Harvest Salad with Apple, Blue Cheese & Maple-Glazed Walnuts

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Normally I’d have a lot to say about a salad as beautiful as this. I’d talk about the perfect balance of sweet and tart, tender and crisp. A feast for the eyes as well as the palate. Autumn on a plate. Something old, something new, something borrowed, some cheese blue. And so on. However, I’ve waited until the last minute (once again) to iron and sew on Girl Scout uniform insignia for a meeting tomorrow, and there are way too many dishes piled up in the sink for me to expound upon this lovely salad at the present time. So I’ll be brief: Honeycrisp apples + candied walnuts + blue cheese + lettuce + vinaigrette = a delicious and satisfying fall salad. If only the new “Everyday Mathematics” were this simple! (Partial sums and column addition, anyone?)

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After-ghoul Snack

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I promised my husband I wouldn’t get carried away with the Halloween blog posting, but the kids still need a healthy after-school snack, don’t they?

Orange bell peppers make festive (and edible) dip vessels, and are a lot easier to carve than pumpkins.

Cut off the tops like you would for a jack-o-lantern, then use a grapefruit knife (what do you mean you don’t have one?) or your hands to remove the inner membranes. Rinse out any seeds.

Carve a simple jack-o-lantern face. My nose and mouth were a little too low; try to keep the “face” on the flat part of the pepper, before it curves under. This will keep the filling from oozing out too much.

Fill with a dark-colored dip, such as black bean or a 50/50 mixture of hummus and olive tapenade. (The stuff Peyton Manning keeps talking about in his DirectTV commercials.) I used about 1/2 cup of store-bought hummus and 1/2 cup of store-bought kalamata tapenade.

For a better presentation (since I messed up the face), I elevated the pepper jack-o-lantern with an upside-down custard cup.

Serve after school (or at a Halloween party) with carrots and breadsticks. And don’t forget to eat the pepper afterwards, unless you’re wary of double-dippers. . .

 

Warning: 31 Days of Crazy Ahead

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There’s a whole spectrum of crazy when it comes to Halloween enthusiasm, ranging from “Appropriately Spirited” to “Get Out the Commitment Papers.” I like to think I fall somewhere in the middle – you know, having fun but keeping it real. Some of my nearest and dearest, however, think I’m a few slices short of a loaf. . .

In case you can’t tell, I’m a Ghoul Scout.

With 31 days to go until All Hallows’ Eve and the festive spirit building daily, I thought this year we’d try a Countdown Calendar Tree:

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Tomato Caramel

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Did September swoosh past anyone else? It seems like just yesterday we were chasing the ice cream truck and agonizing over First Day of School outfits, and now we’re cracking open the candy corn and planning Halloween costumes.

Well – the month is almost over, and with it comes the end of one of the best tomato seasons in recent years here in the Garden State.  (Or at least in our garden, and this is a nice consolation since I’m sorry to report that the zucchini plants never fully recovered from their vine borer surgery.) Needless to say, we’ve been eating a lot of tomatoes lately, and some of us are happier about this than others. . .

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Shortcut Cake Pops

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If you have kids or visit Starbucks on a regular basis, you know about cake pops.  They’re like Tootsie Pops, but made of mashed-up cake instead of candy (so therefore better for you?), dipped in a glossy coating and dressed up with sprinkles or other accoutrements.

(For some awe-inspiring creations, check out Bakerella.com or search “cake pops” in Pinterest.).

If you’ve ever tried making cake pops, you know that they can be TIME CONSUMING. First you have to bake a cake (albeit from a boxed mix) and let it cool. Then you crumble it up and mix it with a can of frosting.  This dough-like mixture becomes the base for the cake pops. After that you shape, chill, dip and decorate.

Doesn’t it seem crazy to bake a nice cake only to smush it all up? Some smart person though of using Munchins for the centers.  That’s definitely a shortcut (and a lot less messy), but if you’re looking for that gooey-cakey texture or want to shape the cake pops into something other than spheres, the donut holes just won’t do.

Well, hold onto your lollypop sticks, folks. I’ve come up with a trick that may forever change the way you make cake pops:  [cue drumroll]

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Love These

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We’re gearing up for the US Open around here. Look out, world – here come the Walter sisters!

Well, maybe in a few years. In the meantime, we’ll get into the spirit of things by serving up these mini tennis ball cookies – simple sugar cookies with a shiny, glow-green glaze.

How’s this for hitting the sweet spot?

Yes, the cookies are a bit time-consuming to make, but I promise they taste as good as they look. And as Sophie (above, in the shades) will tell you, sometimes looking good is worth a little extra effort.

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Borer of Bad News

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Friends, I’ve got a zucchini problem and it’s not what you think. I only wish I could join in on the “too much zucchini” jokes and share the bounty with friends, neighbors and the UPS guy. Alas, there’s something sinister squelching my summer squash:

The dreaded squash vine borer! Right before leaving for vacation, my two zucchini plants were thriving and we were harvesting zucchini daily.  Thinking I’d whip up a zucchini risotto for dinner the night we got back into town, I headed out to the garden only to find the plants half-dead, with two mini zucchini withering on the vine.  The sawdust-like stuff around the base of the plants (frass) was a sure sign that this was the work of the squash vine borer. Immediate surgery would be required to save the plants!

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Fresh Peach Fro-Yo

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Every summer it’s the same story: Swoon over perfect-looking peaches piled high in the produce aisle. Bring a bunch home to ripen on the counter. Start dreaming about biting into a juicy, sweet-tart peach.  Try to contain disappointment when the whole lot turns out to be mealy and bland.  Vow to never again buy peaches from the grocery store. Repeat.

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Tomato, Basil and Cheese Tart

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Every school’s got them, and I’m not talking about the universally-dreaded things that rhyme with “rice” (though that too would be accurate).  I’m talking about super-moms – the tireless volunteers who chair almost every school committee and make the rest of us look like slouches in comparison. As a show of appreciation (and also because they’re nice people), I invited two such moms to an impromptu lunch earlier this week. Guess what? They were just coming from a meeting at the middle school. In July! (See what I mean?) Continue reading →

Chinois-y Chicken Salad

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Extreme heat and humidity can do funny things to your brain – especially if you’re from Seattle, where fleece jackets are considered summer attire. I keep starting projects from my perpetual To Do list (Sell Things on Ebay, Vacuum Crumbs out of Kitchen Drawers, Start Kids’ Scrap Books) but quickly lose focus and end up napping with the cats. Thankfully we have air conditioning, but it can barely keep up with these record heat waves. Not surprisingly, there hasn’t been a whole lot of cooking going on in the kitchen this summer!

Even though I’ve already posted an Asian chicken salad recipe and it’s a little soon to be repeating themes, this salad should be in everyone’s summer rotation because you can grab all the ingredients on the way home from the pool and have a non-cooked home-cooked meal ready in less than 10 minutes. (This does not include the time spent picking up wet swimsuits off the floor and unloading the additional groceries, because inevitably if you’ve brought hungry kids into the grocery store you will end up with at least a few Cheetos, Trix or Pop-Tarts in your bags.)  Continue reading →