This past weekend was a much-needed break from winter. The sun came out, the temperatures rose above frigid-levels, and my three best girlfriends from Duke flew/bussed/trained in for a weekend of gossiping, giggling, lots of walking, and really good food. Now that it’s Tuesday and 20° again, it seems like the good vibes from this weekend are going to have to get me through the next 11 days before we leave for Ecuador (!!!). Good thing 11 days is not that long, and last weekend was really good.

Having people that love you the way you are is a wonderful thing, whether those people are your parents, your boyfriend, or childhood friends. But there’s something about a group of great girlfriends that’s just awesome, and sometimes hard to find. When the four of us get together, we laugh, a lot, both about shared memories and stories that we’re telling each other for the first time. We talk about our feelings in this intense, introspective way that I don’t have the opportunity to do very often, and sometimes it makes us cry. We make fun of each other and support each other at the same time, something that only comes from really knowing someone, not just from what they say about themselves but from how you’ve seen them act and grow and change. We tell boy stories. A lot of boy stories. More than Trevor would like. And we love each other, and it’s the best.

Friday and Saturday we ate (and ate and ate – it’s also good to have friends who like food as much as you do, and who are willing to walk it off for miles and miles afterward) at several Boston restaurants – dinner at West Bridge was a highlight, perhaps the best meal I’ve ever eaten – but on Sunday we had a cozy little brunch at my house. I was a little over-zealous with the menu: green smoothies! mimosas! lattes! lox on homemade bread! quiche! and waffles with cinnamon-berry sauce! My friends gave me a little reality check when they arrived and we cut out the smoothies and the lox (although I know Phoebe wanted that lox – next time, love, I promise), sticking with the mimosas, lattes, mini quiches, and waffles. The waffles are my mom’s recipe, that she used to make me every year for my birthday, and I served them with a quick sauce made from frozen mixed berries, sugar, and a cinnamon stick. The quiches are from Lindsay and Taylor’s book Breakfast for Dinner, which was the first book I turned to when I wanted a breakfast-for-breakfast recipe. The phyllo cups are easily baked in a muffin tin (or Lindsay says you can buy them pre-made, although I’m guessing they might be tricky to find), then filled with grated zucchini and a pesto-and-egg-custard mixture. Not exactly health food, but at least there’s a little bit of green in there. We all devoured them, along with the waffles and mimosas, and afterwards it was pretty hard to resist falling into bed for a three-hour nap. It was the best kind of Sunday. And the best kind of weekend.

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Zucchini-Pesto Mini Quiches in Phyllo Cups

Adapted from Breakfast for Dinner. Serves 4-6.

• 1/4 lb. packaged phyllo, thawed in the fridge
• 4 TBS butter, melted
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 small zucchini, washed and roughly grated
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 3/4 c. pesto, store-bought or homemade
• salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Brush regular muffin tin cups with some melted butter. Carefully unroll phyllo dough and cut sheets into 4-inch squares, keeping the sheets stacked together. Gently place one square into each muffin tin, pressing down to line the tin. Do this carefully, but don’t worry if some squares rip – the other layers will cover them up. Brush these squares with more melted butter, then layer another square of phyllo on top, again pressing down. Repeat one or two times more, until tins are fully covered. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until bottoms of cups are slightly puffed and dough is golden. Remove from oven and let cool at least 5 minutes before filling (leaving them in the muffin tins).
2. Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and saute for 1 minute, then add the grated zucchini and saute for 2-3 minutes longer, until the pan is mostly dry. Remove from heat.
3. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and heavy cream. Stir in the pesto. Season with salt and black pepper.
4. Place a small spoonful of zucchini in each phyllo cup. Spoon 2-3 TBS of the egg-pesto mixture on top of the zucchini. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until egg mixture is set and slightly puffed. Carefully remove from muffin tins and serve.

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Yesterday, I turned 24, rather unceremoniously. Usually, I make a big fuss of my birthday – I drag it out for as long as possible, believing as I do that you should never waste a good excuse to indulge in all your favorite foods and coerce all your favorite people into spending time with you. But this year, given all the chaos in our city right now, it felt different. I still celebrated – last Saturday I had a fun and happy party, Trevor and I have a nice dinner planned, and tomorrow I’ll be joining my parents for steak tips and strawberry shortcake. But, like everyone else in the city, if not the whole country, my attention was elsewhere. How could a birthday be important when people around you are having their hearts broken? It feels selfish and trivial to think too much about myself this week.

Still, I made this birthday cake. I had made the components ahead of time – my favorite vanilla cake recipe, made with coconut milk, lemon cream cheese and mascarpone frosting, and a lemon curd filling – but I assembled it late Monday afternoon, as a distraction from the news (or really, the lack of news) streaming in from the TV. I brought slices to work, to comfort myself after the unsettling experience of riding a train protected by stoic National Guardsmen and slipping through barricades to get into the office. I ate a slice this morning, my nerves shaken and tears threatening as I absorbed everything that happened overnight. And so it became a cake tinged with sadness. A cake turned to from need of distraction and comfort. All week, the phrase “the particular sadness of lemon cake” has been drifting through my head (from the title of this book). I didn’t set out to make a cake that would fit that description, it just happened.

Hopefully this will all be over soon, and we will be able to grieve for the victims without feeling a small but constant fear.  There are many families that have been changed forever, for whom sadness will be a constant, but we will do our best to love and comfort them. We will let the spring soothe us and our smiles will become broader. People will eat birthday cake with no sadness whatsoever.

P.S. Birthday recipes from last year, for a more jovial tone – Tequila and Lime Steak Tacos and the obligatory Birthday Waffles

Triple Lemon Cake with Lemon-Mascarpone-Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake recipe adapted from 6 Bittersweets. Lemon curd recipe from David Leibowitz. Serves 12-16.

For the cake:

• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c.) salted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/4 c. AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 c. canned coconut milk (shake well before opening)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper, or grease well. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat vigorously until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition. Batter should be pale yellow and thick.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, and stir until just incorporated. Add the coconut milk, and stir until just incorporated. Add the second half of the flour mixture, and stir, again, just until incorporated. Overbeating the batter will lead to a tough cake. Stir in the vanilla and lemon extracts, if using.
4. Pour half of the batter into each of the two prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, until the cakes are light golden brown on top and spring back when touched. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes should come out clean. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes in the pans on a cooling rack, then run a knife around the edges of the cake to loosen and invert onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before assembling.

For the lemon curd:

• 1/2 c. lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 TBS unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1. Place a mesh strainer over a medium heatproof bowl, and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, eggs, and salt until thoroughly combined. Add the butter pieces and heat over low heat, whisking constantly. Once the butter has all melted, raise the heat to medium-low, and continue to cook, still whisking constantly, until the curd has thickened to a pudding-like consistency. Immediately remove from heat and pour through strainer into the bowl.
3. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic against the curd to keep a skin from forming, and refrigerate until fully chilled.

For the frosting:

• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice

1. Beat together the mascarpone and cream cheeses until there are no lumps. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating vigorously between additions, until the frosting is stiff (you may not use all 4 cups). Add the lemon extract and lemon juice and beat to incorporate. Taste for flavor, consistency, and sweetness, and adjust lemon juice and/or sugar amounts according to taste.

To assemble:

1. Dab a bit of the frosting on a cake plate. Place your bottom, cooled layer of cake on top of the cake plate and press down to stick. Spoon a generous layer of lemon curd on top of the cake and spread with a spatula. The layer of lemon curd should be about 1/3 inch thick all around the cake – you may not use all of the lemon curd. Gently place the second cake layer on top of the lemon curd. Press down lightly, and wipe any lemon curd that oozes out off the side of the cake. Frost the cake, using a crumb coat if you want the cake to be extra neat.
2. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve cold or at room temperature, with an extra dollop of lemon curd or fresh strawberries.

The post A Birthday, with Sadness // A Lemon Cake appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I was supposed to share a new book and recipe with you today, but I can’t bring myself to. I have never been more grateful for being a homebody than today, when I found myself miles away from the chaos downtown, tucked away in Somerville. But many of my friends and coworkers were there to watch the marathon, cheer on the runners, and soak up the sunshine, beers in hand. Thankfully, they are all safe and accounted for. I so wish that everyone could say the same for their friends and family, but sadly, so sadly, they can’t. My heart aches for everyone who was affected by this terrible thing – my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Love, from Boston.

Spread the word to anyone who needs a place to say, there are dozens of Boston residents sharing their homes with stranded travelers and runners. A list and contact information is available here.

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Update: The giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Amy of U Try.It on winning! And thank you everyone for sharing your perfect Valentine’s Day dreams… so fun to read.

If you live in Somerville, MA, you’ve almost definitely heard of Taza Chocolate.  If you live elsewhere in Greater Boston and have ever gone to any event remotely food-related, you’ve probably heard of Taza Chocolate.  But if you’re further afield, you may never have had the delicious experience of eating their stone-ground Mexican chocolate, and so I’m here to share the love, because I really do love Taza’s chocolate.  It’s different – gritty, not super sweet, and infused with flavors like chipotle and cinnamon and orange – but it’s addicting.  Trevor introduced me to it a few years ago and I’ve gotten more and more excited about it ever since.  Visiting the Taza factory in Somerville has been high on my “to-do in Boston” list since I moved back, and when I finally got around to it (which, admittedly was kind of a while ago at this point…), it was well worth the trip.

I’ve been on a decent amount of food tours – to breweries, cheesemakers, cider houses, farms, and restaurant kitchens – and they can definitely be hit or miss.  The Magic Hat Brewery Tour was a disappointment and I learned very little.  Visiting Prodigal Farm in North Carolina was truly fascinating (you can read more about it here).  The Taza tour was way up on my quality scale – honestly, it was one of the most interesting and informative tours I’ve ever been on, and I’m not just saying that because there was a constant supply of chocolate samples during the tour.  It probably helped that I knew very little about the chocolate making process to start.  Did you know how huge cocoa pods are?  Or that they grow straight from the trunk of the tree?  Or that they turn beautiful colors in the fall?  Just the images of the cocoa trees themselves fascinated me.  Then we moved onto the harvesting, shipping, roasting, winnowing, and grinding processes, and every piece of information was new and exciting.  I don’t want to give away their whole tour, in case some of you would like to actually hear it from the Taza people themselves rather than in an overly-excited and garbled form from me, but I will share some of the highlights.  Like that one of the co-founders of Taza spent a year in Oaxaca learning to properly dress the traditional millstones used to grind the chocolate.  Or that their winnowing machine is an old Italian giant they found on a cocoa sourcing trip.  Or that they travel to the countries from which their cocoa beans come every year to pick the best quality beans and make sure the farms they come from are fair.  Or that the difference between European and Mexican chocolate is the addition of milk and a thorough mixing process to smooth it out.

I highly recommend a trip to the factory if you live in the area or are ever visiting. And if you’re really looking for the full chocolate experience, Taza offers a week-long trip to Belize every March in which you go through the entire process of making chocolate, from picking cocoa beans to making your own bars (sometimes I really wish I was richer). If a quick jaunt to make chocolate in the jungle isn’t in the cards for you this year, either, I have two other things you might enjoy – one, a delicious chocolate mousse recipe, and two, a Taza chocolate giveaway.

Typically I just eat Taza chocolate straight – my favorite flavors are the salt & pepper and the cinnamon – but since we’re getting close to Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d step my game up and make a Mayan Chocolate Mousse, inspired in equal parts by Food & Wine’s Mayan Chocolate Pudding, and Bon Appetit’s recent article on the perfect chocolate mousse. I went all out with the cinnamon, using two packs of Taza cinnamon chocolate discs, replacing the espresso with my favorite cinnamon tea, and topping it off with a sweetened cinnamon whipped cream. It came out amazing, if I do say so myself. I really loved that the mousse still held the essence of Taza chocolate, it didn’t just taste generically chocolatey. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to wait until the 14th before making it again…

Giveaway Details: Interested in trying Taza chocolate? Enter to win the Chocolate Mexicano Classic Collection, and you can try six of their flavors (a cinnamon disc is included, leaving you just enough to make a portion of this mousse for two…). To enter, leave a comment below telling me how you would spend your ideal Valentine’s Day if money wasn’t an option. For a second entry, follow both me (@Kitchen_Door) and Taza (@TazaChocolate) on Twitter, and tweet to both of us about the giveaway, then come back and leave me a second comment letting me know you tweeted. The giveaway will close at midnight on Tuesday the 5th, at which point I’ll randomly choose a winner. Open to U.S. readers only. If the winner doesn’t respond to me within 48 hours of me notifying them they’ve won, I’ll have to pick an alternate winner

P.S. I LOVED reading all your comments about your most memorable Valentine’s Day on my last giveaway. It was so fun to hear all the stories!

Disclaimer: Taza is hosting this giveaway, but I discovered the product myself and truly love it, and have not been compensated in any way for writing this post.

Mayan Chocolate Mousse

Adapted from Bon Appetit and inspired by Food & Wine. Serves 4.

Note: Chocolate Mousse can be a little bit finicky – I accidentally scrambled my first batch of egg yolks! – so carefully follow the instructions provided and make sure your ingredients are at the correct temperatures. If you mess up, don’t fret – the end result will be worth trying again!

• 3/4 c. chilled heavy whipping cream, divided
• pinch cream of tartar
• 2 egg whites, room temperature
• 4 TBS sugar, divided
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 c. strong cinnamon tea, at room temperature
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 packages of cinnamon Taza chocolate, or 5.4 oz. dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/8 tsp cayenne chili powder
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon if using regular chocolate + 1/4 tsp cinnamon for whipped cream

1. Measure out 1/2 c. of the heavy cream into a medium bowl. Whisk vigorously until foamy, sprinkle with the cream of tartar, then whisk until stiff peaks firm. Cover and chill.
2. Beat egg whites vigorously until soft peaks form. Sprinkle 1 TBS of the sugar over the top, and continue beating until stiff, shiny peaks form. Set aside.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a gentle simmer. In a medium metal bowl, or a smaller metal-bottomed pot, whisk together the egg yolks, 2 TBS of the remaining sugar, room temperature tea, and salt. Set the bowl over the simmering water and whisk vigorously until mixture is pale yellow in color and doubled in volume. This will only take about a minute – remove immediately when it’s ready (or a second before you think it’s ready, as this is where it’s easy to accidentally scramble your eggs). Add the finely chopped chocolate and stir until it’s melted. If chocolate is not melting, it’s OK to set back over the simmering water for intervals of 5-10 seconds while whisking the mixture, but finely chopping the chocolate should remove the need for this. Once chocolate is melted, add the cayenne, allspice and 1/4 tsp cinnamon (if not using cinnamon chocolate) and whisk to incorporate. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in two additions, only folding until just incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream until just incorporated. Divide between four dishes and chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Just before serving, beat remaining 1/4 c. of heavy cream and 1/4 tsp cinnamon until soft peaks form. Sprinkle with remaining 1 TBS of sugar and whisk to incorporate. Dollop a bit of whipped cream on top of each portion, and serve.

The post Taza Chocolate Giveaway and Mayan Chocolate Mousse appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I was going to write about Thanksgiving today. Probably make some delicious stuffing or tricked out pie or some other Thanksgiving-y recipe. But then, as I browsed through the hundredth roundup of Thanksgiving recipes, I just got overwhelmed. I mean, I know Thanksgiving is the biggest American food holiday of the year, but there’s a lot of information circulating about it out there. Dozens of magazines dedicated to it, thousands of blog posts about it, whole books and TV shows trying to break it down into little tiny pieces. And it’s just one day! I mean, it’s a great day, but still, it’s only one day. Then I realized that there are probably a lot of people out there like me – people who love Thanksgiving just as much as the next girl, but who just aren’t cooking it. Because their mom, or grandmother, or father-in-law, or best friend’s boyfriend is taking care of that, and at most they’re bringing a pie, and their relatives and friends are kind of picky traditionalists who will complain if it’s not the pumpkin pie recipe from the back of the can. Or maybe there are people out there who are hosting Thanksgiving, but they’ve had their menu planned for weeks, if not months, and, given all the choices out there, they probably had a hard enough time deciding what to make in the first place.

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Does seasonal eating ever stress you out?  It does me.  Knowing that there are so many foods available for only a few months, or weeks, even, makes me feel a huge amount of pressure to cook, cook, cook as much as possible with those ingredients before they’re gone.  I know this is the wrong way to think about it, that I should just be enjoying each season in its own right, cooking what I feel like when I feel like it, just eating the produce in my fridge rather than spending hours googling “savory apple recipes” and “things to do with figs,” but this mentality seems embedded into my list-making, multi-tasking personality.  I’m the same way about life in general.  I’m such a planner and there’s so much I want to DO that sometimes I don’t get around to any of the things on the list.  Planning vacations, for example – I’ve probably spent a collective 24 hours trying to plan a 48 hour weekend getaway for this fall. Yes, the daydreaming and planning is part of the fun, but sometimes, I wish I could be more spontaneous.  Just pack up and go.  Experience things without imagining the experience 40 times over before hand.  Not have a mild anxiety attack at the mere idea of my Saturday afternoon plans changing.

However, this personality trait is useful, to a certain degree.  It means I’ve never found myself in a crisis while on the road – I always have all the phone numbers and maps and back-up plans at hand.  And it means I don’t drop the ball or let things slip through the cracks at work, which can only bring good for my career.  Really, I just need to find an internal balance – stay well-prepared without over-thinking something to the point of causing myself stress about the what-ifs; agree to an impromptu afternoon out with friends rather than automatically declining; enjoy the seasonal food I do get a chance to cook without worrying about all the things I didn’t get to this time around.  Perhaps just another way of saying “live in the moment,” but worth reflecting on.

Let’s get back to food.  Fall food.  My mental list of seasonal ingredients for this season is long – apples, pears, figs, chestnuts, mushrooms, squash, grapes, beets, brussels sprouts, potatoes and probably more that are currently escaping me.  Then there are the soups and stews and slow-braised meats that are really only appropriate in cold weather – like this Braised Lamb with Polenta or this Sausage and Tortellini Soup.  We listmakers, we sometimes get caught up making the list and never get around to doing anything on it – and I’m determined not to let that happen for the next few months!  I’m off to a good start with this super delicious Cider Doughnut Cake.  Is there anything more fall than Cider Doughnuts?  Even better, I took today off from work to pick apples and hang out with Trevor and enjoy the sunshine and leaves… and eat real cider doughnuts.  So I can attest to the likeness of this cake to the real deal.  My roommate corroborated through text message: “Strong work, tastes just like the orchard!”  If you’re a fan of the doughnuts, do you need more reason than that to try this bake-able version?  I didn’t think so.

Stay tuned for more fall recipes, soon.  Especially ones with apples, as I’m now the proud owner of half a bushel…

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Apple Cider Doughnut Cake

Adapted from Serious Eats.  Serves 12.

• 1 stick plus 1 TBS salted butter, softened
• 2 medium Macintosh apples, peeled, cored, and cut into cubes (about 8 oz. total)
• 1 1/2 c. apple cider
• 1/2 c. milk, slightly warmed in microwave
• 3/4 c. + 4 TBS sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Melt 1 TBS of the butter and use a pastry brush to spread it around the inside of a bundt pan, making sure to get in all the creases.
2. Place the chopped apple and the apple cider in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes, until apples are soft and cider has been mostly absorbed.  Let cool 5 minutes, then puree in a food processor.  Mix with the warmed milk, whisking quickly to avoid curdling the milk.
3. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter, 3/4 c. sugar, and 1/2 c. brown sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating fully between each addition.  Mix in canola oil, and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and 1 tsp of the cinnamon.
5. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the egg/butter/sugar mixture, and incorporate.  Add 1/2 of the apple cider mixture to the batter, incorporate.  Repeat with the remaining flour and cider mixtures.  Beat in vanilla until just incorporated.
6. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes in pan, then invert over a cooling rack and remove from pan.
7. Whisk together remaining 4 TBS of sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon.  Sprinkle cinnamon over warm cake.  Let cool, and enjoy!

The post Cooking Fall & Apple Cider Doughnut Cake appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Gardening  season is winding down.  Our raised bed is barely getting 3 hours of sun a day, the last few tomatoes are ripening, and while I’m still hoping for the brussels sprouts to actually produce their sprouts, I’m not holding my breath.  It’s a little bit sad, but we’re already taking notes and daydreaming about everything we’re going to do next year.

This first year of gardening has been a roller coaster, if you can believe me that gardening qualifies as something in which I have a large enough emotional investment to describe it as a roller coaster.  It’s had extremely fulfilling moments – snacking on super-sweet sun-ripened grapes on my way out the door in the morning; moments of defeat – pulling the umpteenth San Marzano off the vine with more blossom rot; and moments of triumph – a flush of new growth on my lovely lemon tree, despite it having been close to death from a mealybug infestation a month before.  Our most successful crop was probably the cucumbers, which took over the raised bed, climbed up and over the 8 foot fence, and produced at least a dozen mammoth cucumbers.  Our least successful?  The broccoli, as it was the only crop that produced nothing at all, despite some hopeful moments early on.

Success or failure, I think it’s safe to say that both Trevor and I derived a lot of satisfaction from the whole experience.  So much satisfaction, in fact, that we’re upgrading.  My dad has (so nicely!) agreed to share the cultivation of his “back 40” with us.  There’s already a sizable vegetable plot, a dozen or so fruit trees, a raspberry patch, well-established grape vines, and blueberries, with plenty of sunshine and room for expansion.  Since my family spends the majority of the growing season in Maine, having us around to take care of the garden means they might get more than one measly peach and a glut of over-sized kale each year, and for us, well… owning land is not something that we are close to accomplishing, so having a spacious plot to play around with is the equivalent of winning the garden lottery.  Needless to say, we’re excited.

We’ve spent the last 7 or 8 Sundays at the Andover garden, getting a handle on things and caring for a fall crop of beans, peas, beets, and carrots.  Spending a few hours outside working in the dirt – sometimes dripping sweat as you shovel and rake, sometimes peacefully pulling weeds from between the carrots – is deeply satisfying.  It’s also a great way to be with Trevor, working quietly side by side, each with our own task but the same ultimate goal.  I’ve wondered once or twice if gardening is just a fad for me – will I still be this enthused next year? – but it seems so natural to work with the earth that it’s hard to imagine moving on.

Plans for next year are a constant source of conversation – should we add a melon bed?  What structures need to be replaced?  Do we want to add more fruit trees? – but for the time being we’re mostly concerning ourselves with clean up and harvest.  In particular, we’ve had a bumper crop of eggplants (which is in no part due to our efforts, as my dad put them in long before we showed up), and I’ve been struggling to eat my share.  I’ve had my eye on a recipe for Lamb and Eggplant Stew with Farro, Parsley, and Harissa in Sunday Suppers at Lucqes for a while now, but every time it comes down to it, I’m just too busy to put together the multi-day recipe.  Instead, I used the flavors of that dish and a little inspiration from Tender to put together this quicker, vegetarian version.  Eggplant gets roasted with a chile-garlic oil, then added to nutty wheat berries, parsley pesto, and a bit of whipped goat cheese.  It’s balanced in both flavor and texture, and makes an interesting and healthy vegetarian main course.  Feel free to play around with the components – would feta be a better counterpart, or perhaps a traditional basil pesto?  Should the wheat berries be dressed in a chile-paste to amplify the heat? – to see what works for you.  And let me know if you try any variations!  Or if you can think of a better name than I could…

Roast Eggplant, Parsley Pesto, Goat Cheese, and Wheat Berries

Serves 3-4.

• 2 large globe eggplants
• 1/3 c. + 1/4 c. olive oil
• 7 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/2 tsp harissa or chile powder (may need more or less depending on the heat level of your chile powder_
• sea salt
• 2 c. uncooked wheat berries, cooked according to these directions
  
• 3 c. fresh parsley leaves
• 1/4 c. pine nuts or walnuts
• 4 oz. soft goat cheese
• 1/2 c. heavy cream

1. Wash and dry the eggplants, then slice into 1 inch thick rounds.  Salt both sides and set on a baking pan for 15 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 425°F.  In a food processor, blend 6 cloves of the garlic, 1/3 c. oil, and harissa until a smooth paste is formed.  Use a paper towel to wipe salt and liquid from the eggplant slices, then cut the slices into 1 inch cubes.  Brush the eggplant with the chile-garlic oil, coating all pieces, then sprinkle with salt.  Roast for 40 minutes, stirring eggplant pieces about half way through.
3. Cook your wheat berries while the eggplant is roasting according to directions in link.
4. Make the pesto: In a food processor, blend 1/4 c. olive oil, remaining 1 clove garlic, and nuts to form a paste.  Add parsley and blend until fully combined.  Taste and season with salt if desired.
5. Place the goat cheese in a bowl and use a whisk or fork to break it up.  Add the heavy cream, and whisk together until a smooth, thick cream is formed.
6. Place a scoop of wheat berries in each bowl.  Top with a few spoonfuls of pesto, a scoop of roast eggplant, and a dollop of whipped goat cheese.  Serve hot.

The post Garden: Roast Eggplant, Pesto, Whipped Goat Cheese, Wheat Berries, appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

A few weeks ago, my 9 mile training run was rewarded with a special treat – a tasting brunch at M3 Davis with the Boston Brunchers.  It had been a while since I last got together with the Brunchers for an event – the last one I joined was for the Farm School, back in March.  When I saw that they were headed to the new Southern place in Davis, I signed up right away – I’d really been wanting to try this place, and it’s only a 10 minute walk from my house.  Which was about all I could manage after my run, anyway.

Somerville has had a spat of awesome new restaurants opening in the past 6 months or so: the new falafel bar, the tequila bar and Mexican restaurant Painted Burro, the speakeasy style Saloon, and the surprisingly classy i-Yo cafe and fro-yo shop, to name a few.  Actually, Davis in general feels much hipper, cleaner, and more bustling than it did even a year ago – it’s definitely a good place to be.  M3 joins the ranks of classy Davis eateries as a representative of the classic “Meat and Three” concept that grounds Southern dining.  Although it has a small interior, it’s bright and trendy, with most of the surfaces covered in chalkboard paint – bring your creative side with you as there’s plenty of chalk provided (I could only imagine this gets really fun when settling in for a night of drinking).  The atmosphere is super relaxed – fun, young, and casual.

The folks at M3 served us a little bit of what seemed like practically everything on their brunch menu.  Pickled watermelon and goat cheese salad, scotch quail eggs, pomegranate mimosas, chicken and biscuits, fried chicken and cherry-pecan waffles, blueberry-ricotta pancakes, bloody mary’s, texas french toast with chocolate-covered bacon… by the time we left M3, I could barely move.  In a good way, if that’s possible.  I didn’t love all of the dishes – the pancakes, for instance, were a little dry (but then again, my pancake standards are pretty high), and the scotch egg was nothing to write home about, but the bloody mary, french toast, and chicken and waffles were all delicious.  Not delicious in an innovative high-end way, but delicious like your mom just made you a bunch of your favorite breakfast foods, and it’s a cool fall Saturday, and you’ve got all day in front of you to play, and you just can’t help taking seconds of everything.  If that makes any sense at all.  I guess what I mean is it’s good homey food, with just a little bit of twist to make it interesting.  This time around we received brunch gratis, but the price point is about what I’m looking for, with most of the brunch items in the $8-12 range.  I’ll likely be heading back soon – I think it’s going to make a great neighborhood spot.

Since I know most of you aren’t from around here, and because restaurant reviews aren’t really my niche anyway, I decided to recreate one of our brunch treats to share with you.  This pickled watermelon salad wasn’t my favorite dish (although I did like it quite a bit), but it was the one I felt I could recreate most reliably (the perfect bloody mary mix was going to be a lot more challenging).  This is a light and refreshing summer starter, with a bit of tang and lots of juice.  My version isn’t quite as good as the one at M3 – but it’s a starting point!

Disclaimer: M3 provided us with a tasting brunch free of charge, but all opinions included here are my own.

Pickled Watermelon and Goat Cheese Salad

Pickled watermelon recipe adapted from Bon Appetit.  Serves 4.

• 1/4 of a large seedless watermelon, cut into 1 inch cubes (about 3 c. cubes)
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• juice from 2 medium limes
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 c. white wine vinegar
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• kosher salt
• black pepper
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise
• 4 oz. fresh goat cheese

1. Make the dressing: vigorously whisk together honey, vinegar, olive oil, shallot, coriander, lime juice, and honey.  Taste, and season with salt and pepper as desired.  Pour over cubed watermelon in a large bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Lightly salt cucumber slices and place in a strainer over a large bowl.  Let sit for 20 minutes, then wipe dry.
3. To assemble salad, place watermelon cubes on each of 4 plates, then top with slightly curled slices of cucumber.  Dot each plate with 1 oz. goat cheese, then sprinkle with fresh black pepper.

The post M3 Davis Square and a Pickled Watermelon Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As the official end of summer is upon us, it’s high time I post an update on my summer bucket list from June.  While in my mind summer’s not over until tomatoes leave the farmer’s market and the water’s too cold to go swimming, it is true that the number of nice days left in the season is quickly shortening, and I better make the most of what’s left!

1. Go to the Cape.  While I haven’t done this yet, I haven’t given up on it, either.  Shoulder season on the Cape might even be nicer than the height of summer, who knows?
2. Pick berries.  Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, even a few straggler strawberries on my landlord’s tiny plants – berries have been picked.  Sadly, the backyard raspberry patch season was ended early by raspberry fruitworms – I will get you next year, worms.
3. Learn to grill.  I did light the grill one or two times… and even flip things over on it… but I still haven’t done it myself, so I’m not checking it off yet.  What are some recipes that will entice me to grill?
4. Make Cassis.  Success!  After much searching, Trevor secured enough black currants to make a batch of homemade creme de cassis and it came out perfectly.  I’m so glad I have enough to last me through several evenings of Kirs.
5. Visit the Harbor Islands.  Ditto the Cape.  We actually tried to go to the Harbor Islands – as in, we went all the way to the dock, waited in line for tickets, only to find that tickets were mostly sold out for that day.  Thankfully, the ferry keeps running on weekends until October 8th, so perhaps an early fall picnic is in order.
6. Ride my bike.  You would think this was an easy one, right?  Wrong.  Apparently I have some sort of anxious relationship with my bike – I own a bike, but have managed to draw out the process of getting ready to ride it for over a year.  First the lock, then the helmet, then finding a pump to put air in the tires – easy things, took me forever.  Anyway, as of today it’s all set to go – I haven’t actually gotten on it yet, but I’m for sure doing it this week, so I’m crossing it off anyway.
7. Train for a half marathon.  I’m 100% surprised that this is one of the things I actually managed to accomplish this summer.  When my friend Steph suggested that Trevor and I join her and her boyfriend in Chicago for a half, I said yes and registered without too much thinking ahead, only to realize immediately after that I had only 6 weeks to whip my butt into shape.  But with Saturday’s 10-mile run under my belt, I’m feeling almost ready to hit the pavement – next weekend!  If that one’s a bust though, I’ve a bit longer to keep training for the Newburyport half with my mom – which isn’t until the beginning of November.
8. Do a producer interview.  Still an idea I like, just haven’t gotten around to it!
9. Plan a trip.  Fail, Katie.  We are going to Chicago, but that’s not exactly the trip I had in mind.  I’ll keep you posted.
10. Make at least 3 kinds of ice cream.  Well this one was super easy – making and consuming ice cream has never been much of a challenge for me.  I started the summer off with cherry-chocolate ice cream, proceeded to Bailey’s fudge ripple ice cream, and most recently popped a batch of super-easy and surprisingly healthy plum sorbet in the freezer.  Now that pumpkin beer has started to show up in stores, I’ve had a custardy pumpkin ice cream on my mind – ice cream has no season!

So 5 for 10.  Not too terrible, not too great.  It’s still possible I’ll finish all of them before the end of September, but if not, it was fun to do the things I did.  And as for the tart you’re seeing here, it’s included because the arrival of figs at the market is a sure sign that summer is slowly shifting into fall.  Figs aren’t my favorite fruit, but even I liked this custardy almond tart with caramelized figs and almond brittle enough to have a big slice.  After that, I handed it over to Trevor to finish off our first dinner in his new house.

Fig and Almond Custard Tart

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  Serves 8.

For the pate sucree (crust):

• 2 TBS cold heavy cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 3 TBS sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 stick cold butter
• 2 TBS ice cold water

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Cut butter into 1/2 inch chunks and add to flour mixture.  Use a pastry cutter to cut butter into flour until dough resembles coarse meal, with even pieces about the size of a pea.  In a small bowl, beat together egg yolk and cream until even in color.  Slowly drizzle egg mixture into dough while stirring with a wooden spoon.  Then add ice water 1 TBS at a time, stirring at the same time.  At this point, dough should hold together loosely when pressed.
2. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 10 mintues.  Remove from fridge and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll out into a 10 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick, then carefully lift over top of tart pan.  Press crust into edges of tart pan, and chill crust in pan for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Prick the bottom of the chilled crust 4-5 times with a fork.  Line chilled tart crust with parchment paper, then fill with pie weights.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove parchment paper and pie weights, and bake for another 15 minutes, until golden brown.  Set aside to cool for at least 20 minutes.

For the filling:

• 18 black mission figs, de-stemmed and quartered
• 3 TBS butter, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10 TBS sugar, divided
• 1/2 c whole blanched almonds
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 TBS cognac

1. Caramelize the figs: add 2 TBS butter to a large frying pan and heat over medium heat.  When butter begins to foam, add 3 TBS sugar, then swirl/stir until sugar has dissolved.  Add quartered figs, and cook, stirring, until figs have released their juices and are coated in sugar.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Set half of the fig mixture aside.  Spread the other half over the bottom of the pre-baked tart pan.
2. Wipe out the pan used to caramelize the figs and add remaining 1 TBS of butter and 3 TBS of sugar and stir to dissolve.  Add almonds, and caramelize, stirring frequently, until almonds are a toasty golden brown and sugar has begun to caramelize on them.  Remove from pan onto wax paper and let cool, then break almond brittle into bite sized pieces.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, remaining 4 TBS of sugar, cream, almond extract, and cognac until evenly combined.  Pour custard over fig mixture in tart shell, then bake for 30 minutes (still at 400°F), until custard is set and slightly puffed.  Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then top with remaining fig mixture and almond brittle.  Serve warm or after chilling in the fridge.

The post Summer Bucket List Update and a Fig and Almond Tart appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Last Sunday Trevor and I dropped by Wilson Farm, a 128 year old, year-round farm, garden center, and grocery store in Lexington.  We sort of went just to check it out, and I had no idea that the store would be packed with the most beautiful produce I’ve seen in a long time, so I was a little under-prepared (i.e. no grocery list).  Even though my practical side was telling me that I already had too much produce in the fridge to use up before vacation, I ended up leaving with several pounds of fresh apricots, nectarines and plums that were too luscious to resist.  We also bought two grapevines (but successfully talked ourselves out of buying a 2nd fig tree, even though it was on sale), but that’s a story for a different day.

By the time we got home it was late afternoon, and I was sort of exhausted.  I set the fruit out on the table, most of it already at its peak ripeness, and began to get stressed out.  About fruit, yes, don’t make fun of me.  I wanted to use it right away, but the ice cream maker wasn’t ready, I didn’t have anyone to eat a giant crisp, and I just couldn’t get inspired.  I kind of agonized over this, and finally decided to put the fruit away and plan something for dinner the next day, but not before noticing that one of the plums was dented and beginning to leak.  I grabbed it and stood over the sink and bit into it, and instantly realized that my agonizing had been super pointless – you don’t need to think about what to do with perfect summer stone fruit, you just need to eat it.  Room temperature or straight out of the fridge, sweet-tart juice dribbling down your elbows, it’s the best, most refreshing treat in the world.  It reminded me that this has already been said, more eloquently than I’ll ever be able to put it:

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

~This Is Just To Say, by William Carlos Williams

The next morning I repeated the simple treat, and again Monday night for dessert, but I still wanted to use some of the fruit for something bloggable.  I turned to Ripe, Nigel Slater’s gorgeous book that’s organized fruit by fruit.  All of the recipes Nigel shares are quite simple, with a handful of choice ingredients and a technique that’s usually fit into one small paragraph.  But simple can be revelatory as well, and while the strawberry section, for example, provided little new inspiration (strawberry jam, strawberry ice, strawberries and cream), the apricot section is packed with amazing ideas.  A “Frenchified” casserole of lamb, apricots and rosemary; an apricot pilaf with yogurt sauce; broiled apricots with mascarpone; an iced apricot and black currant terrine – all ideas that are both simple but not at all boring.  I started with this spiced apricot couscous, which made a lovely, easy weeknight dinner, and if I find more fresh apricots and some black currants at the same time, that terrine will be a must.

In other news, we arrived in Maine on Wednesday afternoon, and I’ve been meaning to post since then, but days have been super packed, in the best way possible – learning to wakeboard, eating fried fish sandwiches at Bagaduce, recovering from sunburns with long naps, hiking and popovers in Acadia, campfires and toasty smores, sparklers and roman candles, evening runs, and long sangria-filled dinners with friends.  Trevor is here through tomorrow, then my girlfriends come up next weekend, but in between, I’m sure I’ll have time to share something deliciously Maine-y with you.

Spiced Apricot Couscous

Adapted from Ripe.  Serves 4.

• 1 c. couscous
• 1 c. vegetable stock
• 1 TBS good olive oil
• 1-3 tsp harissa
• 1 preserved lemon, cut into small pieces
• 1 small bunch cilantro, stemmed and chopped
• 2 shallots
• 1 TBS butter
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 whole cardamom pods
• 1/4 tsp dried chile flakes
• 5-6 ripe apricots, pitted and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/4 c. dried currants or raisins
• sea salt
• black pepper

1. In a small pot, bring the vegetable stock just to a boil.  Add the couscous, then turn off heat immediately, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a large frying pan.  Add shallots and saute until translucent, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.  Add cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, dried chile flakes, chopped apricots, and currants or raisins.  Season with salt and pepper, and add 1 c. warm water to pan.  Leave to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until apricots are very soft and sauce has reduced and thickened.
3. Fluff up couscous with a fork, and transfer to a large bowl.  Stir in olive oil, preserved lemon, and cilantro.  Add 1 tsp of the harissa, stir to incorporate, and taste for heat.  My harissa is very hot, so 1 tsp did it for me, but the level of heat can vary greatly, so taste as you go and stop when you’ve hit the heat that you like.
4. Pour hot apricots into a separate bowl.  Serve the couscous, then mound the spiced apricots on top.  Serve hot.

The post Fresh Apricots & Spiced Couscous appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I have been looking forward to today for a long time.  Not just looking forward to, but needing.  Craving.  My office hasn’t had a holiday since New Years, and although I took two days off in February, I spent both of them on a plane.  So today, on this beautiful spring day in Boston, I’m having a real day of vacation.  And it’s glorious just to have an entire day with no commitments.

So how am I spending my day?  Simply.  I went for a long run early this morning, before the heat built up.  I had a peach and raspberry smoothie, followed by one of these bars.  I walked to the market and bought a boatload of beets, and fresh feta cheese.  I killed (hopefully) every single mealybug on my poor lemon tree by wiping each leaf and stem down with rubbing alcohol, gave it a good dose of fertilizer, and left it happily in the sun.  I transplanted the tomatoes, and the thyme, and ended up with dirt all over my face, which made me strangely happy.  I can’t wait to show you pictures of our garden, or to eat the first green peas and fava beans.

I took a cool shower, did my laundry, cleaned up the last remnants of my party Saturday night.  Then I made this sandwich – with cranberry-nut bread, avocado, homemade edam cheese, peppered turkey, and pickled red onions.  There’s something wonderful and simple and summery about sandwiches.  I ate it sitting outside in the shade, with a glass of lemonade.  Now I’m reading cookbooks that have been sitting on my nightstand for weeks, bookmarking all the spring recipes that I’m getting more and more excited for.  For dinner I’m going to have roasted beets with feta and candied pecans, and a glass of white wine.  I’ll watch a little TV, maybe have a bowl of lemon ice cream, and go to sleep early.  And I will have spent today exactly as I wanted to.

P.s. It’s my birthday week (and yes, I celebrate it for a whole week, if not longer), so you can look forward to a few scrumptious recipes from all my various celebrations soon!

Turkey and Avocado Grilled Cheese

Serves 1.

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 3 TBS quick pickled red onions
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 TBS raw onion, finely diced
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 4 slices black pepper turkey
• 1 handful arugula
• 2 slices cheddar cheese
• 1 TBS butter

Mash avocado with raw onion and salt until creamy.  Spread on one slice of bread.  Top with pickled red onions, then arugula, then turkey, then cheese.  Top with other slice of bread.  Melt 1/2 of butter in frying pan over medium heat.  Add sandwich, with the cheese layer closest to the heat.  Spread remaining butter on exposed piece of bread.  Cook for 3-5 minutes, until you smell the butter toasting and the cheese begins to melt, then carefully flip, and cook for 3 minutes on the other side.  Serve warm with a glass of lemonade.

The post A Sunny Day and a Sandwich appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Just wanted to quickly share a few photos of this year’s gingerbread creation: a to-scale model of the Zakim Bridge in Boston.  That’s just the kind of thing that happens when you have two civil engineering students who also love food.  Some of you may remember last year’s treehouse, and pre-blog, we did a Romanesque cathedral.  The annual gingerbread extravaganza is always driven by Trevor – he does the planning, the pattern, and the baking, while I’m more like a whiny little sibling who complains about there not being enough to decorate.  This year, I got my fun in by making Santa out of homemade marzipan.  I was going to do a gingerbread sleigh as well, but the bridge collapsed before I got around to it.  Sad day.  And good thing real bridges aren’t made out of gingerbread.  Trevor did the design and made the cable stays out of homemade candy canes, which was kind of a fun process – see pictures below.

I’m including a collection of links for the various pieces of this project, just in case anyone wants to start planning early for next year.  One suggestion I would have for the homemade marzipan is to sculpt it the day you make it – after a few days in the fridge it was oily and difficult to work with, hence the kind of scary looking Santa.  In other news, check out the new logo and the cookbook review section I’ve recently added – feedback on either is welcome.  I’m working on a few projects for the blog, including a two-week cleanse-diet-sort-of-thing, an article about our experience dabbling in cheesemaking, and recipes inspired by my new lemon tree, so expect lots of exciting and healthy recipes from me soon!

Click here for our gingerbread recipe.

See this recipe for homemade marzipan instructions and this article for tips on working with it.

Lastly, how to make your own candy canes!

The post Gingerbread 2011 – The Zakim Bridge appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Because I spent most of last weekend at the office, I took Tuesday as a comp day to try and make up for the beautiful fall weather we had on Saturday and Sunday.  As soon as I had decided that, yes, I really was going to take my first day off of work, my mind immediately started buzzing with all the things I wanted to do to make the most of it.  Sometimes, this can be a bit of a mental trap for me, as I get so bogged down in the planning and the anticipation that I forget to enjoy the actual doing.  This time, though, it worked out great – I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I fell asleep Monday night, the weather was supposed to be beautiful, I hadn’t tried to pack too much into one day, and so Tuesday morning, I just got up and did it.  And it was great.

I knew that to be as awesome as I wanted it to be, my day off would have to involve several things: one, being outside as much as possible; two, delicious food, preferably homemade; three, Trevor, because how good can a day be without a little flirtation; and four, my family, because I really do think that a significant portion of my best memories are just of sitting around the kitchen table with my family, drinking red wine, eating hearty meals, and laughing hysterically.  The solution to all these requirements ended up coming in a single form: apples.  Apple pancakes in the morning, apple picking with Trevor in the afternoon, and apple crisp with my family at night.  Given how many apples I ate yesterday, the doctor should be away for quite some time.

Apple picking is one of my favorite fall activities.  It’s outside, it’s a quintessential New England thing, it’s wholesome, and it involves food.  I grew up going to Smolak Farms, and driving around the corner of the orchard and looking down the hill at the lake and the pumpkin patch and the farmhouse fills me with this great surge of childish excitement.  Trevor and I spent two hours picking almost every kind of apple they had – we must have eaten at least 6 just while walking around.  We decided that apples are truly best just off the tree because they’re at the perfect temperature – refrigerated apples are so cold they hurt your teeth, apples left in your backpack all day are kind of warm and mealy, but just off the tree they have just the right amount of cool crispness.  God, they were so good.  When our bag was packed so full that I may have had to sneak an extra apple into my purse (it would have just rotted on the ground otherwise!) and we had chased some wild turkeys and climbed a few trees, it was time for the real reason for our visit – eating cider donuts.  Because cider donuts are possibly my favorite food groups.  And I still have one left over for breakfast tomorrow.  Win.  After that we headed back to my house for spaghetti with pepper sauce, salad, red wine, and hot apple crisp.  The day was as perfect and fulfilling as I’d wanted it to be, and I fell asleep happy and refreshed.  And very full.

Now let’s get back to breakfast.  I’m really picky about my pancakes – I hardly ever like them at diners, I refuse to eat them if they’re made from a mix, and I think fake maple syrup is inedible.  It’s probably because I grew up with my dad making awesome pancakes fairly frequently – he has a recipe, and he has it down, and now I’m just used to the best.  I like my pancakes thick and a little bit tangy – buttermilk is a must – usually with some blueberries or other fruit in them.  I’ve tried a lot of different recipes, and so far only one has been up to my standards.  It uses buttermilk and a smidge of sour cream, and the result is super flavorful, super moist pancakes.  I adapted it here with some fall-ish spices and chunks of fresh apples, then served them with boiled apple cider syrup and apple slices cooked in caramel.  They.  Were.  Heavenly.  Exactly what I wanted, and then some.  If moist, tangy pancakes and apples and deliciousness are your thing, try these the next time you want to have an awesome day, or celebrate fall, or go to work late, or all of the above.

Apple Buttermilk Pancakes with Cider Syrup

Pancakes adapted from Brown-Eyed Baker.  Makes 6-8 pancakes.

• 2 c. flour
• 2 TBS sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 2 c. buttermilk
• 1/4 c. sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 4 TBS butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. chunks

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 c. apple cider

1. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices together until thoroughly combined.  In a separate bowl, gently beat eggs, then add buttermilk, sour cream, and melted butter, and mix until just combined.  Do not overmix.  Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix gently until batter is evenly moist, but still slightly lumpy.  Do not beat or overmix, as that will toughen your pancakes.  Add apple chunks, stir to distribute throughout batter, then let batter sit, undisturbed, for 10-20 minutes.
2. Heat a frying pan or on a griddle over medium-low heat.  Wait 3-5 minutes for pan to heat up – pan is ready when a drop of water flicked at the pan sizzles and evaporates within 2 seconds of being dropped on the pan.  Add 1/2 c. pancake batter to pan/griddle, and let cook for ~3 minutes – pancakes are usually ready to flip when the top side begins to have tiny air bubbles that burst.  Carefully flip, and cook until golden brown on both sides.  Repeat with remaining pancakes.  Serve hot, with syrup!
3. Cider syrup:  mix cornstarch with a small amount of the cider until it is fully dissolved, then mix all remaining ingredients in a saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until syrup has thickened to the desired consistency.  If you like a thick syrup, use 2 tsp cornstarch.  Store leftover syrup in fridge.

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