Apples

Where did last year go. It was a busy year for me and not a lot of posting going on. It's when I finally have time off I get a chance to reflect on why I started this blog. First of all it was a chance to pick up my camera more often and take pictures of the things I love. Food. Travel. And the wonderful things that make Life so great, partly more food and more travel. At least I'm honest. This year I hope to post more often.  My friend at eatdrinknbemerry told me yesterday, you need to pick up your camera more.  He is so right.  I promise more pictures.

SB and I have a pending trip to London and Paris. I'm sure I'll have lots to share, maybe even get a picture of SB on this blog. One can always hope he'll give in, but if not, no worries, we'll have plenty to tell.

Last year was a good year, we finally reached a spiritual goal that we've been working towards for many years. We look forward to whatever the future holds for us. Our motto, "go thru the doors that are open and stop trying to push the ones that are closed." So we hope to continue to live by that thought.  

What else have I been doing this past month. Quite a bit of baking and cooking, yay! Also with a few days off from regular life I had time to organize closets, shelves, books, and all kinds of stuff. I tossed out a few old cooking magazines and reminded myself of recipes I've longed too try. On visiting a friend she laid out a forty clove garlic chicken for herself to make and handed me Ina Garten's French Apple Tart to try. So I've made it 3 times since the last week of December.

Did you know that there are 7,500 varieties of apples ranging in color from red to gold, yellow to green, and being slightly larger than cherry and can be as big as a grapefruit. Approximately 2,500 are grown here in American. I found that amazing, I had no idea, as I've only touched probably only 6 - 8 different types of apples. I personally love apples with peanut butter, usually a gala apple. Really though, I like anything with peanut butter. So here's a picture of my french apple tart (this is the 2nd time). I have to say the 3rd was the prettiest, and was taken to a pot-luck dinner at my bosses house. I forgot to take a picture as I was so worried about getting it transported there without making a mess. If you want to make it, the recipe is found here.

Bittersweet Chocolate Carob Ganache Tart

While we're on the subject of chocolate, after trying the decadent chocolate at Todo Santos I saw a recipe in Bon Appetit, February 2009 issue for a chocolate carob tart. I love it when they have a picture of the food, so I can compare if I even came close to what the recipe called for in the looks department.

I haven't eaten carob in years, I remember my mom taking me to Mrs. Gooches (a health food store) when I was a kid and making me eat carob, wheat germ, and flax seed oil. Not pleasant food memories. However, this recipe called out to "try me." The recipe is long, so I'll point you here to take a look at it.

I'll tell you how mine turned out. The hardest part was the crust. It was fun putting my hands in the butter and flour but I was unsure that the mixture wasn't fine enough. After chilling it I tried to roll it out, this was a mess and both times I attempted this I ended up with a wonky circle and just gave up and ended putting it in my removable bottom tart pan and attempted to mold it to the pan. I must have done a good job, because everyone who ate this remarked on how pretty and tasty the crust was.

Then came the baking of the crust, I don't have pie weights, I don't have beans (you'd think I would, as I keep trying to get my Grandmother's bean recipe for years) but I don't. So I just put the tin foil on it and baked it. The crust did get air pockets and puff up but when I took it out of the oven I quickly deflated it (poking w/ fork and just pushing down on the tin foil with an oven mit).

Melting the chocolate and carob and cream was easy and once the pie crust cooled down you just pour it in the crust and put uncovered in the refrigerator to chill.

Now for the best part. I've never made brittle and had no idea where to find malted milk powder. We have a store here on the Westside called Rainbow Acres, super organic and vegan. I manage to buy both the carob chips and malted milk powder there. Here's the recipe for the brittle. Seriously this was scary and fun at the same time. You must have your parchment paper ready with cooking spray on it as you have to work pretty fast once all the ingredients are ready to be poured onto the sheet.

Making the amber colored sugar wasn't as bad as I thought, I'm always worried I'll severely burn myself and ruin my sauce pan (neither happened). Once the sugar turned a pretty amber color I put in a table spoon of butter...oooh it started to bubble up slightly. Then you have to QUICKLY pour in the malted milk powder (3 tbsp). Now there was a volcano eruption, I stirred super quick and got really nervous, once everything was all mixed in I immediately poured the mixture on the prepared parchment sheet and spread it out as evenly as possible. The brittle cools fast. Once it's completely cooled you just peel it off the parchment paper, break the candy apart, and scatter it over the chilled chocolate tart.I took the whole tart to work. However, before I did that I took a sliver to taste and make sure I wouldn't poison anyone. I was so excited I took a bite before taking the picture. It was perfect, not to rich, but chocolaty and the crust was a flaky consistency. I had one piece left for SB who again was upset that I always make these things and take them to work. Since I still had all the ingredients I made it again just for him...oh and me. Yes now, once again, I fortified in my mind why I take these things to work. We ate the entire tart ourselves in one week. Not good for the diet, but I oh so delicious.