Hello Fall

Can you believe i took this with my phone?

I have been making this all summer when I can't stand to be in the kitchen longer than ten minutes.  Now that apples are more in season I'll let you in on my secret: cooked endive. I like to make this when I want to eat something good and don't want to have to stay in the kitchen while it cooks. 

The first time I had this, I think it knocked my socks off. I had never had a cooked endive and now I don't know what took me so long. Endives are incredibly bitter, but super sweet apples and grapes really make this gorgeous. That's all it is! Endives, apples, and grapes. You'll figure out a ratio of sweet to bitter that works for you. I like more grapes than apples with mine. 

Here's how it works: 

(from Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table)

cut an endive in half like a hot dog

do the same with one apple, then quarter it. cut off a strip of skin from the backside; you just want to expose more of the apple to the pan to get a little more liquid out of it. You will only use 1/2 of the apple (see the picture)

rinse a handful or two of grapes.

Add two sprigs of rosemary if you have them. It will smell amazing, but I don't usually have it. 

Turn a pan on medium and melt a tablespoon of butter. Add everything to the pan and reduce the heat to low. Let cook for 30 minutes or until softened, turning halfway through. Seriously, that's it. I let this serve me  as one small meal. To serve more, use double the stuff. You'll figure it out, I promise. 

Summer Fail

The past few weeks have been nuts.  First I moved. Then the earth moved. Then there was a hurricane. Then I had no power for five days. The entire summer has gone that way: things interrupted, fits and starts, eating like a little bird. I think I had hummus and veggies for at least 6 meals last week.

Being without power wasn't that bad because I was gone for the first two days of it. Imagine how surprised I was when at 1am, I got home to an apartment building whose front doors were unlocked. I was certain I was going to be attacked before I could gouge my perpetrator's eyes out like The Boyfriend so enthusiastically taught me. Obviously, I was safe in my locked studio. Then it hit me: no power means the freezer isn't working. Four pints of ice cream, gone (Talenti gelato: new obsession). Even worse, the Italian meringue frosting I made (and put on a phenomenal cake from this cookbook, with lemon curd), gone. Leftover lemon curd I was hoping to put on cookies? Also gone.

This is kind of breaking my heart all over again. I ate bread and peanut butter for two days straight. It's too soon to talk about. 

Hot milk cake with lemon curd and italian meringue frosting

So while I have power and my own kitchen again and hope to resume baking activities soon, maybe someday I will also have The Internet and it will not require walking uphill both ways in two feet of snow or through a hurricane to tell you about my adventures. 

How To Have Brunch

What are you doing this weekend? Having me over for brunch, I hope. Get out your champagne mugs glasses!

Brunch is an institution: a special time where drinking in the daytime is not only appropriate, it is encouraged. I adhere to very strict Brunch Club Rules.

1. At least one food item on the table must be made up of at least 50% eggs. 
2. One food item must be 100% bacon.
3. Each beverage consumed must be made up of at least 50% champagne (or other appropriately bubbled alcoholic intoxicant). This is my new favorite method of making a mimosa. You're welcome.

You should put some fruit on the table. It feels healthier this way. Coffee also helps. So does dining Al Fresco, if possible. Al Fresco is not that weird guy who lives around the corner from you; it is a fancy way of saying outdoors. Eating is one of the only outdoor activities I truly enjoy. To reiterate, the bubbly alcohol helps me enjoy outdoor activities. So does the bacon.