Boiled Apple Cider
I’m in the last minutes of waiting for another batch of boiled apple cider to be finished. My computer is right by the boiling pot; at this stage of the game, as the cider becomes thicker and more like syrup, it doesn’t pay to walk away for long. The first pot of cider I boiled taught me this lesson. The syrup burned before I had a chance to catch it. Burning happens that fast.
So basically, I pour 2 gallons of cider into a large pot, take a measurement with a stick so that I can monitor the reduction by 1/7, and start the pot on a hard boil. As the syrup gods would have it, the raw cider measures to nearly seven inches. No math necessary for this non-math wiz! Five to six hours later, the cider becomes a deep, dark amber. At 1 inch in depth, it’s done.
Poured into sanitized jars, the syrup should be shelf stable. I keep mine in the fridge nonetheless.
Pictured is a bit of boiled cider with sparkling water – a very yummy soda in its own right – topped of with a dribble of cinnamon liquor. The syrup is nearly as good just drizzled over ice cream. I’ve stirred it into hot oatmeal in the morning, and used it as a flavor boost for apple muffins. Tomorrow I’ll add a bit of syrup to the apple bars I’ll be making.
Okay – time to hover over the pot…
Final slide show of pictures from my trip to China. The first bunch of photos were taken in Chongqing, and the second half is from Guangzhou. Click through on the slideshow to go directly to Flickr – I have descriptions of some of the photos on that site.
I continue to miss China something awful. I miss my travel companions and their sweet babies – especially little L and her mama. And, holy jeebus, I miss the food. Yesterday, ZZ and I shopped at H-Mart for a few essentials, and we stopped in the food court to eat lunch. The bibimbap at the Korean stand is decent, though not as good as the last meal of bibimbap we had at the airport in Beijing. ZZ was also eyeing up a picture of pot stickers at the Chinese stand, so we ordered those. They came out deep fried – grossly brown, grossly crusty, and grossly greasy. Gah. Neither one of us could eat them. A fresh batch of homemade jiaozi is badly needed…
One of my favorite light dinners: crab cakes and citrus-dressed greens.
Monkey Bread
Every now and then, we succumb to the guilty pleasure of monkey bread. This was always a favorite of my step-kids, and now my little boy has followed in their footsteps. The great thing about monkey bread, aside from eating it in the living room whilst watching the hockey game on TV, is that kids can easily help put it together. Just make sure they brush their teeth after eating!
Monkey Bread
4 cans refrigerator biscuits (10 per can, cheapest biscuits work best—not the honking huge flaky biscuits. Lots of times these are sold in packs of 4)
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
Grease Bundt pan. Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces. Mix sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a zip lock bag. Place quartered biscuits in plastic bag and shake to coat each piece well.
Topping:
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 sticks butter, melted
Melt butter and add cinnamon and sugar. Layer 1/2 biscuit pieces in Bundt pan. Cover with 1/2 topping mixture. Layer remaining biscuits and cover with topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Invert onto plate while still warm. Eat by pulling apart pieces with hands.
Pork Roast in Sauerkraut
In the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, every New Year’s Day we eat pork roast braised in sauerkraut, with dumplings dropped on top of the pot for the last 15 minutes of cooking. Mashed potatoes are a must with this dish, and apple sauce for good measure. This is one of those “good luck” dishes. At the very least, the weather we usually have on New Year’s day dictates a good, hearty, sustaining meal.
I brown the roasts before covering with the kraut and roast at 350 degrees for 3 1/2 hours. The dumplings are a standard recipe of flour, baking powder, salt and milk.
I was so busy cooking and cooking and cooking on Thanksgiving that I did not get very many pictures of the food. Luckily my husband snapped a couple of photos.
We’ve been deep frying our turkeys for quite a few years now. Deep frying makes for a great turkey, but the magic starts before we even bring the turkey out to the driveway. That’s because batches of sweet potatoes, cut into thin chips, get fried first.
These chips are the very definition of fantastic.
I made a caramelized onion dip to go along with the delightfully crispy and salty chips, and they were gone before dinner.
Years ago, my plans for hosting Thanksgiving were complicated by monstrous disasters at work; Wednesday rolled around and I had orange juice and ketchup in therefrigerator, and not much more. Thankfully, my sister-in-law came over that afternoon to help with the mother of all pre-holiday prep sessions. Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, I started in on a new recipe for cranberry sauce, and the scent alone of the sauce simmering helped keep us going.
If I didn’t have this sauce on the table every year, there would be a rebellion.
Last year, I began substituting apples in for the pineapple, since I try to use local ingredients whenever possible. Happily, I discovered a farmer selling walnuts at the Dane County Farmers Market up in Madison, WI. The oranges, well, they are necessary and I can’t think of a good local substitute. I do buy boxes of citrus in the winter directly from an orchard in Florida, so oranges are usually on hand.
This year, I forgot to get those walnuts on my last trip up to Wisconsin of the summer, but I’m putting store-bought walnuts in nonetheless. The walnuts add an essential texture and earthiness to the sauce. The cranberries come from Tomah, Wisconsin, the self-described “Cranberry Capital of the World”. Make this sauce a day or two ahead of time – I made this today – it really does benefit from the chance for the flavors to meld together.
Cranberry Sauce
adapted from a recipe at www.foodnetwork.com
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 lb whole fresh cranberries, cleaned and picked through
- 2 clementine oranges, unpeeled, small dice
- dash of ground cloves
- 1 small tart apple, small dice
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- dash of ground cinnamon
Begin by making a simple syrup – bring the sugar and water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add the whole cranberries, diced oranges and cloves. Cook over medium heat until the berries almost completely break down and the liquid begins to thicken, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, add diced apples, walnuts, and cinnamon, stir to combine. Allow to cool before storing.
Fresh watermelon radishes and carrots.
11.10.10
Today’s school lunch: shrimp with cocktail sauce, edamame, rice crackers, and yogurt. Simple, simple, simple.
This week has been an enormous improvement from last week, in no small thanks to the time change. I used to hate the time change, and the subsequent dark evening drive home from work. No more. At 6:30 a.m., we were getting up in pitch darkness, and it made for very crabby mommy and child. While it’s not exactly bright sunshine when I get the boy up now, at least we’re eating breakfast in the light of the morning. And the weather here has been simply amazing – 70’s yesterday and today, with 66 predicted for tomorrow. I’ll take that for November in Chicagoland.
Sometimes a SAHM, sometimes a business partner with my husband, and always juggling the responsibilities of both. This space is a welcome diversion from balance sheets and Lego's.
The joys of my life are my husband, our son, and our two dogs. Coincidentally, they are the subjects of most of my pictures. Welcome to my little corner of the internets.
