Hazelnut Scones and revisiting a Chunky Spiced Applesauce...

One of the first things I had to do with our overflowing basket of apples was to make applesauce! I was browsing over a couple new recipes that I thought about making, but changed my mind when Jeff reminded me of that brilliant version we made last year. While I may make one or two other recipes this year just to see how they would compare, so far that Chunky Spiced Applesauce is the winner! Besides making it a rosy color, that alluring tart bite from the cranberries combined with the sweet depth from the maple syrup was as outstanding as last time!

This morning I was taking note of the baking supplies I had out in the freezer located in the garage. I have a variety of flours, butters, seeds and nuts in there to keep them as fresh as possible - when I was going through the nut section, I found a few (way underused!) hazelnuts! I guess I had forgotten about them, but after seeing them, I knew I had to bake with them today.

I was trying to think what type of baked good we haven't had for awhile and when I asked Jeff, his first response was cookies (that is always his first answer) - he then mentioned scones! Score! I knew I had a recipe for Hazelnut Scones in my untried piles, I just needed to figure out what stack I hid it in.

The first step for these scones is to grind together a small handful of hazelnuts with the sugar used to sweeten the dough. While you could just grind the nuts by themselves, the sugar is added as a layer of protection - it will absorb some of the excess oils so you don't grind them right into hazelnut paste.

You don't often find hazelnuts (also called filberts) without their skins (though I used to be able to get them at Trader Joe's... alas I haven't seem them there in a very long time), so for the remainder of the hazelnuts, you'll want to toast them and rub the skins off with a kitchen towel. Because you are really using a small amount in the first step, you don't really need to worry about skinning those - besides, the slightly bitter coating added a nice contrast to the sweet sugar. I've also heard of boiling the nuts with a pinch of baking soda and then toasting them to dry them out, but I haven't tried that method yet (this supposedly is more successful in removing all of their skins - but, as I said earlier, I don't mind them that much).

The dough for these scones is a very basic combination of flour, a portion of the ground hazelnut/sugar mixture, baking powder and baking soda that had cubes of cold butter worked in with a pastry blender (if you don't have that handy tool, two knives work well). The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs - the butter doesn't need to all be the same size either, a few bigger lumps is okay. Rather than using a rich cream, as a lot of great scone recipes do, this recipe takes them a bit lighter by using tangy buttermilk and an egg for that bit of extra fat from the yolk to keep them tender. Once the wet ingredients are mixed into the dry, keep a light hand and try not to mix more than you need too - just stir until the flour is moistened and knead it just a couple times until the dough comes together.

Instead of cutting rounds out like a biscuit, the dough is patted into a large circle and scored into 12 wedges - you're not looking to separate them, but only defining where each portion is. The remaining ground hazelnut/sugar mixture is then scattered over the dough to give the top a crunchy finish as it baked. These scones had a light crust on the outside and were soft and moist, with a nice tang from the buttermilk, on the inside. The chunky nuggets of toasted hazelnuts added a rich crunch that reminded me just how much I love them! Just sweet enough, a bit of preserves, curd or even a pat of softened butter would have been a nice compliment, but we found we didn't need anything else to enjoy these!

Recipes
Hazelnut Scones

Peking Chicken Pizza...

I can't believe it is Friday again... this year is just flying by at record speed it seems! Being Friday already, that means it is pizza night here!

As usual, I started this Peking Chicken Pizza I made tonight by whirling together our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough in the trusty food processor. Once the yeast had enough time do bubble up the dough, we easily stretched it into a large rough circle - don't worry about it being perfectly round... just call it rustic! Along the edge of the dough, I laid a track of sesame seeds about 1" wide - while you could lace the edge with an egg wash or even melted butter first, I didn't find I needed any glue as they stuck pretty well. The recipe did call for using two to three tablespoons worth of the seeds - I found that two was even a bit much for just coating the edge, so I went ahead and sprinkled the remaining seeds all over the dough.

Instead of a tomato-y sauce, this pizza is covered in a combination of your favorite barbecue sauce and an ingredient I've never used... plum sauce! This sauce is sweet and somewhat sour - it is usually made from plums (surprise!), but can also include peaches or apricots. On top of the sauce, we arranged thin slices of cooked chicken breast that we first seasoned simply with salt and fresh ground black pepper. The recipe called for the chicken to be placed on top of the lavish layer cheese, but I didn't want to expose them directly to the heat and dry them out. So, instead, I just hid them underneath.

Back to that layer of cheese - we used Monterey Jack which brought a smooth and mild finish to the top of this pizza. For a bit of freshness, we finished this off by sprinkling a mixture of chopped sweet red and orange bell pepper, along with a few thin pieces of scallion. Since the raw sesame seed ring on the crust was mostly exposed, those tiny seeds were able to toast, intensifing their flavor, as they were exposed to the heat. I don't know what is was about the combination of barbecue and that tangy plum sauce, but the duo danced around on top of the crust and married to create a delicious burnished glaze that was the highlight of this casual pizza.

Recipes

Peking Chicken Pizza

Lighter dinner with Mini Corn Cakes and a Bulgur Salad...

We've had a couple heavier meals over the last few days, so I thought I'd change things up for dinner and go with a couple lighter dishes tonight. First off, I made these tiny Mini Corn Cakes with Scallions that we made in miniature muffin tins for our side.

The batter for these small cakes began with a combination of cornmeal and flour that we spiked with a couple dashes of cayenne pepper. To moisten those ingredients, lots of corn kernels, milk, an egg, sugar and scallion whites were added to produce a fairly wet mixture. To try and get an even portion of the batter in the muffin tins, I used a smaller cookie scoop to fill up each well - a measured amount would be roughly a rounded tablespoon per corn cake.

These little guys cook quick - ours were ready in a short 9 minutes. They are done when the cakes are just set in the center... when they come out of the oven, you'll want to carefully run a thin knife around the edges as they have a tendency to stick as they are quite moist. To add a little flare, we topped them off with a small dollop of sour cream and set a piece of scallion on top. The little chunks of corn were pleasant to bite into, giving the cakes a little heft. Jeff commented that he thought these would be a fun bite-sized appetizer!

While we won't be having a picnic anytime soon (how long till spring again?!), I'll have to remember this Bulgur Salad With Grapes and Feta Cheese that we made tonight... it would be a good dish to bring along on one!

Bulgur is basically whole wheat that has been parboiled (or steamed), dried and then ground into varying small sizes. While bulgur and cracked wheat are sometimes confused, the big difference is that bulgur is pre-cooked, allowing it to be quickly prepared - usually a short 15 minute simmer. However, an even easier, off-hand method like we used in this recipe, the grains are just soaked in salted hot water for about half an hour!

Coating the grains is a simple, clean and bright dressing composed of fresh lemon juice and olive oil. To add some zest to this light salad, a couple tablespoons of minced scallions, halved seedless grapes, nutty toasted walnuts and generous crumbles of salty feta cheese are tossed in with the bulgur and dressing. The bulgur was tender, but still had a wheat-y chew that kept our mouths busy - if you wanted to changes things up, how about using quinoa, whole wheat couscous or even rice?

Recipes
Mini Corn Cakes with Scallions
Bulgur Salad With Grapes and Feta Cheese

Mac 'n Cheese... with three cheeses!

One of our favorite comfort foods is Mac 'n Cheese - it is hard to go wrong with lots of cheese and a bit of pasta thrown in. Instead of using your everyday cheddar, this Three-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese uses a different combination of cheese to add a different profile.

Another way to add a little more dimension to this baked pasta dish is sautéeing a chopped onion before beginning the creamy sauce - be sure to finely chop the onion, though, so the pieces kind of disappear into the mix. Once the flour and milk were added and began to thicken, the cheeses were stirred in to melt - we used a combination of piquant Gorgonzola cheese and decidedly sharp Parmigiano-Reggiano. Gorgonzola can be fairly strong, depending on where you get yours, so if you find it too pungent for your tastes, just use your favorite melting cheese - Gruyère would be a good choice.

While the sauce is tossed with classic elbow macaroni, we wanted to add a bit more nutrition, so we used a multi-grain pasta (we have found we like Barilla Plus the best). I'm sure you're counting and you've noticed we have only used two cheeses, right? The third, shredded mozzarella, is actually layered inside! We spread half of the dressed pasta into the baking dish, scattered the cheese on and then spread the remaining pasta on top. To add a crunchy contrast to the creamy inside, the top is smothered with crisp panko breadcrumbs that we tossed with additional Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese right before baking.

While serving this home-style right out of the baking dish was easy (and what we opted for!), if you wanted to make it a bit special, you could assemble the recipe in the same manner, but portion them out into individual 1-cup ramekins (you'll need about 6) and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes instead. We loved the depth this macaroni and cheese had compared to other versions - the garlic and bay leaf that was infused into the sauce came through; however, it also didn't distract from the cheesy punch. The Gorgonzola was definitely present - it actually didn't come through as strong as I thought it might though - just enough so Jeff knew it was there, but not so much that it overwhelmed him (he usually isn't a fan).

Recipes
Three-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese

Breathing in the aroma of fall through baking...

Baking for another Wednesday Treat Day was on tap for today - since we have an abundance of gorgeous apples we picked at the orchard, we figured it was time to start making a dent in our supply! For this week's treat, I made this Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting.

The preparation for the cake portion of this sweet recipe was a snap to do - all but two of the ingredients are tossed into a mixing bowl and beat together until crumbly. I used a combination of fragrant cinnamon, fresh grated nutmeg, cardamom and ginger to spice up this mixture - if you don't have those spices on hand already, you could just tally up the teaspoons and use the equivalent of prepared apple pie spice.

As I said, this mixture is rather crumbly - so at this point, a hearty dose of chopped apples (I used a combination of Honeycrisp, Fire Side and Golden Delicious) are added, along with a cup of lightly toasted chopped walnuts. Once those apples are jostled around with the mixer, their juices are released, transforming the crumbly mixture into a thick batter that is quite reminiscent of cookie dough.

Don't worry if you see the cake rise quite a bit halfway through baking and then slowly fall back as it gets closer to being done... it is suppose to work like that! Once thoroughly cooled, the cake is topped with a sweet penuche-like frosting. The frosting isn't too fussy, but it is a bit more work than a regular frosting - just be sure to let the butter and brown sugar mixture cool for about 10 minutes before beating in the confectioners' sugar. Do note that the frosting will need to be spread while still warm - if you wait too long to spread it, it will begin to set and not cover the cake well.

The cake portion was very moist with chunky bits of apple strewn throughout - I wouldn't say it was dense, but it was not necessarily light in texture either. It kind of reminded me of a rich fall-spiced blondie, especially with the toasted chunks of walnuts in each bite. While fairly sweet, the thin layer of frosting was killer and turned out to be a fantastic combination with the cake underneath - it was pretty tough to stop tasting it as I was trying to spread it on top! Another benefit of this cake? It makes the house swell with the aroma of fall from those aromatic spices!

For our dinner tonight, I made these individual Smoky-Spicy Tamale Pies. After browning a bit of turkey meat I coarsely ground in the food processor, we added chopped onion, a scoop of the corn I stashed in the freezer earlier in the summer and a couple cloves worth of minced garlic. We seasoned the crumbly mixture with chili powder, cumin and a healthy pinch of ground chipotle chile to back up the smoky notes from the cumin, along with a punch of heat. If you don't happen to have the chipotle, you could use about an eighth of a teaspoon worth of cayenne pepper to get that kick.

Red kidney beans and a mess of fire-roasted tomatoes with green chiles (woo! let's hear it for spiciness!) are tossed into the skillet and quickly warmed through. Once divided out into the ramekins, a quick cornbread topping is whipped together and spooned over each serving. You'll just need to bake these long enough to bake that layer of cornbread... which is just enough time to make the filling pipping hot! If for some reason your ramekins are extra full, be sure to place them on a baking sheet before going into the oven to prevent any messes if the juices bubble over the edge.

If only I thought ahead to double this... I would have certainly enjoyed another dish of this for lunch tomorrow - at two servings, Jeff and I thought it was pretty generous too. If you want to tone down the level of heat, use regular fire-roasted tomatoes and if you have it, use ancho chile powder, instead of the chipotle, to ramp up the smokiness. The recipe actually called for making two ramekins full, but it called for a ramekin size of 1 1/2 cups - I didn't have those, so I split the recipe into three 1 cup ramekins. Jeff and I just fought for the third dish - and while Jeff would lead you to believe we each ended up with half, I bet Jeff got more! If you do have the larger ramekins and wish to use them, just divide to filling and topping between the two - you will need to add 10 or so minutes to the baking time.

Recipes
Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting
Smoky-Spicy Tamale Pies

Brat, Beer and Cheese Soup on a dreary day...

We ended up with 8 new recipes coming from the kitchen this week - our picks this time were those Maple Walnut Thumbprint Cookies, that enormous Meaty Deep-Dish Pizza, and the Peanut Energy Bars we made yesterday.

If you were uncertain that fall has arrived, it definitely has up here in Minnesota! Saturday morning we woke up to frost and today has just been pretty dreary and rainy. We definitely needed something hearty, warming and comforting to fill us up tonight!

Soup was definitely in order... but I needed to find a recipe that had some weight to it - after flipping through some of our options, we both decided this Brat, Beer and Cheese Soup fit the bill, especially since I didn't need to buy anything extra!

Inside of our big Dutch oven, sliced carrots, chopped celery and onion bounce around in olive oil until they were quite tender. A couple cloves of minced garlic were tossed in, and as soon as it's aroma was present, all-purpose flour is sprinkled over the vegetable mixture and allowed to cook out for just a minute to remove it's raw taste. A pound of cubed russet potatoes were added, followed by a combination of chicken broth and a bottle of beer (preference is up to you - whichever favorite kind that you think would add a pleasant depth should do well). After the potatoes were given a chance to become tender, yet still retain some texture, the soup is seasoned with a bit of chipotle pepper for a smoky heat, along with mustard powder for an intriguing background.

For a creamy edge with a bite, milk and just a touch of Worcestershire sauce is stirred it - if you are feeling a little decadent, swirl in some half-and-half instead of the milk... that was my plan at least, until the container I pulled out of the refrigerator was empty (! - and it wasn't me who put an empty container back). A few generous handfuls of cheddar cheese are slowly stirred in, off heat, to melt into the soup for a sharp contrast. A couple cups worth of the vegetables are then removed from the soup and pureed to give the soup a voluptuous body. If you wanted a soup that was more thin, skip this part, but we both agreed that the added texture was worth that step. Cooked and sliced links of bratwurst sausage were added to the soup, along with the puree, and the pot was placed back over the heat long enough to warm everything through.

The beer brought a subtle, but noticeable, background tang to the soup that caught our attention - the soup also definitely benefited from that thicker body with those pureed vegetables. It helped to suspend those remaining chunky pieces so they didn't fall right to the bottom. In this homey and very comforting soup, if the brats don't get you excited, how about using kielbasa or going the more smoky route by crisping up a few slices of bacon to add on top first, then using their drippings to soften the vegetables?

Recipes
Brat, Beer and Cheese Soup

No-bake Peanut Energy Bars...

We are both grazers when it comes to food and would snack all day if we could. We just finished up that biscotti I made last week, so I needed to get a new snack made today. This time I went with a healthy granola-type bar that is overloaded with all sorts of nuts, seeds and a variety of dried fruits.

The dry ingredients to these no-bake Peanut Energy Bars that I made this morning are a combination of salted peanuts, roasted sunflower seeds, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, dark raisins, golden raisins, old-fashioned rolled oats and crisped brown rice cereal. Whew... what a list - right? Just use your favorite combination of dried fruit to equal two cups - if you don't have crisped brown rice cereal, Rice Krispies would be just fine.

We now needed to get all those healthy ingredients to stick together! I heated a mixture of homemade peanut butter (use any natural kind that suits your fancy), brown sugar, brown rice syrup, Lyle's Golden Syrup and a splash of vanilla until the mixture was bubblin' away. I did this in the microwave to speed the process along, but you could just as well do it on the stove over medium heat. I know the rice and golden syrup may be a little unfamiliar, but you could certainly use light corn syrup or a mixture of corn syrup and honey.

If you don't know those two ingredients, brown rice syrup is thick and sticky like honey, but tends to be not as sweet and metabolizes more slowly in your system. The Golden Syrup has a fantastic burnt sugar/caramel-esque flavor that can't be beat - also great for pouring over pancakes or drizzling on toast!

Once the wet and dry ingredients were thoroughly combined, the tacky-to-the-touch mass was pressed into a baking tin - be sure to press down firmly so all those tasty bits will grab a hold of one another. If it starts to get too messy, just coat your hands lightly with softened butter or cooking spray. Leave the tin be for just about an hour or so and you'll get cleanly cut pieces. The bars are thick, generously sized, just sweet enough and decidedly c-h-e-w-y! Since Jeff loves M&M's, I think the next time I make these I'll toss in a few instead of one of the dried fruits just for variety. Also, I definitely have plans to turn these out again, using cashew butter and salted cashews to replace the peanuts! If you're a fan of sweet and salty, I have a feeling you'll be just as pleased as we were - move over grocery store granola bars!

Recipes
Peanut Energy Bars

Meaty Deep-Dish Pizza...

Boy do I ever have a whopper of a pizza to share with you tonight! I had to get an early start on this Meaty Deep-Dish Pizza for our weekly Friday Night Pizza as there were several steps that I needed to work on.

Once I had thrown together the pound version of our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough and it was off rising, I started working on the meaty filling. I added few links worth of hot Italian turkey sausage, along with a cup of chopped onion, into a skillet and tossed the duo around the pan until the sausage crumbled and caramelized. You can use regular Italian sausage if you like, but be sure to drain the mixture well, once browned, so it doesn't get too greasy. Pizza sauce, sliced pepperoni, basil, oregano and crushed red pepper are then stirred in for a zesty filling - I used eight ounces (about a cup or so) of a homemade spicy pizza sauce that I had in the freezer, but feel free to use your favorite kind.

We took a good amount of the whole-wheat dough and stretched it large enough so it would cover the bottom and crawl up the sides of a springform pan. We scattered enough shreds of mozzarella cheese to cover the inside bottom of the crust and then packed in the robust meaty filling. We didn't use that much cheese to cover the bottom, so more mozzarella is then tossed around with thawed and drained frozen spinach, along with a beaten egg, to be layered on top.

Now I said "a good amount" of the dough earlier because you'll be saving a portion of it to make a top crust for the pizza! The remaining dough is stretched out into a thin round and sliced into wedges - they are then overlapped in a circular pattern and secured to the edges of the crust already inside to completely enclose the filling. I suppose you don't have to slice it up to arrange the dough on top, but it makes for a nice presentation. After all those stretchy wedges were on, we brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled on fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

After the very heavy springform was slid into the oven, we baked the pizza until the crust was a rich golden brown and the hidden filling inside was hot. With those additions of cheese and butter on that top crust, keep an eye on it after about 30 minutes or so - if it looks like the crust is getting too dark, don't be afraid to slip a sheet of foil over the top to protect it. Jeff wasn't around when I was preparing this, so imagine his surprise when I sliced it open to find out what was inside!

The crust was thin and crisp, but still had enough thickness to it that it still had a little chew (especially the edge... my favorite!). The filling was just spicy enough, but not so much it felt like it was all you could taste - the filling was saucy enough to keep it moist, but it was not wet in the sense that everything slid out as we sliced it. Besides it being visually interesting between the redness of the meaty filling and the green spinach layer, the spinach added a light contrast to the heavier portion beneath it. I sliced mine into 6 portions since we were especially hungry, but you could easily get 8 out of it and still have good-sized pieces (and I guess it would have made more sense to slice that top crust into 6 wedges if you do this... I didn't think that far ahead!). Jeff said he thinks it will be quite hard to top this pizza... and I will have to agree!

Recipes
Meaty Deep-Dish Pizza

Potatoes and steak... smashed and sauced!

Potatoes... oh how we love thee. Mashed, roasted, fried or baked - however you want to prepare them, you'll easily get my attention. I needed a side to serve with our protein dish tonight and potatoes sounded like just the ticket. This time, we went with a method that we've never tried before.

There really isn't anything unusual about these Crispy Smashed Fingerling Potatoes, but the simplistic nature of the recipe yielded delicious results! And really, how could you go wrong with 4 ingredients, including salt and pepper? We're sold!

Fingerling potatoes are not always easy to find, but we've had the best luck locating them at the local farmers markets around here. If you can't find them, small new potatoes would be a good replacement. To soften the potatoes slightly and give them a head start, they are brought to a boil in salted water and left to cook until they were just tender. You should be able to pierce them with a knife, but they shouldn't be so soft that they are falling apart. Once drained and given a chance to cool, each potato is flattened by smashing them down with the flat bottom of a heavy saucepan - this gives the potatoes more surface area to crisp up as they are roasted. You don't want them paper thin though as they would not hold together... just press down enough so they are of an even thickness.

The now-flattened potatoes are drizzled with oil and dotted with sprinkles of salt and fresh ground black pepper. Halfway through roasting, you'll want to flip the potatoes and give them a few more drips of the oil, along with another dose of salt and fresh ground black pepper, so both sides have a chance to be exposed to the heat. Crisp on the outside, while still being moist on the inside, Jeff and I ate way more of these golden potato discs than we should have... it was too hard to stop! With an easy enough method to remember, you can bet these will be on our table again, and soon!

Once those potatoes were in the oven, I got the food processor buzzin' to make the sauce for this Garlic-Rubbed Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce. Lots of fresh parsley, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, smoky cumin and a garlic clove are whirled together until the ingredients are finely minced. With the processor running, extra-virgin olive oil is drizzled in, along with a tablespoon of broth to loosen the sauce up. If you don't have broth already opened in the fridge, don't open some just for a tablespoon - water would be fine.

Now that the sauce was done, I gave a big 'ol hunk of flank steak a nice massage with a large clove worth of minced garlic - be sure to work those pungent bits all through the grain of the steak. Grilled until the steak still had a light pink hue to the center, don't forget to allow enough time for the steak to rest, once off the grill, to give the juices a chance to redistribute into the meat. Thinly sliced against the grain, the plated portions of steak are then drizzled with a healthy dose of the Chimichurri Sauce. The sauce was tangy, bright and had a slightly smoky kick that married well with the natural flavor oozing from the tender slices of steak. I think I'll try this sauce again and use it as a marinade - maybe swap out half of the parsley with cilantro for a different profile?

Recipes
Crispy Smashed Fingerling Potatoes
Garlic-Rubbed Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Not so impossible broccoli pie...

Before I really got into cooking and baking a few years ago, our dinners were whatever was easiest and didn't take a lot of work. While I don't use it much anymore, Bisquick was a staple - all from one little mix you could get biscuits, fluffy pancakes or even whip up those savory "impossibly easy" pies!

This Broccoli and Cream Cheese Impossible Pie that I made for tonight's dinner was a throwback to that time, except the bisquick is left behind as a homemade version stands in its place.
Chopped sweet red bell peppers and onions start off the base flavors in this savory pie - besides the obligatory salt and pepper for seasoning, chopped fresh dill is sprinkled in with the vegetables. If you don't have access to fresh, you could replace it with a teaspoon of dried - either one would work well in this as you are looking for that unique essence it has. Bite-sized pieces of broccoli florets are added and the mixture is spooned into a large pie pan.

Next came small dollops of herbed cream cheese that were dropped all over the broccoli mixture - we used a chive and onion flavored cheese, but use whichever flavor sounds good to you. An uncomplicated mixture of flour, baking powder and a dash of salt, along with a few cubes of cold butter worked in, is the Bisquick-esque replacement for this dish. Milk and a few eggs are added and the viscous mixture is poured in.

As the pie baked, that biscuit topping wiggled its way down through the cream cheese and vegetables to form a crust-like bottom that sealed everything together in a tidy package. The biscuit was moist and tender, yet sturdy - while those pockets of cheese firmed up slightly, they were still quite luscious and smooth. Jeff commented that it was reminiscent of a quiche, just not nearly as egg-y. We don't usually have savory cream cheese on hand, but you'll always find those wedges of Laughing Cow cheese in our fridge - I wonder if I plunked them into a bowl and whipped them for a minute to use instead since we typically have everything else on hand to make this... their French onion or garlic and herb might be quite tasty in this!

Recipes
Broccoli and Cream Cheese Impossible Pie

Maple cookies and a speedy shrimp dish...

Jeff went through some of the holiday baking magazines that we've picked up over the last couple of weeks and went a little crazy with post-it notes to let me know what he thinks we should make. So, for this week's Wednesday Treat Day, I randomly picked one of those notes and opened the magazine to find these Maple Walnut Thumbprint Cookies.

The dough for these is a basic vanilla-laced shortbread that is rolled into balls, rather than pressed into a pan or refrigerated to be made into slice-and-bake cookies. I found the dough to be a dream to work with - neither sticky nor dry - just moist enough to form a smooth ball. Once I portioned out the batch and gently shaped each buttery piece in my palms, they went for a dip in egg whites and a roll through a river of finely chopped walnuts.

You can use whatever tool you like to make the indent in the center of the cookies, be it the back of a teaspoon or the end of a wooden spoon - however, I found it quickest to just go down the rows with my thumb. You don't want these to take on a lot of color in the oven - just lightly golden around the edges... this is enough time to set the cookie and gently toast the nuts. To fill up those divots in the center, a maple-flavored frosting combined of confectioners' sugar, butter, a pinch of salt (not too much, just a little to balance the sweetness), milk to thin and maple extract for that full flavor. The extract is an excellent use in these situations as you wouldn't be able to use enough maple syrup to get that depth of flavor without making the frosting too runny (or sweet!).

The texture of these two-bite cookies is tender from all that creamy butter, but not greasy at all - the walnuts that encase the outside added an alluring crunch while also bringing a delightful nuttiness. The once-pale frosting, now stained a light beige from the extract, was fairly sweet, but not cloying so as there was just enough added to fill in the centers. I'll have to see after they sit a bit longer to find out how stiff the frosting sets up - if it gets somewhat firm, it looks like the cookies should ship well, making them fun treats to add to the holiday baking spree! I'm thinking you could easily freeze the baked cookies, unfilled, a month or so ahead of time and then drop in that maple frosting before sending them out. If the frosting stays soft, I think they would be great as a fall-flavored bake sale item!

Jeff walked through the kitchen just before I was ready to start plating dinner and said "Wow... something sure is sizzlin' over in that skillet on the stove!". Ironic, I guess, because the name of the recipe I made for dinner tonight just so happened to be Sizzling Shrimp with Corn Relish!

Mild shallots, minced garlic and a small jalapeño are slid into a slick of simmering hot oil - just a few seconds later, a load of shrimp are added and tossed around until they just begin to pink up. Three ears worth of corn are then added to heat through - once warmed and sizzling, the dish is brightened up by a mixture of fresh lime juice, salty fish sauce and a tiny dash of granulated sugar. Now, by accident, I left the fish sauce out on the island as I was finishing up... Jeff came by and didn't recognize it, took off the cap and gave a big sniff. Oops! He was not happy and thought I was going to ruin dinner, but I assured him it doesn't taste like it smells. "See! Better off if you just don't know." I said to him!

Seeing as this was going to be our dinner tonight, I had a pot of fragrant brown jasmine rice on the stove cookin' away (using the no-fuss method) to serve this over and bulk it up a bit. With a smattering of chopped fresh cilantro on top, you probably won't need more than 15 or 20 minutes before this clean and refreshing dish could be ready... talk about speedy! Well, that is, if you don't count the time needed to cook up the brown rice we had! If you wanted something a bit lighter, just spoon this over a bed of tender baby spinach (sounds like a good lunch to me!).

Recipes
Maple Walnut Thumbprint Cookies
Sizzling Shrimp with Corn Relish

An apple a day... well, I think we need to eat more like 5!

Do you remember what we did around this same time last year? Yep, we kept with tradition and met up with my family again to go pick apples! Woo!

We made the drive down early yesterday morning to meet up with my family in Winona - we then moved through various locations to pick apples, see the sights and stop at a few craft stands. Get ready for a picture-heavy post!

Here is our first stop every year...

This time, the trees, with their wild limbs, were abundant with apples...

Another row that still looked almost untouched!

Mom has lots of plans for her apples and got right to work trying to find the best ones...

Our niece Bria came with this year - here she is luggin' a box they just started filling.

Here is Gus, quite limp and exhausted... he spent lots of puppy energy running around, helping us pick the apples.

Just before leaving, we always try to get a shot of the mountains (well hills, I guess) that are full of trees - they have just begun to change, so I hope we get a chance to go back soon once they have turned into those beautiful autumn red, orange and gold colors.

After some driving around, we ended up at the lock and dam that is also a must-see...

We happened to catch an old-fashioned paddle boat that was leaving the passage way.

Gus also happened to get plenty of love from Mom... I think Jeff was afraid she was going to try and puppy-nap him back to the farm!

While it was pretty overcast when we started, it turned into a beautiful day on the way home... most of our drive back is along the Mississippi river, so we had gorgeous views the whole way.

Dad, Jen and Steve were all too fast for the camera, so unfortunately we didn't get any snaps of them!

It was dark when we got home last night, but we took the apples out this morning so we could get a look at our haul.

It was over 42 pounds... (and to think, my family picked at least 3 times this amount!)

The varieties we ended up with were Granny Smith, Fire Side, Golden Delicious and a mess of our favorite, pictured below, Honeycrisp!

Of course, Gus wanted in on the action and had to pose...

Then he decided was was hungry for some apples - look at him lickin' his chops!

I also made dinner last night, so let's move on to that - a few weeks ago, I asked Jeff to pick up some endive from the store... sound familiar? While he was roaming through the store, he also picked up a few things he thought we needed because they were on sale... you know, M&M's, bananas (even though we had more than enough already) and a package of stuffing mix. I don't have a guess on how that fit in, but whatever! So, now I've been wondering what else I could do with that box besides the obvious.

After browsing around for inspiration, a recipe for this Bruschetta Chicken Bake popped up and looked like it would be just the quick ticket for dinner after being out and about pickin' apples. I played around with the recipe a bit to add a little more depth, so here is what we ended up doing.

To the stuffing mix, we added fire-roasted diced tomatoes, halved cherry tomatoes, vegetable broth and a few cloves worth of minced garlic. Rather than using all chicken breasts (which you could certainly do), I used a combination of breast meat and thighs - once sliced into bite-sized chunks, I tossed them over the bottom of a large baking dish and seasoned them with dried basil, crushed red pepper and fresh ground black pepper. I skipped any extra salt at this point because the box mix is fairly salty already. The moistened tomato and stuffing mixture is scattered on top of the chicken, followed by a sprinkling of Parmesan and a shower of Mozzarella cheese.

Once it had a few minutes to rest after the trip through the oven, we were able to cut this dish into clean squares - the duo of chicken covering the bottom was still plenty juicy, the stuffing mixture on top was moist, yet not mushy and the cheese on top was gooey and browned. Topped off with a few shreds of fresh basil from the deck, we both thought this was quite good and comforting after a long day! The cherry tomatoes added a pop of freshness while the canned fire-roasted tomatoes backed them up with a deep flavor. The original recipe called for using water to moisten the stuffing mix, but I used vegetable broth as I figured it would just add one more layer.

Recipes
Bruschetta Chicken Bake