Pumpkin Apple Butter

You don’t have to tell me I’m low on blogging mojo. I feel its absence acutely. It should bother me, but to be honest, the only thing bothering me right now is the overabundance of Peanut Butter Puffins in my belly. If you thought it wasn’t possible to OD on Puffins, I am here to tell you that you are WRONG.

Mostly, I’m content to lurk read your blog, but it does feel like it’s been a while since I made an actual food contribution to my own food blog.

As a little holiday giftie for my coworkers, I made pumpkin apple butter and gave it to them in tiny jars. Earlier this week, one of said coworkers returned her tiny jar to me, empty and clean.

Me: “Oh, you don’t have to give the jar back to me—it was a gift!”

Her: “I’m not returning it to you. I want a refill.”

I will go ahead and assume she liked it.

I will also take that as a sign that I’m about two months late in posting the recipe, but then again, some would say it’s never too early to get a jump on holiday gifts! If you are so industrious, you could probably go ahead and make this now and freeze it in its gift jars. If you do that, email me your address so that I can come high-five you.

Pumpkin Apple Butter
(adapted from Brittney’s Healthy Homemade Apple Butter)

Ingredients:

• 10 medium apples (such as gala), cored and chopped
• 2 cups apple juice (I juiced mine fresh, but store-bought is fine)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 1 14.5 oz can pumpkin
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp pure maple syrup (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Prepare slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray and place chopped apples inside.
2. Add juice through salt, cover and cook 15 hours on low.
3. At the end of the cooking time, the mixture will have darkened and become very fragrant. Get used to this fragrance—it’ll be around a while! Turn off the crockpot and let everything cool for 30 minutes or so.
4. Add pumpkin and maple syrup and use an immersion blender to blend everything smooth. Alternatively, transfer to a blender or food processor to blend smooth.
5. Once cool, store in glass jars, size of your choice, and give it away! Or hoard it for yourself—I wouldn’t blame you.

I found tiny holiday-themed gift bags to fit the tiny apple butter jars, and that was as much gift wrapping as I did. It doesn’t get much simpler than that! I’m not big on effort elaborate gift wrapping, and we don’t really exchange gifts in my office, for that matter, so a small, low-cost gesture was as much as I felt the need to share this last year.

I’ll now walk away from this blog post with my tail between my legs for it being so un-seasonal and late. I could have shared my reviews of a couple new brands of chocolate I happened to try at Valentine’s Day, but in keeping with my general malaise where blogging is concerned, I’ll put it off for a while.

I am nothing if not consistent.

Do you like to give edible gifts? What kind of food do you think makes the best gift?

Illuminations

Turns out Gena’s mom is an amazing artist. I had a peek at her collection, “Illuminations,” tonight at the First Street Gallery. I would encourage any New Yorkers to go enjoy a look at her work, on display until May 22.

Looking at those paintings of trees and considering the title of the show, I had a good think on the word “illuminations” and decided I’ve had a few of my own, so to speak.

Things are in flux for me right now, and I’m a little overwhelmed. That accounts for my lackluster presence in blogland lately. This is not to say I’m on a downward spiral—quite the opposite, in fact.

For one thing, the Boyf no longer earns his nickname; we ended our 2.5-year relationship about two months ago. It hasn’t been a cakewalk, but I think I might actually feel a little lighter now that it’s behind me.

At the other end of the spectrum, my roommate, who is like a sister to me, is about to have her wedding. Though it’s bittersweet to move on from our comfy roomie-ness, the joy I feel for her is incredible.

In the midst of it all, I started seeing a counselor in order to gain some intense unbiased, third-party perspective on all the thoughts and feelings that have converged on me recently (and not so recently…). I know I’m being pretty vague, but as a generally private person, I’ve already divulged 100% more than I’m used to revealing here. One thing I’ve taken from my sessions with the counselor, however, is that I need to be writing. A lot. So please be witness to me acting upon that advice.

My cooking has obviously fallen by the wayside in the meantime. The part of my brain used for conjuring new recipes is otherwise occupied, so when I do cook, I “get by with a little help from my friends,” if you know what I mean.

Thank you to Gina for her Slow Cooker Eggplant Curry recipe—I added mushrooms, green beans and an extra hit of curry powder. It was a mountain of veg with but a molehill of whole wheat naan bites, and it has fed me lunch all week.

My naan stash also made it into an Ethiopian meal, courtesy of the upcoming Happy Herbivore cookbook (you know it’s available for pre-order on Amazon already, right?). Turns out I didn’t have any injera bread on hand (go figure), so naan stepped in as a pinch hitter for this meal.

I’d never had Ethiopian food, let alone made it myself, so I think I loved this Yater Kik Alitcha recipe all the more so for it. It’s a deliciously spiced yellow split pea dish (the green beans were my own addition, as they are to pretty much everything else I eat, actually…) and you really need to plan on getting the Happy Herbivore cookbook ASAP so you can taste it too.

Speaking of peas, I also tried Lisa’s raw pea soup this week. Mine wasn’t raw because I nuked some frozen peas briefly to start the recipe off, but I’ve been eating microwaved peas since time immemorial so that taste holds some comfort for me. Loved this combination of peas and avocado!

With a little massaged kale salad and sesame ginger drizzle, it was a super-filling meal and super-green too, so I know my innards are happy with me.

Oh, and don’t forget the juicer pulp crackers for dipping—that was the best part!

Clearly, I have a number of bloggers to thank for keeping my meals healthy and interesting when food inspiration isn’t at the fore of my daily energy expenditure. It’s a good thing, too—I’ve had a little too much birthday mentality where sweets are concerned for, say…the last four months.

The good news is that my resilience hasn’t deserted me. Not for a minute, actually, and I have that to be proud of. In fact, the first third of 2010 has brought me all good things, come to think of it. Though I’m short on new recipes in the kitchen, dealing with my challenges this year has been a recipe for success, both personally and professionally. My value at the office is greater than ever, and my personal relationships have brought me to a new level of maturity and independence (remember when I signed the lease for my first studio apartment on Monday? That was awesome.).

For the first time in a while, it’s what I can do, rather than what I can’t do, that is illuminated. I just need to get out of my own way.

Mole-cular Health

When I was very young, long before I developed my love for vegetables, I’m sure I stared down many a plate of salad, thinking, when I grow up I’ll eat chocolate for dinner.

And tonight I did it.

Ok, so there might have been just a few vegetables involved too. You know me. Whatever the ingredients, this recipe for Vegetarian Winter Mole more than made up for last night’s parsnip incident! Holy mole! (Cheap pun. I’m keeping it.)

When I first saw this recipe, I was excited at the thought of combining such healthy and flavorful ingredients into a dish unlike any that I’ve attempted before (my prior mole experiences have been limited to restaurant dining), but I was admittedly a bit turned off at how long and involved the procedure was. So I took a risk and adapted the recipe for my slow cooker (crockpot). I’m so happy to report that the result is beyond fabulous, the bonus being that I barely lifted a finger to put my dinner on a plate tonight!

Here is my adapted recipe for Michelle’s Vegetarian Winter Mole. See her recipe if you don’t have a crockpot—you don’t want to miss out on this one!

Slow Cooker Winter Mole

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups black beans (or 1 can beans of your choice)
• 1/2 large unpeeled delicata squash (or other winter squash), seeded and chopped – about 3 cups
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2/3 cup chopped onions
• 5 chili peppers (red and/or green), seeded and chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 28oz can + 1 14.5oz can no-salt-added diced tomatoes*
• 4 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 3 cups water
• 3 oz raw almonds, ground (or buy almond meal/flour)
• 4 oz 60% dark chocolate
• 1 bunch lacinato kale (see photo below), sliced into ribbons

*I have been making an effort to avoid canned goods lately, but the amount of tomatoes called for in this recipe (along with the liquid needed for the crockpot) would have meant gratuitous time and money involved in the prep. Try to find Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes—their cans are lead-free and enamel lined.

Directions:

1. Coat the inside of your crockpot with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine all ingredients in the pot except for almonds, chocolate and kale.
3. Cover and cook on low setting about 8 hours.
4. Remove lid. About 15 minutes before serving, add almonds, chocolate and kale. Stir to incorporate and leave lid off so some liquid evaporates.
5. Spoon over red quinoa or grain of your choice.

Serves 6

To make this super-easy, I spent maybe 15 minutes prepping the ingredients in the crock last night and put it in the fridge. When I left for work this morning, I put the crock in its pot and turned it on to cook while I was gone. There’s no meat or anything in this recipe that could really get overdone to the point of ruin, but starting it cooking from cold bought me a little extra time since I knew I couldn’t be back before 5:30pm.

When I got home, I checked on the pot to make sure no dinner disaster had occurred while I was gone. Finding it safely bubbling away, I left it as it was until I’d puttered a bit and was ready to eat. I put some quinoa on the stove to cook (which takes about 15 minutes), at which point I removed the crockpot’s lid and added the almonds, chocolate and sliced kale. I stirred every couple minutes to make sure the chocolate was melting evenly and that the kale was wilting.

And in honor of Vegan MoFo, my adaptation is indeed vegan—just be careful about which chocolate brand you use! I had Ghiradelli on hand as a gift from the roomie (girlfriend knows me too well), which is not vegan but also not a deal-breaker for me as a non-vegan. Just be aware that you might want to look for a chocolate even darker than 60% cacao, which would be less likely to contain milk products.

In my perfect world, it doesn’t get much better than chocolate for dinner! What’s on the menu in your personal heaven?