Drunken Apples.

Red Wine Apple Cobbler., originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

This is my first participation in a Sugar High Friday event, and to be completely honest, I'm a little nervous, ok seriously nervous. Even before I entertained the idea of my own food blog, I spent hours on end exploring the extremely vast world that is the food blog-o-sphere. Hours turned into days, and months. I was so obsessed with food blogs my boyfriend actually became jealous of my poor little ibook. Sugar High Fridays is one of those events you come across on some of the most amazing food blogs out there. . . It's a popular one people! I feel like I'm playing in the big leagues. Can my blog handle it? Is it good enough? Is it worthy? I surely hope so!! 

When I read what this month's theme was: Drunken Apples, I knew exactly what I wanted to do right away. We were asked to prepare a dessert featuring apples and some form of alcohol as the main ingredients. I hope my dessert isn't too cliche, but when the wind is blustering outside my window, and the yellow, orange, and red leaves and blowing by I can't help but crave a good old fashioned apple cobbler. Apple cobbler is something I mastered as a very young adult, it was easy to throw together, the ingredients are readily available and generally always in the pantry. I've perfected it over the years. One of my dearest friends mothers once showed me that cooking apples over the stovetop with butter, sugar and cinnamon before filling an apple pie makes the best apple filling possible. 

I knew I wanted to adapt my cobbler recipe to include booze, I knew something stronger than a good glass of red wine would probably be a bit much for the ooey gooey filling, so I went to my local grocery store and picked up my favorite fall red, Gnarly Head. It's has sweet undertones of cinnamon and clove, puuurrfect base for my entry. 

I present to you Red Wine Caramelized Apple Cobbler with a Crunchy Brown Sugar Oatmeal Crust topped with Goldschlager Honey Whip Cream and a sweet Red Wine Reduction. . . whew, what a mouthful, seriously!

This was beyond amazing, it exceeded my expectations, in fact, I might even say I enjoyed it more than any apple pie or cobbler I've ever made. It was rich, but had a bit of a kick, the wine reduced beautifully. The flavors were complex, rich, and very deep. It was like a wine party in my mouth, a nice sweet, warm, comforting wine party. The whip cream offered a nice light, barely sweet, creamy contrast to the crunchy warmth of the sugary red wine oatmeal cobbler. Mmm mmm good!

I don't have a recipe for my original cobbler recipe, I've been doing it so long it just kind of comes naturally. But I did try to measure this to the best of my ability. But my suggestion, as is a given in cooking, if something tastes like it needs an adjustment (generally cinnamon), adjust to your personal taste. 

Recipe: Red Wine Caramelized Apple Cobbler with a Crunchy Brown Sugar Oatmeal Crust topped with Goldschlager Honey Whip Cream and a Red Wine Sugar Reduction

Serves 3

Recipe: Red Wine Apple Filling

Ingredients:

4 large honey crisp apple, peeled and thinly sliced

2 TBL unsalted butter

1/2 cup red wine (I used Gnarly Head Zin)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 TBL ground cinnamon

a few dashes of ground clove

2 TBL flour (for thickening)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large saute pan.

2. Add all remaining ingredients, except flour. 

3. Cook ingredients over medium heat for about 10 minutes. 

4. If necessary add little bits of flour to really thicken the sauce up.

5. Place apples in prepared ramekins. 

6. Place some of the red wine reduction filling aside (I had a bit extra)

Recipe: Oatmeal Topping

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup flour (maybe a tad more)

1/4 cup oatmeal (maybe a tad more of this too)

Directions:

1. Combine butter and sugar well.

2. Add flour and oatmeal. 

3. You're looking for a nice crumbly consistency that still holds it shape a bit. 

4. Top apple filled ramekins generously with crumble topping

Bake ramekins in 375 degree oven for 1/2 hour until oatmeal topping is golden and crunchy and the red wine is bubbling up over the edges. 

Recipe: Goldschlager Honey Whip Cream

Ingredients:

6 oz. heavy whip cream

1 TBL honey

1/4 tsp. goldschlager

Directions: 

1. Mix all ingredients in a mixer and whip on high speed until fluffy. 

Assembly:

Top warm, gooey red wine apple cobbler with a generous dollop of whip cream. Curl up in somewhere extra comfy, and enjoy! 

And a special thank you to Spittoon Extra for hosting this wonderful event (check out Spittoon Extra: www.spittoonextra.biz/ (sorry I am still trying to learn how to post a link you can click on, and not one you have to copy and paste, any suggestions, feel free to let me know how to do this). Alcohol and apples were a great paring, and perfect for the season too!

It's National Meatloaf Day Everybody!

It's Not Burnt!, originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

On October 18th, that is.

So, this is my first participation in a food blogging event! It's fitting that it's meatloaf because we love to make meatloaf at our house. Well, to be honest with you, we generally make turkey loaf. It's not the greatest texture, but I enjoy that it's lighter both in fat and for the tummy. We don't eat a lot of red meat, it's not necessarily intentional, I just didn't grow up eating a lot of meat. And Thomas grew up eating mostly frozen or canned food, so anything that isn't in one of those categories he loves!

This recipe is from The Icon in Seattle. One of my favorite restaruants. The cocktails are simply divine, and their fried mac and cheese squares are devilish! Last week I finally tried their meatloaf, something I'd been meaning to do for years. I really enjoyed it! Okay, I've drawn it out long enough, you're probably wondering what IT is? 

Bacon Wrapped Molasses Glazed Individual Meatloaves with Corn and Cilantro Mashed Potatoes and Blackstrap Gravy! Whoo, that's a mouthful. Literally! Well, suficed to say, I loved it! It was delicious, tangy, salty, a little sweet, and anything wrapped in bacon is an A+ in my book, am I right? The potatoes are equally satisfying. And the gravy is just the cherry on top. It's thick, salty and pretty darn sweet. 

A few days ago I came across National Meatloaf Day hosted by Serious Eats. I decided I wanted to re-make the Icons recipe, and as luck would have it, I came across their recipe. Thank you Fine Living Network. Although I could've come up with a very close recipe, I wanted to see how they did it. 

I suggest giving this recipe a try. There's nothing better than curling up in a comfy chair on a cold autumn day with a good rib stickin' meal. Okay, well maybe, curling up on an autumn day in a comfy chair with a rib stickin' meal while watching Twin Peaks. . . 

Delish!

Recipe: Icon Meatloaf with Blackstrap Gravy

Ingredients:

8 slices apple smoked bacon 

2 lbs. lean ground beef 

2 Tbs. ketchup 

1/4-cup mayonnaise 

2 Tbs. shallots, minced 

1/4-cup fresh bread crumbs 

2 tsp. salt 

1 tsp. Tabasco sauce 

1 cup meatloaf glaze (recipe follows)

Instructions:

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add bacon to boiling water and blanch for 30 seconds. Remove blanched bacon from water and set both bacon and water aside. 

Preheat oven to 375F. 

In a large bowl, mix ground beef with ketchup, mayonnaise, minced shallots, fresh bread crumbs, salt and Tabasco. 

Divide meatloaf mixture into four equal portions and shape each one into a football shape. Wrap each individual meatloaf with three slices of blanched bacon and place it seam-side down on a baking sheet. 

Bake meatloaves for 20 minutes. Liberally coat loaves with meatloaf glaze and bake 10 minutes more. 

Serve with sweet corn, mashed potatoes and Blackstrap Gravy.

Meatloaf Glaze and Blackstrap Gravy

Ingredients: 

3/4-cup ketchup 

1/4-cup dijon mustard 

1/4-cup brown sugar 

1/4-cup molasses 

2 tsp. whole yellow mustard seed 

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 

1/2 tsp. Tabasco 

1 cup brown veal stock 

2 Tbs. additional molasses

Whisk together all ingredients except stock and additional molasses to make the glaze. To make the blackstrap gravy, combine 1/2-cup glaze with stock and additional molasses and heat gently in a small saucepan. 

Recipe: Corn and Cilnatro Mashed Potatoes

4 yukon gold potatoes

1 cup corn soaked in hot blanched bacon water

1/8 cup finely chopped cilantro

3 TBL butter

1/8 cup milk

Boil potatoes. Drain and add butter and milk. Mash well. Add corn and cilnatro and mash to combine. 

Enjoy!

Not a Food Post. A Thank You!

Yellow Around the Edges., originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

Okay, so I know this picture is not relatable to food. Unless it counts that while I'm riduculously full of goodies and laying in bed thinking of my next kitchen adventure this is what I look at?!

I just wanted to say I JOINED THE FOODIE BLOG ROLL! Yay! I'm so glad I found it. I've noticed a few comments on the postings and you don't know how excited that has made me, keep them coming, they're encouraging and oh-so exciting to read! I absolutely adore them!

Thank you everyone for taking the time to check me out, and taking even more time to leave me a comment, it's super lovely!

I will actually have time tommorrow to post what is missing, so come back for those recipes you've been waiting for! I'm done with homework for the week (double yay!) Plus, I have my submissions all set for the next (and my first) Sugar High Friday, and National Meatloaf Day! Whoopee! My first few food blogging events, and new people and comments, all in the same week? I'm such a lucky girl!

Thanks again everybody!

m.

Fit for any Tea Party!

Cinnamon Macro., originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

I'll be posting this recipe, and the others below it this weekend. As soon as I finish my essay on The Iliad, and Greece (I've got my fingers crossed to have it done tonight).

Delicious Apple, Maple, Cinnamon Cupcakes (*cough* muffins) with a light cinnamon sugar crust on top! YUM!

Reinvented.

Reinvented, originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

Delicious fall inspired lasagna roll ups. I'll be blogging soon. I'll be done with homework Wednesday.

Ok guys, I'm going to try to give this a go. It's got a lot of ingredients and components. I'm going to be quick with description, and perhaps a little choppy with components. It's a bit much. But really, really worth it. So many lovely flavors. I've hated squash since I was a little girl, but I can't get enough of this sweet meat sqaush. I don't know if it has a "technical" name, or if you can find it outside of Bellingham. It's from a local farm here in town, and the sign says sweet meat, and all the people at the grocery store seem to have some history with the stuff, so I'm going to assume the sign and the people are correct in calling it sweet meat. So if you can find it, seriously, buy it, roast it and give a whirl. It's very worth it, this coming from a girl who's still a little skeptical about squash!

Alright let's get this started.

Now, as I'm sure you can assume, you need to boil some lasagna noodles. I boiled about ten. Al dente, of course!

Okay, first of, the sauce.

Sauce: Red Bechamel

Ingredients;

2 TBL butter
2 TBL flour
2 1/2 cups fat free half and half
2 TBL tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
2 TBL salut cheese

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a saute pan.
2. Add flour and allow to cook for 1 minute until bubbly.
3. Slowly whisk in the half & half and allow sauce to thicken
4. Add tomato paste, salt and cheese. Whisk until mixed.

While typing up the sauce I've been trying to figure out how to organize the fillings. What I'm going to do is list for you the ingredients that were rolled up into it and break down for you how it was all put together.

What to put in the rolls:

- fresh Spinach
- shredded rotiserrie chicken
- roasted mashed sweet meat
- caramelized onion
- salut cheese
- mozarella

trust me, once you've stuffed one noodle full of a little bit of each and some sauce, you'll be hard pressed to roll it up neatly. My suggestion, wet the end of the noodle when your ready to roll it up, it will stick better to itself this way. Stick these babies in a ceramic oven dish, top with a dollop of salut and a sprinkle of mozarella, stick into a 375 degree oven until warm and gooey, about 25 minutes.

Divine!

Enjoy!

m.