Pork Medallions & Apples

Hazel is a big meat eater but she likes it even more if she gets to help cook. I recently stumbled upon the perfect recipe to do together, pork medallions and apples!  Hazel likes to help with the pounding, flouring and Apple eating. And, if I'm lucky, she might even do a few dishes while washing her hands!

Ingredients
1 pork tenderloin
1 C flour (or more if you are working with a toddler)
salt & pepper
1 C apple juice or cider
2-3 apples chopped
2 T butter
1 T olive oil

Directions
1. Slice the tenderloin into 1-inch medallions, salt & pepper them to taste.
2. With a kitchen hammer, pound the meat thin
3. Pour flour on a plate. Dip meat in flour and shake off excess. Set on another plate
4. Heat oil over medium in a large frying pan. Add meat in batches and cook 2 minutes per side and remove to a plate
5. Add apples to the pan and saute 1 minute
6. Add juice and let simmer and reduce 2-3 minutes.
7. Add butter to form a sauce and let melt while stirring.
8. Add medallions back in to warm nestled in the sauce.  Serve warm.

Cinnamon Apple Pancake Bars

For over a week I have been wanting to make these pancake bars I saw on the Kitchn website. I thought it would be quite handy to have a grab and go breakfast. And yet all week the time to make these morsels alluded me.

Finally, today as I was whipping up some homemade chicken stock and found myself with a baby-holder I was able to make these. These take no time at all to pull together but they do take a while to bake.  The recipe said 12-15 minutes but this took 25 for me. Perhaps it was the dark pan or my overly runny batter but it was sort of a long wait when we were hungry and waiting--so plan ahead!

These are good cold but I bet they'd be great heated up too.

I revised the recipe so that the main batter had some more flavor but don't skip the streusel topping, it makes it.

For the Bars:
2 cups flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
dash of ginger
3 T sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 3/4 cups whole milk (this seemed like too much)
1 t vanilla
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 apple, diced into 1/2" pieces (or bigger depending on how chunky you want)
2 C granola (I used Bare Naked Maple Pecan, you can't really taste it though)

For the Topping: (consider making a double recipe of the topping!)
1/4 C flour
1/4 C brown sugar, firmly packed
3 T butter, melted
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Directions:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients through sugar in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk and butter and mix until just combined. Add apple and granola and mix until just covered.  The batter for me was really runny with chunks in it but it still worked out!
2. Prepare a 9x13 pan by spraying with cooking spray. Add a layer of parchment, spray again. Pour prepared batter into the pan. Then heat the oven to 400 degrees and let the batter rest.
3. Make the topping by stirring it all together, it will be thick. Spatter the topping all over the bars. Bale 20-25 minutes until the bars are cooked through and are springy to touch.  Remove from pan, let rest on a wire rack and serve.  I cut these into small bars.

Sauteed Chicken Sausage and Apples

I bet I have 15 different similar recipes on this blog of sauteed chicken sausage & apples because it is one of the fastest and most satisfying recipes in my repertoire and it is never exactly the same.  Today we took a field trip to Trader Joe's - a store we don't love as much as everyone else.  After browsing the rather crowded store (that they were stocking at the worst possible time!) we were still at a loss for dinner. I grabbed some sweet chicken & apple sausages and an apple and called it a day.

Ingredients
2 apple chicken sausages, sliced into coins
1 large apple, thinly sliced (the thinner you slice them the less time it takes)
1/8 t cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 T olive oil
1/4 C apple cider

Directions
1. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausages and brown 2-3 minutes per side. Remove to plate.
2. Toss apples with cinnamon and nutmeg and add to the hot pan. Pour over cider (it may pop and splatter!)
3. Cook apples 10 minutes or until soft. Add sausage back in and toss together. Serve with bread on the side.

Mini Caramel Apples

 This past Sunday my parents were in town and we decided to visit the Hollywood Farmer's Market. This market is four streets large plus a spice alley and is always an adventure.  While there, I spotted some tiny apples and I just knew I had to get them. After tasting them--slightly tart, crispy, still sweet, I bought the bag.  I already knew I wanted to make mini caramel apples with them, I just had to navigate the timing of the day.

These caramel apples took no time at all! When looking for recipes lots of people complained that caramel takes too long to make from scratch. But do you know what takes a long time? Unwrapping those caramel candies!  I hate those wrappers anyway, the grating sound of them, gross.  But what is really easy is making caramel! And the flavor difference is night and day.  My sister used to make caramels to give to people for gifts and this recipe was definitely the same (although I didn't know it at the time). This caramel just melts in your mouth and has that buttery touch of deliciousness.  I made 12 tiny caramel apples and halved the original recipe.

Original recipe, mine halved below. I had a little extra caramel but we weren't sad to eat it ;)

Ingredients:
12 mini apples
3/8 + 1/8 cup heavy cream (divided)
3/8 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter (I used salted)
1/2 t vanilla
chopped peanuts, optional
Special Equipment: Candy Thermometer, skewers or popsicle sticks

Directions
1. Wash and completely dry the apples. Chop nuts and place them in a flat bowl.
2. Poke sticks (I used these cake pop variety) into the top part of the apple near the stem. Push hard to make sure it is sturdy
3. Prepare a sheet pan lined with wax paper or parchment paper or a silicon mat.
4. In a heavy bottomed small pot (actually I just used a small pot), attach a candy themometer to the edge and combine butter, syrup, sugar and 3/8 C heavy cream over high heat.
5. Boil until temperature reaches 246 degrees, firm ball stage and remove from heat. Caramel will be golden, don't step away this hardly takes any time at all.
6. Stir in remaining 1/8 C heavy cream and vanilla. This will spurt and splatter, protect yourself!
7. Carefully dip apples and spoon caramel over. Let excess drip off, swirl into nuts if using and then place in the prepared pan. Work quickly because the caramel will start to get more solid and be harder to use.
8. Refrigerate and the caramel will harden so that it is easier to get it off the pan. Serve.

Apple Dutch Baby

For weeks I have been craving a dutch baby pancake. The crazy thing is that I'm not sure I've ever had a dutch baby before. It's just that one of my favorite bloggers posted one months ago (a year?!) and I've been thinking of it ever since.

Then, pouring salt in my wounds, my sister-in-law described a dutch baby she made just two weeks ago! I knew it was fate and I must make this pancake.  As luck would have it, we went apple picking yesterday so I have a plethora of apples in which to use for this.

The other lucky thing is that the dutch baby doesn't call for anything special, just eggs, flour, sugar, milk--no fancy buttermilk, no special sugars, not too hard, ready quickly.  A perfect breakfast!

The only thing I changed from this recipe of Spinach Tiger was using Penskey's Baking spice instead of cinnamon.  Why ruin something simple with more spices than just cinnamon you ask? Well...we're out of cinnamon, obviously we have to fix that situation before we do any more with our apples but on this early morning I wasn't about to go to the store first!  I'm glad to report that the baking spice was also delicious and the warming smells of baked apples filled the house as expected.

The results were a bit eggy--custardy but eggy. I think this means I maybe should havve cooked it a bit more but then again, it was golden...the best part was the caramelized edges and I think I could have thrown in one more apple at the beginning.

Recipe from Spinach Tiger

Ingredients:
2 apples
4 T butter
2 t baking spice or cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
4 eggs
1 C flour
1 C milk
1/4 C brown sugar
1 t vanilla
Powdered sugar for serving

Apple Dutch Baby
1. Preheat the oven to 450
2. Peel and thinly slice two apples
3. In an oven-proof frying pan melt 4 T butter (woah) over medium heat
4. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. Melt and Add apples.
5. Saute 5 minutes or until apples are soft
6. Stash the pan in the oven until the batter is ready
7. Stir together eggs & flour until smooth. Add milk & vanilla. The mixture will be very runny.
8. Remove frying pan from the oven, pour batter on top of the apples, place back in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown
9. Sprinkle with some powdered sugar and serve

A play on Monkey Bread

Tonight I made some buttermilk biscuits but I used the smaller biscuit cutter and made way too many. In order to make a slightly less amount of too many biscuits for two, I decided to mix some sauteed cinnamon apples with the scraps and bake it in the oven.

This is not unlike Monkey Bread. This is a lot like a certain recipe I remember seeing on Tastespotting early last week.  But I didn't follow any recipe, I just put it together.  It took 8 minute to bake and maybe it could've gone a bit longer.  I think this is a fantastic "Welcome Fall" dessert.  If you are living anywhere besides Southern CA you might actual have met Autumn on September 22nd. But if you live here in Los Angeles, you are planning to put some shorts on tomorrow and zip from the car to the ice cold office to avoid 102 degrees on OCTOBER first...

This is a quick dessert if you already have the apples and biscuit dough made. This is a slightly less quick dessert if you don't.  This made enough for two.

Apple Biscuit "Cobbler"

Ingredients:

1/2 C sauteed cinnamon apples (recipe below)
1/2 C leftover biscuit pieces or 3 canned biscuits
cinnamon
nutmeg
baking spice
3 T sugar
1 T butter

Directions:

1. In a small bowl mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking spice. If you sliced the apples, cut them into smaller bits
2. Layer biscuits and apples in a small ramekin, ending with more biscuit than apples
3. Melt butter and pour over the ramekin
4. Bake at 450 degrees for 9 minutes
5. Let cool at least 10 minutes before digging in!


Sauteed Cinnamon Apples

Ingredients:
4 medium apples, two red, two green, peeled and thinly sliced or cubed
cinnamon
1/4 C brown sugar
1 T butter

Directions:
1. In a small frying pan, melt butter over medium heat
2. Toss apples with cinnamon and sugar (I actually used a ton more sugar but I highly dissuade you from doing this because it was too much sugar)
3. Saute apples for about 8 minutes until tender and a little syrup forms, serve as a side or a dessert

Apple Pancakes

In the October Foodzie Tasting Box I got two small jars of Maple Syrup from Ben's Sugar Shack. We were supposed to get one jar of Grade A & a second of Grade B but we actually got two Grade B's. Either way, I decided to get up early and make breakfast this Saturday morning before Joey went to work so that we could try out the new syrup!

I'm not really a superb breakfast maker, but I can do it in a pinch. The problem for me is that I don't really like the thick heavy bisquick pancakes. I like buttermilk ones that are light and fluffy. But, keeping buttermilk around the house is annoying and I'm still weirded out by the lemon juice & milk method--so I am always looking for new recipes.

Apple Cinnamon pancakes sounded really good to me since I am currently obsessed with this Baking Spice from Penzey's spices that my friend Jenny gave me a few years ago for a gift. So I started to search the web and then I just decided to search Smitten Kitchen and I found just what I was looking for--pancakes with bits of apple in them!

Per her instructions, I added a little extra flavoring to the mix--a little vanilla, a teaspoon of baking spice, a half teaspoon of cinnamon. I think the result was really delicious. I recommend this recipe from Smitten Kitchen!

When I was grinding up the apples in my food processor, I didn't manage to eliminate all the big chunks so as I was making pancakes, I found a few slices of apple doused in batter. I threw those in the griddle too and the result was nothing short of amazing. These apple slices had just a bit of custardy batter on them that browned up--with the cinnamon and still a little crunch and juice from the apple--I think pancake battered apples could be the next new thing.

Grilled Baked Apples and Pork

It's October. We had one week that really felt like fall at the end of September. But then summer came back and today it was like 108 in the valley. I love summer, but sometimes I really want a little taste of fall; especially when all the food magazines and websites are selling me on apples and pumpkins and pork.

So today I decided to be totally California and use the grill to make a fall favorite--baked apples. I also made some pork loin steaks which some might refer to as deconstructed pork roast. This fall dinner was delicious, fast and did not heat up the house like the oven it was already outside.

Baked apples on the grill! So fun! Also doesn't that pork in the picture kind of look like a fish? Hehe. it's pork actually.

Ingredients

2 4oz each boneless pork loin steaks (I've never seen these before, but they were only $5 for like 1 1/2 lbs.)

salt

English Prime Rib Rub (okay so this is from Penzey's spices but I'm sure you could use your favorite choice of spices but this one was really fall)

2 apples, cored (I'm not good with coring apples, so I just dug out a hole with a melon baller and we cut around the core when we ate)

2 T brown sugar, packed

Baking spice (another Penzey's but it's like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, good stuff)

1 t butter

foil

Directions

1. Heat gas grill to medium high (around 4oo)

2. Meanwhile, dig out a hole in the apples and stuff with brown sugar, butter and spices

3. Wrap each apple in a square of tin foil and scrunch tight

4. Put the apples on the grill (top side up so the sugar stuff doesn't leak out), close the lid and set a timer for 10 minutes

5. Salt & English Prime Rib Rub the pork. After the apples cook 10 minutes put the pork on the grill.

6. Grill 5 minutes per side and continue to cook the apples (10 more minutes total)

7. Use care while unfolding the foil as steam will escape quickly. Eat!

Alton Brown's Super Apple Pie

Joey and I watched a video of Alton Brown's take on apple pie and were hooked on trying it out. Of course, it requires all sorts of things we didn't have so it was quite the shopping list to get it all taken care of. The result? An apple pie that tastes like apples--not the traditional spices--with a hint of rye bread. Perhaps if we had reacted earlier to the grocery list, we would've gotten the Grains of Paradise and then not had that hint of rye bread involved. We made two apple pies Alton style, one following the recipe and one with traditional spices. Both were eaten and well liked. Different strokes for different folks I guess. The liquids in the pie made it more of a sticky pie like peach pie than your typical apple.

We got a lot of use out of our kitchen scale for this recipe. We also bought the 2 inch deep tart pans so that the sides could come off for easy slicing and serving. Those worked really well, but if you want to stick with the fall-apart slice from a traditional pie tin that's your prerogative. Alton used a 12-slice apple cutter, but you could just cut your apple slices in half. We got a 16 slicer from William-Sonoma and it wasn't as great as we hoped it would be.

We didn't have a pie bird. For one pie we just cut the slits in the top. For the other, Joey constructed a pie bird (or funnel) out of tin foil. It was quiet the topic of conversation but it let the steam escape so that we didn't have to slice the top. The glaze on the top is from the apples but I don't think it looks that pretty--although it did taste good.

The addition of crisco and brandy in the pie crust made it so easy to work with when I rolled it out! I couldn't believe how easy it was. Usually any kind of dough fights me for the last word and wins. The crust didn't really even taste like the brandy at all.

Alton Brown's Super Apple Pie
For the crust:

* 6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* 2 ounces vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* 5 to 7 tablespoons applejack
* 12 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 2 3/4 cups, plus extra for dusting
* 1 teaspoon table salt
* 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
* This must sit in the fridge at least 1 hour or overnight

For the filling:

* 3 to 3 1/2 pounds apples, mixture of Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn and Golden Delicious, about 6 large apples
* 1/2 cup sugar, divided
* 3 tablespoons tapioca flour
* 2 tablespoons apple jelly
* 1 tablespoon apple cider
* 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground grains of paradise

Directions

For the crust:

Place the butter, shortening and applejack into the refrigerator for 1 hour.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt and sugar by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add the butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until the texture looks mealy. Add the shortening and pulse another 3 to 4 times until incorporated.

Remove the lid of the food processor and sprinkle in 5 tablespoons of the applejack. Replace the lid and pulse 5 times. Add more applejack as needed, and pulse again until the mixture holds together when squeezed. Weigh the dough and divide in half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
For the filling:

Peel and core the apples. Slice into 1/2-inch thick wedges. Toss all of the apples with 1/4 cup of the sugar, place in a colander set over a large bowl and allow to drain for 1 1/2 hours.

Transfer the drained liquid to a small saucepan, place over medium heat and reduce to 2 tablespoons. Set aside to cool. Toss the apples with the remaining sugar, tapioca flour, jelly, cider, lime juice, salt and grains of paradise.

For assembling and baking the pie:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator. Place the dough onto a lightly floured piece of waxed paper. Lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with flour and roll out into a 12-inch circle. Place into a 9 1/2 to 10-inch tart pan that is 2-inches deep. Gently press the dough into the sides of the pan, crimping and trimming the edges as necessary. Set a pie bird in the center of the bottom of the pan.

Place the apples into the unbaked pie shell in concentric circles starting around the edges, working towards the center and forming a slight mound in the center of the pie. Pour over any liquid that remains in the bowl. Roll out the second pie dough as the first. Place this dough over the apples, pressing the pie bird through the top crust. Press together the edges of the dough around the rim of the pie. Brush the top crust with the reduced juice everywhere except around the edge of pie. Trim any excess dough. Place the pie on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake on the floor of the oven for 30 minutes. Transfer to the lower rack of the oven and continue to bake another 20 minutes or until the apples are cooked through but not mushy. Remove to a rack and cool a minimum of 4 hours or until almost room temperature.