Monthly Archives: September 2009

recipes

A more accurate title: Apples with a light caramel glaze

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Food Network, I’m losing confidence in you. Sure, your food looks delicious. But your track record lately has been less than impressive.

But Amy and I thought we’d give you another chance this week. So when I got my latest copy of Food Network Magazine, I had Poppy choose three random numbers. Then I lined those three numbers up, and voila! A page number! And the recipe looked like a great one. Caramel apples! How could they be bad?

They weren’t bad, really, but I wouldn’t call them caramel apples. It may well have been user error. The caramel would not stay on the apples. At first I thought maybe I’d tried to coat the apples too soon. But even after waiting several hours, it just slid off the apples.

But the caramel was wildly delicious anyway. I mean, I’m sure that it would have been, had I taken a spoon and scraped it from the parchment paper under the apples. Which I definitely would not have done.

Ahem.

Here’s the recipe!

Perfect Caramel Apples
from Food Network Magazine
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
pinch of salt
6 apples
6 sticks

Mix 2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves. Cook, swirling the pan (do not stir), until the mixture is light amber and a candy thermometer registers 320 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; slowly whisk in 1/2 cup heavy cream, then 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Return to low heat and whisk until smooth. Let cool until the caramel is thick enough to coat a spoon. Insert sticks into the stem ends of 6 apples and dip the apples into the caramel, letting the excess drip off. Roll in toppings, then let cool on a parchment-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray.

Suggested toppings:
-crushed cheese crackers (gross!)
-salted peanuts and caramel popcorn (overkill!)
-diced crystallized ginger and toasted sesame seeds (no thank you!)
-chopped walnuts and dried cranberries (eh!)
-toasted shredded coconut and chopped macademia nuts (maybe!)
-crushed Oreo cookies and a drizzle of melted white chocolate (makes me wish the caramel had stuck!)

Domestic Blitz

Thoroughly annoyed

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I’ve been working on a sewing project, friends, and it is driving me up the wall. Not the project itself, really, but my sewing machine. To be more specific: my lack of skill and knowledge regarding said sewing machine. The thread keeps going “thwang!” and snapping and tangling up and I’m ready to chuck this project — and the sewing machine. I’m thinking I need to find a new hobby to persue. Something for which I have a skosh of natural aptitude. Before I do that, though, I might try to sign up for a sewing class.

Until then, I’m going to watch some HGTV. Unless I can figure out how to watch “Project Runway” online.

(I think the “Color Splash” guy was shopping at TJ Maxx. Awesome.)

Eating

Not a sushi fan

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I think Amy may be trying to make me quit our Recipe Roulette project. Or maybe this is retribution for the Crab Tortilla.

Whichever the case, I was not excited about “Jay’s Potato-Crusted Fish with Mango Salsa.” I rarely make fish, because the smell of raw fish pretty much kills my appetite. (Maybe I should remember that next time I try to lose weight.) But I made it anyway. Mostly. I didn’t make the mango salsa because (a) I didn’t want to buy a mango and (b) I had a jar of mango salsa in the refrigerator.

Some day, I’ll actually taste our Recipe Roulette dish. But this wasn’t the day for that. (See: Raw fish makes me gag.) My chief recipe tester wasn’t impressed. “It tastes like potato flakes and fish with salsa on top,” he said. “The flavors don’t really blend.” Later, he added: “It was awful.”

I think the take-home lesson here is that instant mashed potatoes and fish don’t mix. And that Recipe Roulette is off to a questionable start.

I have high hopes for next Monday’s recipe, though. It was Random Recipe Week, and Poppy was our random-number picker. Her choice should be equal parts delicious and fraught-with-peril.