CARAMEL APPLES

I make caramel apples every fall...but this year's batch is definitely my best. The difference? I usually go all budget style and make them from a kit...or melt a bag of pre-wrapped caramels and dip away. But not this year. This year I made my caramel from scratch. And it made a serious difference. It turned out super creamy and buttery and fresh. And it was the PERFECT consistency! Not too hard...not too soft.

I found a bunch of different recipes for making caramel...but they are all just variations on a theme. Some use sweetened condensed milk instead of heavy cream...some use brown sugar instead of white...some add molasses. I went with this recipe because I happened to have all of the ingredients for it. I think the most important thing is to get the ingredients to the right temperature and then take them off the heat. A candy thermometer definitely helps.

Note: If you're gonna make your own just use a non-stick cookie sheet. They come right off when they cool. No parchment necessary. And the best part? I had leftover caramel. So I portioned that out onto another cookie sheet...

And when that cooled I dipped the discs in dark chocolate and sprinkled them with sea salt. SO GOOD! Like...maybe even better than the apples! Long story short: I've been indulging in sticky sweet deliciousness all week. And I think I'm gonna make another batch. Yum.

RECIPE: CARROT GINGER SOUP

My new favorite food? Carrot ginger soup. It's all I crave anymore. Seriously. Justin and I have made two giant batches in the past couple weeks and I'm already starting to panic because I finished the last of it about an hour ago.

We didn't follow any one recipe. We kinda just winged it. I'm sure you could use the same ingredients in different proportions and it would probably still taste good. And I'm sure you could use this same technique with other vegetables to make all kinds of velvety pureed deliciousness.

Here's what we did:

Ingredients:

2 lbs carrots sliced

1-2 onions diced

1-2 potatoes diced

2 tbsp fresh ginger grated

1/2 tbsp cumin

2 tbsp olive oil

6 cups stock

salt and pepper to taste

You're gonna need a big pot for this. Preferably one with a thick bottom that cooks nice and evenly. We used our Le Cruset French oven (yay for wedding registries). First you are going to saute the vegetables. Justin and I like to add a little bit of salt as we go. Coat the bottom of the pot with the olive oil and add the onions. Cook them until they are golden. Add the potatoes and cook them for a few minutes until they start to soften up a little bit. Then add the carrots and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Next add the 6 cups of stock, the ginger, and the cumin. Cover partially and bring to a boil. Then bring the heat down and simmer until the carrots are tender when pierced with a fork. About 15 minutes maybe?

Next you are going to puree all of this in a blender. This obviously has to be done in batches. Unless you have a REALLY big blender. Put it back into the pot and salt and pepper to taste. YUM.

This recipe makes a lot of soup...but it makes awesome leftovers. I swear it gets even spicier and more delicious.

And I don't want to overload you with recipes here...but I've been super into frying up breaded goat cheese medallions and throwing them onto an arugula salad. It tastes pretty darn good with the soup...and it's a super easy way to class up some greens. Here's the recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.

BEIGNETS

Homemade beignets have been on my list of things to try for a while now. We had a couple of friends over for brunch on Sunday and I finally had an excuse to make them. (Brunch is my favorite meal to go overboard with. There are so many yummy options...and I like to serve them ALL.)

I used Paula Deen's recipe and I think they turned out pretty tasty. (I figured if I'm gonna make something deep fried and Southern...Paula Deen is probably my go-to gal.) And I'm pretty sure it's virtually impossible to mess them up. Or ANY kind of fried dough for that matter. It's just inherently DELICIOUS. So...yay for beignets...a pleasure to both cook AND eat. I have a feeling they are going to be a brunch staple around here.

PUMPKIN, SAGE, and PECORINO RAVIOLI

I know posting has been spotty around here lately....but we've had LOTS of guests the past few weeks. So much entertaining means we've had a chance to try our hand at cooking some new seasonal dishes. Our latest: pumpkin, sage, and pecorino ravioli.

Justin and I make homemade pasta a lot but this was our first attempt at ravioli. It turned out pretty darn delicious...and now all we can do is talk about all the things we can fill ravioli with. FIGS! KALE! GOAT CHEESE! PROSCIUTTO! So many possibilities!

The recipe we used came from the cookbook In Season, by Sarah Raven. Her recipe isn't available online so I scanned the page from the book with the ingredients and directions in case anyone wants to give it a whirl. It's posted here.

MINT ICE MILK

I had ripped this recipe out of some magazine a long time ago.  Martha Stewart...I think?? But I can't find it on her website.  I remember that it had something to do with Blue Hill at Stone Barns....and I believe this is THEIR recipe for mint ice milk.

2 1/2 cups packed fresh mint leaves

2 cups whole milk

2/3 cup simple syrup (recipe here)

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, immediately plunge mint into an ice-water bath. Lift out mint;drain well. Reserve ice-water bath.

2. Bring milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add mint. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly.

3. Working in batches (so that blender is never more than halfway full), blend milk mixture until mint is puréed, at least 1 minute per batch. Pass through a fine sieve into a stainless-steel bowl set in reserved ice-water bath. 

4. Stir simple syrup and corn syrup into milk-mint mixture. Let stand until cold, stirring occasionally.  Refrigerate until very cold, at least 2 hours (or overnight).

5. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to a manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container.  Freeze at least 1 hour. Before serving, let stand at room temperature to soften slightly.

The recipe makes about two cups.  Not THAT much. But I think it is super cute served in small portions.  You know... just as a little palate cleanser/mini dessert.  I put mine in an espresso cup with a tiny spoon and garnished it with a sprig of mint...and voila!...adorable.

I'm gonna be honest.  I'm more of an instant gratification kinda girl...so cooking anything that takes a long time...and requires a lot of waiting...is not usually my jam.  And, believe me, while I was making this I kept complaining.  I was all: "this is SO much effort for so little"..."are you serious, ANOTHER step??!!"..."I have to wait TWO HOURS now???!!! The last thing I said was: "I'm never making this again". But then I tried it....and I am TOTALLY making it again.  It is SO good.  Promise. 

NOTE:  I was super surprised at how green it turned out.  I mean...it's GREEN green.  I was expecting more of a mint green situation.  So, should you decide to make this recipe...here is a fitting musical accompaniment.

ORANGE YOGURT CAKE

Justin and I finally finished unpacking all of our kitchen stuff.  That includes not only the abundance of things we brought from our apartment...but also ALL of our wedding presents. Since there was literally NO room for anything else in our apartment in Brooklyn we decided to store them in my parents' garage until we moved into a bigger house. 

Well, now we're in that bigger house...so we got to open all of our super sweet gifts and start putting them to use!

One of the lovely things we got was a ruffled cake stand with a glass cloche. It was just screaming for a pretty baked thing...so I decided to make it one.

I made an orange yogurt cake using a recipe I had cut out of an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It is available here.  However, I wanted mine to be a little more decorative (after all, it is going onto the world's cutest cake plate) so I also made some royal icing (recipe here) and piped on a few swirls and then topped it with orange zest and a dusting of powdered sugar. 

I think I'm going to be doing a lot more baking.  Here's some reasons why:  a.) I get a big kick out of it, b.) I LOVE sweets, c.) I have all kinds of new baking accessories, d.) I have LOTS of counter space to use said baking accessories....and most importantly, e.) what's a better way to get my NYC friends to come visit than tales of delicious homemade treats?!