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Dessert is one of my favorite food groups. I enjoy those made with chocolate and cake and generally avoid those made with apricots and/or plums. Truth be told, the only fruit I really like in desserts are apples, and maybe rhubarb, but I think rhubarb is technically a vegetable so that doesn’t really count.

I used to watch my mom make apple pie (no recipe needed) and eventually graduated from observing to doing. I discovered that apple pie is one the easiest “from scratch” desserts you can make, but apple crisp is even easier! Try this recipe and you’ll see what I mean.

Apple Crisp

6-7 large Granny Smith (or Gravenstein if you can find them) apples
15 tablespoons sugar (I know this is a weird measurement, but you’ll see why later)
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small chunks

For the Topping

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
8 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks

Peel and core your apples. Don’t leave any peel on them at all. Once they are peeled and cored, quarter the apples then slice them, lengthwise, into 1/4 inch (or so) slices. This doesn’t really have to be exact, but you want the slices thin. 

Once your apples are sliced, take about a third of them and cover the bottom of an 8×11 glass baking dish. Cut 2 tablespoons of butter into small chunks and place them haphazardly on the apples. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons of sugar all over the apples then sprinkle 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon over the apples.

Repeat the above process 2 more times – apples, butter chunks, sugar and cinnamon.

When you have your three layers, set the dish aside and get to work on the topping.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, oats and butter. Use your hands and just smoosh everything together until it’s well combined.

Once you have your topping prepared, use your hands and pack it onto the top of your apples. Press it into place so that it completely covers the top of the dish. Use all of the topping – your finished product will taste better if you do.

Bake at 350 for about an hour. Check it before you remove it from the oven. The top should be brown and crusty-looking and a fork should slide into the apples VERY easily – like a hot knife through soft butter. If you feel like it might not be done yet (like you’re getting some resistance from the apples), put it back in the oven for 10 minutes. It won’t hurt it either way. Apple crisp is very forgiving, a nice quality in a dessert.

Serve with vanilla ice cream at whatever temperature you like best.

Now, before you go and try this one out, I’d like to ask you a question. I happen to prefer my apple crisp very cold, straight from the refrigerator rather than hot, straight from the oven (or microwave if we’re talking about the next day here.)  I feel like I can’t taste it properly when it’s too hot and besides which, it melts the ice cream when it’s too hot and I hate melted ice cream. I have been told that this preference makes me very strange indeed. What do you think? Which is better? Hot apple crisp or cold apple crisp? Does it even matter as long as you get to eat it?

Hello Old Friends,

I’ve been away for quite some time and have been feeling like it’s high time I start blogging again. I’ll be tackling the same topics – food, cooking, kids, restaurants, and books and movies when I’m able to sneak them in with at least a little relevance. I’m thinking the apple crisp I made with a friend over the weekend would make a wonderful posting. It’s simpler than apple pie and given the crumb topping and lack of a bottom crust to disrupt the apple-y-ness, some might say even tastier. I am hoping the photo to the right serves as a little taste. I’ll post the recipe in the next few days. I’m a little out of practice so you’ll have to bear with me while I remember how to construct a recipe.

See you around.

Hi Friends,

So here’s the deal. Yumm is going through a little renovation and when it comes back, hopefully soon, it will look a little different. I hope you’ll like our new look and our new ideas for helping you out in the kitchen. In the meantime, be well and keep cooking.

See you soon.

-Anne

Sauteed mushrooms are among the simplest things you can make to dress up your food. Hamburgers in particular benefit immensely from sauteed mushrooms (and grilled onions and blue cheese if you ask any number of people – or pesto, which gets my vote over cheese.) Another thing that pairs beautifully with sauteed mushrooms is polenta. Now, I happen to love polenta in almost any incarnation, but covered in sauteed mushrooms and served with grilled steak and asparagus, well…

Easy Sauteed Mushrooms
(makes enough for 3-4)

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
3 garlic cloves, crushed into oblivion
2 small to medium portabella mushrooms, sliced
10 white mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons chopped tomatoes with juice

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the Italian seasonings and garlic. Add the mushrooms and stir to coat. Cook the mushrooms for about 7 or 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir. Cook the mushrooms for about 10 more minutes, until they are quite soft. If for some reason they look a little dry, add a dash more olive oil, another teaspoon tomatoes, turn down the heat a little and cook them for about 5 more minutes.

1 cup dry Israeli couscous
2 chicken sausages
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced and chopped
5-7 asparagus spears, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 “shake” Cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook the Israeli couscous according to the package directions.

While the couscous is cooking, remove the sausages from their casings and put them into a large saute pan or griddle pan. Break up the sausages with a spatula (or crumble them with your fingers as you remove the casings) and cook until thoroughly browned.

Add the bell pepper, asparagus, olive oil, and spices. Stir to coat and then brown everything nicely. When the vegetables are cooked, but still firm (don’t overcook them), about 5-7 minutes, dump them into a large serving bowl.

When the couscous is ready, add it to the vegetables and sausage. Toss everything together and serve immediately.

Seriously, this should take about 10-15 minutes and it tastes darn good. I added a little goat cheese at the very end, but that’s just because I like goat cheese. It would be just as good without it or with Parmesan instead. Whatever floats your boat.

As I’ve mentioned before, eating is a bit of an issue for my son. He has only a few things that he’ll eat with any consistency; quesadillas, rice with “hidden” chicken and broccoli, noodles with black beans, potatoes, there are a small handful of other things, but it’s not much. I’m always trying to get him to eat new things and sometimes he’ll surprise me, like the time he happily ate a large piece of rather spicy pork loin and an entire artichoke, but mostly he just wrinkles his nose and pushes it away. The biggest issue for me is the lack of fruit and vegetables in his diet. I hide them in whatever I can, but I still worry he’s not getting enough. This is where Trader Joe’s comes in very handy. They have an awesome product that I hope to high heaven never goes away. 

Trader Joe’s Fruit Sauce Crushers are pretty much the only source of fruit my son will eat. They come in 2 flavors – plain applesauce and apple/carrot sauce. I only purchase the apple/carrot for fear that if he tastes the pure applesauce flavor he’ll balk at the not-quite-so-sweet taste of the apple/carrot. I figure since he loves the apple/carrot and sucks them down as if they are candy, I had better not mess it up. 

Crushers come in little single-serving packets with a spout on top, kind of like a CapriSun without the straw. Anyway, there’s no sugar and no preservatives. Just apples, carrot juice, pumpkin juice (I’m assuming for color), acerola juice (for vitamin C), and vitamin C. I suggest trying them on your kids if you’re having trouble getting them to eat fruits and vegetables.

Here are just a few quick side notes to this newest video. 

1. I regret that we didn’t take more film for this video. It was vacation and the bird was already cooked by the time I realized we should have been filming. Also, my dad was so great on camera that it’s just a bummer we don’t have more footage. Next time we go “on the road” we’ll get more for sure.

2. Yes, that really is my dad.

3. No, you can’t see the rest of the outtake at the end of the video when I didn’t realize we were still filming.

4. It was stinking hot up in the mountains that week.

5. I love Twain Harte.

and 6. The turkey was delicious and made for excellent sandwiches the next day.

I was having some girls and their kids over the other morning and thought it would be nice to have a little breakfasty cake to go with our coffee. I had this thought at about 8 o’clock at night, the night before they were all coming over. I had absolutely no desire to go to the store and so had to make something with what I had on hand. Being Mom to a 2 year old, applesauce is present in my home in great quantities – behold…Applesauce Cake. And the good thing about this cake is that is indeed acceptable for breakfast (in my chocolate-soaked opinion anyway), but is also great for nighttime desserts too. Versatility – just what I like in a dessert.

Old Fashion Applesauce Cake

2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 cup sugar
1 cube butter
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts are good for this one)
1 cup chocolate chips

Heat the applesauce in a medium saucepan. When it is hot add the sugar and butter. Stir frequently until the butter is melted and the sugar is well incorporated.

In a stand mixer, mix the flour, baking soda, cocoa, cinnamon. Add the hot applesauce mixture and mix well. Let the batter cool quite a bit and then add the nuts and chocolate chips (the chocolate chips will melt if you don’t wait).

Pour batter into a 9×9 or 8×11 pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. The cake will be quite dense and very tasty. It’s exceptionally good with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

PS – Another bonus for this cake; there aren’t any eggs in it so you don’t have to keep little hands away from the batter bowl.

A few weeks ago I was on vacation with my family. We go to the same small lake town every year and spend a week swimming, reading, lounging, and generally pretending we don’t have real responsibilities back home. It’s fantastic. Usually. This year something happened that sent my heart into my throat and I am still freaked out and icked out over it.

Let me share. I might feel better afterwards.

So, it gets very, very hot up in the mountains in July and the cabins we stay in invariably do not have air conditioning. My son, who was not feeling well on the night in question, had gone to bed early and we left the side door open to try to get some fresh air in the otherwise stuffy room. Please note, this door opened to the woods, but was inaccessible unless you were already in our kitchen. I was not concerned about intruders of any sort. Had I but known…

So  late that night, and I am talking 2am late, my husband and I were up with our son who was, sadly, not feeling any better. My husband was holding our son and I had just returned from getting a glass of water from the kitchen (by way of the side door I previously mentioned.) In a very calm voice that usually sets off my “What’s wrong” radar even if he doesn’t proceed to talk about rodents, my husband said, “Now, don’t freak out, but I think there’s a bat in here.” With that he directed his gaze to the softball-sized black thing that was flopping around at the foot of my bed near the bathroom door. I don’t know how I didn’t scream bloody murder, but somehow, somehow, I managed to keep quiet and not wake up the 5 other people in the house. I’m sure it looked like one of those silent screams in movies where people are so upset that they open their mouths but no sound comes out. That was me – holding my breath with my mouth open and an “Oh my God” look on my face.

I leapt onto the  bed, grabbed my sick son, pointed to the desperately creepy thing on the floor and said, “Get rid of it. NOW. Throw that towel over it and get it out of here.” My husband, swell guy that he is, obliged my request without hesitation and managed to get the bat outside and away from us. There was no chance on earth I was going to be using that staircase again so there went my easy access to the kitchen, but the bat was gone and that was all I cared about.

The funny thing was that after it was over I couldn’t stop thinking about Bat Soup. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m insane and what the hell is Bat Soup. Well you might be right about the first part, at least to some degree, and the second, well, I don’t know how to make it or anything, but I know it’s a real thing because my dad ate it at a party thrown by our next door neighbors. Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about Bat Soup and how bizarre it was to find a bat in our room and how long had it been in there and where had it been hiding and what if you were eating a bowl of delicious soup and then found out it was made from bats. What would you do? Would you keep eating or would you delicately put the bowl down and decline further consumption? What if it tasted really good? Would your head get the better of your stomach?

Ever eaten anything really strange? Not Frog Legs strange, but something really, really out there. Bat Soup strange. Tell me. I’m interested.

Growing up we didn’t go crazy with the birthdays. Don’t get me wrong - a fuss was made, to be sure, but there weren’t ponies or Jumpies or fancy restaurants or 100-person parties. For myself, I mean I think I stopped having friend-based birthday parties around the age of 11 or 12. I just couldn’t be bothered. It’s not that I didn’t, or don’t, like birthdays. Just the opposite, I love them, but I just didn’t want to make people come over and give me things or run the risk of no one showing up. That’s the crux of it of course, my former lack of a large cache of friends, whatever, not important…

So for me the best thing about birthdays, then and now, was the perk of being able to choose what to have for dinner. I do that most days now, but as a kid it was quite a treat and it still is if someone else does the cooking! The birthday boy or girl always gets to dictate the menu no matter how mismatched it may be. Growing up, my favorite was Chicken and Dumplings – I have a November birthday and that type of hot, homey food was the very thing. Of late my sister’s birthday meal of choice involves Flank Steak, the family Roasted Potatoes, and homemade Macaroni and Cheese. For my husband’s recent birthday his request was for Pulled Pork, Corn on the Cob, and Coleslaw and it is the coleslaw I would like to share with you today. It was damn good and if you are looking for a simple, tasty, summery salad, this is it.

Simple Coleslaw

1 head green cabbage, shredded
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
15 or so sun-dried tomatoes, cut into thin strips (not the kind in oil, though those would be ok, but the kind that come in bulk or little bags like dried apricots)

Dressing*
1 cup Mayonnaise
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon creamed horseradish
Salt and pepper to taste

To shred the cabbage, cut the head in half and using a very large knife, cut long, skinny strips and then cut those strips in half, like so…(see photo at left.)

Put all of the shredded cabbage into a very large salad bowl. Add the thinly sliced bell pepper, grated carrot (it’s just for color, really), and the sliced sun-dried tomatoes.

Mix up the dressing in a separate bowl, whisking the ingredients together well.

Dress the coleslaw and either serve immediately or refrigerate until you’re ready. It really goes very well with pulled pork though I think it would be terrific with just about any grilled meat you’re interested in having.

*Regarding the dressing: you don’t have to use this one if you are mayo-phobic, but I think a creamy-style dressing would be best so you could use whatever you like best within that category.