More Apple Picking and Doughnuts!

Today, I was invited to my friends official Fall party get-together. Me and Ed missed out on the morning Pumpkin Pancake breakfast but we tagged along to go apple-picking at Outhouse Orchards! Of course I did not pick any apples because I still have so many apples left from last weekend!

The drive up to North Salem was quite nice. The leaves are finally turning colors. However, it was like so warm today which threw me off!

Before getting to Outhouse Orchard, I requested a quick pit stop at Salinger's Orchard. This is because I heard from a little birdie that their apple cider doughnuts are the shizzzzzzzzzz....


And how were they?

1. Piping hot!!! So fresh! The doughnut machines were pumpin' those babies out!


2. Perfect. They were so light and fluffy... the doughnuts at the Orchards of Concklin were much more dense compared to these!

After our incredible doughnut stop, we were stuck in massive traffic to get to Outhouse Orchard but we got there!


It was PACKED! I dunno if it was a special Fall Festival day but they had goats, games, and food stands!

Here are some fun pics of the crew:

Ed's almost 6 feet!

I am disgruntled by the fact that I barely reached the 5 foot mark!

Eric's shirt matches the pumpkins!

Me and my girlie Double D!

Having issues posing for the pic...

No, Steven! It's not gonna taste like Pumpkin Cheesecake!

The apple trees! I must say, the apples weren't great, the trees were very disorganized, and there were too many people! For serious apple picking, go to Orchards of Concklin!


All in all, today was a wonderful day filled with Smiles, Sugar, and Sunshine!

Salingers Orchard
230 Guinea Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Phone: 845-277-3521

Outhouse Orchards
130 Hardscrabble Road
North Salem, NY 10560
Phone: 914-277-3188

An Abundance of Apples

What do you do with so many apples after you have a beautiful day of apple picking?!


I personally spend hours and hours on Epicurious, Allrecipes, Food Network, Chowhound, Google, etc., looking for recipes and ideas to use up all these apples!

I was in the mood for apple cake because it just felt a little too early for apple pie. So I was on a mission. I didn't want just any kinda apple cake though. I wanted an apple SPICE cake.

After several hours, over a span of 4 days, I found the winning recipe...
Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting from the King Arthur Flour website.

I would have preferred a crispier apple (such as Granny Smith) but we only were allowed to pick

Macouns
and

Red Delicious

As I finished mixing all the ingredients, I was really nervous because the cake "batter" was really chunky and crumbly like cookie dough... really firm!

See?! But after pressing it down into the baking pan with wet fingers (as it was suggested in the directions) it had more of a cake-like texture. But then it looked like I put in too many apples!

But no worries... after it came out of the oven, it was beautiful. Perfectly puffed and a nice golden brown. Not to mention the most delicious fall spice aroma EVER!!


After the cake cooled down, I released the beast...

The apples had carmelized and the sides were sticky and super moist.

And then came the sexy Brown Sugar Frosting drizzle down the side...

I know you want some!

Well, I got some...

And my verdict? EFFING AWESOME!!! It's so incredibly moist from the apples. There's plenty of spice. The nuts add the perfect amount of crunch. The frosting, I must admit I thought it was going to be too sweet, but it really was the perfect accompaniment to the apples!

The only changes I would make for the next time... USE CRISPIER APPLES! I prefer to have some crunch in baked apple goods.

Note to self: Next time, try a Mascarpone cream based frosting... I think the tangy-ness would go really well with the spicey-sweet apples. Or for a more playful take on this cake, some kind of Peanut Butter frosting? Apples and Peanut Butter... you can't go wrong!

This Makes Me Happy

Finally... I always look forward to this sign being posted in the mail room of my apartment. I love heat <33

Another Babka and Shirataki Noodles

So... I guess I blogged a little prematurely about the Babkas at Lulu's because the next day, they had another variation...

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Did they seriously do this? Cuz it's so effin' delicious!!!

Now for the new ingredient... the Tofu Shirataki Noodles that Hungry-Girl.com has been raving about. You can buy them here!
I've been eating Shirataki noodles forever because it is a staple ingredient in Japanese cooking. However, this Tofu Shirataki in pasta form is very new... and very intriguing! Could this low-calorie noodle really be substituted for regular pasta?

I made a dish tonight using the Tofu Shirataki noodles and my new fresh farm vegetables!


I just sautéed up some onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and portabello mushrooms, seasoned it with salt, pepper, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, and garlic. I then drained the noodles and added them to the vegetables. I topped the "pasta" dish with some gorgonzola cheese...

The verdict: It was REALLY, REALLY good! The noodles were obviously not as al dente as I like my fettucine to be, but it was a good, noodley consistency. Flavor? Very neutral, so you can really use it with anything!

Apple Picking is SO Official

So officially Fall that is! Today, me and Ed went apple picking for the first time this season at The Orchards of Concklin! It was my first time at this apple orchard and I was not disappointed. I had heard a lot about them because of their delicious apple cider doughnuts, so being the doughnut fan that I am, I wanted to check this place out.


As we arrived, we were excited because there was no one there! Probably because it was like 10:30, rainy, and cold! But we were troopers!

Unlike Alstede Farms, which is where I went to go peach picking back in August, the Orchards of Concklin was not a "family-fun" place... it was straight up apple picking, they really meant business. However, they did have a fun market of fresh local vegetables, fruits, bread, jams, candy, freshly baked pies, and of course, fresh apple cider doughnuts!

Today, the apples that were available for picking were Macoun and Red Delicious!


Babe is ready to attack!

I'm a beast when it comes to apple picking!

And after a wet, cold, 30 minutes of picking... I was done!

But not done done... I still had to go to the market for more veggies and DOUGHNUTS!

Sack of 6 Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Cider Doughnuts... They also had plain and powdered sugar ones!

Is that not perfection?

Wait sorry... that's perfection!

Orchards of Concklin
2 South Mountain Road
Pomona, NY 10970
Phone: 845-354-0369
Fax: 845-354-5786

Peanut Butter+Chocolate+Pretzels

Baking=Miki time.
I had a pretty busy week so I promised myself that by the end of the week, I would bake something...

I had a few things in mind. Like I said a few posts ago, the Chocolate Chunkers, Chocolate Malted Whopper Cookies, and Granola Grabbers (all from Dorie Greenspan) were looking really good!

However, I recently bought a new, fun item from Trader Joe's:

I love chocolate covered pretzels, so this being made with dark chocolate was even more tempting!

And they're Miki-size! They are tiny little bite size balls!

I like these little treats by themselves but there was no way that I would eat this whole tub... so I thought, what can I do with them? I immediately thought they would be wonderful baked in some blondies! So I searched some blondie recipes, but another brilliant thought popped into my head... How about Peanut Butter Blondies?!

I came across this recipe from Slow Like Honey for Peanuttiest Blondies! And guess what... it is yet another Dorie Greenspan recipe! I should just get her damn book, Baking: From My Home To Yours!

I followed the recipe exactly except that I substituted the peanuts with my Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels and added a handful of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Baking Chips.

Its amazing what 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon can make your apartment smell like... HEAVEN!


Cooling in the pan, these blondies were a beautiful, golden brown!


This is my piece that I set aside... I have yet to try it! I shall post my thoughts on it later...
what a tease!

Babkas... who knew?!

Who knew I liked babkas SO much!
Until a few weeks ago, babkas never sparked anything in me. Probably because they've always just been dry and icky.

But of course... Lulu's changed my Babka life recently.

The Chocolate and Sour Cherry Babka was the first to sweep me off my feet...

Super moist, super chocolate-y, and look at the crumb topping....

Then, tonight, my heart was stolen by a 13-second microwaved piece of the Cinnamon-White Chocolate Chip Babka...

Its seriously a warm cinnamon bun in Babka form... its too much fun in my mouth!

Just look at that...

and that...

Yes... that's a big ol' cherry!

Oh, and just so you're not shocked in my next post, I got a hair cut! I got bangs!

Ehhh.... who am I kidding. I just wanted to post a picture of myself, HA!