Mmmmmm…   my house smells like spicy pumpkin pie chili My jackolantern sacrificed his top half for my chili. I’m going to enter this recipe at Chomp N Stomp one day (prolly 2009) - Chomp N Stomp is a local neighborhood chili cook off and blue grass festival a couple blocks from my house in Cabbagetown ATL. My pottery studio will be set up selling our wares too. Looking forward to it, usually turns out to be one of the few days of the year I get drunk :)~ But this pumpkin chili I made today is delish, I’m going to share it at my Boozer Doodle meeting tonight. I love fall.

I bought a magazine called “Clean Eating” that has really cool low fat all natural recipes

Here is the recipe for the apple pie that is lowfat & reduced sugar!

Vanilla Bean-Spiked Autumn Apple Pie (serves 12)

Crust:
1cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground oatmeal
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp ice water
1/2 cup do it yourself olive butter spread
(process 1/4 c. olive oil w/ 1/4 c. unsalted butter until smooth)

Filling:
8 cups peeled and thinly sliced apples (6-8 apples)
3 tbsp apple butter
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp honey
1 vanilla bean, cut open length-wise and seeds scraped out

crust:
Stir the flour, oatmeal and sea salt together in a med bowl
in small bowl whisk together the vinegar and water.
use a pastry blender to cut the olive butter spread into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
Drizzle in the vinegar mixture and toss with a fork until the dough is evenly moist. Stir until a dough forms. Divide into 2 piece, 1 slightly larger in diameter than the other.
Press each into a 6 - inch disk and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Rolling dough: between two sheets of plastic, roll the larger disk of dough into a 12 in circle. Remove the top piece of plastic, lift the bottom piece from the diagonal corners and invert it over a 9 in pie dish. Press the dough into the pan and peel off the plastic. roll the second piece of dough in the same way, slide it onto a sheet plan and refrigerate for later use as the pie’s top crust.

Filling & Assembly:
Preheat 450

put apple slices in a big bowl, sprinkle with the flour and toss. in a small bowl stir together the apple butter, lemon juice, sea salt, honey and vanilla bean. Stir into the apples. Spoon the apples into the crust and press them down gently.

Grab the second piece of dough from the fridge and slide it over the filled pie. Press the dough into place firmly. Trim, seal and crimp the edges. Use a paring knife to cut 4 slits in the top of the pie.

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 & bake for an additional 45 min, until brown and bubbly. let cool 1 hour before slicing.

Food is art too, it evokes feelings and stuff. Here is a dish that you can get creative with! When I stayed with a friend in Italy several years ago he made this salad called panzanella - It was the most fresh and refreshing salad and is perfect for a spring dinner. It’s also perfect for using that day old french bread that’s too hard to do anything else with and if you’ve got leftover veggies from the night before you can use those too. Panzanella salad is more about the idea of combining veggies and bread with oil and vinegar than specific ingredients. So be creative and use up the leftovers to make this delicious salad.

Prepare the bread: - combine these ingredients, toss with S&P and toast under the broiler. Set aside and let cool.

• 6 cups of crusty bread cut up into crouton size pieces
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 6 tblspns Parmesan

The vinegerette - combine with a whisk in a bowl.

• Half of a red onion finely diced
• 2 and a half tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• Juice of half of a lemon
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1/2 tspn of dijon mustard

Veggies - 4 cups of any of your favorite legumes & veggies… click here for inspiration.

I was watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman when he was at a NYC delicatessen, Carnegie Deli, eating some traditional kosher foods that my grandmother used to make. I thought it was funny that some of these foods that I was brought up on made it on Andrew’s show.

(more…)

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!