Apple Turnovers

I am a HUGE fan of Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa) for her mouthwatering, sophisticated recipes. I have yet to be disappointed in one of her recipes and she continues to make my family's stomachs happy. But I believe that she has outdone herself with her new cookbook Back to Basics. Everything in the cookbook looks so tasty and I am ready to make all the recipes soon!

Last night, I made her Apple Turnovers. OMG! I love this recipe because it uses frozen puff pastry, which is something that I always have on hand. I only made half this recipe since I didn't think that we would eat all eight of them and I figured that these are best served hot. Since the oranges at the grocery store looked sad, I used lemon instead (worked perfectly) and I skipped the dried cherries (since I didn't have any). Make this soon!!!

Apple Dried Cherry Turnovers adapted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook

1 teaspoon grated orange zest (I substituted lemon)
3 tbs freshly squeezed orange juice (again lemon)
1 1/4 lbs tart apples (I used Golden Delicious)
3 tbs dried cherries (I omitted them this time. I am sure dried cranberries would be good too)
3 tbs sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 tbs all-purpose flour
1/4 teas ground cinnamon
1/8 teas ground nutmeg
pinch of kosher salt
1 pkg frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), defrosted
1 egg beaten with a 1 tbs water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine zest and juice in a medium bowl. Peel, quarter and core the apples, then cut into 3/4-inch dice. Immediately toss the apples with zest and juice to prevent them from turning brown. Add the cherries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Flour a board and lightly roll each sheet of puff pastry to a 12 x 12 square. Cut each sheet into 4 (6 x 6 inch) squares and keep chilled until ready to use.

Brush the edges of each square with the egg wash and neatly place about 1/3 cup of the apple mixture on half of the square. Fold the pastry diagonally over the apple mixture and seal by pressing the edges of the pastry with the tines of a fork. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and make 2 small slits in each turnover. Bake for 20 minutes, until puffed and browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I Want You Inside Me Chili and Cheesy Muffins

Cheese Muffin recipe: http://http//thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/figs-cheese-muffins.pdf

I Want You Inside Me Chili: http://noteatingoutinny.com/2008/08/12/777/#more-777

I have been reading this blog from a girl in NYC who has given up eating out (for various reasons). Anyway, she had posted a fabulous looking chili recipe that had NO BEANS (yes!!!) that had won a Brooklyn chili contest. I was in love with the fact that the chili sounded spicy and it had no beans! (Did I tell you that I don't like beans?) I was also happy that it called for stew meat instead of ground beef. If you decide to make this recipe, please don't freak out about the MSG that is in there. It's not going to kill you unless you decided to consume massive quanities at a time. The Asians have been using it for years now and they usually live longer than most Americans...something to think about. Plus MSG is found in a lot of processed foods, so you might have been eating it all along without knowing it! If you do live in Lawrence, I had to buy a pretty big bag of MSG for the recipe and would be more than willing to share!

I had sour cream, blue cheese (Chris' favorite, but I say yuck), cheddar cheese and green onions as toppings like the recipe suggested. Chris loved the blue cheese in it. I don't go near that stuff, so I couldn't tell you how it was. I used the rest of the toppings and loved them. The sour cream really cuts the heat out of the chili. The chili had a good kick to it, but your tongue wasn't on fire. Yet, I am pretty immune to hot stuff, so maybe I am not the right one to be commenting on the heat of the chili.

I figured with chili, I needed some muffins to go along with them. Cheese muffins from Pioneer Woman's blog were the perfect addition to our meal of chili and a salad. A couple of beers and it was a wonderfully tasty dinner. Nathaniel ended up eating three of the muffins with his chili (I love the fact that my kid is eating spicy foods now). I do have a suggestion though. I baked the muffins in muffin papers and they ended up getting stuck on the muffins! Use her method of spraying or buttering the pan! These muffins really need to be served fresh out of the oven--they are good when they have cooled down, but they are amazing warm!

Happy Cooking! Have a great holiday weekend everyone!!!