Jonesinforfood

I have always liked apples.  For years in college I went through a ridiculous amount of Granny Smith apples, enjoying the tartness and crispness of the apple.  I hadn’t delved far enough into my love of apples to experiment much with others, because the few times I did, I found ones that were too soft, too grainy, too flavorless, or any number of other defects.

I am lucky enough to live in close proximity to the University of Minnesota, though, whose new developments in apples have been news for years.  In the 90’s, they introduced me to the Honeycrisp.  The Honeycrisp quickly booted the old Granny Smith out of my life, and I had a new obsession.  Scouring the fall apple orchard reports for the best weekends to pick Honeycrisps, I went crazy every Autumn, using them for apple pies, apple crisps, caramel apples, and eating them by the bushel.  Don’t get me wrong, there are other varieties out there that are pretty good.  I love a nice crisp Pink Lady out of Australia, but the hometown success story was clearly my fave.  It explodes with crispness and sweetness

I have sad news to report to my long time friend the Honeycrisp, though…there’s a new kid on the block.  My mom has been talking for weeks about this new apple coming out.  She couldn’t ever remember the name of it, though, but insisted I must try it when I got an opportunity.  I half listened.  I mean, orchard weekends in Minnesota are coming up, and I’ll have my pick of tasty Honeycrisps any time now….and my second favorite, the Zestar.

So yesterday while I was at Kowalski’s, wandering the produce aisle, I glanced over the apples, thinking I would pass by and plan a trip to an orchard this coming weekend.  Then I noticed a sign with a name I didn’t recognize.  Could this  be the new apple in town?  SweeTango was the name.  Could my mom really forget the name “SweeTango”?  I grabbed 3 and kept shopping.

Later in the evening I was hungry for a snack and remembered my new found fruit.  I went to the kitchen, gave one a quick rinse and cut off a big slice.  Oh SweeTango this apple is good!!  I hurried to my laptop to look up the history of this sweet and tangy little darling.  Turns out, U of M researcher David Bedford created this beauty from the two best apples known to man.  What else but the Honeycrisp and the Zestar!?

It is just slightly tart, juicy as all heck, and a thing of beauty.  I’m sold.  Ahhh happy apple season to me!

Not like I need to tell anyone, but um…I haven’t been posting anything here for awhile.

Thing is, I got accepted to a Master’s program for Marriage and Family Therapy, began school, and began volunteering at a youth shelter all since my last post.  So, needless to say, my free time for the fun food stuff that I enjoy no longer exists and my relaxing evenings at home trying out recipes from a new cookbook are well….few and far between to say the least.

Unfortunately that means that there won’t be any new posts from me on this particular blog as I’ll have to put some of my extracurricular activities on hold for the time being.

If you still wanna check out what’s up with me, you can certainly do so at whatsupwiththejoneses.wordpress.com.  

Thanks for checking out my blog and I hope that at some point you found something here that you liked. 

Until later…

In realizing that it’s now officially shorts and t-shirt weather, I decided I really need to go a little more lo-cal on some of my favorite dinners.  Falafel is something that D.Jones and I both love, as is anything Mexical and/or southwestern.  I found a Weight Watchers recipe that is sort of an interesting combo of the two.  I added my own spin  to it and came up with this…

Southwestern Chickpea Patties

1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/3 cup low fat sour cream

4 garlic cloves

2 tsp cumin

1 to 2 tsp hot sauce (Tapatio is what I used)

1/4 white cornmeal

fresh salsa (homemade or store bought from the dairy area, which tastes much fresher and usually has more cilantro and onion to it.  Yum!)

Combine chickpeas, sour cream, garlic, cumin and hot sauce in a food processor.  Scrape bowl and stir to combine.  Form mixture into 5 medium sized patties.  Heat small amount of olive oil in skillet, or to reduce calories, spray skillet with olive oil spray.  Cook patties on medium heat until browned.  Turn and brown on second side and remove from heat to serving plate.  (If you are using olive oil spray, spray the top of the patty before flipping so it will brown better on the second side).

Serve topped with a spoonful of salsa and a small dollop of low fat sour cream.

You can make these as spicy as you like by altering the amount of hot sauce in the recipe or using a hotter salsa for topping. 

Served with a side salad, these made a delicious, low calorie, spicy and perfect dinner.   And really, they couldn’t be much easier!

D.Jones has been a huge fan of everything that has come out of Three Floyds brewing in Indiana.  He hasn’t yet found a beer from them that he doesn’t love and on a recent trip to Illinois, he was able to pick up quite a selection from them to bring home to sample.

We couldn’t wait to check out the Robert the Bruce Scottish Style Ale, and it doesn’t disappoint.  The first thing we noticed after the pour, which was very dark amber with a nice head, was the apparent aroma of pipe tobacco.  The flavor is full of caramel malt.  It’s thick and hearty and creamy.  The tobacco again shows up in the taste, along with hints of roasted malt.   6.5% A.B.V and 35 I.B.U.s.   This one is sweet and yummy.  I call this dessert.  Cheers!

Two thumbs way up for Robert the Bruce.

First, a quick apology for the absence of a Sunday pizza review.  My pizza partner, aka my husband, was out of town, and didn’t want to miss out on any of the places on our list, but it will resume shortly….we promise.

Upon D.Jones’ return from out of town, he brought with him a mind-blowing assortment of various brews from around the country that we intend to try in short order…beginning tonight with two selections from Buzzards Bay Brewing in Westport, MA.   This place was a recommendation from a friend in Boston so we were eager to open ‘em up and check ‘em out.

First up was their Pilsner, which poured light golden and well carbonated with a nice head. 

It’s hoppier than a traditional pilsner which gives a nice bite at the back of the tongue, and finishes dry.   This beer is not particularly complex, but offers more of a bitterness than may be expected from a traditional pilsner.   It’s drinkable and the A.B.V.  of only 5.1% includes it in the “session beer” category for the hopheads amongst us.

Next up we poured the Gold Medal Lager…

This one also poured light golden and highly carbonated.   Their website describes this beer as a “hearty, easy drinking brewski” and we would concur.  D.Jones called it thicker and almost creamy, which I guess I can see a little bit.  The very end offers perhaps a hint of caramel and overall it has a good mouth feel to it, for what is essentially their self-proclaimed session beer.  A.B.V. is 5.4%.

Two thumbs up for both of our first selections from Buzzards Bay!

Last night I was trying to decide what to make for a fast, easy dinner that wasn’t too complicated after the busy Easter weekend.  Using some food I already had in the refrigerator and cupboards, I came up with this, which was a hit with both D.Jones and Cooper.  That doesn’t always happen, so I decided to share…

Couscous with Apples, Walnuts and Tofu

1 1/3 cups Israeli couscous

1/2 block extra firm tofu

2 c. vegetable stock

1/2 red onion, diced

1/3 c. chopped walnuts

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced

1 apple, diced

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

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In a medium saucepan, saute 1 1/3 cups couscous with 1 T. olive oil over medium heat until couscous begins to lightly brown.  Slowly pour in 1 3/4 cups of vegetable stock.  Return to a boil, stirring periodically.  Cover and reduce heat to low.

Meanwhile, coat bottom of large skillet with olive oil and turn to medium heat.  Press excess liquid out of tofu and cut into small squares and add to pan.  Use wooden spoon or other utensil to saute tofu until it browns.  Add diced onion to pan and saute for a couple of minutes.  Add walnuts, then garlic and apple and continue to stir for a few more minutes.  Reduce heat to low and add now cooked coucous from saucepan into skillet and stir to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste and mix.  If mixture seems slightly dry, add remaining 1/4 c. vegetable stock and stir.

Serves 4 as side dish

In addition to the Thyme-Lemon bars I decided to bring to Easter brunch at the ‘rents, I thought some lovely cutout sugar cookies would be a nice addition. 

Believe it or not, I’v never made sugar cookies.  Gasp!  I know!  Craziness.  Who hasn’t?!  Well, me, I guess.  Either way, I found a recipe online that seemed simple enough and decided to give it a shot.    Unfortunately, in my distraction to get all of this done and also take the boy out to the zoo to visit the “zoo farm babies”, I didn’t actually jot down where I got the recipe.  Ooops.  Someone deserves cred, I’m just not sure who.  Oh well…here it is.

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 c.  butter, softened

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 c. all-purpose flour 

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt.  Cover and chill dough for at least an hour or even overnight.  (this is really imporant, as when this dough is not cool enough, it’s nearly impossible to work with)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Roll out dough on floured surface until 1/2 to 1/4″ thick.  Cut into shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 6 to 8 minutes depending on thickness, or until beginning to lightly brown.  Cool completely.

To glaze:

1 c. powdered sugar

1 T. light corn syrup

3 T. water

food coloring if desired

Mix it all together with a fork in a small bowl until well blended.  I used a small knife to smooth it evenly over the cooled cookies.  I then immediately topped mine with a sprinkle of decorative sugar just because I like the extra sparkle it gives them.  I think they turned out pretty good.  The glaze hardens pretty well, so they will be easy to transport to brunch.

In the past,  not being so interested in cooking and baking, I was always the girl tasked with bringing the veggie platter or the chips and dip to family parties.  Apparently my recent successes in the baking and cooking department have changed that, so for Easter this year, I was told to bring desserts and deviled eggs.  The egg part is pretty safe…the desserts?  Well…I got nervous.  I feel like there are much fewer “mistakes” to be made in cooking as baking is such a precise process.   Putting all that work in to something that has the ability to just go flat on you, or fall apart seems incredibly daunting, not to mention frustrating.  I’m still willing to give it a “go”, but didn’t want to get too crazy when I knew that if things went awry I’d have lots more people than just myself and D.Jones to explain it to, so what immediately came to mind were some lemon bars that I saw Giada de Laurentis making the other day.   They sounded like a wonderful way to celebrate the season with some fresh lemons and thyme.  Yum!  Not only that, they are fairly simple and absolutely delicious!

Lemon-Thyme Bars (from Giada de Laurentis)

You’ll need butter and flour for your dish.  Also:

Bars:

1 stick unsalted butter at room temp

1 c. all-purpose flour

2 T. chopped fresh thyme

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Glaze:

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1/2 c. powdered sugar

Place oven rack in center of oven and preheat to 325F.   Butter and flour and 8×8 glass baking dish.

To make the bars:

In a small bowl combine flour, thyme and salt.  Set aside.  Beat together 1 stick of butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in lemon juice and vanilla.  Reduce to low and gradually add in flour, thyme and salt mixture.  Using damp fingers, press dough into buttered and floured baking dish.   Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.    Cool completely…at least 30 minutes.

For the glaze:

In medium bowl whisk together lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth.  Spoon mixture evenly over completely cooled crust.  Allow to harden at room temperature for at least one hour. 

When completely hardened, cut into small bars to serve.