Apple Bake

Ah..the fun of enduring the fickle weather of this great metropolis. To be warm or not to be...to bucket down on thee or to shine down on thee...

Nevertheless, nothing's gonna snuff out my burning fire for baking yummy goodies. Not the cold nor the rain. No sirree~

And so, I present to you, my first apple bake. It all started with me buying a whole bunch of scrumptious lookin' apples. I had been enjoying the beautiful NZ apples the last month and was looking forward to these to be just as beautiful. But the batch I bought this time weren't nearly as sweet or scrumptious as its predecessors. So they've been sitting in my fridge for a couple of weeks and finally I found a fabulous recipe to rescue my apples: Smitten Kitchen's Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp.

As you can see in my pix that I skipped the granola because this was another spur of the moment baking. It was a 'let's use what I have' baking. So, I used orange mango lemonade instead of lemon juice and flour instead of cornstarch. They still turned out fabulous. I did use only half of the apples suggested by Smitten Kitchen (because that's what I had) but I didn't change the portions of any of the other ingredients.

These will be fantastic with yogurt for breakfast or just for snacking between meals. :)






















Apple BakeAdapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 1.8lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into medium chunks
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (I used mango orange lemonade)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (I used granulated)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (I used a Korean brand flour which is used for coating tempuras - these are slightly seasoned flours with a bit of breadcrumbs)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (or 200 degrees C).
2. Mix apple chunks with all the ingredients in a 8X8 inch baking dish until evenly coated.
3. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the apples are softened and bubbly.

Coconut Bread

Too many recipes not enough time.
I think I will never escape that feeling as I weekly scrap recipe after recipe after recipe.
Well, here's one form a blog that I found out of sheer luck of blog hopping: The Wednesday Chef. People, if you enjoy a good 'read' you're missing out if you have not visited this blog. The Wednesday Chef is one witty writer, folks. I could click on any of the archives and I know I'm guaranteed to find something that would make me smile.

A disclaimer: This bread is for coconut lovers.
I will admit, this is my very first attempt at 'bread.' Therefore, my mistakes and ignorance must be taken into account. As a coconut lover, I am enjoying this bread immensely. However, this bread is drier and quite crumblier than I thought. I have no idea if it is supposed to be that way or if I had done something wrong. Nevertheless, I wake up every morning looking forward to a breakfast of coconut bread. I lightly toast it on my frying pan and coat it with jam, butter, or enjoy it as is. It goes famously with both milk and coffee.




Coconut Bread
From the Wednesday Chef (who adapted it from Bill Granger)

• 2 large eggs (room temp)
• 1 1/4 C milk (room temp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 C flour, more for dusting (I used all purpose)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 C superfine sugar (I used regular sugar - is there a difference?)
• 5 ounces flaked coconut (about 1 1/2 C)
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (about 84grams)
• Nonstick cooking spray or butter for pan
• Confectioners' sugar (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla (I used an electric mixer for this step and then for the rest of the steps I stirred with a wooden spoon)
3. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon. add sugar and coonut and stir to mix. Make a well in the center and pour in egg mixture.
4. Gradually mix with dry ingredients until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until smooth. Do not overmix.
5. Oil and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 in loaf pan. Pour batter into pan.
6. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
7. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then move to cooling rack.
8. Dust with confectioners' sugar or just enjoy as is.

Macaroni and Cheese

I had a Bridget Jones-esque evening last night.
I turned thirty-one last Sunday (Happy Birthday to me!) and to celebrate, I had friends over and cooked for them. I hadn't done that in awhile due to busy-ness and may be, slightly, just a little bit of laziness. I had so much fun, though. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to cook for friends. Especially when they complement your cooking. If only I had two beautiful men fighting over me in a fancy restaurant in the middle of a bar mitzvah, that would have made the evening 'complete.'

I needed a recipe that is a classic that is bound to be well-recieved by any, a recipe that cannot go wrong. So I made mac-and-cheese from Martha - a recipe I saw on Smitten Kitchen. I think I'm a clever person just for picking this recipe. :) I had never had bread crumb-ed mac-and-cheese so I was a little apprehensive about adding the bread crumbs and almost skipped this step. But I am so so glad that I didn't. The crunchy-ness of the bread crumbs was total awesome-ness. I also used cheddar cheese only. I seriously could not find the Gruyere or Pecorino Romano at the supermarket. I don't know if I was supposed to go to a fancy-butt cheese store where people drink their tea with raised pinkies. But the pasta was still absolutely delicious.

I made 12 servings for 7 people. We did very well with that.
I served it with fresh garden salad and bread rolls. :)
This will definitely go into my permanent recipe box.

Mmmmm....Cheese fat...

Macaroni-and-Cheese
Adapted by Smitten Kitchen from Martha Stewart Living Cookbook

Goes well with steamed or fresh vegetables
Serves 12

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided, plus more for the casserole dish
• 6 slices of white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4 inch pieces
• 5 1/2 C milk (I used whole)
• 1/2 C all purpose flour
• 2 tsp coarse salt, plus more for the pasta boiling water
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 4 1/2 C (about 18 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar cheese
• 2 C (about 8 ounces) grated Gruyere or 1 1/4 C (about 5 ounces) grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1 pound elbow macaroni (I used spiral pasta)

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F (190 deg C). Butter 3-quart (9x13 inch) casserole dish.
2. Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat (or you can use the microwave to melt the butter). Pour melted butter over the bread crumbs. Toss and set aside.
3. Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
4. In a separate (bigger) saucepan, melt the remaining butter over medium heat. When the butter bubbles, stir in the flour. Cook for about 1 minute.
5. While whisking, slowly pour in the hot milk into the butter mixture, a little bit at a time to keep the mixture smooth. Whisking constantly, cook until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick. This will take about 8-12 minutes.
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper and 3 cups of cheddar and 1 1/2 C gruyere (or 1 C Pecorino Romano). Set cheese sauce aside.
7. Cover a large pot of salted water, bring to boil. Cook the macaroni until the outside of the pasta is cooked but the inside is underdone, about 2-3 minutes. (I cooked a little more than that.) Drain the pasta and rinse it under cold running water. Drain well.
8. Stir the pasta into the cheese sauce then pour it into the casserole dish.
9. Sprinkle the pasta with the remaining cheese and then top it with the breadcrumbs.
10. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
11. Let the Pasta cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Happy Birthday to me! :)
I got carrot cake! Yummmmmm