Soup Is All I Want

I'm about up to my ears in words. At this point in the magazine's cycle, I'm going over I couldn't even tell you how many stories per day. You would think I'd nothing left to say.

Squash-Apple Soup: from Back to Basics by Ina Garten

1 pound butternut squash
2 apples
1/2 cup onion
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
dash cayenne pepper
2 to 4 cups chicken stock

Topping:
squash seeds
almonds
olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel the squash and apples, chop them along with the onion. Mince the garlic. Ina suggests roasting the vegetables with olive oil and salt and pepper for 30 to 45 minutes at 450 degrees, but I didn't have time so I just sauteed them for 10 to 15 minutes until browned and softened. In retrospect, it probably would have worked out better to roast, but sometimes you sacrifice quality for sanity. Puree the sauteed vegetables with some chicken stock until smooth. Put the pureed vegetables back in the pot, add enough chicken stock to thin out the soup to a desired consistency. On medium-low heat, bring soup to a simmer. Add curry and cayenne pepper, along with the salt, adjusting to taste. Let simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the seeds and almonds on medium-high heat with olive oil, salt and pepper until the seeds are crunchy (8 to 10 minutes). I also added some garlic powder given to me for Christmas by my friend Lindsey. Serve soup topped with seeds and almonds.

Baked!

Apparently I picked enough apples to make a dozen pies. After a pie, apple butter, lunch for at least a month and two loaves of Sprouted Kitchen's Hearty Apple Loaf, I only have about seven pounds of apples to consume. Megan suggested tossing them because the outsides are a bit squishy, but once peeled, the apples made a perfect addition to this bread. Back on Thursday night when I made this, I was certain I'd finish them off or at least come close, by doubling this recipe. Alas, I barely made more than a dent in the final bag of apples. And lord, I made a giant mess. But this bread was one of the best. With loads of cinnamon and nutmeg, it's great paired with coffee or tea on a chilly morning--of which we in Nebraska have had none, it's been absolutely gorgeous outside!

Sprouted Kitchen posted this recipe a week or so ago, and the original includes items such as almond meal (flour) and muscovado sugar. I used neither of these--it turned out fine. This is Lainey's dumbed-down version, if you will.

Hearty Apple Loaf:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon (dried) ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (milk with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup ricotta (I didn't have quite enough for 2 batches, so I used a ricotta-Greek yogurt combo)

1/4 cup butter, just melted (not softened, actually melted)

1/2 cup sugar (plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar to be drizzled on the top)

2 cups peeled and finely sliced apples (about 3 small apples)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease the pan. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients and stir until mixed together. In a smaller bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, ricotta, melted butter and sugar. Whisk until consistency is smooth. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry. Stir until wet mixture has been sopped up by the dry, being careful not to over work. Stir in the apple slices. Pour batter into pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Smooth Like (Apple) Butter

I didn't always know that there were certain apples for cooking and certain apples for eating. And even today, if you asked me about the uses of certain apple varieties, I may just be guessing. Fortunately, I had a friend in Spain who taught me the lesson in a way my friend Krista and I still laugh about. While studying abroad in Spain, probably the worst thing that happened was that we had to spend Thanksgiving away from home. The holiday came and went without so much as an extra day off of school. Our institute put on a dinner for which a restaurant pan fried a turkey in olive oil--hilarious. But we did make friends with an American who had married a Spaniard. His family hosted a thanksgiving meal over the weekend, and we students agreed excitedly to help make the pies. Good thing we weren't put in charge of the turkey and stuffing. One great thing about traveling is coming to a greater understanding and appreciation of your own culture, and Thanksgiving is a super-American holiday in the greatest way. All of the dishes traditionally served at Thanksgiving are New World food, so before Columbus discovered the Americas, Europe had chickens but no turkeys, and they didn't have tomatoes, potatos, pumpkins or gourds, cranberries or corn. Most Europeans haven't had the pleasure of eating a pumpkin pie--an atrocity, I know! That also meant they didn't have the canned, pureed version of pumpkin pie filling or pre-made pie crusts that make life incredibly easy. But this story is about the apples. Krista and I and another friend met at a bus stop to travel to our friends' house in the suburbs of Seville. Krista and I brought the food, and our friend brought directions to the house--a fair trade, right. We loaded onto the bus, me sitting with the giant pumpkin on my lap, Krista with the bushel of apples on hers. It soon became apparent that our friend wasn't exactly sure about the directions. Whoops, we got off the bus one or two stops too soon without a taxi in sight--I'll give her that it really is easy to miss your destination in an unfamiliar place. The three of us tromped along the hills overlooking the city, making a turn here and there--it took us way too long to admit we were lost. I hate to exaggerate the details of the story, some of which are quite hazy. But Krista and I were following our poor confused friend, she carrying the apples and I carrying the pumpkin, first in our right hands, then in the left hands, then clutched to our chests with our arms wrapped around the produce. I believe there was a dispute about who should call our friends to tell them we were lost. Phone calls were a tense game that semester because we were poor and thrifty and because, in Europe, the person who makes the phone call is the only one who pays. Our friend was extra thrifty, and we were annoyed to be the ones using the phone after having purchased the food as well. Seems so silly now, but we were pissed. Krista called and used up all her phone minutes. I called and eventually someone had to drive around the neighborhood to find us sitting on the curb. But I believe it was while we were sitting and waiting that our friend asked what kind of apples we bought because her family owned an apple orchard in Washington and she was a pro. "Gala! You can't use Gala to make a pie!" If steam could come out of people's ears, Krista would have been the first person in history to make use of it. Once we finally got to our friends' home, Krista and I soon abandoned the kitchen quickly and sat on the couch, probably still fuming and making ourselves miserable. I'd like to think we've matured since then. And thanks to our friend, I will never forget there is a difference between sweet eating apples and tart baking apples.

They didn't have apple pies in Spain, and they definitely didn't have apple butter. Seville is more of an orange kind of town, what with the freshest Valencia oranges available right at the time the orange trees on the streets are bending with the weight of the too-tart-to-stand Seville oranges. Though the Seville oranges weren't edible fresh from the tree, no city could every smell more glorious than when those trees flowered.

Apple Butter: tweaked from Simply Recipes 20 apples 1 cup apple cider vinegar 2 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cinnamon stick 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon cardamom 1 teaspoon allspice 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 tablespoon lemon juice Peel, core and quarter the apples. In a large pot on medium-low heat, combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Stir the apples frequently, mashing them as they soften. A lot of recipes require pureeing the apple butter after simmering the mixture for an hour, call me lazy but I think that's a pain and who cares if it's a little chunky. So I just mashed all the apple bits to a puree while it simmered. Taste the apple butter and adjust sugar and spices as necessary. It should take about 3 hours for the butter to thicken and turn a carmelized-ish brown color. You can even leave the apple butter on the stovetop and tour a 20th-century castle and it won't burn! Follow typial canning procedures to preserve the apple butter.

As American As

OK maybe 30 pounds of apples was a bit optimistic, but I'm not giving up yet. This pie only my first effort with the apples, and it only used 1/15th of my stash. That's both good and daunting. But yesterday, I skipped yoga to run outside--it suddenly feels so important to soak up all the sun and warmth available to me, maybe that's why fall is my favorite season. I listened to the National (as promised) and Joshua Radin, whose music just exudes love to me. All while I rolled, peeled, chopped, baked and made the usual mess. The pie ended up extremely juicy, so juicy that some splashed on the floor when I pulled it out of the oven. I wiped it up, it was still sticky, so Megan wiped it up. Then my shoes stuck to the floor again this morning, and I wiped it up again. Perhaps apple pie juice will be one with our kitchen floor from here to eternity. The pie crust was perfect though--flaky just how I love it. And the autumnal spices paired with apples just spelled fall to me--so tart, sweet and savory. Not much can beat warm apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Apple pie a la mode is such a play of textures.

I went to a wedding this weekend for a couple friends. It was an incredibly lovely event that reflected the amazing couple so well. But part of the judge's "sermon" (?) stands out to me. She read court rulings from different marriage cases, most of which defined marriage as a socially accepted institution, a definition I found a bit cold for a wedding. But she closed by quoting from a California court ruling that said something like, "Half of marriages today end in divorce, the fact that people still choose to get married reflects the triumph of hope over experience."

So here's to hope and apple pie.

Pie Crust: from Better Homes and Gardens Baking Book 2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup butter, cold 6 or 6 tablespoons cold water Now that I've conquered pie crust, I find it a very rewarding task (as with most anything involiving eating--hello, that's why I like to cook). In a large bowl, mix flour and salt together. Cut butter into 1-inch pieces. Incorporate into flour mixture using a pastry blender. Mash together until mixture forms pea-size crumbs. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time, using your hands to mix the dough until all of it is wet and it forms a ball well kneaded slightly. (Here's where things get messy and fun.)

Split dough in half. Form each half into a ball. Turn one ball out on a heavily floured surface. Smash a little with your palm. Using a rolling pie, roll dough straight back and forth a couple times, then rotate dough from 12 to 2, roll back and forth, rotate from 2 to 4, roll. Rotate, roll, etc. until the dough forms a 12-inch circle (or something resembling a circle). Roll dough onto rolling pin and transfer to a 9-inch pie pan. Gently unroll, squarely onto pan. Do the same with the other ball of dough. For a lattice top, just slice dough into 1-inch strips. Later, when you're attaching the lattice to the bottom layer of crust use a bit of lukewarm water to adhere the dough to each other.

Classic Apple Pie: from Better Homes & Gardens Baking Book 2 pounds of baking apples (I used Jonathon, but Makintosh works, just anything tart) 1 tablespoon lemon juice 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon allspice All these pie recipes call for pounds of apples--do these people think I have room in my kitchen for a scale or something? I totally overestimated, but all I really needed was five regular-size apples (I peeled 9).

Preheat oven to 375. Peel and thinly slice your apples. Place in a large bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice--this will keep them from browning.

Here's the fun/easy part. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to apples and toss with a spoon until completely coated. Place in crusted pie pan. Closer her up with your lattice top. You can paint the top with an egg white wash, but I didn't and it was fine. Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool and serve.

Picking Apples, Making Pies

I am eagerly anticipating digging into the thirty pounds of apples gathered this weekend at a Nebraska City orchard (It was Kimmel--the orchard was great, but holy crap the kitchen service was unbelievably awful. It took five people to microwaved everything, including our cider!). My family used to take yearly pilgrimmages to Nebraska City (home of Arbor Day, y'all!). I have incredible memories from touring the Arbor Lodge--there's a bowling alley in the basement a la There Will Be Blood. One year, I must have been seven, but I had just learned how to jump rope. So everywhere we went, instead of simply walking, I jump roped. My legs were so skinny back then that every time I hopped my knees would knock together. By the end of the day, I had matching bruises on the inside of my knees. I'm glad I have parents who weren't embarassed by me. So far I have plans to make apple pie, apple crisp and apple butter. I think that may take up all my apples. But are there any other recipes I should try? I know everyone thought I was crazy for wanting 30 pounds of apples, but I don't think I'll regret it. I'll be listening to The National Fake Empire whilst I cook, it's going to be glorious. That album is the perfect soundtrack to fall.

Cordell loved the hay rack ride, tractor and orchard. The apples were so big he could barely pick them up. Gah I love this kid. He just learned how to say my name--the. cutest. thing. ever.

Below are Jared and Amy going for some Pinova apples.

There were, of course, bees. But they were very well behaved.