Apples! Apples! Apples!

Last weekend, we drove out to Homestead Farms to pick apples and pumpkins. We had a lot of fun, and it turned into quite the adventure. We came home via White's Ferry (yes, a real ferry) and stumbled across a carnival when we stopped for dinner.

We also came home with a half a bushel of apples and an assortment of decorative pumpkins. This week, I've been trying to use the apples in cooking.  Here are two recipes for things that I put together that are a bit different than the usual pies and such. I made the first one to go with our pancake supper tonight.

Pancake Apples (for spreading over pancakes or maybe ice cream)

1/2 stick of butter
1 medium apple, cored and sliced thinly; peel if you want
1/4 C. real maple syrup (substitute brown sugar if you don't have the real stuff)
water
cinnamon

Melt the butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. Place the sliced apple in a single layer in the butter. After 1-2 minutes, flip the apple. After another minute, continue to saute for about 5 minutes. Add the maple syrup and enough water to cover the apples about 2/3 of the way. Mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Spread the apples back out into a single layer in the pan and give them a dusting of cinnamon (don't be skimpy on the cinnamon; you want it a bit strong here). Mix well, continue stirring, and cook until the sauce begins to bubble and carmelize. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. If it gets cold, reheat in the microwave for 30-60 seconds before serving.

Chicken Sausage with Apple Salsa

mild olive oil or canola oil
1/4 - 1/2 C. onion, diced
2 red bell peppers, diced (don't use green ones here; you want them to be sweet)
4-6 chicken sausages with good seasoning
1 apple, cored and thinly sliced

apple cider (or chicken broth)
1 Tbsp. corn starch

In a large frying pan or skillet with a lid, heat 2 glugs of olive oil over medium heat, making sure there's enough oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan. Saute the onion in the olive oil. When the onion starts to be translucent, add the red pepper and continue cooking. After 5 minutes, add the sausage and try to brown on all sides. When browned, add the sliced apple. Mix thoroughly and then add enough apple cider to halfway cover the sausages. Cover and simmer until the apples and peppers are soft and the sausages are cooked, flipping the sausages and stirring the mix once or twice while it's cooking. Remove the lid and let the cider reduce a bit. Remove the sausages and keep warm. Mix the corn starch with a bit of cold water and then add to the pan. Continue stirring the mix and cook for a few more minutes. A gravy-like chunky apple salsa should form. Serve the salsa over the sausages (and rice or potatoes, if desired).

I served this with a side of broccoli, and then realized that I could have made this a one-pot dish by adding some shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw to cook with the onions.

Happy Leap Day!

I hope you're all enjoying your leap day. I was hoping to show you a picture of my daffodils in bloom as evidence of what a crazy non-winter we've had in DC, but they've not quite bloomed yet. The buds are on the brink of opening though. The ones by the school across the street are in full bloom. My north-facing yard is always among the last to bloom, but it does mean that I have color in the yard lasting a little later than everyone else. Plus, it's been raining cats and dogs all day, too. I'm very, very grateful that it's rain and not snow, although one work-closing blizzard this winter would have been nice. DDA is sorely disappointed that she wasn't able to create snow angels at all this winter.

There are days when I think I should rename this blog "Stitching 18 inches at a time". That's about all the stitching I did this month - one pull of 18 inches of DMC floss. It's sad.

For your amusement, here are some of the blog posts I starred this month.

Inspirational:

From my friend Michael: No Adventures without Grief

The Happiness Project talked a lot about bed times this month. That's something I need to work on. I have a sticky note at my desk that reads "Eat Well. Sleep Enough. Exercise. Be Creative." These are things that I'm working on, as I know that they will help me feel better and more relaxed and less stressed out about life in general.

Syd talks about some of the things she's doing too.

Coni's 15 minute rule could be applied in many situations, but I love that she's applied it to stitching. Check out her amazing craft room, too.

Recipes:

Homemade Egg Rolls
Easy Meatballs
Power Smoothie (no bananas!)
Curried Butternut Squash Pasta (for DH; I'm no fan of either curry or butternut squash)
This Noodles and Cabbage dish is more my style.
I think these Veggie Nachos or Cauliflower Cheese Fritters would be a hit with the girls.

Crafting:

I love the soft aqua colors in this card.

I seem to like somewhat retro color schemes: here, here, here, and here.

Lisa's use of tone on tone is great. I also like her use of die cuts: flowers and letters.

Especially for Lee, Carrickmacross lace goes runway.

For Valentine's Day:

Stitching Sweethearts
Homemade heart-shaped crayons
Archival valentines

And finally, any suggestions for my friend Christine on a homemade, natural facial scrub?

Another Five

I've got to come up with better titles.

1. Basil and the prospect of fresh pesto.

2. Attending Diversity Night at school and watching the girls really get into sharing the Pao de Queijo with their classmates.

3. Getting our holiday pictures taken (and getting the pictures we needed). L had a melt down once we got in the studio, and I wasn't sure we were going to get a decent one of her.

4. Spending the afternoon with good friends just hanging out, walking their dog, coloring, etc.

5. Having an hour long conversation with a good friend in Vermont.

Now if we only avoid the dreaded "wintry mix" this weekend, it should be a good one.

End of the Season Basil

Here's the last of the basil from my yard this year. I harvested it last night, and this pile yielded three quart-sized bags packed full with leaves. Two are already in the freezer. One's in the fridge and will become pesto this weekend. Yum!

There are rumors that it will frost overnight and that we might even get some snow around the area on Saturday. I need to bring my tomato plants in.

200th Post

Well, Blogger tells me that this is my 200th post. Wow. Another thing to make me smile this Friday. Here are my five on Friday for this week.

1. Today is the birthday of my grandmother, my brother-in-law, and a friend from high school. It is also the anniversary of my cousin, who was expecting a baby due today.

2. My cousin's baby came early, so we now have another little girl in our family. She's a sweetie.

3. Over my lunch break today, I helped create Stone Soup in my girls' classroom. Oh, the joy of 1) working from home and 2) living directly across the street from the school. I used Brussels sprouts as the stones. The kids were totally into it.

4. Sorting through photographs. I love seeing how much the girls have grown.

5. Talking with friends that I haven't heard from in a while. Neither of them uses social media, so I have to make an extra effort to remember to reach out to them.

August Birthdays

Wow! That was a crazy summer. It went by faster than a speeding bullet. I accomplished very little crafting, but I have bunches of photos.

Here are a couple from the girls' 3rd birthday at the beginning of August. I bought cake pops for their cake, and then realized I couldn't put candles in them, so we also had doughnuts. Everyone loved the cake pops.

A. above and L. below

My birthday at the end of August was less of an event. I spent the day in Chicago at a professional conference and had dinner at the Cubs game. The whole week was marked with sickness by everyone in the house and included Hurriquake 2011. Exciting in ways we'd rather not have.

Bacon Broccoli Salad

I made this for a potluck earlier this week. Since I've been asked for the recipe and had it typed up anyway, I thought I'd share it with you. This was a result of last minute prep. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I looked into my fridge to see what was left from last week's vegetable share and saw a ton of broccoli. Sure, I could have just steamed it, but everything goes better with bacon. This is just a variation on a German Potato Salad recipe.

4 heads of broccoli, cleaned, de-stemmed, and chopped
(or one bag of frozen petite broccoli)

6 slices bacon
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar (I used cider vinegar, because it's what I had)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli; cook until tender but still firm. Drain and cool.
2. Place bacon in a skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside. Reserve 1 TBSP bacon fat.
3. Add the onion to the skillet with the reserved bacon fat. Saute until tender. Add the crumbled bacon back into the skillet.
4. Add the flour, sugar, salt, & pepper to the skillet. Stir until well-combined.
5. Add the water and vinegar to the skillet and cook over medium heat until dressing is thick and bubbly.
6. Stir the cooked broccoli into the dressing. Serve hot or cold.

February Round Up

More links of posts I wanted to remember, from February 2011.

Natasha's designs continue to inspire me.

October Farm shared recipes for Homemade Fig Newtons and Poptarts (two of my favorite junk foods).

Stitch Bitch pointed me in the direction of the Pioneer Woman's Olive Cheese Bread, which would be tasty with October Farm's Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Salad.

And I'm totally amused by Kathy's tribute to lip balm.

Hmmm... lots of food links. I guess you can tell I'm not stitching much these days.

Muffaletta Pasta

Today when I was rummaging through my refrigerator for lunch, I pulled out a bunch of different things that I wanted to use up. I'm not usually much of a cook, but in a Rachael Ray sort of moment, I managed to put together something that was O.M.G. delicious. It didn't hurt that my concoction contained the Holy Trinity of taste: fat, salt, and sugar. This definitely isn't health food, and there are substitutions that could be made to make it moderately more healthy, but this was definitely tasty. All measurements are approximate, since I was using up leftover bits.

8 oz. medium pasta (I used rotini), cooked and drained
3 or 4 heaping Tbsp of muffaletta salad mix (or 1/4 C diced olives and 1 Tbsp of olive oil)
minced garlic (to taste)
small palmful of diced lunch meat (I used pepperoni)
1/2 to 3/4 C of spicy spaghetti sauce (I used Arrabiata)
shredded cheese (provolone if you have it; I used parmesan)

Cook and drain the pasta. In a small saucepan, heat the muffaletta mix and garlic over medium-low heat until you can start to smell the olives. Add the lunch meat and saute until the meat is heated through. Add the spagetti sauce and just bring to a boil. Mix the pasta with the sauce and serve with a sprinkling of cheese.

Makes 2 servings.

Food blogs

In addition to following many stitching blogs, I've started following a few food blogs. One of the most recent I've found is Octoberfarm. Lately, she's been posting pictures of western New York from this fall, and it's totally making me homesick. I miss summer and early fall in NY. I don't miss winter or spring, though. She's also doing a basket giveaway of all sorts of yummy things, so go check it out.

• October Farm
• Chocolate and Zucchini
• Pinch my salt

Do you have a favorite food blog?