The last of it...

Thanksgiving leftovers! I used the rest of the turkey up last night to make an awesome (and super easy) turkey and wild rice soup. Although I'm kind of over Thanksgiving food, this soup would be great with chicken too, so I decided to post it. Plus, its cheap :). And delicious. And did I mention easy? Who doesn't need something simple after the cooking madness that is Thanksgiving!

Turkey & Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients:
Leftover turkey or chicken, diced (as much as you like - I used about 1 cup or so)
Chicken/turkey/vegetable broth (homemade or store-bought), approximately 64oz.
1 onion, diced
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
Few stalks celery w/ leaves, diced
Few carrots, cut into coins
1 cup wild rice
Extra virgin olive oil
Smallest bit of butter :)
Kosher salt/freshly ground pepper

Steps:
1. Add a bit of olive oil to a stockpot or large saucepan and heat pan on medium. Add garlic and onion and saute until soft, but not brown. Add celery, carrots, salt & pepper. Continue to saute for about 5 or so minutes.

2. Add rice and broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer until rice is tender, about 1/2 hour (but it depends on your type of rice). Then add turkey and little bit of butter (just a tiny, tiny amount :) and allow to simmer for about 5 more minutes.

3. Serve and Enjoy! Makes a great lunch too.

----------------------------------------
To finish off the holiday for this year, here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving:

I was in charge of the desserts, but my mom always makes the pumpkin pie...

This is my cous-niece, remember her from St. Patrick's Day? She loves dessert :).
Recipe for these super easy & adaptable mini-cheesecakes coming soon...

Ice cream, Elections & Updates :)

In the few weeks that I have been a non-blogger, I have been collecting a few random thoughts/photos that warrant posting, but maybe not their own post...so here we go!

First - I'm on the east coast - we have only just been exposed to the amazingness that is Pinkberry! Green tea frozen yogurt + fresh mango = amazing. Forget Cold Stone Creamery and get your $5 out to get some. You won't be sorry :).

Tim and I bought some of the super-expensive, elusive, on the "omnivore-100" list :) Jamaican Blue Moutain coffee randomly one day at Citarella. I don't drink coffee, but Tim LOVES coffee, so we bought enough to try it out. Some quick thoughts from Tim:

• Needs to be brewed properly to reach full potential. The first pot he made was a little weak. Ended up reading some of the proper brewing methods for this type of coffee and it came out substantially better, but we're still working on it.
• Overall opinion - super delicious coffee, but not really mind blowing yet (remember, this coffee is $50/lb!)
• Not sure if the home brew really brought out the full potential of the coffee. We bought 1/4 lb. and Tim only brews on special occasions :).

I photographed a 1st birthday party a few weeks ago and they had the cutest cupcakes!! Check them out - turns out they were from Sam's Club. I think they are easily done at home - the flowers were plastic, but you could also make them out of chocolate. So cute.

I'm definitely back to putting my glitterati pumpkins around the house! I did a post on them last year and they are super cute for fall decorating (not just Halloween). I like doing other colors - not just orange, but reds and browns too. Here is a pic from last year, I'll post some updated fall decorating pics soon.

And finally, Happy Election day! I hope everyone voted. I did and it felt great. I'm ecstatic over the outcome and I think it was my cookies that did the trick (what's more American than chocolate-chip cookies, right?:)! I hope this country can come together now, look past the election and transition into something better together.

Apple Streusel Coffeecake

Apple-picking is seriously one of the highlights of my whole year. We always go one of the last Saturdays in September, early enough to make sure that there are apples left, but late enough to get pumpkins the same day :). My mom has totally perfected the organization of the apple-picking day - we are serious about apples around here!

Here are a few shots from the day --

I always buy a ton of apples (if you pick them, you buy them!) so I'm always looking for new apple recipes. Last year, I made apple bars, apple crostata, and apple butter. The first recipe to get my interest this year is this Apple Streusel Coffeecake - I was a little nervous making this recipe because I didn't have all the ingredients that I needed, but it was my first Sunday morning with no plans in a long time and I didn't feel like hitting up the grocery store for just a few things, so I used a few substitutions. The results were great! Besides tasting good, it also makes a beautiful presentation would be great with coffee for your next brunch or dinner.

Apple Streusel Coffeecake (adapted from Women's Day Magazine)

Ingredients
Streusel
1 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 stick cold butter, diced
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup walnuts & pecans, coarsely chopped

Cake
3 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 ounces low-fat sour cream
2 Golden Delicious apples, diced

Glaze
Powdered sugar
Water or milk
Splash of apple wine or apple cider (optional)

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

2. Make streusel first: stir brown sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon with a fork or rub together with fingertips until crumbly and butter is completely incorporated. Stir in nuts.

3. Cake: mix flour, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Then beat the butter and sugar in a 2nd bowl with a mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each; add in vanilla and sour cream.

4. With mixer on low speed, beat in flour mixture just until blended, scraping down bowl as necessary.

5. Add approximately 3 cups of the cake batter into pan, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 cup of the streusel, then apples, then and additional 1/2 cup of the streusel. Add the remaining batter and spread evenly to cover apples and streusel.

6. Sprinkle batter with remaining streusel, pressing down lightly so it sticks to batter (the streusel will completely cover the batter).

7. Bake approximately 45-55 minutes or until a pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 15 minutes before inverting. Remove pan and cool completely.

8. The glaze is optional, but I think it added a nice little bit of sweetness to the cake. I chose to make mine very thin, but if you made it a bit thicker (added more sugar, less liquid), the white glaze would also look very pretty on the cake. Anyway, to make the glaze, I added a bit of water to powdered sugar and stirred until it had an even consistency. Then I added a splash of apple ice wine that I happened to have in the kitchen - I think apple cider or even another dessert wine/extract/liqueur would have the same effect. I strained the mixture and then poured it over the cooled cake. After it seeped in, I also added some sifted powdered sugar to the top.

I'm submitting this recipe to Joelen's Tasty Tools monthly event. I love the theme this month -bakeware! I can't wait to see all the recipes - fall is the perfect month for a baking theme!

Sandi - I'm sending the below photo to you as my COTM - apples everywhere! My tip is, when you pick them, to leave a bit of the leaves and stems attached. They dry nicely and look beautiful as a fall (edible!) centerpiece.

Strawberry Jam

I'm sorry if you opened this post thinking there was going to be a recipe...because I don't have one!

But there are some photos of an awesome gift a friend sent me :) I'll call her J. Maybe if we gang up on her, she'll pass around a recipe for one of these:

You're looking at what I found on my doorstep a few days ago - 2 jars of homemade jam: Strawberry Jam and Organic Apricot, Key Lime & Ginger Preserves. She's pretty awesome right? Don't you love her packaging too? Totally simple, but beautiful - I love it and I'm totally stealing her idea (Sorry J!).

I used some of the strawberry jam to make a variation of the ever-popular ___ [insert fruit here] __ crumb bars. I, too, (like Katie) saw them on Smitten Kitchen and was well, smitten :). I changed up the recipe a bit, used strawberry jam instead of fresh blueberries and they were delicious. Seems like you can do pretty much do whatever you like with the recipe and it would hold up well. I burnt the bottom of mine because I was watching the Yankee game and forget about them and they still tasted awesome.

Here is a photo of the J the jam-maker (2nd from right), 2 of our other friends (Hi S & P!) and me (right) at J's wedding a few years ago :)

Thanks J - I love finding packages at my door!

A Better Scone?

Probably not. A different scone? That's more like it :) I am a lover of scones - all kinds, especially those laced with apricots, blueberries, and dried cherries. What I don't love about them is...the calories. Usually laden with tons of butter and cream, scones may not be the best way to start your day if you are trying to walk the healthy road. Not to say that I don't eat them, because I definitely do, but sometimes, I try to find/create a recipe that might be a little lighter. These scones don't try to be what I consider to be a "regular" scone, but they are something different - with moist, cakey texture, not too sweet and similar to a muffin top.

The scone recipe was adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe that got great reviews . Again, I am using wild blueberries left over from my trip to Maine last week - I also made the muffins that I made last year when I came home with piles of wild blueberries. If you ever have a chance to get some, do it! They are wonderfully sweet and the color is amazing.

Wild Blueberry Scones (adapted from Tyler Florence)

Ingredients

2 cups AP flour, plus more for rolling berries

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut in chunks

3/4 cup buttermilk*

1 egg

1 pint fresh wild blueberries**

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and mix until uniform.

3. Cut in butter using 2 forks or a pastry blender. A few reviewers noted that they used a food processor to make the dough - I may try that next time. The butter pieces should be coated with flour and resemble crumbs.

4. In another bowl, mix buttermilk (or milk + vinegar*) and egg together, and then add to the flour mixture. Mix just to incorporate, don't overmix.

5. Roll blueberries in flour to coat to prevent berry sinkage. Fold the blueberries into batter, being careful not to bruise too many (it was impossible not to get a few of them juicy). Drop large tablespoons of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly brown on top.

Notes

* No buttermilk in my house this week...so I made my own using skim milk and vinegar (instructions found here). It works out just fine!

** Regular cultivated blueberries would also be fine; some reviews that I have read for different blueberry scones recipes (I hope you don't think I get lucky with recipes :), I considered about 10 different scone recipes before giving this one a go - my husband gets to come home from work and see me surrounded by cookbooks - I should have taken a picture of that!) indicate that the blueberries hold up better when used frozen. Maybe they don't burst or get as juicy as the fresh ones - I particularly like when they "blow-up" so I would go fresh, but I'm sure either way is just fine.

***I tried another recipe awhile back that was fairly nutritious for cranberry scones - it also used a reduced amount of butter and skim milk instead of whole milke & cream. The texture is similar and they were delicious as well.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Besides being a bit busy with my business, I was absent last week because it was our first wedding anniversary! Tim and I went away for the weekend and had a blast. I'll post some travel photos to my photography blog later on, but I just wanted to post the food-related portion of our anniversary celebration here :).

Our wedding was awesome - we loved everything about it. We spent a long time planning everything and had a great time. I can't believe a year has passed already. One thing that we didn't do, that Tim secretly wanted to do (or not so secretly) was smash the cake on each other. At the wedding, we fed the cake to each other like normal, sorta joked about the smashing part but didn't do it. Well, last weekend we shot a wedding in New Jersey (it was awesome!) and the couple totally reinspired the cake smashing - see what I mean here. It was hilarious. So, in honor of our first anniversary, we went for it!

Here is a picture of our wedding cake and a funny one of us from the wedding (photo credit: the fabulous Zlatko Batistich):

We defrosted the top of our cake from last year and here is what it looks like now - pretty sad, huh? It wasn't really wrapped that well and it totally got smushed in our freezer during the year, but it still tasted pretty good.

I wasn't sure of how the cake would taste a year later so, to celebrate our anniversary, I ordered a mini-version of our wedding cake. So cute.

Ok, lastly, here is what we look like during (Tim) and after (me) our cake battle.

It was ridiculously fun. Not that fun to clean up afterwards - I never though about how greasy buttercream would be...but it was definitely worth it to smush a giant piece of cake in Tim's face!!! When do you ever get to do that? By the way, we didn't smash the whole cake :), we had plenty left over for eating.

10-minute Cookie

I've been pretty busy lately with my regular job and my photography business. I love it and things have been great - I'm still cooking, and I have a backlog of recipes and projects to post that I'm hoping to get to soon.

Last week it was the 5-ingredient appetizer and this week, its the 10-minute cookie :) Recently my husband decided to become an EMT. In our area, in order to become an EMT, you have to become part of the local firehouse, attend the meetings, take the class, etc. Once a month, they have a large meeting and someone brings food. Well, as the new guy - guess who got the job? And, as the new guy's wife, guess who got then got that job?

I totally didn't mind, but I wanted to make something good and filling - so I turned to the classic baked ziti. It was really easy and a crowd-pleaser. I also wanted to send him with a dessert but I didn't have time to make my favorite chocolate-chip cookies or cupcakes, so I turned to this seemingly ridiculously-easy-to-the-point-of-almost embarrassment recipe I noticed in the Kraft magazine (you know, the free one that you can sign up for online). These cookies have 4 ingredients (all of which are common to your pantry), take 2 minutes to mix, and 7 minutes to bake. Here's to hoping that none of those firemen are gourmet chefs :)

Much to my amazement - they were awesome! Like brownies but cookies - really dense, super moist but with a little bit of a crispy top. Perfect weeknight cookie that you can dress up for a party. I'll link the original recipe below which is what I made for the firehouse (I should mention that no cookies came back home with Tim), but last night I made them again a bit differently to see how they fared. Check it out!

Soft & Chewy 10-minute Cookie (peanut butter/vanilla version; here is the link to the chocolate version/original recipe by Kraft)

Ingredients
1 package french vanilla cake mix
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter
2 eggs
~1/2 cup peanut butter chips
Granulated sugar

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix all ingredients (except chips/sugar) with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until a soft consistent dough forms. Stir in peanut butter chips.

3. Form small balls (about 1-1.5 inch diameter) and place on parchment-lined sheet pan. Make sure to leave a bit of space between cookies.

4. Dip fork in granulated sugar and create criss-cross pattern on each cookie.

5. Bake for 7-8 minutes - cookies won't really brown at all on the top, but bottoms will. If you wait for tops to brown, they will be overcooked.

6. Remove from oven, cool on wire rack and Enjoy!

These cookies taste like really good peanut butter cookies, but more chewy and a bit less peanut butter intensity - they were even better the next day! What could be easier? You can also totally change up the recipe. Add whatever mix-ins you like - mini M&M's, or walnuts, or chocolate chips. Change the cake mix flavors too.

Photo of the Day - Friday

Check out some more photographs from my day up in Rhinebeck with my mom. The Beekman Arms is America's oldest continuously-operating inn. Great spot for an overnight stay or stop in for lunch.

This store was so cool - we wanted to buy everything! Really unique artist designs and home furnishings. Check out this great frame wall arrangement.

Photo of the Day - Wednesday

Today's photo is random - my current cookbook collection. I have a ton more packed up in boxes, but here is what is on my shelf right now in our apartment. So let's hear the comments :) I know you see that Rachael Ray cookbook there (I actually have not used that one much, but I have made several recipes from her original cookbook)!

My favorites of the bunch are probably the Ina Garten book and Martha's Baking Handbook. Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets book and Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess book are more recent additions that I have not had a chance to get into yet.

Photo of the Day - Tuesday

Check out my mom's birthday cake - doctored-up cake mix with homemade frosting = totally delicious! I only make it once a year because its kind of annoying to make, but what my mom wants, she gets.... :)

I have to get to sleep right now, but if anyone is interested in the recipe (strawberry cake with awesome cream cheese frosting), leave me a message in the comments or drop me a line and I'll pass it along!

Photo of the Day - Monday

Sorry for my absence everyone - bag blogger this week. Just no time - but being busy has its benefits - it means that I have tons to blog about this week!

I decided to do a photograph of the day on both my blogs this week. I'm a bit late for Monday's post, but we are just going to pretend that I'm not 10 hours late and I'll post another for today later on. Hope all is well with everyone out there!

Spring is here in full force in the Northeast - the flowering trees are blooming everywhere and they are just gorgeous this year. Here is my capture of a pink dogwood up in Rhinebeck, New York last weekend.

Feel free to check out my other blog to see what photographs are posted there each day this week!

101st post!

I know everyone celebrates their 100th post, but I felt that I had to actually write 100 posts in order to celebrate :) So, here's to the 101st post on My Apples and Oranges!


I thought I would post something that amuses me regularly - keywords. I'm sure others, like me, track their blog stats through Google Analytics. Well, one of the things you can track is the keywords that are used to reach your blog. Some of them are hysterical! Here are a few of my favorites:

• "lemon bar" score card
• are oranges fattening (this one is popular!)
• oranges happy
• apples and oranges battle
• are oranges bad to eat at night
• giant canner
• people buying bags of apples and oranges
• tim love chili
• when are the oranges ready
• how many degrees should my fridge be set at?
• eat apples and oranges together
• key lime orchards in the US
• "don't like melted cheese"
• apples and oranges are not like at all
• apples and oranges i like but i don't like

I think my favorite is "tim love chili" - I think they were looking for Tim Love's chili, but instead they got my post on how my husband Tim loves chili :)

Thanks for reading everyone!

I love Sundays

Don't you? Except for the fact that Monday is right around the corner, Sundays are just perfect. Usually, in our house, Sundays consist of grabbing the newspaper, getting a few garlic bagels and a coffee (for Tim), maybe heading over to Stew Leonard's, making something really good for dinner (recently, that has been Seafood Sundays), usually editing some photos and getting all my stuff together for the week.

It was supposed to rain today, but its holding off just long enough to enjoy the day. I thought I would post a few pictures of my latest Sunday activity - my new "garden" (or rather, my 4 pots)! I wish I had more space... a few years ago, I had a fairly large garden and it was so amazing - cucumbers, squash, herbs galore, tomatoes, etc. I guess you have to take what you can get when you live in an apartment. I just planted a few things so far - some lettuce and parsley plus some marigolds to keep the bugs/animals away. I'm working on some others that will be filled with some interesting herb combinations and other lettuces/flowers.

There are so many flowering trees out right now in our area - I love this shot of my neighbor's house through the forsythia.

I will have a recipe/product review later on as well! Have a great Sunday!

Gone already?!

And, admittedly, this is not my first box of the season...

Anyone else a fan of these candies? They are out for Passover right now in the stores and have been around my house since I was a kid. Now, I don't even really like chocolate, but I LOVE these :) Maybe its a good thing that they are not around in the grocery stores year-round.

Happy Friday!

Great Top Ten List

I totally admit that I am an internet/web fanatic - but isn't everyone? I get most, if not all, of my news and information from the web. I do occasionally read the paper and I have a definite cooking magazine addiction, but all in all, the web is just the best resource for interesting articles and the latest info on current events. Sometimes, I just can't believe how much time I spent on the web compared to just a few years ago. Anyways, back to my point.

Here is a great article from CHOW which talks about tips for carnivores to help reduce the impact of their meat-eating ways. I'm totally included in this group and if you follow this blog, you already know that I have been trying to incorporate similar ideas into my lifestyle (you can read about it here and here).

Love it, cook it well, eat it responsibly.

I'm happy to say that so far I have accomplished numbers (1), (4), (6), (7), and (9) on that list(yes!) and hoping to learn more about my local grocery store animal-handling and feeding practices in the near future. Anyone else trying some of these ideas? I'm not saying that this list is groundbreaking or totally new or anything like that, but its always helpful for me to see ideas put together in one place.

(image & Meat Week 2008 slogan - www.chow.com)

Vegetarian Mondays and CLICK!

Awhile back, I announced that Tim and I were going to try to eat vegetarian at least a few times a week - not that much of a challenge for us because it wasn't like we always had meat for dinner, but I really wanted to up the caliber of our meatless dinners as well as reduce our meat intake for personal reasons (some of which can be found here).

To give an update, we have been doing great! I have not been all that great about blogging all of our meatless meals because they usually occur on a weeknight and I have serious issues shooting food in the dark, BUT today you are in luck! This recipe was so good that I had to post it. So simple and good is what I should say. Seriously - only about 4 ingredients!

Asparagus & Gruyere Tart (adapted from Everyday Food)

Ingredients

1 sheet puffed pastry, thawed

1-2 bunches of asparagus, ends trimmed

1 cup gruyere cheese, shredded

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Kosher salt/pepper

Extra virgin olive oil, for brushing

Steps

1. Prepare puffed pastry. You only need one sheet. Thaw it per the directions on the package (unless you make your own puffed pastry, then you are seriously amazing). Note: don't leave it to thaw too long prior to baking. The first time I made this tart, I left my dough out to thaw on the sheet pan a few hours while I was doing other things and it did not rise properly.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll dough out to an approximately 16 x 10-inch rectangle (Mine was more like a square and it really does not matter too much - just don't spread the dough out too much) on a lightly floured board.

3. Transfer to baking sheet and lightly score the dough approximately 1-inch from the edge to mark a rectangle. This is the area that will puff up the most during baking. Prick the inner area with a fork approximately every 1/2 inch. If you care if your tart is a perfect shape, you can also trim the edges to make all sides even. Bake until puffed and lightly golden, approximately 15 minutes. Make sure you don't overbake during this round because the second time around, it will burn (learned from personal experience :).

4. After the tart shell is baked, cut asparagus to fit the inner area of the tart. Put shredded/grated cheeses in the bottom of the tart shell. Fit asparagus in rows (alternating ends and tips) over cheese to fill tart. Brush with olive oil and season with salt/pepper. Bake until asparagus are tender (approximately 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your spears).

This dish was perfect as part of a main course and also as a side dish (I brought it to Easter dinner and it went over great!).
------------------------------------------------

Not to take away from the great recipe above :), but I am really excited about CLICK this month! The theme for this monthly food photography event was metal and I was determined to get out a photograph that I loved before the deadline. So, here is my take on metal in the kitchen!

CLICK: March 2008: Metal Essentials...