Fall Leaves at Darby Creek Metropark

Wow. The last few times I posted, I was in denial about Summer ending. Two months later and we’re quickly approaching Christmas. So where have I been? The short answer is working long hours, starting to train for a triathlon, planning a major vacation (This winter, we’re going a culinary tour of Oaxaca, Mexico!) and enjoying lots of good food and good times with family and friends. I’ve been so busy living life that I haven’t had time to blog about it. And now there are so many things I’d like to write about that I’m not sure where to pick back up. So I’m starting with a recap of the last few months.

A Fall day at Darby Creek

September:

• After all of the bridal shower festivities, my sister Ashley married her fiance Justin in a beautiful outdoor ceremony.


The happy Bride & Groom

• Jared and I did a lot of hiking at the Metroparks, biking on the Olentangy River Trail and brunching. All that exercise works up an appetite, right? To me, food and exercise go hand in hand. Aside from the obvious benefits, regular exercise lets me enjoy good food without gaining weight or sacrificing my overall health.


Our trusty old Schwinns at Scioto Audobon Metropark

• I went on a 9 day business trip to West Virginia. It was tiring, but I am grateful that I got to go. I was there to help train and organize another office. But I also learned a lot that I could bring back to my own office here in Columbus.


Sunset over the mountains of WV

• Of course, I also tried several new recipes. My favorite was a Vegetarian Lasagne that took 3 hours and 2 sauces (Tomato & Béchamel) to create. It tasted incredible but got a little overcooked on the top; so it didn’t look very pretty in pictures. I plan to make it again, very soon, and post the recipe.


Lasagna sauces simmering on my stovetop

October

• Jared and I attended Taste of Grandview Heights. This was our first “Taste of”. From what I understand, it is much more casual than most of these events. While we enjoyed trying new foods, one of our favorite things about this event was how the staff of restaurants we frequent recognized and chatted with us. Specifically, I’m thinking of Mazah Mediterranean Eatery, home of the best Falafel and some of the prettiest food around. We were also happy to see Old Bag of Nails Grandview, which we refer to as our Cheers bar and which we love for its laid-back atmosphere and friendly bartenders. Local businesses: make your customers feel special & we’ll stay loyal.


Somehow, the only pic I have of downtown Grandview is an old cameraphone pic from last winter

• I made these Apple Cider Doughnuts. I’m not posting the recipe because, for once, I followed it exactly. These doughnuts were perfect – soft and airy on the inside, sweet and crispy on the outside. They are a lot of work, but well worth it.


The best doughnuts ever

• Before venturing out to Highball Halloween (which I highly recommend if you haven’t been), I hosted a Halloween party complete with Halloween-themed food and drinks. Among other things, I made a Graveyard 7-Layer Dip and a Zombie Bride Cake (with from-scratch Devil’s Food, of course). Jared invented a Candy Apple Cocktail, my sister made a Bugs & Dirt Cake, and several of my guests brought goodies including Sangria and Halloween-sprinkled Chocolate-Covered Pretzels. While Christmas is my favorite food holiday, Halloween is a close second. Halloween food is fun. There aren’t really any expectations; so you can get really creative and kitschy. And while Christmas is a family holiday, Halloween is a great time for friends to get together, eat ridiculous amounts of sweets and enjoy one anothers’ company.


Zombie Bride Cake



Fun Halloween Food

November

• November brought Dine Originals Columbus Week. This is another event that I hadn’t attended in the past. My friends and I opted for a meal at Skillet. The food was creative and excellent, as always. My only complaint is that I don’t think Pumpkin Polenta was worth the $30 price. Another friend and I agreed that the $20 prix fixe is probably more fitting for such a casual restaurant. That being said, I’ll definitely be returning to Skillet very soon.


Skillet's Dining Room

• In other Columbus food news, Jared and I finally had a chance to try the lunch special at Venky’s Spice House. For $5.99 (I believe), you get an appetizer, two curries, daal, naan, rice and dessert. Venky’s is one of our favorite Indian restaurants. Their food is more flavorful than several other area Indian restaurants, and their prices are great. We were excited about this lunch special because we could try things we’d never had before. And the portions were so generous that we had enough for dinner that night.


When my curry grows up, it wants to be like the curry at Venky's

• Since Jared and I like to try new, local restaurants, I am a loyal follower of Fudha. If you haven’t heard of it, Fudha offers half-price gift certificates for local restaurants. They donate $1 of the cost of each Fudha to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. This is a great way to try new places, or save some money at trusty favorites. The first time we went to Skillet, it was actually with a $20 gift certificate that had cost $10 through Fudha. When Venky’s offered one, I snapped it right up.


When I used my Fudha at Skillet, I meant to review my tasty meal. Obviously, I never got around to it.

• Of course, when November rolls around, so does The Food Holiday – Thanksgiving. We get together with our loved ones and give thanks for all of life’s blessings, then eat copious amounts of food. Due to my work schedule, I wasn’t able to go home to celebrate with my family. This was the first time Jared and I celebrated Thanksgiving alone together. It was a bittersweet day for me since I really missed everyone. But I did enjoy the chance to make my own, slightly nontraditional Thanksgiving meal, which I will be posting sometime this week.


Making Thanksgiving Dinner

Every day, I’m reminded of how thankful I am that Jared and I moved from a small town in Michigan to Columbus. We are both Ohio natives, from the Cleveland area. But being away from your home state for several years has a way of making you appreciate it. I don’t know that we’ll be here forever because I hate winter with a passion. But for now, we’re really enjoying our life in a new city and learning about all that it has to offer.

Downtown Columbus, seen from the Olentangy Trail

It’s practically a law that Thanksgiving desserts involve pumpkin. I believe that they should also involve chocolate, and that the combination of pumpkin and chocolate isn’t given nearly enough respect. In my family, my grandma, aka Honey, cooks most of the Thanksgiving feast. Several of the ladies in my family provide desserts. I had planned to make a chocolate pumpkin pie. Then I found a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at A Tasteful Garden. These are the most wonderfully moist, cakelike cookies you will ever taste. Because they weren’t decadent enough on their own, I decided to sandwich two cookies together and add cream cheese frosting to the center.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies
Makes approx. 2 dozen mini pies

Cookie Ingredients
2 cups. fresh roasted pumpkin
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
a dash of cinnamon & nutmeg

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugars, egg and oil.
3. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Dissolve baking soda in milk and add to the mixture. Add this mixture to the pumpkin and combine well. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.
4. Drop onto a greased cookie sheet by half teaspoons and bake until lightly browned, about 9 minutes.
5. While cookies are cooling, combine frosting ingredients using a stand mixer.
6. Make whoopie pies by spreading frosting on the flat side of half of the cookies. Top with another cookie and press together lightly.

My thoughts:
1. This cookie dough spreads a lot. Be sure to leave ample space between cookies on the cookie sheet. The first time I made these, they were too big. I backed off on the size the second time I made them, and christened them mini whoopie pies.
2. Normally, cream cheese frosting calls for 2 cups of powdered sugar. The cookies are so rich that it would be overwhelming if the frosting was that sweet.

Recipe Source: A Tasteful Garden

From L-R: My mom, me and my sister getting cozy & chopping apples

Before I did this last year, I did a bit of research. A lot of people recommended using slow cookers since they are perfect for cooking at low heat for a very long time. As for the recipe itself, it’s definitely not set in stone. We used about a bushel of apples, half a jar of cinnamon, and four slow cookers. My best advice is to use a variety of apples, taste as you go, and adjust the sugar and seasonings to your personal preferences.


Apple Butter
Makes approximately 30, 8 ounce jars

Ingredients
1 bushel of apples
3 c. white sugar
2 c. brown sugar
8 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. salt
4 teaspoons nutmeg

1. Peel and core the apples. Chop them finely and divide them evenly among slow cookers.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine white and brown sugars, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Pour some of the mixture over each pot full of apples.
3. Cover and cook on high for 1.5 hours.
4. Reduce heat and cook for an additional 12 hours, stirring occasionally. Apple butter will thicken and turn a dark reddish-brown.
5. Blend apple butter with an immersion blender to smooth.
6. Distribute into canning jars and process in bath of boiling water. The USDA has a good canning tutorial, which can be found here. They do a better job of explaining the process than I ever could.
7. Enjoy! Or, if you’re feeling generous, give to family members and friends as a holiday gift.

• We usually think of pumpkin as a sweet food that goes best with cinnamon and nutmeg. With this soup recipe, The Kitchn shows that it also goes well with bacon. Then again, what doesn’t?
• Right now, the grocery stores and farm markets are full of squash. Taste of Home‘s website has a quick guide to the more common varieties currently available, along with some ideas for what to do with them.
• Who’d think to grill apples? Certainly not me, until I came across this Grilled Apple and Chicken Salad recipe on Serious Eats. It will be on next week’s dinner menu.
• I’m not such a fan of candy corn. But this Candy Corn Cordial from Food Network is so pretty that it has me tempted to infuse some vodka with candy corn anyway.
• Finally, I’ve decided that my utensil drawer is in dire need of these lightsaber chopsticks.

Fall is here, meaning it’s time for apples and pumpkins. While those fruits lend themselves well to pies and cakes, sometimes I want something a little healthier. Last fall, I discovered this pumpkin muffin recipe from Kristen at Cheap, Healthy, Good. These muffins are high in fiber, low in calories and fat and taste good. Yes, it is possible!

Pumpkin Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping
Makes 12

Muffin Ingredients
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup mashed pumpkin
1 cup skim milk
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Topping Ingredients
8 pecan halves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon butter

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine flour, oat bran, brown sugar, and baking powder.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the pecan halves, butter, and remaining brown sugar and whole wheat flour. Mash with fork until crumbly.
5. Grease muffin tin or line with 12 paper liners. Fill each liner 3/4 full with batter. Sprinkle topping evenly on muffins. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

My thoughts & modifications:
1. I added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans to the batter and made a little extra streusel topping.
2. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, just combine cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. I actually prefer this since I can adjust the seasonings to suit my taste.
3. Do yourself a favor and use fresh pumpkins. They taste much better than canned. There are several ways to prepare them, all of which are quite easy. I wash mine, halve them and scoop out the seeds. Then I spray them with cooking spray and microwave them for 7-9 minutes. Let cool, scoop out the pulp and use it like you would canned. If you have leftover, pumpkin pulp freezes very well.

Recipe Source: Serious Eats