Breakfast Pizza. Braised Beef Pasta. Chicken Tikka Masala. Good Ol’ Beef and Pork Burgers. Not Your Ordinary Potato Salad. Spinach Walnut Pesto Pasta Salad. Grilled Vegetable Lasagna. There is something about the cold crisp autumn weather that just requires long cooking sessions in a warm cozy kitchen. It beckons you to pull out those comfort food recipes and make something delicious and heartwarming in order to fill the entire house with warmth. Those slow baked, home cooked meals are the ones that take you back home. Back to the happy moments when you were younger and your mother, grandmother, father, grandfather, sister or brother cooked for hours and hours. Prepared delicious meals that always tasted knocked you off your feet. Early one Sunday morning, you take a walk to your local grocery store, maybe even a farmer’s market.
The organic atmosphere of the friendly environment instantly makes you feel better. Sure you haven’t been eating the healthiest lately, but its all about to change tonight for dinner. Zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, mushrooms, and fresh herbs. We start off with our fresh organic farmer’s market vegetables. Grab the zucchini. they? Salt. Mac ‘N’ Cheese. Shepard’s Pie. It’s All In The Buns. Basic Pizza Dough. Cheddar-Dill Scones. Apple Blueberry Turnovers.
What’s the best part of autumn? Besides the cool weather, the crisp air, the mere fact that summer is over? Is it the rain? Close, but nope. The smell of cinnamon? Oooh good, but no, not quite. My friend, whom I mentioned in the previous post, has been wanting to start cooking, so I decided to develop a quick and easy recipe for her! Here’s the cast of this Autumn Tale: The first thing we have to do is pamper the Star of this whole tale. The Apples. I have two kinds, Granny Smith and Golden delicious (I’m starting this new thing where every time I mention Delicious I link it to a great food blog out there that you all should check out! I like using both because the granny smith are tart and sour, so the golden delicious help balance it all out. Peel off the skins. Once you peel them all, core each of the apples. I have a fancy schmancy, apple corer. Lucky for me my corer also cuts the apples. I told you guys, this one is an easy one. Lemon of course.
Next cut the lemon in half. Drop them in. Banana Cream Pie. Red Velvet Cupcakes. There are days when I feel like baking something fancy and complicated. The kinds of recipes that feature ingredients you normally wouldn’t think to put together, yet they work fantastically perfect in the end. Those intense recipes, are what makes cooking fun, and exciting. They turn the doldrum days into something enjoyable and fascinating. Usually, those are the days, when I feel ideas are spilling out of my mind and I have to cook to keep up. But then of course there are days when simple, and classic is everything. The days when I’m feeling lazy and just want to make something sweet, fast and simple. After all, less is more. The fact that these cupcakes have become so popular in the last couple years, has made it an instant classic.
Lets get started: **Before we get started, I have to give a side note. Throw the butter and sugar into a bowl of a mixer. Cream together on high-medium speed until light and creamy…no, fluffy. Cake Flour Baking Powder Salt Mix Throw in the eggs. Mix again. S’MORES Cupcakes. You stick a jumbo marshmallow, perhaps even two, onto a wooden stick. Sit by a campfire and roast it to your heart’s content.
The marshmallows get a little burnt and gooey. You stick them in between two graham crackers, and some Hershey’s chocolate. The hot marshmallow melts the thin chocolate perfectly. You squeeze your sandwich so that the marshmallow and melted chocolate ooze out on all sides. Quickly, you lick the delicious runny confection. Why? What am I talking about? The other day my sisters were over and they wanted something sweet. Here’s what you’ll need: First things first, mix the dry ingredients.
Drop the sugar into a mixer bowl. Add the flour. It woudn’t be chocolate cake without some good ‘ol unsweetened cocoa powder. I used Hershey’s, as a nod to the classic S’more. Dump it in along with the rest of them. Turn on the mixer on low, to combine it all together. Don’t fight it. Did anyone call for the wet ingredients? Its time for them to join the party. Some eggs. Buttermilk. Salt.