarello

Ingredients:


2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 red pepper, seeded, small diced
1 onion, diced
2 teaspoons (about 3 cloves) chopped garlic
1 pound ground beef (I used 1/2 lb ground sirloin and 1/2 lb hot Italian sausage)
2 eggs
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup marinara sauce (I used a jar Rao's Arrabiata Marinara Sauce.  Whole Foods and Fresh Market both carry it.)


Directions:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat and add the peppers, onions and garlic. Saute until just soft, remove to a plate and cool.

When the peppers and onions are cool, combine all of the remaining ingredients together except for the marinara. Pack the meat mixture into an oiled loaf pan, if you do not have a loaf pan, form the meat mixture into a loaf shape on an oiled oven tray or baking dish. Top with the marinara making sure to spread evenly over the top.

Bake for approximately 50 to 60 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F in the middle of the meatloaf. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

Five-Spice-Glazed Salmon with Sesame Green Beans

The worst part about being a "food-blogger" (if that's what I am) is getting a good picture. I find myself making dinner early in the evening so that I don't lose the natural light that comes in my kitchen window in order to get a decent picture.  Then I have to "set-up" the shot before I actually give the plate of food to my hungry husband.  He's actually used to it by now, but still.

And now it's getting close to Fall which means I'll have to start feeding him at 4:00pm like he's 70 years old.  It's a conundrum, I tell you.  It's easy with desserts.  I can make those early in the day, construct this creative set-up, and take several different shots.  No one is sitting around waiting to be fed their main meal of the day.

All that hyperbole was an effort to explain away the crappy photo of tonight's dinner.  To be clear, it's just the photo that was crappy....not the dinner.  It was delicious.  And it's all cooked in about 6 minutes on one pan.  How appealing is that?

I saw this recipe in the Oct/Nov issue of Fine Cooking and was drawn to it because of the addition of five-spice powder.  Remember when I had to use it in these cookies because I didn't have any ginger?  Well, I was dying to try it in a savory dish.  This one seemed like a great place to start!  It was.  I loved the whole combination of the ingredients....the great caramelization from the honey and the hint of heat from the five-spice powder was perfect.

And don't get me started on the green beans.  I hated green beans as a child.  The ones that were cooked for about three weeks with some sort of ham.  Yuck.  I could never get past the horrible smell coming from the kitchen in the summer when my mom had beans to get rid of from the garden.  Ohhhh....the mushiness.  {shudder}.

Not the case with these.  They're tossed in a little canola and sesame oil, broiled for about six minutes and then sprinkled with some lemon juice and toasted sesame seeds.  Perfectly crunchy and flavorful.  Real green beans.  Sorry, mom.

So make this for dinner tonight.  It will take you less than 30 minutes to get on your table.

Five-Spice-Glazed Salmon with Sesame Green Beans

Fine Cooking 

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1/4 cup honey
4 tsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp five-spice powder (I got mine at Fresh Market but I've seen it at Publix)
2 large cloves garlic, minced
4 6-oz skin-on salmon filets (Whole Foods had great looking salmon steaks, so I used those)
Non-stick cooking spray
1 lb slender green beans, trimmed
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp Asian sesame oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp lemon juice

In a small bowl, whisk the honey, soy sauce, five-spice powder and garlic.  Put the salmon skin side down on a large plate and pour the honey mixture over it.  Flip the filets so they are skin-side up.  Let the fish marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Position a rack 6 inches from the broiler and heat the broiler on high.  Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, toss the green beans with the canola and sesame oils.  Arrange the beans on one half of the prepared baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.  Arrange the salmon skin side down on the other half of the baking sheet.  Brush the salmon with any remaining marinade from the plate.

Broil the salmon and green beans for 3 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven, toss the green beans with tongs, and position the salmon pieces as needed so that they cook evenly.  Continue to broil until the salmon is just cooked through and the beans are crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes.  Toss the green beans with the sesame seeds and lemon juice and serve.

TWD - Chocolate-Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

I know that Labor Day weekend "officially" marks the end of summer but in the South it doesn't necessarily mean the end of hot weather.  Unfortunately that won't come until sometime in November!  But as I mentioned in a previous post, I love the last long weekend of summer nontheless.  It means tennis, football, cookouts and this year it meant a visit from the cutest almost-one-year-old in my family.

  

I mean, really.  Tell me that's not one of the cutest things ever.  But she requires a LOT of shit to get through the day.   And since she and her mama were flying down it was going to be a little tough for her to transport all that sh**.....car seats, high chairs, cribs, etc., etc., etc.  So I had to call upon the kindness of a really great friend who also has a one-year old to borrow said sh**!

Which brings me to this week's TWD chosen by Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine.  She chose Dorie's Peanut Butter Criscrosses.  I opted for the chocolate version because you can't go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate.  They're really delicious and I think they'll be a great way to thank my friend for being so nice!

    

They're just like I remember peanut butter cookies from my childhood....crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  Make sure you check Jasmine's site for the recipe (she's French Canadian so you'll have to scroll down a bit for the English version!)  Thanks Jasmine for a great pick and thanks Jilly (and Bram) for letting me borrow your sh**!!!!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Hope everyone is having as much fun as we are!

Barefoot Bloggers - Mixed Berry Cheesecake

Barefoot Blogger recipes have been pretty much non existent this summer.  August had three options and this is the only one that I actually got around to baking.  I guess because it was the lesser of the three evils chosen this month.....fried chicken, ultimate grilled cheese or this cheesecake.  NO ONE in this house eats fried chicken and my ASSets don't need a grilled cheese sandwich that includes bacon!  The only reason the cheesecake made the cut was because I knew I could give it away.  BFF's hubby loooooves cheesecake.  My hubby, not so much.  And it's actually a dessert that I can resist.  Soooooo....

I don't have any idea how this tasted, because I didn't, but I do know how it looked and let's just say that the fruit on top was crucial.  This sucker had some huge craters.  Everywhere.  I followed Ina's baking instructions to the letter, but cheesecake without a water bath is gonna be cracked cheesecake.  Just no getting around it.  Well, in my experience anyway.  I've made Dorie's recipe probably five times and it comes out perfect.  Every.  Time.  Just sayin.

So while I can't recommend the backing process on this one, I was told it was delicious.

Here's the recipe if you want to try for yourself!

Mixed Berry Cheesecake

Ina Garten

Ingredients


For the crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
2 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 whole extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the topping:
1 cup red jelly (not jam) such as currant, raspberry, or strawberry
1/2 pint sliced strawberries
1/2 pint fresh raspberries
1/2 pint fresh blueberries

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the crust, combine the graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter until moistened. Pour into a 9-inch springform pan. With your hands, press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

To make the filling, cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and add the eggs and egg yolks, 2 at a time, mixing well. Scrape down the bowl and beater, as necessary. With the mixer on low, add the sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and pour into the cooled crust.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 225 degrees and bake for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door wide. The cake will not be completely set in the center. Allow the cake to sit in the oven with the door open for 30 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for another 2 to 3 hours, until completely cooled. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the cake from the springform pan by carefully running a hot knife around the outside of the cake. Leave the cake on the bottom of the springform pan for serving.

To make the topping, melt the jelly in a small pan over low heat. In a bowl, toss berries and the warm jelly gently until well mixed. Arrange the berries on top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.