Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan

I have seen this cake floating around the blogosphere for weeks and was lucky enough to decide to try it out when it first came out. And I have to tell you, this cake, and this cake alone, made me add Around My French Table to my Amazon wishlist. It's simple, easy to make, and delicious. The rum adds a certain je ne sais quois to the overall flavor, but the apples are the stars of the cake. And because there's so many apples, it has to be healthy for you, right?


The recipe calls for you to use several different kinds of apples. I'm sure it's great that way, but I'm lazy and have used whatever kind of apple I have laying around--usually the ones that were on sale. Maybe some day I'll get around to buying four different kinds, but I don't usually plan ahead in my baking that well. I also added a sprinkling of turbinado sugar (larger grained brown sugar) to the top for a nice sparkle and crunch. (I try to add sparkle to anything I can since my four year old is into sparkly things these days.) :-)

The result is a rich, flavorful and impressive cake that everyone will love!

Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake
from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table



3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large apples (Dorie suggests you use four different kinds, but this recipe is forgiving.)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Turbinado Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and center a rack in the oven. Butter an 8-inch springform pan. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and put the springform pan on it.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl.

Peel the apples, cut them in half, and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1- to 2- inch chunks.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, when it’s incorporated, add half of the melted butter, followed by the remaining flour mixture and butter. Mix in between additions so you have a smooth, thick batter.

Fold in the apples with a rubber spatula. Pour batter into prepared pan. Spread with spatula so the batter is somewhat even.

Slide the pan in the oven and bake 50-60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for five minutes.

Run a knife around the edges of the cake and remove from the pan. Cool cake until slightly warm or at room temperature. If you want to remove the cake from the pan, wait until the cake is completely cooled. Slide a long spatula between the cake and pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving platter.

**Can be served with lightly-sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. (We prefer it without.)

**This cake is very moist, so when storing it, store at room temperature (for up to two days). Don't cover--just press a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper against the cut sides.

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Mindy's Mouthful...Now on Facebook

After much thought, I've decided to create a fan page on Facebook for Mindy's Mouthful. The compelling argument was that some people just don't have time to go to their reader to keep up with blogs, so I thought I'd make it easier for those of you who don't keep up with your readers as well as you'd like. (If you'd like to subscribe to this blog with a reader, click on the link at the bottom of this post or if you're reading this in a reader, click here.)

Feel free to join us on Facebook in the meantime!

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Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans

Before joining our CSA, I don't think I had ever tasted chard, so I didn't really know what to do with it when I started getting those giant leaves in my basket. I've sauteed it (which is tasty), but this is one of my favorite recipes for it so far. Chard to me is very much like spinach, but it seems to hold up better once cooked. It's pretty bitter raw, but the bitterness disappears when cooked. If you can't find chard, fresh spinach would work here too.

This dish is not quite vegetarian, but can easily be made so by leaving out the bacon. (But who wants to do that???) This takes me about 45 minutes to make, and although it's a little bit of a stretch on a busy weeknight, I can still make it on weeknights when I get home on time. Last time I made it, I doubled the recipe and froze half of it to have on hand as a quick meal. This gnocchi is a perfect warm and filling dish for a cold rainy night.

Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White BeansAdapted slightly from Eating Well
serves 4
1 16-oz package of shelf-stable gnocchi (can usually be found in the dry pasta section of your grocery store)
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch matchsticks
1 Tbl olive oil
1 Tbl unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup water
1 bunch chard, stems removed and chopped
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes (or 2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 15-oz can white beans (cannellini, great northern white, etc.), drained and rinsed
1 tsp Kosher salt
Pepper, to taste
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Boil gnocchi in a large pot until puffed up and floating.

Heat the oil and butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and transfer the cooked gnocchi to the skillet. Cook stirring often, until the gnocchi starts to brown. Remove gnocchi from the pan.

Add the bacon to the pan and cook until browned. Remove to a paper towel. Drain all but one tablespoon of the bacon grease. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for about two minutes or until it they start to wilt a little. Add the garlic and water and cover. Cook for about 4-6 minutes until the onions are soft. Add the chard and cook for another 1-2 minutes, covered, until it starts to wilt. Add the tomatoes, beans, oregano, basil, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer.  (If using fresh tomatoes, simmer until the tomatoes are no longer raw.)

Stir in the gnocchi and sprinkle with the mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover and cook until the cheese is bubbling.

Serve with bread to mop up the sauce!

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The Cost of Eating Well

**Warning: This is an extremely long post with no pictures or yummy recipes involved. It is a post about an issue that I'm trying to work through as a middle class working parent who is trying to provide healthy, home-cooked meals to my family.

This morning on a Louisville radio station, the DJs were talking about nutrition in America, and more specifically, nutrition in the poorer areas of the country. I found myself listening with interest about how they thought that the neighborhoods that they grew up in had more fast food restaurants than wealthier neighborhoods. I agreed silently. They talked about how many kids are growing up eating only McD's and as adults just don't have the palate for other foods. I agreed. But then they mentioned that the only reason the rich eat healthier foods is because they shop at Whole Foods and can afford the fancy organic food. I heartily disagreed.

From what I see, eating healthy in America can be a wealth issue, but I see it as a time issue as well. Yes, certain foods are very expensive. Yes, organic food can be costly. But healthy food does not have to take a huge chunk out of your wallet. Those frozen/boxed/canned premade meals might be convenient, but often aren't as inexpensive as people think they are. And they definitely aren't healthier. Fresh vegetables, especially the basic staples, can be very inexpensive. Buying meat in bulk when it's on sale can be cheap. I even heard recently that milk can be frozen, so you can buy that in bulk when it's on sale. And although I'm a fan of organic food, healthy food doesn't have to be organic.

I admit that I am lucky to have resources to spend on food, but I could actually cut back on my grocery spending and still eat healthy. I rarely venture into the middle aisles of the grocery store these days (only for baking supplies, pasta, tea, coffee, spices and some canned goods). My weekly budget for groceries is $125. I know what I spend is a lot of money to a lot of people less well off than I am, but again, I could cut a lot of what I think of as luxury items out to make a smaller budget work. (And although I like coupons, I rarely use them, so this could be cut even further if you were an avid coupon clipper.) I think this is a lot of money to spend on food and I cringe every time I see my bill, but many people, both wealthier and less wealthy than I am, gasp at how little I spend on food. I just don't understand, then, what they are spending their money on.

But what I also see is that people don't have the time or don't think they have the time to actually cook this food. And the poor often work long hours and/or more than one job to make ends meet. Cooking healthy is perceived as difficult because people think that it has to take hours to make a good meal. But it doesn't. Recently, I've gotten several comments from friends that go along the lines of "I just don't have as much time as you do to cook as 'gourmet' as you do." I have two kids. My husband and I both work full time. My daughter recently joined soccer. We don't have a lot of time, and when we do, it's often interrupted by our five month old needing a bottle or our daughter showing us her latest "art project" that she created all over her bedroom floor. With all of this, I am still able to feed my family healthy food. We don't eat what I post on this blog every night, but we do eat healthy meals, and it takes a lot of planning and preparation.

Healthy food doesn't have to come from Whole Foods. Healthy food can be bought at the cheapest of grocery stores. (Shoot, if I shopped at WF-like stores regularly, my grocery budget would be double or triple what it is now.) I guess my problem with the statement on the radio station was that it seemed like they were saying that buying unprocessed foods is only for rich people and they seemed to attach a sort of stigma to it. They also jumped from the unhealthy (relating it to fast food) to the healthy (which was tied solely to shopping at Whole Foods.) This whole conversation makes me wonder if all of the talk by Michael Pollan, bloggers who are moving toward more natural, homemade meals, the media, etc. is actually hurting the slow food movement in the spheres (i.e., the poor) where it is most needed. There are loud calls to eat organic and to think that the big grocery stores are evil. Even the term "slow food" makes it seem like good, nutritious food should take a long time to make. And I agree with the basic tenets of many of these calls to action--organic food, knowing where your meat came from, cooking from scratch, eating together as a family--but if we're trying to make the entire nation healthier, it seems like we're actually scaring off people who think they can't afford the healthy food talked about in these venues or think they don't have time to cook healthy "gourmet" meals or think that healthy food is only for the rich. We're not making good, healthy meals accessible to the cash-strapped or the time-strapped.

I don't really know how to fix this or even to address it other than here in my little corner of the blogosphere. I'd love to know what you all think...and perhaps if you have a recipe (a link if you're a blogger or just the recipe if not) for an inexpensive, easy-to-prepare, and quick but healthy meal using "whole" ingredients (not prepackaged), we can create a space for that kind of food here (or elsewhere). I'm open to comments and suggestions!

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Food Ninja: A Soup Recipe with a Secret, Frugal Ingredient--Radish Leaves!

Last week I heard about a contest that fellow food bloggers Paula at Bell'Alimento, Linda at SaltySeattle and Rachael at La Fuji Mama are hosting: Food Ninja. When I first read about it, I thought, "That looks like so much fun, but I am totally not a 'Food Ninja'." I admit that I am a good cook and I admit that I can chop and dice with the best of them (or faster than my husband, at least!), but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I do that is so ninja-like in the kitchen...until, that is, I remembered this recipe I made up for radish leaf soup.

A couple of weeks ago, I received some beautiful radishes from my CSA, but really what caught my attention were the leaves attached to said radishes. They were full and green and, well, leafy. That got me thinking about whether or not radish leaves are in fact edible. A quick Google search answered that question, so I was on a mission to use these awesome leaves. I posted something on Facebook to elicit ideas, but the basic reaction was, "Are you kidding?!" No. No, I am not.

To save money and to be as ecologically conscious as possible, I have been trying to use as much of my produce from my CSA as possible over the summer, and usually the "inedible" parts go into a freezer bag for later stock making, but I actually wanted to eat these greens, so I came up with this easy little recipe for radish leaf soup. The soup is actually quite tasty--the leaves have a mild peppery taste--and to top it all off, radish leaves are quite nutritious, with high levels of calcium, iron, magnesium, folate, and Vitamins A, C, and K. As I told my mom recently: don't knock it till you try it!

Just call me Frugal Ninja! ;-)

Radish Leaf Soup

1 Tbl olive oil
1 Tbl butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 bunch radish leaves, rinsed well and chopped
2 1/2 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
1 Tbl fresh lemon juice (or more to taste)
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper, to taste
Creme Fraiche or heavy cream
3-4 radishes, diced, for garnish

In a heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened. Add potatoes and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add radish leaves and cook, stirring, until leaves begin to wilt. Cover with stock and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Blend with a handheld blender or in small batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add the lemon juice, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. Before serving add a dollop of creme fraiche or a little heavy cream to taste. Garnish with diced radishes.

This is a thick soup. Add more stock to thin it to your liking.

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Roasted Butternut Squash, Apple and Bacon Soup

I know I just posted a butternut squash recipe a week or two ago, but I'm awash in butternut squashes, and so I figured you might be too. This is a squash recipe that my husband actually requested that I make again, so you know it's good!

I like the combination of the apples, squash, bacon and sage. It makes for a light, but hearty soup. It doesn't take long after you roast the squash and apples, and if you wanted to be prepared for a quick weeknight meal, you could always roast extra and freeze them (or make a double batch of soup and freeze the leftovers). Also, you can make this vegetarian/vegan very easily by leaving out the bacon and just using a little olive oil to sauté the onions and using vegetable stock instead of chicken. This would be delicious with a simple salad and a hunk of bread. Enjoy!

Roasted Butternut Squash, Apple and Bacon Soup

2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into large chunks
3 small apples, peeled, cored and quartered
olive oil
salt and pepper
4 slices bacon, cut into matchsticks
1 medium onion, chopped
5 large sage leaves, roughly chopped
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (or more to cover vegetables)
1 Tbl lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine squash and apples on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast uncovered for 30-40 minutes until the squash and apples are fork tender and starting to brown a little.

In a soup pot, cook bacon over medium heat until browned. Remove bacon to a paper towel to drain. Remove all but one tablespoon of bacon grease from pot. Add onions and saute until starting to soften. Add sage and continue to sauté for another minute or two. Add squash and apples, and toss to combine. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the burner off. Blend with a hand blender or in small batches in a food processor or blender. Add the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Use bacon to garnish.

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Julia Child's Ratatouille

When we started to receive eggplant in our CSA shares this summer, I kind of cringed. I've had a hard time eating eggplant ever since my mom made us eggplant parmesan with a slightly off eggplant. The texture doesn't really do anything for me either. Often when texture is the sole problem, making some sort of puree solves it. I did make some baba ganoush earlier in the summer, but my husband requested ratatouille, so I reluctantly made some.

I decided to go straight for the French food pro--Julia Child--for this one, but did adapt the ratios a little. It was an easy recipe, if time consuming. The flavor was terrific, and this dish really lets the vegetables shine. I was even able to eat a few bites of the eggplant itself. I served it over couscous, and I think that the only change I would make next time would be to go ahead and use the juice from the tomatoes (and perhaps a little water or stock) and not let it reduce as much as Julia suggests to give it some extra moisture. The couscous needed some yummy vegetable juices to soak up.

Ratatouille
adapted from Julia Child


1 lb. eggplant
1 lb. zucchini
1 tsp salt
4 Tbl olive oil, plus more if needed
2 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
2 cups sliced green peppers
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 lb. tomatoes, peeled, seeded and juiced (save the juice), sliced about 1/2 inch thick
3 Tbl parsely, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel the eggplant and slice in half lengthwise. Slice the eggplant across to make approximately 3-inch wide and 1/2-inch thick pieces. Slice the zucchini into large, diagonal slices. Place the eggplant and zucchini into a large bowl and toss with 1 teaspoon of salt. Let sit for 30 minutes. Drain, and dry each piece with a towel.

Heat 4 Tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Saute the eggplant for about a minute on each side, or until very lightly browned. Remove to a dish or bowl. Repeat with the zucchini.

In the same skillet, saute the onions and peppers over low heat for about 10 minutes until tender (but not browned). If there is not enough oil left from the eggplant and zucchini, add a little more. Stir in the garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lay the tomato strips on top of the onion and pepper mixture and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for about five minutes or until the tomatoes start to render their juice. Uncover and baste the tomatoes with their juice. Raise the heat and boil the mixture until the juices have almost completely evaporated.

In a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish (suitable for using on the stovetop), spoon about 1/3 of the tomato mixture onto the bottom. Sprinkle with about 1 Tablespoon of parsley and then layer about 1/2 of the eggplant and zucchini. Spoon on half of the remaining tomato mixture, 1 Tablespoon of parsley, and then layer the rest of the eggplant and zucchini. Finish it off by spreading on the rest of the tomato mixture and the remaining parsley. Pour the tomato juices (and a little stock or water if you want even more liquid) over the vegetables.

Cover the casserole and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. Uncover and baste with juices. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Raise the heat slightly and cook for another 15 minutes, basting the vegetables every once in a while. Be careful to not let the vegetables scorch on the bottom of the casserole.

Serve or set aside uncovered until you are ready to serve it. This dish can be served warm or cold.

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Fall is Here: Butternut Squash Lasagna

After months of 90+ degree weather here in Kentucky, the weather finally (thankfully) broke to reveal beautiful fall weather. Unlike a lot of people, fall is not my favorite season...it just reminds me that the cold of winter is just around the corner. But I do love fall and winter cooking, and I can finally get back to using my (new!) oven without turning my house into a sweat lodge.

The first fall dish I made this week was a butternut squash lasagna. My husband and I are picky about squash, so I thought I'd try something different with it. When I told my husband my plan, I have to admit the reaction was less than overwhelming. His exact words were, I think, "Well, I'll try it, but don't expect me to eat all of it." I had to promise him that I'd save some leftover chili in case he couldn't choke it down.

When I served it to him, he took two deep breaths (literally) and then put it gingerly into his mouth. And then put another bite in. His verdict? Not his favorite, but he'd eat it again. I liked it. It was sweet, savory, different, and is a perfect fall dish (and a great way to use up all of those butternut squashes I've been receiving from my CSA).

Roasted Butternut Lasagna
adapted from Oven Love


1 batch of Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage
2 Tbl unsalted butter
4 sage leaves, chopped
2 Tbl flour
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)
2 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated, separated into 2 ounce and 1/2 ounce piles
Kosher salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
8 lasagna noodles, cooked to al dente
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, shredded

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a food processor, puree the squash and sage leaves. Add water little by little until the mixture is smooth.

In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and sage and stir until bubbly. Add the milk slowly, while stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and then remove from the heat. Add two ounces of the Parmesan cheese and a pinch of nutmeg. Salt and pepper to taste.

In a small baking dish (I used 7"x11", but and 8"x8" will work too), spread a small amount of the squash puree. Add about 1/5 of the sauce, then 1/5 of the mozzarella, and a layer of noodles. Repeat with three more layers. Top the final noodle layer with sauce, mozzarella, and the final 1/2 ounce of Parmesan cheese.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and brown in spots. If you'd like it browner, put under the broiler for a few minutes. Top with chopped sage leaves and freshly ground pepper.

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Our Weekly Menu: September 19-25, 2010

This week's menu has been thrown together haphazardly. It was one of those weekends--on Saturday, by 2:00pm I had already been to a soccer game, spent some time at work and attended a birthday party. This included a lot of car and kid switching, but also meant that grocery shopping didn't get tended to on Sunday. I'll have to figure out a day to get over to the store this week, but I'm trying to plan my menu based on what I have in the house just in case that doesn't happen. Our Thursday is a nightmare, and although I really would like to get something healthy on the table, there's a good chance we'll be eating out. Anyone else having a crazy week???

Sunday, September 19
Grilled cheeseburgers**
Summery Potato Salad with Cherry Tomatoes
(Beef from local farm; tomatoes (both sliced and cherry), potatoes, and onions from local farms)
**We are not having this again after just two days (if you remember last week's menu)...it got bumped to this week after an impromptu dinner with friends.

Monday, September 20
Leftover West African Stew (from freezer)
Brown rice
(Squash and okra from local farm)

Tuesday, September 21
Pizza

Wednesday, September 22
Dinner Party

Thursday, September 23
Ratatouille
(Eggplant, tomatoes, bell pepper and onions from local farms)

Friday, September 24
Grilled Lamb Chops with Oregano Dressing
Green Beans
Arugula Salad

Saturday, September 25
Eat. Drink. Danville. aka Oktoberfest

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Better-than-Delivery Pizza (and Homemade Pizza Sauce)

You may have noticed that pizza shows up on my weekly menu almost every week. We used to order from one of the big chains, but it still didn't always solve the problem of getting food fast. (Our local big chain takes at least 45 minutes to deliver, and when you're on a tight schedule or out until 7pm because of soccer, 45 minutes just doesn't cut it!)

For the past few months, we've started making our own. Until recently, I would buy premade crusts and premade marinara sauce, which worked fine, but I still wanted more control over the ingredients in our pizza to make it as healthy as possible. During the summer, my husband and I picked 37 pounds (!) of sauce tomatoes from our CSA farm, and I proceeded to make a lot of lasagna and pizza sauce--47 cups of lasagna sauce and six cups of pizza sauce to be exact. I froze it all and take it out when I need it. I need to make more pizza sauce soon, but it's the easy recipe, so I'm not worried. :-)


We have also started making our own pizza dough. I made a double batch this week, separated it into individual portions and then froze them on a cookie sheet. Once they were frozen, I put them into a freezer bag. Now I have at least a couple weeks worth of fresh pizza dough!

The best part about making pizza at home is that everyone gets to choose their own toppings and arrangements. I have a four year old, and in her world, arranging your pizza is important. This week she made a cat:


When I'm prepared (with dough and sauce on hand), it takes about 25 minutes, start to finish with very little hands-on time...a lot faster and healthier than delivery!

Pizza Sauce
adapted from The New Basics Cookbook

2 lbs. tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped (or one large can of whole tomatoes)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
A few fresh basil leaves, chopped, or 1 tsp dried
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
Balsamic vinegar
Sugar (Optional)

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, and bay leaf in a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover, lower heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes. Once it's reduced a little, add salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar, and if the sauce tastes too bitter or acidic, add a little bit of sugar (starting at about a teaspoon). If the tomatoes have not broken down enough for your liking, use a potato masher to break it down even further. Cook for a few minutes more until the sauce thickens and the flavors are to your liking.

Makes 2-3 cups. This is easily doubled or tripled and can be frozen.

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