PINK! (beet carrot apple radish salad with orange dressing)

This is a perfect Valentine's salad. :) It's very simple, but sometimes in the winter you just need some color on your plate and some raw veggies. I grated 2 carrots, 1 beautiful chioggia beet (the candy-striped kind), 1 radish, and 1 apple. I added a simple dressing of the juice of 2 clementines plus some olive oil. 

This is great served on top of an open-faced sandwich, either with plain cream cheese, or some of the butternut squash spread I made earlier this week. 

lime cardamom applesauce in the slow cooker

My friend Nina inspired me to make applesauce in the slow cooker, which is super easy. We just got a bunch of apples from our farm share and I wanted to try some new variation. (Mid-winter apples are not the best...starting to get a bit mealy.) This variation, with cardamom and lime, was tangy and delicious.

ingredients:
4 apples
3 cardamom pods
1 piece star anis (or cinnamon)
juice of 1 lime
optional: sweeten with a bit of maple syrup

peel apples and add to slow cooker with juice of 1 lime, 1/2 cup water, 3 cardamom pods and 1 piece star anis. Cook on High about 2 hours, or until apples are soft. Remove cardamom pods and anis, then mash with a potato masher until desired consistency. (Or blend in blender if you want it really smooth.)

morning glory muffins (Karotten-Apfel-Kokos Muffins)

Yesterday, by surprise, my sister Anna came by for the evening. And then as an extra surprise stayed the night and had breakfast with us before going back to work. I made a batch of morning glory muffins - chock full of carrots, apple, currant goodness. 

1/2 cup currants (or raisins)
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (or half white/half wheat)
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

pinch of cloves and nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peeled and grated carrots ( about 2 large carrots)
1 large green apple, peeled, and grated
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
1/3 cup quinoa
3 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup orange juice

garnish: toasted sesame seeds (or sunflower seeds)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

2. In a small bowl, cover the currants (or raisins) with hot water, and set them aside to soak. (I used a small glass liquid measure to measure out 1/3 cup, then poured hot water over them.)

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt.

4. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, quinoa.

5. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, yogurt, vanilla, and orange juice. (I did this step in a 2-cup glass pyrex measure - then you can measure out the first ingredient(s) without dirtying some extra measuring cups.) Whisk with a fork. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened. Try not to stir more than you need to!

6. Drain the raisins and stir them in.

7. Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan. I couldn't fit all the batter, but I think my mom has a shallow muffin tin. 

8. Bake the muffins for 25 to 28 minutes, until they're nicely domed and browning. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan.

adapted from King Arthur Flour recipe for Morning Glory Muffins

brussels sprouts, asparagus with apple and pecans

I know this seems like a bit of a fall recipe, but I was kinda craving brussels sprouts when browsing through the produce at the store. I remembered a combination with apples I had seen on 101 cookbooks, and then just threw in some other tastes and textures: cheddar and pecans. And I had some fresh asparagus spears so I added some of them, too.

This isn't really a recipe... some directions: saute the apples first (I used 1/2 apple) with some butter or oil, and a pinch of salt, then remove them and do the brussels sprouts (trimmed, quartered). Add a clove or two of garlic, some salt and pepper. Add the asparagus if you are using it (3-4 spears, sliced thin). Add the pecans, stir everything around and let it cook. Throw the apples back in. If you want it a little sweeter, drizzle with a little maple syrup. Top with a little shredded sharp cheddar cheese and salt and pepper.

inspired by 101 cookbooks Shredded Brussels Sprouts & Apples

Apfelkuchen mit Mandeldecke - German apple cake with caramelized almond topping

This one is another total winner German cake recipe. I've already posted a rhubarb Kuchen and a Mohnkuchen - poppy seed cake. It was time for a good Apfelkuchen. It's not fall, but really, apple cake is good year round, right? I also figured out a way to make it go quickly cutting the apples on my mandoline. You will probably not believe me that this took 30 minutes, but it is really fast and easy.  This would also be good for Thanksgiving as an alternative to the more traditional apple pie.

Also, I noticed that my posts on German cakes get about 5 times as many views from the internet than my other posts. :) So it seems there is a demand for German recipes in English. Not sure. But I'm taking requests if any silent blog viewers out there have any suggestions...

root vegetable ragout with tarragon wild rice "pancake" topping

Tonight's Saturday day night dinner was a delicious, veggie-packed feast. We got a big new load of vegetables from the CSA on Friday, including parsnips, and flipping through cookbooks (a weekend hobby...) I saw this tasty-sounding recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers. This helped us clean out the odds-n-ends of the vegetable drawer (some beets, carrots, parsnips). Jessica and I cooked together, which helped cut down the somewhat long prep time. But it is worth it. It makes a lasagne-pan size casserole of root vegetables, topped with a tasty wild rice "pancake" topping. It was a nice, fitting comfort-food for this unseasonable April weather (blgh).

Deborah Madison points out you could also make wild rice "crepes" and serve the ragout filling inside. I love any form of pancakes...but this makes the cooking time less hands-on than making individual pancakes.

Like all brown food, it didn't photograph super well, but I just have to convince you of the deliciousness: crunchy wild-rice tarragon topping...bright pink root vegetables and cabbage with a goat cheese sauce underneath. Yum.

raw beet slaw with fennel, tart apple, and parsley

Here's another one from Diane Morgan's Roots: The Definitive Compendium. Fun beet facts: the beet was probably consumed "in some form" in prehistoric times. It was first grown for the leaves, and the Romans first cultivated it for the root. It wasn't grown in the US until the 19th century. And funny, as I was making this I was listening to NPR and heard Diane Morgan talking about carrot top pesto from her book!

How to store beets: You should store the greens separately, wrapped in paper towels and in a plastic bag, and not wash the beetroots for storage. (I like all these storage tips since we get vegetables biweekly - especially lots of winter storage veggies.)

dressing: olive oil / lemon juice / orange zest / honey or maple syrup / salt and pepper
slaw: 
1 medium red beet, matchsticks (or grated on box grater)
1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed, halved cored, matchsticks
1/2 crisp granny smith, matchsticks (or grated)
1/2 cup parsley and some of the fennel fronds

Combine the chopped ingredients with the dressing.  You can also grate the beet and apple on a box grater. It goes really quickly, and adds a bit more of the apple juice to the salad. This is also good mixed with salad greens.

roommate dinner: quinoa stuffed squash and apple-celeriac salad

Jessica and I were both finally home on a Friday night, so we cooked and caught up on our Top Chef episodes (We love Sheldon! And we want to cook for the Iditarod mushers! That was the coolest challenge ever!). This was a recipe on our to-cook list for a while, plus a recipe to use up more CSA ingredients. The two recipes actually paired really well together, both using green apples. One hot and one raw dish. Even after a great dinner, watching Top Chef still made me hungry...especially for some seafood! (this episode took place in Alaska, and they had a salmon/sourdough challenge!) I wish I had access to my dad's freezer full of wild salmon...

winter slaw with creamy yoghurt-poppy seed dressing

  It's snowing big, thick snowflakes today in Ann Arbor. Still makes me want to just eat soup and not leave the house, but this morning Katie and I put on our boots and walked to the farmer's market to support the year-round sellers. I have to admit it was pretty slim pickings (at least by the time we got there...after getting side-tracked by TeaHaus...). I just got eggs, radish, and a pie pumpkin. (Still have a drawer full of CSA  veggies, too.) It's pretty amazing that Ann Arbor does have a year-round market. Such a great food city! We ended up going from the market to the co-op to Plum, one of Ann Arbor's many superfancy grocery stores. Splurge trip. (But since most all my grocery shopping is done by foot/bike, it's sometimes necessary to have a little stock-up trip!) Anyways, this recipe has been on my "to-make" list for a while. To get some raw veggies and to use some of the seasonal stuff we have on hand. It does involve a lot of chopping/cutting, but it makes a good, big portion. The poppyseed dressing is really good, too.