Pumpkin Party: Pumpkin Pancakes

The pumpkin party continues, with breakfast the focus today.   On a cold rainy morning (perhaps while you hunker down before the power goes out during a hurricane?) these rich, lightly spiced pancakes do the trick.   When you add pumpkin to pancakes, there is no doubt that you must let go of any hope that your pancakes will be light and fluffy - pumpkin inevitably brings some denseness to the pancake party.  But while you lose some of that elusive pancake fluffiness, you gain a real depth of flavor.  After all, aren't plain ol pancakes not much more than a vehicle for maple syrup?  Not these things, while they are light on the sugar, the pumpkin flavor really comes through, as does the pumpkin pie spice. And about that pumpkin pie spice, I usually am against using "pumpkin pie spice" and like to carefully put together the right amounts of each of the key spices - nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, etc... but with these pancakes and some other recipes I made for pumpkin week I took the shortcut and used a good quality pumpkin pie spice (penzeys), but when it comes time to make my thanksgiving pies, I will go back to the old fashioned way of a pinch of this and a pinch of that.
These pancakes I adapted from Nigella Lawson, who, strangely, didn't include any spices whatsoever in her recipe!  That just seemed strange to me, as the best part of any pumpkin sweet, in my opinion, are the spices.  So I added some.  For me, pancakes are a little too much effort (and carbs and calories) for everyday, but these are a great fall weekend treat!

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Pumpkin Party: Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

It has taken me a little longer than I would have liked to start my pumpkin party, but better late than never!  Part of the delay is that I was crippled by indecision - there are so many wonderful things to make, how would I ever decide!  I was particularly stumped on what to choose to make on the sweet, side, so I am kicking off this week or so of many pumpkin recipes on the savory side.  Without further delay, I give you Dorie Greenspan's pumpkin stuffed with everything good, and this really is a gift.  This pumpkin, oh boy, let me tell you about it  - it is filled with beautiful french bread cubes, lots and lots of Gruyere and cheddar cheese, garlic, oh yes, lots of garlic, and you know what else? bacon, yup.  Oh, and how is this lovely pumpkin finished off? with a little glug of heavy cream.  Yes!  This pumpkin is pretty insane, obviously over the top rich. I tried to make it a little less guilty by adding a whole bunch of steamed swiss chard, and it added a nice counterpoint to the richness loaded on richness.  Without the bacon, this would be a great vegetarian main for thanksgiving, truth be told, I would probably rather eat this than turkey, and I love turkey.  If the pumpkin a bit of an afterthought in light of all that goodness? Perhaps, but the right way to eat this is to dig into the sides and mix the soft pumpkin immediately into the stuffing.  If it weren't for the bacon, cream, bread and cheese, I would eat this every week during the fall.  Alas, this dish is so good I can't let myself eat it more than once a year, and I am already thinking about next year...

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Apple Fest Swan Song: Maple Apple Upside Down Cake

With this maple apple upside down cake, the time has come to say goodbye to apple fest.  Never fear, up next is a pumpkin party, which will hopefully provide inspiration for all of your pumpkin cravings!  Although this is the last post in apple fest, I cannot guarantee that apples will not continue to pop up here throughout the rest of the fall, as they are most certainly one of my favorite ingredients, and something I eat every day (though usually not gussied up in recipes).   I found this case recipe (a sign from my brain that I should be working rather than blogging right now) on Food and Wine's website and it is by Joanne Chang, the owner of one of my favorite bakeries here in Boston - Flour.  While I love, love, love Flour's baked goods in store, I have found that recipes from the Flour cookbook don't always work that well.  I am sad to say that there was a pretty big error in the Food and Wine recipe for this cake too (a 1 and half hour baking time) which I luckily discovered by reading the comments (unluckily I didn't read the comments until I had already baked the cake 1 hour!).  I have adjusted the baking time in the recipe below, and the only other change was the addition of some cinnamon.  I have a hard time staying away from the cinnamon when apples are around.    This is a dessert that is is really beautiful, so can be special occasion, but it also feels just right with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.  Now we are ready move on to some pumpkin.

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Applefest: Fall Applejack Cocktail

For my applefest cocktail I knew I wanted to make something with Applejack - an apple brandy than is the base of one my favorite classic cocktails, the Jack Rose.  I wanted something a little richer than that cocktail, which is made with applejack, lemon juice and grenadine.  Rye Whiskey seemed like the perfect thing to mix the brandy with to make a cocktail that had some depth and gave you that warm toasty fall feeling.  I also added some maple syrup and lemon juice, and topped the cocktail off with a little (nonalcoholic) sparkling cider to lighten it up a smidgen.  I was really happy with this concoction and serving it in the champagne coupe made it feel like something special.  This would be great for your fall holiday gatherings.

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Apple Fest: Apple Ricotta Toasts

We're almost at the end of apple fest and soon will be moving on to pumpkin fest (oh yeah, and this is still a book review blog too, right?  The Marriage Plot and Game of Thrones coming soon).   This Apple Ricotta toast is something for the easy but indulgent breakfast/brunch hopper. I saw it on Food and Wine's website, and the recipe is from April Bloomfield, whose Spotted Pig restaurant I love in NY and whose cookbook, a Girl and Her Pig, I am also a big fan of, for the pictures at least, I have not made anything from it yet.  This toast attracted be because it was different than the usual apple breakfast concoctions - muffins, breads, pancakes and because it had fresh ricotta, which is one of my favorite things to eat.  The recipe calls for thickly sliced pan de mie or other fancy bakery white bread. I went with Trader Joe's Texas Toast and I must say it was a revelation.   I generally don't eat white bread, so have never had this before, though I have seen it often on my sister's kitchen counter.  The bread was perfect for this dish   - it is a thickly sliced enriched white bread - kinda like challah but not quite as rich, making it a good base for the buttery apples and cheese.   Since the bread is so thick, one piece of toast is the perfect portion per person.  This is something you could whip up as a treat for yourself or as a dish for guests.  And while the bread and cheese are great, in truth this is all about the sweet buttery pile of apples.  Enjoy.

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Apple Fest: Quinoa with Caramelized Onions and Apples

Here is a healthy and seasonal side dish or meal combining apples and quinoa.  Whenever I eat quinoa (which is admittedly, not very often), I think that it needs a lot of help to taste really great.  With some other grains, like white or brown rice, I totally love the grain itself plain, on its own, with only a little fat and salt and pepper.  Quinoa does not have, for me, great flavor or texture on its own.  In sum, when I eat quinoa I know I am eating something healthy.   But because it is healthy, I want to try to eat quinoa more instead of rice, so I look for ways to jazz it up. For my apple week dish, I decided to make an apple quinoa salad kind of thing, adding some caramelized onions to punch up the savory flavors and some toasted pecans for some crunch.  This turned out to be the perfect sweet, savory, crunchy combination, and this side dish would be perfect for someone putting together a "healthy" thanksgiving meal (I will be filling my table, or more accurately my sister's table, with mashed potatoes, stuffing and squash...)  This would also be a great mixture to stuff a squash or pumpkin with, adding a little grated cheese to the top.  Without further delay, my side dish contribution to Apple Fest.

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Apple Fest: Peter Brady's Porkchops

I fear the name of my post really reveals my age. I am sure there are lots of you twenty somethings out there that have no idea who Peter Brady is, much less what he has to do with pork chops.  For those of you readers who are generally in the vicinity of my generation (who enjoyed the Brady Bunch every night in reruns) or of the generation before mine (who enjoyed it in prime time) you may remember the Brady Bunch episode where Peter Brady became famous for utterly the phrase "pork chops and applesauce" with  a funny voice and accent (I believe he was trying to imitate Humphrey Bogart? What was this episode about anyway?)  Text can't do it justice check it out here.  From when I saw that episode as a kid (probably 10 times!) to now, whenever I think about pork chops, I hear Peter Brady's weird voice in my head.  Until recently, I was into pork chops at all.  And still, to be fair, I never order them in a restaurant, never have a real craving for them.  In fact, the only way I ever eat pork chops is prepared as depicted in the photo above - thin porkchops smothered in a sweet and sour apple sauce.  This is my savory contribution to apple fest, boneless pork chops cooked with a shallot and apple pan sauce.  Yum!

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The Night Circus and Caramel Apples

These Caramel Apples,which I made for Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, are the perfect vehicle for me to kick off Bookcooker fall fest!  Of all the seasons, it is the produce available in fall that gets me most excited.  As October begins, it is apples, squash and pumpkin everywhere! So inspired, I am hoping to embark upon a project for the blog this fall where I make a few different dishes of various sorts (cocktail, snack, breakfast, dessert, side, main dish etc...) inspired by one ingredient - starting off with apples and then probably moving to squash, pumpkin, carrots, pears, whatever inspires me that week.  I say this all with the caveat that my day job often gets in the way of my big blog ideas, so I will try to keep up with this.  After these classic caramel apples I will share some pork chops with apples, a quinoa apple salad and hopefully an apple cocktail, breakfast and another dessert.   But first, these luscious, messy, caramel apples.  Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus is a book filled with real magic, star-crossed lovers and carnival food.  Sounds good, right?  The star of the book is the Cirque de Reves (also known as The Night Circus), a fantastical traveling circus that opens at dusk and closes at dawn andfeatures some performers that are able to perform real magic (create a starry night sky in a tent a la Harry Potter, create jars that when you open them transport you to the seashore, a rainy day in a forest etc...) and other performers that are the most artful, urbane circus acts imaginable.  Two participants in the circus - Celia, a performer, and Marco, the assistant to the Circus creator, also happen to be involved in a secret magical duel.  They are simply the pawns of their respective mentors - for Celia, her father, Prospero, an old vaudevillian magician and for Marcus a mysterious man dressed in a grey suit that picked him up one day from an orphanage.   These two old guys have been engaged in this magical battle for years, they pick two young magicians, pit them against each other and whoever is still living at the end wins.  With The Night Circus, Morgenstern spared no detail in describing this enchanted but dangerous world.  This is another book for the pile of adult books that obsessive Harry Potter fans would like (I seem to read these a lot... and I hate to tell you that next up is The Game of Thrones, I will have to throw in something more realistic in between!)  More about the book and apples after the jump.

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