Stuffed Baked Apples

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is this week and I am planning our holiday menu! We are hosting a big dinner at the cabin on Friday and I am planning to make baked apples for dessert. Growing up in the apple orchard, we made these when I was little and they remind me so much of Fall. You can really fill them with anything, but I usually do a mixture of butter, dried berries, raisins, dried chopped figs, nuts, cinnamon and brown sugar. Stir all the ingredients together, spoon them into cored apples and bake at 350 degrees F, for about an hour. (I do an hour and 15 minutes to get very soft apples). Serve warm drizzled with honey alongside vanilla ice cream.

For more photos and the full recipe check out my post for Better Homes and Gardens today. 

L'shana Tova! (Happy New Year!)

Brown Butter Tomatoes from The New Greenmarket Cookbook

I know I am spoiled by the produce in California, but I have to say- I do miss the New York City Greenmarket. The produce that pops up in Union Square (and in farmers’ markets all over the city) is truly spectacular, especially in late summer. Coming out of the subway at 14th Street and seeing all the farmers amidst the cityscape is so unique and exciting. While at the market, it’s common to see big city chefs shopping for their dinner menus and The New Greenmarket Cookbook tells the stories behind these chefs and recipes.

The cookbook is by my friend Gabrielle and it’s beautifully compiled with so many fresh ideas. I shot with a lot of these chefs when I was working as a food photographer in New York, so it’s really fun to have this collection of their recipes. Here’s one super simple summer recipe I tried the other day that was a total winner. I made it while visiting my parents’ little cabin up in Sonoma County, where they have an enormous garden with 50+ tomato plants growing this summer (crazy!). Such a simple idea and SO delicious. Happy cooking!

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BROWN BUTTER TOMATOES

From The New Greenmarket Cookbook by Gabrielle Langholtz and GrowNYC. Reprinted with permission from Da Capo Lifelong, © 2014

Recipe by Amanda Hesser, Food52.com and Provisions

2 large or 3 small ripe beefsteak tomatoes

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon

Coarsely ground black pepper

Baguette or other country bread, for mopping up the butter

Most locavores have more recipes for tomatoes than Eskimos have names for snow. But this preparation, which drizzles beurre noisette over tomatoes in place of the classic olive oil, will stop you in your tracks. As surprising as it is simple, it’s the kind of thing you can slap together in mere minutes for a solo snack or serve to guests on fine china.

Core the tomatoes and slice them 1⁄3-inch thick. Divide the slices among four plates (preferably warmed), overlapping the slices just a little. Place the butter in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan and set over medium heat. Let the butter melt completely. It will begin bubbling. Let the butter simmer away, cooking off its water, until it begins to smell nutty and brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Swirl the pan every 30 seconds or so. When the butter turns the color of a hazelnut, remove it from the heat. Use a soup spoon to ladle it over the tomatoes. They’ll sizzle! You want to dress the tomatoes with the butter, as if you were pouring ganache over a cake—be generous!

Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper, then rush the plates to the table so everyone can taste the tomatoes while the butter is hot. Mop up the butter and tomato juices with good bread. Toast to summer!

Serves 4

River House Getaway

We recently rented an amazing house on Flipkey for a weekend out on the Russian River in Sonoma County, near where I grew up, and where a lot of my family still lives. All the rooms in the house had stunning water views, but the deck really made this place something special, with river vistas in both directions.

If you’re planning a trip to the wine country, this is a fun spot to visit. The weather is still warm into the Fall in this area- I have fond memories of my mom picking us up from school early on in the school year and heading out to the river for a swim before going home.

There was also a little dock on the water, right below the house, which was fun for afternoon swims and happy hour.

The house was very close to downtown Guerneville, which is a cute, funky little town (and much more wine-country-posh now than when I was growing up!). We had a great lunch at Boon and popped into several other places on the main strip. For picking up snacks to take to the river, I’d suggest Big Bottom Market or for killer deli sandwiches, try Berry’s Market. It’s always fun to rent canoes at Burke’s, and at the end of the day, go wine tasting at Korbel, or for a beer at Stumptown Brewery.

We were celebrating my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary and so we had a dinner one night on the deck and invited some relatives to join. Jonathan BBQed outside and we made a big summery buffet spread. With cocktails (or mocktails for me- this was before baby Ezra arrived!), we served Pesto & Onion Crostini and Strawberry Caprese Bites. On the dinner menu was BBQ chicken kebabs on a bed of arugula, Nectarine Tomato Salad, Farro Salad, and couple other dishes from my cookbook.

Cheers to late summer swims and cocktail hour on the water!

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This post was done in partnership with Flipkey, a vacation home rental website. I had a great experience renting with them and would do it again. All opinions here are my own.

Watermelon Tomato Salad

Hope everyone had a fun Labor Day weekend! Guess what- we had a baby boy! Little Ezra has arrived and we couldn’t be more excited, grateful, happy or in awe! Now we are a forest family.

As we enjoy these last days of summer, I thought I’d share a recipe that I did for the current issue of Remedy Quarterly, a fantastic foodie magazine that everyone should know about.

Enjoy!

Vegan Zucchini Almond Bread

We have so much zucchini coming out of our garden right now that I have started baking zucchini bread to freeze for when our baby comes (today is my due date!). I found this amazing recipe for vegan zucchini bread from Joy the Baker, and it’s so moist you’d never know it was dairy free. Joy’s version is “almost vegan”- she makes hers with buttermilk, but I have substituted Almond Breeze Almond Milk and it works beautifully!

This isn’t a super sweet bread, so to make it feel more like a dessert I made a simple almond glaze of almond milk, vanilla and powdered sugar (you could add almond extract to make it taste more nutty).

Happy Baking!

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VEGAN ZUCCHINI ALMOND BREAD

adapted from Joy the Baker's Almost Vegan Zucchini Bread

makes one 8×4 or 9×5-inch loaf

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

½ cup  Almond Breeze Almond Milk

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup granulated sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 cups shredded zucchini 

¾ cup thinly sliced almonds plus a bit more for the top of each loaf

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour an 8×4-inch or 9×5-inch loaf pan.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together Almond Milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and sugars.  Shred the zucchini using a grater and squeeze it over a strainer to release some of the liquid. Whisk thoroughly, then add the shredded zucchini and almonds.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together with a spatula.  Make sure all of the flour is thoroughly incorporated into the batter.  Spoon batter into prepared pan, sprinkle the top with sliced almonds and place in the oven.  Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Bread will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 5 days.

Optional: Drizzle warm slices with Almond Glaze before serving. For the glaze, simply stir in a bowl: ½ c powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon Almond Breeze Almond Milk, and ¼ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract.

This post was done in partnership with Almond Breeze but opinions are completely my own. For this recipe I used the unsweetened original flavor Almond Breeze Almond Milk.