Apple Spice Muffins

Happy Post-Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday has come and gone, I have eaten my weight's worth in every type of Thanksgiving food imaginable and now I will have to fill the void - mm, more gluttonous food. I decided to go the non-traditional route this year and made osso buco (I needed an excuse to splurge) but largely because I knew there was a post-Thanksgiving day celebration with friends where I would be sure to get my fix of stuffing and potatoes and gravy (mission accomplished).  In keeping with the spirit of the season I bought some apples at the local market and made some spice muffins on a gray day.

I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen's version which can be found here. I found myself out of AP flour (! I know - it was a very upsetting moment, but, to defend myself, it was due to a slightly intoxicated chocolate chip cookie baking moment where I used up the flour - at least it was for a good cause). 

To make the muffins:

Combine 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon each baking soda and powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg and set aside. In a separate bowl cream 1 stick unsalted butter and 1/2 cup each of granulated sugar and dark brown sugar. Add 1 egg to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Then, gently fold in 1 cup buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir to combine. To finish the batter fold in the apple (I used Honeycrisp but choose your favorite - Granny Smith, Pink Lady, whatever you please - peeled them and chopped them into little chunks).  Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins and top with a little bit of brown sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cause for Celebration - Rack of Lamb

We have many reasons to celebrate - in addition to good health and being surrounded by good friends we have had milestone birthdays and work triumphs. Apparently, in a nod to the momentous occasion, there was a sale on some beautiful racks of lamb and I gobbled one up, literally. 

Lamb is one of my favorite special occasion foods - it is generally what I request for my birthday dinner - so I jumped at the chance to make my very first rack of lamb. I went a fairly traditional route, serving it with a breadcrumb crust - it was perfectly simple and delicious. I served it with an Indian summer panzanella complete with a decadent amount of burrata. Everything was perfect and we enjoyed it all with a celebratory bottle of wine, a highly recommended accompaniment.

Trying New Things - Pastitsio

Fall must be upon us because I got my first craving of the season for hearty food. Instead of wanting a refreshing salad with tomatoes I wanted some cozy comfort food. I had seen a recipe for pastitsio in Saveur that piqued my interest and decided to give it a go. I wanted to mix it up a little so I found a variation on that recipe in an old Gourmet that used eggplant and had a feta bechamel (because the lamb meat sauce just wouldn't be rich enough by itself). I LOVED this recipe - of course I tweaked it slightly (less salt, nutmeg instead of clove, less cinnamon) . . .suffice it to say, we both had thirds.

Along with ushering in fall foods I had the great pleasure of attending the beautiful wedding of some great friends  and wanted to follow up the rehearsal dinner photos with some quick snaps from the main event.

Adventures in Frying - A Poultry Tale

"The Shed" - Boonville, CA

Time to celebrate - many different things, the wedding of good friends, the start of "real" fall, and my first attempt at frying (I take every opportunity I can to celebrate). I have almost finished reading my Lucky Peach from cover to cover and along the way I began to drool heavily over Jonathan Waxman's fried chicken. Having never fried before I did not have the proper equipment so I bought myself a splatter screen and a tub of crisco (I tried to fry in peanut oil, but the store was out so I decided to take matters into my own hands and gleefully picked up the crisco). For an article expounding on the health benefits of lard please click here. 

Jonathan Waxman's wonderful butchering diagram

I do see the virtues of doing a double-dredge and getting a little more crust - I love the crust - but the chicken did come out crispy and golden and was even moist on the inside - all in all a success! I served it with cornbread, buttermilk mashed potatoes (because you can never have too much starch), and jalapeno-cilantro slaw. Oh, and beer - cheap beer.