Saving Summer - Rhubarb Schnapps

I have a real love for rhubarb. As a kid in Oregon my mom grew a vast sea of strawberries in a rock garden. This garden was topped by several huge rhubarb plants. I remember her picking strawberries and rhubarb, her head covered in a scarf, crouched in the garden. She always trimmed off the big rhubarb leaves and made sure they went securely into the trash so none of the animals would get them since they are poisonous. 

I couldn't quite comprehend a vegetable that acted as a fruit and tasted so horrible raw. So sour your face would pucker up. But my mom worked her magic and made pies and jam with rhubarb that could blow your mind. Her Strawberry Rhubarb pie was a favorite of my dads. Sweet and tart with a beautiful buttery crust. Yum. 

I had an abundance of rhubarb from a friend and wanted to do something special with it. I love the idea of infused spirits and decided to concoct a rhubarb schnapps. 

Schnapps in America translates to a strong grain alcohol base mixed with any variety of fruit and other flavors, sweetened and producing a syrupy like drink. Why not Rhubarb? 

Start with about 2 pounds of rhubarb trimmed and washed. One 1 liter bottle of average vodka, 2 large jars with lids and 1 1/2c sugar. 

Divide the sugar between the jars. Slice the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces and divide between the jars.

Put the lids on and give the jars a good shake. 

Pour in 2 cups of vodka. If it does not cover the rhubarb - add more. I used the entire liter of vodka. 

Put on the lids and give the jars a good shake. 

Now comes the waiting game. Find a dark cupboard to store this in for the next 6 weeks and up to 6 months. Shake the jars every other day for the first month - helps the sugar dissolve and turns the liquid a lovely pink. 

Drink chilled straight up or mixed with some sparkling water. You can also use it as a base for a cocktail or mix with champagne. Lovely elixer of summer!!!  

Leftover Pot Pie

There comes a time when holiday leftovers need a breath of fresh air. I usually love a second and sometimes third holiday meal in its original form and then on to being creative. 

This year Mr. Ramon cooked a 10lb prime rib. Crazy!!! The size of that roast was daunting. Our fear was not cooking it right and ruining all that local, grass fed cow goodness. He did all of his research on techniques and actually pulled it off. It cut with a butter knife and was soooo juicy!!

We wanted a fun recipe for the leftovers that would reheat well. Mr. Ramon looked around online for recipes and decided he wanted a pot pie. The great thing about a pot pie - besides the whole gravy/pastry part is that you can use any protein you have available or even just roasted vegetables. In this recipe we are using proteins that are already cooked - so all you need is your leftover turkey, chicken or roast. We also cheated a little by using pre made biscuits - you could also make your own. 

Leftover Pot Pie

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Filling

• 1 1/4lb leftover protein - cubed or shredded  turkey, chicken or roast
• 4 carrots peeled and sliced into rounds
• 1 onion diced
• 4 ribs of celery washed and diced 
• 3 small red potatoes washed and cubed 
• 2/3 cup frozen peas
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary
• olive oil

gravy

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 1/4 cup beef broth
• salt/pepper

Biscuits

• 1 container of biscuit dough - 8 biscuits. Or homemade biscuit dough - 8.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add onion to the pan and sauté until tender. Add the mushrooms, thyme, rosemary and salt/pepper to taste. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add the carrots, celery and potatoes - cook for 10 minutes.

While that is cooking make the gravy. In a medium saucepan, add the butter and melt. Whisk in the flour. Then whisk in the milk and broth. Season with salt/pepper and bring to a boil then simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Take the skillet off the heat and mix in the protein and add the peas. Stir in the sauce.

Pour ingredients into a large casserole dish and top with the uncooked biscuits. Bake in oven for 35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving. 

Slab Apple Pie

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I had planned on a week of great posts on making stock, prime rib, stuffing etc. Instead I took orders from friends for pies and desserts and have been baking my week away. While this baking makes me happy and helps me have some holiday money it also makes me sad I can't squeeze more hours into a day to share all sorts of wonderful things with you. Ahhh life!

I am continuing my love affair with apples - especially apple pie. With Thanksgiving you might be feeding a huge crowd. If so this easy and differant approach to an apple pie might be right up your alley. Slab Apple Pie - sounds like a tasty dessert that resembles concrete. But wait - this slab is flakey, buttery and filled with the pure goodness of apples. There are many variations of slab pie - 2 crust pie, frosted crust pie and this version - the crumb top pie. 

Apple Slab Pie with Crumb Topping

Crust

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup cold butter - cut into small pieces
• 8 – 10 tablespoons cold water

Apple Filling

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 1/2 pounds Granny Smith Apples, peeled and thinly sliced 

Crumb Topping

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cold butter - cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup pecans - chopped

Crust

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Using your fingers work butter through flour until the butter is in pea sized amounts and mixture resembles coarse crumbs (or cut in with a pastry blender). Sprinkle water over flour mixture 1 tablespoons at a time; folding and pressing with a spatula until all of the flour mixture is moistened and combined. Press into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill for 2 hours or overnight. 

Roll out the dough to approximately a 17×12 inch rectangle, on a large piece of lightly floured parchment paper. Transfer to a 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Roll edges under and press down onto the rim of the baking sheet. Trim off excess parchment paper. Chill in refrigerator while you prepare filling.

Apple Filling 

Toss together all ingredients in a large bowl until apples are evenly coated. Pour into dough-lined pan, spreading evenly. Refrigerate while you make the crumb topping.

Crumb Topping 

Stir together oats, brown sugar, and flour until well combined. Using your fingers, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in chopped pecans. Sprinkle evenly over apple filling.

Bake at 375ºF for 45-60 minutes, until filling is bubbly near the centre and crust is browned. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Keep at room temperature for 24 hours or refrigerate for up to 3 days. 

Makes: 20-25 servings

Apple Cake Crisp

Fall is magical - the weather gets cooler and a crisp feeling is in the air. You begin to bundle up and walk in the neighborhood to watch green turn to gold to orange and red and then fall from the trees. This is a time of change and wonderment. I love fall. Along with the beautiful nature I love the flavors that accompany fall - squash, apples, pears, sweet potatoes and nuts. These ingredients are at the best and are begging to be roasted, baked and turned into soup and hearty casseroles. 

Apples are what we celebrate here in the PNW come fall. I know just how to turn their tart flesh into a carmelly, spicey masterpeice. I love pie and crisps so I tried something new and ended up with this apple dessert that is not quite a cake, not quite a pie and not quite a crisp. But it is marvelous. 

Apple Cake Crisp

Filling

• 4 pounds Granny Smith Apples - peeled, cored and sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar

Place apples, lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and toss to combine. Place mixture into a colander and set over a bowl to catch juices from mixture. Let drain 30 minutes. 

Crust

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 sticks cold butter cut into small pieces

Mix flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture and work into flour with hands or a pastry cutter until the butter is no larger than peas and is incorporated into the flour mixture.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Press 2/3 of the flour mixture into the bottom and half up the sides of a 9 inch spring form pan. Fill the crust with the apple mixture. Scatter the remaining crust mixture over the top of the apples. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes then loosen edge of pan with a knife to remove spring form ring. 

Pie Contest!

My friends Danielle and Steve hosted a Ping Pong Tournament and Pie Contest this past weekend - what a blast. They live in West Seattle and have a lawn with an amazing view. They provided drinks and we brought our own picnics. What a fun idea. Add in ping pong and pie and the fun is non stop. 

Danielle reached out to me the week before the event to see if I could pull together some signage for the pie table as well as some award ribbons for the top pies. What a cool thing to be asked to do. Of course I said yes even though I knew I had a crazy week ahead of me. I did some research on award ribbons and came up with some ideas for signage based on vintage tablecloths. You can find them here on my Pinterest page. (I love to start a project with a mood board - gather all my inspirations and ideas together).

I had great hopes of folding ribbon perfectly and creating stunning award ribbons. Well that didn't happen. Did I mention I am not really crafty? Armed with a hot glue gun I burnt all my fingers and made a big mess all over my desk but, I finally made it through with some decent results. 

I started with a variety of ribbons and some flat wooden circles from the wood craft area in Michaels. I painted the circles yellow for this project to match the ribbon (these have holes like buttons in them - but I am covering them up with the award name so they work perfectly).

For each award I cut out lengths of ribbon then glue gunned them on individually. Many of the awards I looked at were made with one long length of ribbon folded and attached. I could not quite manage that and have it look as good as I wanted. I then glued on the tail ribbon to the back. I experimented with different combinations and came up with some pretty cute ribbons. 

The other pieces I worked on were the signage for the table, judges and winners of the contest. I printed them on card stock so they would be stiff enough to stand up. 

The funny thing that day was that I was so excited about the event that once I got there I forgot to take any pictures of the pie table all set up . I also did not take one single picture of the pie I baked - which to my surprise won first place. I really could have kicked myself.