Frankenapples

Rusty red and golden brown leaves blanket the ground while tree branches kiss the grass heavy with apples…it is picking season.

Apple picking is a tradition for many New England families, though even in Ohio I remember taking a field trip to the apple orchard. I recently convinced the BF to go to Brooksby farm in Peabody, MA for an afternoon of crisp fall weather with the promise of collecting as many apples as Johnny Apple Seed could carry.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather as we were handed an empty bag and ventured off into the miles of apple trees. We strategically headed away from the little kids running through the orchard and pounding fallen fruit into apple sauce.

Any professional apple picker will tell you that hidden at the back corner of the orchard you will always find the best choices. The largest apples are easy to spot high above little kid reach. We found some extreme apples heading down the farm. Easily larger than my hand, the shiny red fruit begged to be picked. The branches sprung back to life after the weight of the world was lifted and our bag was filled.

With no more room to fill our pockets or bag we headed back to the car until the perfume of apple cider donuts distracted us. The farm store bakes up fresh donuts and pies and if you weren’t hungry before picking you will be once you catch a whiff.

Apple cider donuts are hit or miss with me. If they don’t have enough cinnamon they taste just like cake donuts. The folks at Brooksby know a good apple cider donut. Here is a recipe to make your own.

****
While apple picking is a great outdoor activity, you do end up with a lot of apples. Trying to figure out inventive ways to use them before they go bad is a skill. There are archives of apple crisp pie and baked apple recipes to choose from. It is easy to be overwhelmed, however the size of the champion apples that we found lent themselves to only one thing apple dumplings.

The Cheesecake Factory serves giant apple dumplings on their menu and I set to making my own. All it takes is peeling, coring the apple and then rolling them in cinnamon and sugar and stuffing the middle with butter. Once this is finished a pie round tucks the apple into a lovely wrap. To cover our Frankenapples it took a nine-inch pie round ...a piece

Once tucked in, the dough is given a wash with egg whites and a sprinkle of sugar and then popped in the oven. It took two days for the BF to eat just one.

Oompa Lumpas in NH

"Greetings to you, the lucky finder of this Golden Ticket, from Mr Willy Wonka! I shake you warmly by the hand! Tremendous things are in store for you! Many wonderful surprises await you! For now, I do invite you to come to my factory and be my guest for one whole day - you and all others who are lucky enough to find my Golden Tickets.

I, Willy Wonka, will conduct you around the factory myself showing you everything that there is to see, and afterwards, when it is time to leave, you will be escorted home by a procession of large trucks. These trucks, I can promise you, will be loaded with enough delicious eatables to last you and your entire household for many years. If, at any time thereafter, you should run out of supplies, you have only to come back to the factory and show this Golden Ticket, and I shall be happy to refill your cupboard with whatever you want."

~Willy Wonka

I’ve been volunteering with the group Ovations for the Cure in Natick, MA in support of Ovarian Cancer research. In Sept. the organization held one of their largest fundraisers, the Night of the Monarch Gala.

For months I have been calling and soliciting artists, shops and restaurants for donations to the fashion show & gala’s silent auction. I was overwhelmed by the responses I got and was invited into the underbelly of the Taza chocolate company’s warehouse as well as the Lindt factory in NH to pick up a basket of chocolate to raffle off.

I had been offered the golden ticket... leaping at the chance to be Charlie and taste Willy Wonka's word, I adventured off to pick up the donation at Lindt. I imagined that the building would have been oozing chocolate with bars for bricks and frosting for mortar. The company paddle boat would float me through the river of chocolate to the front door just as Charlie felt going to the Willy Wonka factory.

The hour drive north from Boston only increased my anticipation of what the factory would be. My little yellow car flew up the winding road and past the Timberland factory until the familiar Lindt blue awnings greeted me. No, there were no Oompa Loompas or gumdrop trees or even a chocolate river (really the only way to travel) but the scent of cocoa whispered hello.

Anyone who has ever been even to the regular Lindt stores can tell you that the shopping experience is only sweetened by the free sample at the door. At the Lindt factory store there is not only a greeter with a basket of tempting truffles, but a café with Lindt hot chocolate and pastries.

I giddily placed my request for the raspberry truffle iced hot chocolate. The barista selected bits of real truffles and poured in steamed milk on top of ice cubes. The first sip can only be described as swimming inside the rich center of their raspberry chocolate treat. This was not just a cup of chocolate milk with raspberry syrup, but the reinvention of my favorite chocolate piece.

While the cashier went to the back to get the extra large basket of donated chocolate, I floated around the store. My nose leading me to pieces of chocolate I had never even seen before including the cherry & chili dark chocolate bars. Better yet, these bars were hiding in the sale section.

My godmother once told me that broken cookies have fewer calories, and I believe that this idea carries onto broken chocolate bars and the bags of chocolate sea shells and bunnies that never made it to the big show. Not only are their less calories in these pieces, but they are even cheaper. It is obviously more economical to buy the 10lb bag then only buy one piece!

After loading my car with the giant basket of chocolates for the event and chugging the chocolate drink, I can declare my afternoon as Charlie a success.

Out of Africa

Since the launch of the Vanilla Rooibos tea latte at Starbucks, I have been a faithful follower. It was good to change things up a little bit and not order a Chai. However, dear Starbucks…you have been serving me the B-list version of the best a tea could bring.

I’d like to issue a public thank you to the baristas at Flour Bakery and at Bloc 11 for awakening my morning with a proper red tea latte.

Instead of simply steeping a tea bag in steaming water or milk, my new best friends at the coffee shops press concentrated Rooibos into an espresso press and proceed to make a latte as they would any other. The result is a beautiful rust red drink with a thick foamy top.

The sweet nutty tea brings me back to South Africa, where the honey red bush is from. My experience in the country was an amazing one and I’ve vowed to go back. For now, this simple morning treat is enough to invoke my memories of Table Mountain, Kaelisha and the women of South Africa.

Zebra print and pre-fixe fun

In support of this Summer’s Restaurant Week R and I made reservations for a three-course pre-fixe adventure at Upstairs on the Square in Harvard square.

The food was as inventive as the restaurant’s décor. If Paris Hilton and Cindy Lauper had a love child on a zebra rug this is where they would have done it. Gilded mirrors, animal printed carpet, colorful chandeliers and purple floors compliment the zaniness of the restaurant’s Monday club bar, where we ate.

I was excited nibble on tasty rosa bianca eggplant cannelloni with fiore di nonno mozzarella and sungold cherry tomatoes for my main course. R was daring enough to try quail for the first time.

Despite barely making it through the first and second courses with any room left in our bellies, the desert course was not to be missed. And, so it was that R ordered the Spiced churros with Mexican chocolate dipping sauce and I ordered the crema catalana with orange, cinnamon and honey pirouettes.

The churros, lightly covered in cinnamon and sugar were crisp and light on the outside while still being fluffy on the inside. R and I excitedly dipped the little Latina finger doughnuts into a dark pool of bittersweet chocolate.

Crema catalana is the Spanish version of crème brulée. With a tap of my spoon, the sugar crust cracked and the smooth cinnamon and citrus kissed crème said hello. Complimenting the creamy vanilla flavor of the “pudding”, the chef served two small cookies perfect for dunking and adding a touch of salt and crunchiness.

Not only was this a lovely evening out with a girlfriend, but Restaurant Week supported Community Servings. A charity that I love dearly and will be hitting you all up to buy pies from this Thanksgiving.

Ta-da Taza!

Courtesy of Taza Chocolate

Taza is the only chocolatier in the states to produce 100% stone-ground organic chocolate and then presses it in a cute little circle to make their Chocolate Mexicano disk.

The shape is what first attracted me to the chocolate on the shelf, but the taste and texture have made me a fan forever.

In a pure magically simple process the chocolatiers at Taza grind their beans with Oaxacan stone mills the way your chocolate-loving Abuella used to…that is if I had one. Mine just ate the stuff.

The grinding is what sets the chocolate apart from the endless rows of bars at the drug store. The millstone process leaves the sugar and cacao in the chocolate creating a sandy and surprising texture. The disks are segmented to easily beak apart. The tiny triangles are extra tasty when melted into milk to create hot chocolate.

The Mexicano comes in salted almond, vanilla bean, cinnamon, yerba mate, cacao puro and guajillo chili. Keeping with a true Mexican-chocolate palette, I love the chili flavor the most.
I’ve been stocking up on the disks during my morning coffee run at Bloc 11, but you can order them online.

I am dying to tour the factory. When they do open their doors at another event look out for a giggling recap. I’m very proud to support the small chocolate maker in my little hood.

P.s. not only does the chocolate taste good, it is fair trade!

Cookie in cup...with a morning shot

Vanilla, chocolate and a kick of caffeine is exactly what the Black and White latte at Bloc 11 in Union Square delivers. Reminiscent of the famous cookie, this latte has been kick-starting my mornings lately.

Hidden away in the construction zone of Union Square, Bloc 11 serves not just yummy coffee, but a laundry list of vegan and vegetarian-friendly (yea!) sandwiches, soups and salads (yea!). But let’s not deviate from the real important stuff like the sugar content.

Bloc’s baristas bustle about steaming, squeezing and pressing out beautiful drinks. Each drink I’ve received is presented on the counter with a swirl of late art. The foam hearts and leaves garnish the cup and any of the moist muffins and scones on their menu.

In addition to the beautiful cappuccinos, Bloc is located inside an 87-year old bank building. You can even eat your muffin and sip your coffee within a vault.

Bloc is owned by the same creators of Diesel café in Davis and has the unique hipster vibe that Somerville offers. They are definitely doing something right, in addition to always having customers, Bloc has been named a 2008 Food and Wine New Star and received rave reviews from other news sources.

I’m so excited that I found a Starbucks alternative, and a way to get a cookie in a cup.

Concession Cotton Candy

On Tuesday, we surprised a friend with a birthday outing to the Sox game and while they got drunk on overpriced beer I giggled my way through a bag of electric pink cotton candy and popcorn.

There is nothing that makes a carnival, festival or baseball game better than eating a dinner of spun sugar. According to the Gourmet magazine, William Morison and John Wharton invented the first electric sugar spinning machine and aptly named it “Fair Floss.” Indeed, only flirty fairies could be responsible for fluffy clouds of pure sugar.

I’m in love with the sweet scent that the spinning machines weave, the stickiness left on your fingers and the slow dissolve from fluff to sugar rush when eating.

When I first moved to Boston, I explained to my parents that rather than giving me a blender what my apartment needed was a cotton candy machine. I stand by this argument…every day should be a celebration. I am also proud to say that almost all of cotton candy-machines manufactured today are made by Gold Medal in Cincinnati.

Despite my love for fairy floss, I am not a fan of cotton-candy flavored things. I think this is due to their tainting by blue coloring. Cotton candy ice cream is usually blue and pink…and not so good.

Unfortunately as fun and quick as cotton candy is to eat, it is that quick to shrink in the bag. There is no such thing as a to-go bag for freshly spun candy. You can buy it pre-purchased, but the fun is in the carnival experience and watching the stand attendee hypnotically whip around the machine. I can’t wait until the next fair and game!