The reason I have been delinquent in posting for the last 4 months is that I am 4 months pregnant!  After two miscarriages last year, we are so thrilled to share this news. We cannot wait to meet our little guy (or girl!?!) and have our lives forever changed. In the meantime, all those pregnancy hormones have messed with my love for food. All I seem to eat these days is cereal. Life cereal. Raisin Bran. Cheerios. Frosted mini-wheats. I have a whole arsenal of cereals to eat because so far cereal has been the one thing guaranteed to taste good any time of day or night. Everything else has been hit or miss, and new recipes are *never* exciting these days. It’s challenging to blog about the new foods that I’m eating when those new foods are simply a new brand of cereal!

My appetite still isn’t what it was, but I did manage to eat some fish today, so that’s promising! While things are on the up-and-up, I’m back with a tweak on one of my favorite recipes: apple pie. I love making apple pie, but I love even more the idea of a personalized apple pie. Here I take my favorite apple pie recipe and cook it in small pots for individual servings. The best part? Layer the tops with cute cookie cutter shapes to match the seasons!

Once in a while, I bake foods that I know that I won’t like. These lemon bars are among them. I just don’t love lemon enough to eat gobs of it in one dessert. A sprinkle of zest here or a dash of juice there is fine, but almost any food that is centered on lemons will not be on my top 10 list. Or even my top 20. That said, baking foods that I don’t like presents an interesting challenge: how do I judge if they are good? I have extremely high standards, so I wanted to know if these bars were worth blogging about. My friend Joy is a lemon-bar lover famous for her own lemon bar recipe. She says these are great, which means that if you like lemon bars, you’ll love these.

Continue reading: lemon bars

I have a confession to make: I did not make this bread. I had to commission my mom to do it for me. When I was assigned to Kate’s blog I was *super* excited. Kate has tons of amazing looking recipes with beautiful pictures and I immediately selected a few that I wanted to try. My intention was to prepare these recipes for a baby shower that I was hosting this weekend. Then I got *super* sick on Friday morning and ended up in the ER on Saturday for extreme dehydration. The doctors loaded me up on fluids and meds and told me to go home and rest. No baby shower. No cooking. No Food Babbles blog recipe. I was bummed. Not wanting to leave Kate orphaned, I texted my mom and asked her to do the baking honors for me. She agreed and then came over today to drop off this gorgeous Lemon Blueberry Loaf for me to taste and share with you! Three cheers to mom for helping me ensure that my Secret Recipe Club post came together just in time for the big reveal on Monday!

October slipped away so quickly that I completely forgot to share this pie with you! Oops! Here’s the Pie of the Month for November October!

I found this recipe in Nick Malgieri’s Modern Baker book but Nick got the recipe from Maida Heatter. You know recipes are great when they’ve come through TWO famous bakers before they get to your kitchen! My dad ate a slice two days after I baked it and declared the pie a masterpiece. I can’t imagine what he would have said if he had tasted it warm from the oven!

I only made a few modifications to this recipe. First, I added some cornstarch to the apple mixture because I like a thicker filling. I also reduced the sugar, and when making it again I’d reduce it even more. I really like the apple flavors to pop in my pies, and besides…. there’s plenty of sugar in the vanilla ice cream I load on top! I also like my apple pie to have crunchy apples, but I may stand alone in that camp, so while I’d cook the apples less in the future, I won’t include that change in this recipe because I’m sure some of you think I’m strange.

By the way, this pie does use 5 pounds of apples. Five pounds of apples takes a heck of a long time to peel unless you have a peeler and corer. If you do, then you’re in luck because you’ll save yourself an hour of peeling and slicing. Otherwise, get peeling! You’ve got a lot to do!

Also, note that this recipe calls for two kinds of apples. You want the Granny Smiths because they retain their shape and provide a bit of tartness. You want the Golden Delicious (or a similarly softer apple) because they will break down to form a thick, apply sauce. (Apply is a word by the way. I had no idea until I typed it and auto-correct didn’t yell at me to fix it. Who’da thought? Words with Friends, here I come!!!)

Enough chit chat. Let’s bake!

Back to the quinoa again. I made a huge batch the other night and decided I would test recipe after recipe until I found one I liked. I was shocked when I loved these quinoa cakes and then again when I found out that I also loved this salad. This is not much different from my standard winter salad, except that I also add a hefty handful or two of quinoa for some nutritious protein. It can even turn a side salad into a main dish!

But if you really, really, really want a great tasting salad, fry your quinoa. It probably ruins all the nutritious benefits of this grain, but really, who cares? It’s delicious! And it’s still healthy because you’re still eating salad! I was inspired by this when I was making the quinoa cakes and some of the quinoa fell off the patties and into the oil in the pan. It got super crispy and I thought, “Hmmm… I bet we’d love this as a salad topping!” If you add 1 cup of cooked quinoa to a splash of hot olive oil, the quinoa turns a toasty brown and makes the most amazing crunchy topping. My husband loved this part so much that he literally licked the pan clean. Try it. You’ll like it.

First, don’t you dare turn your nose up at this pie yet. You haven’t even tried it.

Second, I did try it. It’s good. And it doesn’t taste like jalapeños or jelly.

Third, I made this pie way back in August (remember that part, where it was summer and all?!) and then September ran away with me and tomorrow is the first day of October so September’s pie of the month almost turned into October’s pie!

Continue reading: pie of the month: pear and jalapeño jelly pie

I never thought I’d find a blueberry muffin recipe that could compare with the one that I posted earlier on my blog. I don’t even know why I tried this muffin recipe since my usual motto is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but I’m so glad that I did try these because they are incredibly delicious! These were so moist and tender and the crumb topping was crunchy (just like I like it!) and if served with a pat of cold butter it deserves at least 5 stars!

Try both recipes and let me know what you think. Lemon-sugar topping or streusel topping? Or both?

Despite the fact that the pancakes in the above picture are obviously overcooked, let me tell you how satisfying these were for breakfast. Unlike my usual blueberry pancakes, these felt healthy. (Well, they felt healthy until I topped them with a slab of butter and a hefty dollop of whipped cream. ) With all those oats and whole wheat flour, I was full after only one pancake. And don’t fear; these aren’t healthy in the “gosh, these pancakes are as dense as bricks” sense. I wouldn’t do that to you, I promise.

Blueberries and lemon are a classic combination. I think you’ll like their flavors in these pancakes. It tastes like summer no matter what time of year you serve them!

Labor Day is almost here and many fellow bloggers are insinuating that maybe this means fall is here. This simply cannot be. I have not gorged on enough peaches, tomatoes, and strawberries to say adios to summer and give fall the hearty welcome it deserves. Fortunately, I live in California where the produce season extends longer than it does in many other areas of the country. I’ll be whipping up as many summer-fruit-filled treats as I can in the next few weeks so that when fall does officially arrive in my town, I’m ready to embrace it with open arms.

This pie tastes delicious and works well with early and late summer peaches. The idea of adding a hint of rosemary struck me as I was slicing the peaches. If you’re serving this to children, you may want to omit the rosemary. Most adults will appreciate the subtle savory flavor that it adds. A healthy scoop of homemade ice cream makes this a wonderful summer dessert to share with your friends and family.

lattice-top fresh peach pie with hints of rosemary
from America’s Test Kitchen

1 double crust pie dough, refrigerated
6-7 medium peaches (ripe, about 6 cups)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch table salt
3-4 tbsp minute tapioca (depending on how juicy your peaches are)
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp sugar

Set a large pot of water to boil.

Prepare the pie dough if you have not already done so. After it sits in the fridge for at least 45 minutes, divide into two pieces and roll one piece into a 13-inch circle and transfer to a deep dish 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate both the pie plate and the other half of the dough.

Preheat oven to 425.

Fill a large bowl with ice and cover with cold water. Set aside.

Use a sharp knife to mark an small “x” in the bottom of each peach. Drop two or three at a time into the boiling water. After 30 seconds, remove to the ice water and repeat with the remaining peaches. After peaches are chilled, remove skins and slice into 1/2-inch slices.

Combine peach slices, sugar, rosemary, spices, and tapioca in a bowl. Pour into refrigerated pie dough. Set aside.

Roll out second half of the pie dough. Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut it into 3/4-inch strips. Follow these instructions to make a lattice top pie.

Brush milk over the pie crust and then sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25 minutes at 425 and then rotate the pie from front to back. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 and bake for another 25-30 minutes, until pie crust is browned and the juices bubble thickly around the edges of the pie.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Let sit for at least 2 hours before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

mixed greens with grapes, goat cheese, avocado & candied pecans
inspired by Joylicious, as featured on www.6bittersweets.com

(please note… this is a *salad* folks… add as much or little of any particular ingredient as you want!)

1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup white or brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
several handfuls of mixed spring greens
red grapes (I used a small bunch for our two salads)
goat cheese (I used about 1 tbsp per salad)
1 medium avocado, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4″ slices (I used about 4-5 slices per salad)
1 tbsp good quality olive oil per person
1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar per person (we used a cranberry pear infused white balsamic, but I think it would be fine with a regular white balsamic as well)
sea salt and pepper for sprinkling on top

In a sautee pan over medium heat, add the pecans, brown sugar and butter and stir until caramelized. Remove and place on a sheet of wax paper in a single layer. Let cool while you assemble the rest of the salad.

Place a layer of greens on each plate. Add some grapes, crumble some goat cheese, and layer with some slices of avocado. Place several candied pecans on each salad. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and vinegar. Pour over individual salads, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, and serve immediately.