Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

I still had apple bobbing apples (Macintoshes) left, but they weren't crisp enough for straight eating, so I had to come up with some more apple recipes. This King Arthur Flour recipe got the seal of approval from Smitten Kitchen as well as some other bloggers, and I had all the ingredients, so whole wheat apple muffins it was.

These are pretty good! Lots of apples, the muffins were moist. I added some chopped walnuts for texture. I also ended up making mini muffins- I cooked them at 450 for 5 minutes, then turned the heat down to 400 and cooked them for 8 more minutes. It made about 3 dozen mini muffins.

Butternut Squash Lasagna: Partial FAIL

Ug... I was trying this butternut squash lasagna recipe out, hoping that I could possibly serve it to the vegetarians this Thanksgiving, but it didn't quite work out. I made a half recipe, and made individual lasagnas for me and Chuck.

The flavors were really good, but I had some major noodle cooking issues- I think due to a lack of sauce, but I'm not sure. The bottom noodle wasn't fully cooked, and the sauce was sorta burnt onto the bottom of it, and the top noodle wasn't cooked on the edges.

I think my bechamel sauce got too thick maybe? I don't know- there just didn't seem to be enough of it. Also, cooking the diced squash in the frying pan on high heat was kinda odd, too. It burnt the squash and onions. I think next time I would dice it and then roast it.

Honey Goat Cheese Salad Dressing

This is a fun new (for us) salad dressing that's super tasty... basically, rather than sprinkling your salad with bits of goat cheese, this dressing has the goat cheese whizzed in. Really tasty and creamy.

This dressing is sweet because of the honey, but I bet you could make a savory version with tarragon and shallots.

We served it on Bibb lettuce, shredded apples and carrots, chopped walnuts and dried cranberries.

P.S.: Chuck made the salad and dressing. Good work!

Crispy Stuffed Potato Skins!

Crispy, cheesy, bacony... fantastic. I'm bringing these to a football party tonight.

This method from Simply Recipes is a little bit labor intensive, but not difficult. It involves 3 separate baking times: first to cook the whole potatos, then to crisp the scooped out skins, then to melt the cheese. Totally worth it, though.

I used chives instead of green onions, but otherwise followed the directions. Mmmm.

Gingerbread-Apple Upside-Down Cake

I saw this recipe in today's New York Times food section and had to give it a try. I'm glad I did! This was a light and fluffy gingerbread cake with a caramely/appley topping... yum.

The only ingredient I didn't have in my pantry was buttermilk, but I improvised by using milk and lemon juice. I didn't want to make a whole cake since it was just me and Chuckie, so I halved the recipe and put it in some mini-springform pans (which may not have been the best choice since some of the caramel leaked onto the bottom of the oven). They were so cute, though! I cooked them for about 30 minutes... until a tester came out clean.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Yum... Steamy Kitchen (guest blogging at Simply Recipes) strikes again. I made this super easy beef and broccoli recipe, with only a few additions. I gave the sauce a big squirt of Sriracha for some heat, threw in some chopped scallions with the broccoli, and added an extra clove of garlic, because, well... duh. Served it on steamed white rice. Really tasty. Better than take-out Chinese.

My main recommendation is this: have all of the ingredients ready before you start cooking: pre-chopped, pre-measured and pre-mixed. Stir fry cooks so quickly, you don't have time to measure once the action starts.

Sesame/Peanut Noodles with Tatsoi, Snow Peas and Yellow Pepper

I modified this simple Rachael Ray sesame noodles recipe to my liking, and it was really good!

- served it warm, not cold

- made the sauce as directed, but added some fresh orange juice to brighten it up

- used whole wheat spaghetti

- for veggies, I used raw shredded carrots, cilantro, scallions, yellow pepper slices, as well as snow peas and tatsoi (this week's CSA prize), both of which I blanched in the pasta water very briefly