Apples all the way - Beef Roulade with Apple Parsley Root Puree

My! Is it raining apples around here or what?! For the last few weeks, I have been receiving a generous portion of apples from my CSA. Now, I have enough at home to have my own farm! No, I am not kidding. Although, I grew up with the famous adage "An apple a day....", I am not much of an apple-in-the-fruit-form eating person.

I had to come with with ways of consuming the fruit before they went beyond the point of salvage. They are gorgeous fruit and it would be a sin to let them go. So, I made Apple Angel Cake that made my neighbors happy and an apple tart. I also made jars of apple sauce.

After a bit, we got rather tired of all the sugar and I racked my brains to come up with savory uses for the fruit. One brainwave resulted in a Salad with water cress, slivered apples, shaved celery and prosciutto with goat cheese and a lemon dressing.

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Iced Sugar Cookies for Daring Bakers and a Call for Votes

As many of you know, I am participating in the Project Food Blog contest. Voting for round 2 is now open until Sep 30. I would much appreciate your votes. You can read my challenge post and vote here. Thank you very much! :)



Now, moving on to the other item on the agenda for today. It's the 27th and, Yes, that time of the month again, for a Daring Bakers challenge to grace our blogs! The theme for the month was Iced Sugar Cookies.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

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Sicilian Caponata over Z'atared Lavash Crackers - PFB Challenge #2 and Velveteers

That's a long title, isn't it?! But then, I have so much to say! First off, I made it through the first cut of the FoodBuzz Project Food Blog 2010. YAY!! Thanks so much to everyone who voted and for all the lovely comments on my last challenge post and retweets! It's now time to show my cooking skills for the 2nd challenge.

For the second challenge, we were asked to pick an ethnic classic that is outside your comfort zone or are not as familiar with. You should include how you arrived at this decision in your post. Do your research then try to pull off successfully creating this challenge. Try to keep the dish as authentic as the real deal, and document your experience through a compelling post.

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Filipino Chorizo Croquetas for Kulinarya Cooking Club

Voting is now open, for Project Food Blog challenge #1, until 6PM PST on Sept 23, 2010. Please use this link to vote. Thank you very much! :)



Finger food = Happiness. Really, nothing like dipping a nice deep fried tidbit into sauce, biting into the succulent sauce drenched part, savoring the warmth and flavor and repeating the process without a care for double dipping etiquette ;-). But, the best part is licking your fingers when the plate is cleaned out and reliving the flavors in those tiny remnants... :)

This weekend, I threw caution and all morbid thoughts of the weighing scale to the winds and unwound at home with plates of nice fried food. Some spicy Indian and some intensely Spanish influenced but with the Asian twist. And, in just perfect timing for this month's Kulinarya theme which was to make Filipino-Spanish dishes. Thanks to Ziggy from My Filipino Kitchen and AC from Acdee for this wonderful theme.

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{VOTING OPEN} FoodBuzz Project Food Blog Challenge #1: Introducing FSK

Voting is now open until 6PM PST on Sept 23, 2010. Please use this link to vote. Thank you very much! :)

Red Clapp Pears

Have you aspired to be a star?! I have and I do :). I have always had the ambition and the confidence, but, over my 29 years, the route, the industry and the sparkle of the end goal has been a moving target. Not before a year or so back, did I even think that the food services industry would be one of the paths I would tread on. Well, in this I was urged along by the crash of the Wall Street giants!

Ok, I haven't gotten there yet but I am contending to! Whenever I watch The Next Food Network Star or MasterChef I wonder at my chances. However, in those cases, there are obstacles other than talent and I have been able to do little more than dream. Then, FoodBuzz came up with a real opportunity for me and I jumped on it like a kid on her Christmas gift - The Project Food Blog 2010.

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Pickling and Canning for Daring Cooks September 2010

September 19, 2010: This post was featured on FoodBuzz Top 9 today

For this month's Daring Cooks challenge, I pickled and as it happened, canned, as well. This was a completely unplanned effort on my part, really. I had decided to pickle some zucchini and had everything ready for it even before I checked the challenge. And, as to the canning, a fortuitous bounty from the CSA and travel plans made some form preservation necessary. Altogether, all boded well for, perhaps, the easiest challenge for me!

Then, Why, you ask, am I posting late? Well, for one thing the pickled portion needed time to sit and marinate in the juices and then I was a bit lackadaisical in photographing it. Anyway, that's my excuse and I hope that the recipes I share, of Pickled Zucchini in Rosemary and Garlic Oil and Homemade Tomato Sauce, will make up for my procrastination :)

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

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Farm to Table: Cardamom Peach Buckle

These are indeed the last of the stone fruits.... I woe to write this post as it seems like decided full stop. But, as summer is fleeting past quicker than its onset, I realised I need to post these before the stone fruits are gone completely!

As the Fall fruits began coming in, I started savoring the peaches and plums that I was previously devouring with careless abandon. And, pampered as I was, by the knowledge of another basket the next week, little did I think of the time that would stop. It has... now...

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Apricot and Almond Galette

September 13, 2010: This post was featured on FoodBuzz Top 9 today

Even as I write this post, I realise this is perhaps one of the last few posts I am going to do with summer fruits. This summer has been distinguished for us in the amount and quality of fruits, especially stone fruits that we have enjoyed thanks to our CSA.

There is something comforting about knowing that you are going to get a nice bag of the freshest every week and you don't have to go to grocery and debate over each fruit as to whether it is going to be good or not. Hmmm.. come to think of it, I have not been doing much produce shopping at all!!

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Weekend Comfort Gourmet

Ah! What bliss the last three days have been! A fabulous eat-acation at home, a journey through fresh, classic and new, much holding hands and walking around the beckoningly empty city in gorgeous weather are we were fortunate to have.. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better summertime weekend!

We decided to spend the three day weekend at home, together, as that simple pleasure has not been much of a norm lately for us. And, as always, with us, once the location was decided, our minds turned to food.. :)

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Farm to Table: Zucchini Chocolate (Basil) Loaf

This is a no-brainer combination! Really! Zucchini and chocolate were meant to be. The moistness of one pairs so beautifully with the richness of the other to make one succulent and intensely flavorful bite.

How it came to be is no real story. With an overabundance of summer squash to make use of, I was racking my brains and the net for inspiration when I remembered a zucchini bread that I had made last year. That was the first time I was made aware of the selfless good nature of the said vegetable.

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