Posts Tagged ‘maple’

h1

these are a few of our favorite things

October 24, 2010

Time to bake for the shelter again.  I was trying to focus on maple, but my brain kept getting distracted by the pile of pumpkins that was slowly growing on the dining room table, waiting to be put up for the winter.  Maple.  Pumpkin.  Maple.  Pumpkin.  Hmm.  Determined to ignore the gourds, I pulled out the maple syrup cookbook.  Yes, she has one.  We’ve discussed her addiction before.   Anyway.

We first spotted the Maple Syrup Cookbook by Ken Haedrich last year while we were poking around a bookstore in Vermont.  It contains many delightful recipes for everything from maple butter to maple coffee cake to crispy maple spare ribs.  Yum.  Not wanting to make yet another impulse cookbook purchase, mrslovey took a picture of it and kept browsing.  We figured we’d put it on a wish list when we got home, and decide at a later date if we really wanted it.  Fast forward a year or so, and we’re in a different bookstore, different town, in Vermont.  Suddenly from halfway across the store I hear “This is the one!”  Confused, I hurry over to mrslovey, to see her with cookbook in hand.  She’s convinced that it’s the same one she wanted a year earlier, but to be honest, I’m skeptical.  You’re going to remember this glanced at and passed by item for that long?  Eager to prove me wrong, she pulls out her phone, skims through the photos, and I’ll be damned, it’s the same book.  Since we’ve now encountered and been interested in it twice, we decided it was a safe buy. Read the rest of this entry ?

Advertisement
h1

October – maple & apples

October 4, 2010

Ok, the September thing was a horrific crash and burn, sorry.  Life dealt us quite a handful on several fronts, and it was all we could do to take a deep breath and keep moving to the end of the month.  The recipes that didn’t get made won’t be forgotten, I’ll work on incorporating them into future months.

But October!  Oh, October!  It’s autumn in New England, such a spectacular time!  The air is cooling down, the leaves are starting to turn, and everywhere you look there’s an amazing bounty of glorious fall produce.  We’ve been spoiled by our local orchard, and now eat apples like maniacs for a couple of months, and then not so much the rest of the year.  That plus a day trip to Vermont led to an obvious conclusion for October’s theme.  Well, obvious, but we each had a different idea.  I thought it would be apples, no questions asked.  Mrslovey was equally adamant about maple.  Even though I tried to deter her by pointing out that maple is technically a spring crop, I decided to compromise since she does all my dishes.

So I give you, glorious October, recipes that feature apples, or maple, or a combination of the two.  And seeing as I have forty pounds of apples in my garage and a full gallon of grade B syrup in the pantry, I’m hoping like hell to generate a respectable number of posts for this month.

h1

the first step is to admit that you have a problem

April 18, 2010


Mrslovey has an addiction issue that not everyone may be aware of.  She is addicted to maple.  You might think I’m kidding, or that’s it’s funny, but it’s completely true.  A recent trip to Vermont had us returning with maple of every imaginable variety: two different grades of maple syrup, maple cream, granulated maple sugar, maple pepper, maple barbeque sauce, maple candy, maple mustard, chocolates filled with maple, and cheddar cheese rubbed with maple and sage (I feel a little like Forrest Gump after sharing that list).  She’s also a fan of maple cotton candy and maple ice cream, and on days that she’s gotten overly enthusiastic with the maple and consumed far more than any normal human needs, she enters a state we which we call simply ‘maple coma’.

Knowing how much she loves maple, I knew I’d have to come up with a maple cookie this month.  Looking around at all of the mapleness in our cupboards, I started to formulate a plan.  Hmmmm.  I myself was thinking of snickerdoodles, so how could I incorporate both of these things together?  Then it occurred to me – maple snickerdoodles!  I took a regular sugar cookie dough and added some grade B maple syrup (grade B has a stronger flavor, so is excellent for baking.  If you don’t have B, A is fine).  Then instead of rolling in the traditional cinnamon-sugar blend, I rolled them in granulated maple sugar.  The result is a chewy cookie with a strong maple flavor, crusted with crunchy maple goodness that melts on your tongue.  I must admit I tortured her a bit.  I only gave her three of the finished cookies, then I packed the rest of them off to the monthly shelter dinner.  I think I’m doing the right thing, though – I don’t want her to resent me too much for contributing to her addiction.

Read the rest of this entry ?

h1

I know it’s not fall, so what?

January 18, 2010

Mrslovey’s hometown has a Farmers Market that’s been operating in the same location for 84 years.  It’s definitely an institution, although I must admit that I have never made it there.  When we lived out there, we didn’t appreciate good local food the way we do now.  And now that we’re back in New England, opportunities to check out the market are few and far between.  Last summer Mrslovey and her mother decided to go visit the old market.  Having driven 13 hours straight the day before (and not being a member of the insane early riser club, like those two are), I opted to stay in bed.

They came back just after I woke up, proudly showing off the vast quantities of fresh produce they had acquired.  And there, in the bottom of the bag, was the most prized purchase of the morning.  The market had put together a cookbook as a fundraiser, so they each bought a copy.  People, this is no tiny mimeographed handout.  This book is substantial – over 180 pages.  The majority is, of course, delicious-looking recipes from good solid midwestern farm folk.  Also included is a history of the market, with a nice selection of pictures showing how it’s changed (and stayed the same) over the years.

Just like any community cookbook, there are sometimes multiple versions of the same recipe.  When I decided I wanted to make bread to use some pumpkin I had put up last fall, I had several to choose from.  I used two of the cookbook recipes as a basis, and added my own  variation (and glaze) to it.  It came out VERY moist, and the glaze added just the right touch.

Read the rest of this entry ?