apple crisp

Yesterday one of the designers, out of the goodness of her heart, made up little gluten-free crackers topped with cream cheese, lox, and capers for me for an afternoon snack. I love food, and I love gifts, and it totally made my day.

So this morning at 7am I decided to make a little apple crisp to bring to the office and share, giving my snack buddy the first crack at it. The prep time was literally 5 minutes (I looked at the clock when I put it in the oven: 7:05am) so this is something even a super busy morning can handle. If you have 5 min to prepare it and another 1 min to remove it from the oven when it's done baking, all you really have to worry about it getting your timing right.

I made it with real flour so I wasn't able to test-taste it, but it got rave reviews so I feel pretty good about it. One of my colleagues asked for the recipe, but this is one I just eyeball so I made some guesses on the ratios for official purposes --even though I often use measurements like "pinch" and "dash" I don't write them into recipes because I know that stresses some folks out-- and since I had it all written down in an email, I thought I'd post it here as well for those of you who are looking for recipes that require little effort and yield delicious returns.

Apple Crisp:

Slice apples thinly (this helps cut down on baking time). I use granny smith; if you use other apples, toss the apples in fresh-squeezed lemon juice (1/2 lemon per apple)

Spread apples in your baking pan, making sure each slice has been separated from one another so they cook better. Leave ½ inch of room at the top

Topping (these are just the ratios – you may want to adjust the amount depending on your taste):

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp – or more if you like – apple pie spice (a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice)

Stir dry ingredients together

Cut in with a pastry cutter 1 stick butter until pieces of butter are about pea-sized.

Spread mixture over the apples and shake it down into the apples a little.

Bake at 350 for 30 min to an hour depending on how big of a pan you made. My little 6x8 pan that holds two large granny smith apples, sliced, only needed 30 min.

Another variation: Andrew likes it when I nestle little cubes if Kraft (not the inferior Brach’s) caramel within the apples.

cheers to a great costume this year

This year for Halloween we went to a Mad Men themed birthday party. Everyone dressed in conservative attire from the early 1960s. It was amazing to see what everyone found. Before we headed out, Ani came over to get ready (and her beehive was totally worth the effort). That, my friend, deserves a cocktail!

no will-power

I've been trying to eat better and stay gluten-free. So, of course, today at lunch I needed pizza and nothing else would do. A friend and I raced over to the favorite spot at 4th and Cedar: Bambino's. It was delicious; I knew it would be. But was it worth it? I can't decide.

instead of working...

I made this:

into this:

Ahhhh Seabrook

Over the weekend a group of 17 went back to Seabrook for the first time since the economy tanked. It was my favorite lady's birthday, so how could I say no? We had a great time just lounging about, playing games, eating, drinking, hot-tubbing....

It's hard to describe the experience there, so I pulled two of Abby's pictures from that first morning of our mini-vacation to give you an idea. Yep, it's that good.

Holy Fudging Heck

This week has been the week to end all weeks. I have been simultaneously dreading and looking forward to coming in to work each day this week. We consolidated the library (did you know I'm Marian the Librarian?) and moved it to another floor in our building. I got about a quarter of the space I once had to work with so the plan was to brutally pare down our resources to the bare essentials and have our vendors haul the rest out. I've been dirty, sweaty, and harried since Sunday when I started.

The office goal was to have every employee moved to the new area by today (didn't happen for me), and the old space to be cleared by Oct 1st. I'm going to need all the luck and karma cash-ins I can find for that to work.

I got home last night at 7pm after 2 cocktails and a belly full of sushi and went for an hour-long power walk in my neighborhood. Much needed. By 9pm I was fast asleep, exhausted from what seemed like the longest week ever.

not a food blog

My intention for this blog when I started it was initially to practice my creative writing... then I decided more people in my life would be interested in updates on my diy craft projects. Well, it's been a busy busy summer and all my fun little projects got cast aside temporarily to make room for other things in my life I've been wanting to do like spend more time with Andrew (I know we live together, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to spend an entire Saturday in the same room and pay zero attention to each other), work out more, enjoy the sunshine, and that all good stuff. I haven't sewed in weeks, and worse, my fantastic chairs I started sanding have remained partially sanded and taking up room in my spare bedroom.

It seems the only creative thing I've had time for lately is cooking. Hey - a girl's gotta eat. I'm also conducting an interesting food experiment: going wheat-free. One of my college roommates suggested I try it, and I thought, what the heck? To be honest, I feel a lot better after a month of steering clear of wheat. The reason I know this is I had three bud lights last night at a comedy show. They were delicious, every one. Here's the kicker: I was crazy swollen and felt like garbage this morning... kinda like I used to feel every morning. It was an "ah-ha!" moment, if you will... and I will. Here's what I discovered:

Not pretty, eh?

But beyond that, maybe I should avoid wheat when I can. I've made a lot of delicious meals this past month (I even baked!) and didn't once feel like I was missing out. I do have some "don't be a pain in the a**" rules, though:

1. I promise to never ask the server at a restaurant, "is this gluten-free?" I won't die if I accidentally have wheat and my server is not my personal research assistant.
2. If I am invited to dinner at a friend's I will eat what is served and not say, "oh sorry - I have this thing..."
3. I will not buy gluten-free bread. There is a reason it's hard to find: no one wants to eat it; it wasn't meant to be.

This brings me to the bowl of soup you see pictured above. It's SO DELICIOUS! I took the recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen, and replaced ham with bacon (of course). She suggested to serve it with a salad and bread, but I did cucumbers as a side - cool, crisp, and refreshing - and that was just perfect. The other thing this soup is great for is drizzling on breakfast tacos. Two corn tortillas, a scrabled egg, and a little dab of this soup is my new fave breakfast (RIP english muffin half... you are made of wheat and I will miss you very much). Please try this soup. You'll be glad you did!