Receta Crazy Fall Cooking Frenzy
Fall weather hit with a vengeance last week and all I wanted to do was cook. With a peck of apples in the fridge and nothing else to do for a few days, I hit the kitchen hard over the weekend and am pretty impressed with the fruits of my labors, if I do say so myself.
A large portion of the apples have now been canned, some as caramel apple jam, and others as apple mint jelly. The caramel apple jam is incredibly easy to make. Be warned though - I gave hubby a spoonful to try and he would have happily scoffed the entire bounty and eaten himself into a diabetic coma, if given the opportunity. The recipe is sugar rich and not for the faint of heart.
The apple mint jelly is a good alternative to mint sauce. Earlier in the summer, local food blogger Rona Roberts gave me some cuttings of her prized Wayne County mint plant. Now I know everyone says mint is the easiest plant to grow but I have managed to kill every mint plant I've ever had. But not this time (at least not yet!). Ever keen to make use of my first ever mint harvest, I threw it into a pot with some apples.
Cook it down until it's all nice and mushy:
...and then allow the juices to strain out through a cheesecloth for an hour or two. Put the juice back in a pan with some sugar, bring to boil and reduce. The result is a beautiful clear golden jelly which I shall thoroughly enjoy putting on my lamb.
With plenty of apples left, I also made some deliciously moist apple bread, but I made sure to keep a few apples by for putting into my soup.
You see, last week, another Kentucky food blogger, Kate, posted her Jamaican Curried Butternut Squash Soup and as luck would have it, I had a butternut squash just waiting to be used. Mine was a little on the small side though. Not to worry. Add a few apples to the mix and I had one mighty good spicy soup, perfect for a fall supper.
What's next, I hear you ask. Well obviously you can't have soup without some good crusty bread for dipping.
Wholewheat Parmesan Bread
- 1 1/4 cups tepid water
- 1 pack yeast
- 1 1/2 cups wholewheat flour
- 2 tbs olive oil
- sprinkling salt
- 1 1/2 cups bread flour
- 3/4 cup fresh Parmesan
- 1 egg white
Place water in large bowl; sprinkle with yeast. Let stand 30 seconds; stir until blended. Let stand 5 minutes or until yeast is foamy. Stir in whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons oil and salt until batter is smooth. Slowly stir in 1 cup of the bread flour and 1/4 cup cheese to form soft dough. (Dough will be sticky.) Cover; let stand 15 minutes.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface; knead until dough is smooth and springy, using additional bread flour as needed to keep dough from sticking.
Lightly oil clean large bowl. Place dough in bowl; turn to coat with oil. Cover; let rise in warm place 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Gently punch dough down; turn out onto lightly greased baking sheet. With greased hands, shape into 12-inch flat round loaf. Cover with clean towel; let rise in warm place 45 to 60 minutes or until loaf is almost doubled in size.
Place oven rack in lower third of oven. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. With sharp knife (dip knife in flour to avoid sticking), cut dough all the way through into 2-inch squares. (Leave loaf whole; do not separate into squares.) Lightly brush top with egg white.
Bake 35 minutes or until light brown on top and pale brown on bottom. Brush with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Bake 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bottom of bread is light brown. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.
So there you have, soup, breads, jams, jellies. I also made some rhubarb and lemon zest muffins. The kitchen was a mess. But I had food galore, and a yummy supper that night: